This Changes Everything: Case Cleaning

[DoneNOut]

White rice and cap of acetone in the Lyman 1200 tumbler. Brass comes out super shiny and the media is cheap! I've got a bag of rice going on 5 tumbles and its still doing the trick. You are all welcome.

- The BFD

 

[P7M13]

I would bet the rice does all the work, and the acetone evaporates fairly quickly, i.e. in less than two minutes.
I'm not a fan of using highly flammable solvents without proper ventilation.

 

[Old Rooster]

I used rice before without the Acetone and it worked but not as well as I had hoped but I bet the Acetone is absorbed into the rice very quickly.
Gonna try it BFD Guns.

 

[DoneNOut]

I just looked at a batch that I added, "Goof Off" into. 3 swirl squirts. It seems the goof off lasts to the end. (Goof Off is nearly all Acetone) I didn't burn my face off annealing them either. Keep'em shiny!

 

[DoneNOut]

I would bet the rice does all the work, and the acetone evaporates fairly quickly, i.e. in less than two minutes.
I'm not a fan of using highly flammable solvents without proper ventilation.

Oh yeah, good call. I tumble in the garage. I'm in the house while its working.

 

[marchboom]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does the acetone do?

 

[squeeeeze]

Interesting, definitely cheaper than media. Not sure about the Acetone lol.

I use a small amount of Nu Finish car polish in my Corn cob and Walnut media (been doing 50/50 media mix) and comes out great. Nu finish is cheap and 1 bottle goes a long ways.

If you have any laying around give that a go and let us know the results.

 

[DoneNOut]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does the acetone do?

I ran white rice plain. Brass still had soot on case necks. Tried white rice with Acetone. No more soot on case necks and shiny. Ran out of acetone as I only had a little bit in the garage, so I looked at the ingredients of the "Goof Off" and discovered it is mainly acetone. There's other stuff in Goof Off because the cases came out shiny AF and felt slick. So I annealed them to see if the goof off was still present. All went great. I've not had my brass shinier than using this white rice Goof Off mix. Don't take much Goof Off either.

 

[cohunt]

I ran white rice plain. Brass still had soot on case necks. Tried white rice with Acetone. No more soot on case necks and shiny. Ran out of acetone as I only had a little bit in the garage, so I looked at the ingredients of the "Goof Off" and discovered it is mainly acetone. There's other stuff in Goof Off because the cases came out shiny AF and felt slick. So I annealed them to see if the goof off was still present. All went great. I've not had my brass shinier than using this white rice Goof Off mix. Don't take much Goof Off either.

I wouldn't worry about the acetone, but if the "other" stuff in goof-off making the cases slick is petroleum based I'd be wary of using it as it could contaminate powder-- just my 2c

 

[DoneNOut]

I wouldn't worry about the acetone, but if the "other" stuff in goof-off making the cases slick is petroleum based I'd be wary of using it as it could contaminate powder-- just my 2c

Whatever might be left gets burnt off with annealing. For somebody that don't anneal I can see this could/might be a note of interest. Most likely not, with the sheer minimal mount and contact.

 

[cohunt]

Whatever might be left gets burnt off with annealing. For somebody that don't anneal I can see this could/might be a note of interest. Most likely not, with the sheer minimal mount and contact.

Yea, I can see that

I know that some chemicals can degrade brass too..might require some more Google-foo to make sure its all good. I remember on another forum where a guy was soaking his brass in a chemical to clean it and he started having some neck cracking issues -- it may have stemed back to chemical reaction-- but I can't remember what chemical it was and you aren't "soaking" yours for an hour so it's probably all good.

 

[DoneNOut]

Yea, I can see that

I know that some chemicals can degrade brass too..might require some more Google-foo to make sure its all good. I remember on another forum where a guy was soaking his brass in a chemical to clean it and he started having some neck cracking issues -- it may have stemed back to chemical reaction-- but I can't remember what chemical it was and you aren't "soaking" yours for an hour so it's probably all good.

The bad chemical is ammonia. Circa 2002 AR15.com reveled all the detriments of ammonia on brass. That burnt into my brain housing group ever since. I hawked the MDS and Google foo for the content of the Goof Off. No ammonia listed.

 

[Recon$$]

Interesting, definitely cheaper than media. Not sure about the Acetone lol.

I use a small amount of Nu Finish car polish in my Corn cob and Walnut media (been doing 50/50 media mix) and comes out great. Nu finish is cheap and 1 bottle goes a long ways.

If you have any laying around give that a go and let us know the results.View attachment 310162

I do exactly this, even the same brand of car wax haha. I will try some rice in the future.

 

[338 dude]

I do exactly this, even the same brand of car wax haha. I will try some rice in the future.

Basically the same thing I use white diamond metal polish in my vibratory Tumblr