When to clean brass?

jmccracken1214

jmccracken1214

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I just ordered a salt bath annealing set up, have never annealed before but with my lapua brass, I want to. Before, this was my method of prepping.

Decap
Clean (wet tumble) (dont like running dirty brass in dies)
Lube/Resize
Clean again (to remove lube)
Dry
Prime

I guess the new method should go as follows?

Decap
Clean
Anneal
Resize
Clean

That sound right?
 
That process sounds fine to me.

Might I ask why you feel the need to anneal after every firing? For a precision rig, there is likely some merit. If you're only punching paper then it might not be worth the the extra effort.

Not trying to stir the pot or poke the bear...
 
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nbkky71 said:
That process sounds fine to me.

Might I ask why you feel the need to anneal after every firing? For a precision rig, there is likely some merit. If you're only punching paper then it might not be worth the the extra effort.

Not trying to stir the pot or poke the bear...
Click to expand...

It is for my 6mm precision rig, Im not sure if ill do it after every firing yet or every 2-3. Figured brass that is $1.25 a piece, id do everything to make it last as long as possible.
 
Cleaning will remove the oxidation from the annealing, so if you anneal after cleaning you’ll always know that you annealed it just by looking. I like:
Clean
Decap
Size
Trim
Clean
Anneal
 
JimB said:
Cleaning will remove the oxidation from the annealing, so if you anneal after cleaning you’ll always know that you annealed it just by looking. I like:
Clean
Decap
Size
Trim
Clean
Anneal
Click to expand...
Are you talking about the discoloring of the brass ?

I wet tumbled the lapua, and its annealed at factory and not polished, and the markings of the annealing are still there.
 
jmccracken1214 said:
Are you talking about the discoloring of the brass ?

I wet tumbled the lapua, and its annealed at factory and not polished, and the markings of the annealing are still there.
Click to expand...

Curious, do you wet tumble with citric acid (lemishine) and pins?
 
JimB said:
Curious, do you wet tumble with citric acid (lemishine) and pins?
Click to expand...


I have before, but here recently, after adding too much lemishine by accident to a batch of brass and running it anyways, it came out with pink spots, i guess where it pulled the brass out of the metal? I havent been using it. Found no noticeable difference using the SS pins with hot water and a squirt of dawn. 30 min. is what i run them in. No difference after 30 min, or an hour. So 30 min and they come out shiney new and that discoloring of the shoulder/neck didnt go away.

It did when I used the lemishine though.
 
jmccracken1214 said:
I have before, but here recently, after adding too much lemishine by accident to a batch of brass and running it anyways, it came out with pink spots, i guess where it pulled the brass out of the metal? I havent been using it. Found no noticeable difference using the SS pins with hot water and a squirt of dawn. 30 min. is what i run them in. No difference after 30 min, or an hour. So 30 min and they come out shiney new and that discoloring of the shoulder/neck didnt go away.

It did when I used the lemishine though.
Click to expand...
That explains it. The acid removes the oxidation, which includes the discoloration from annealing. Some folks have gone to soap and acid with no pins (I’m going to this for the first cleaning before depriming) while others have moved to just soap and pins (haven’t yet but plan this for my second wash). It all seems to work well enough, as would wiping the cases off with a rag I suppose.
 
JimB said:
That explains it. The acid removes the oxidation, which includes the discoloration from annealing. Some folks have gone to soap and acid with no pins (I’m going to this for the first cleaning before depriming) while others have moved to just soap and pins (haven’t yet but plan this for my second wash). It all seems to work well enough, as would wiping the cases off with a rag I suppose.
Click to expand...

Ive been using the home made lube, with alcohol and lanolin. It's a bit more sticky than hornady lube. Thinking of switching back just for ease of use.

For my cleaning to just remove lube, ive wondered about taking the pins out and just letting them go in with water/soap, to mainly get the lube out of the inside of the case. Not sure if the pins cause wear on the brass? I use jewelers mix, little bead looking things, the pins were getting stuck in the necks of my brass.

I tried wiping off a box of 100 brass with a rag.. holy crap never again. My fingers were hurting lol. I have a mesh baking pan that once i rinse, I hit 2 cases at a time with my air compressor, inside/out. and lay them in that mesh pan for the day in the sun then I turned then neck down in the reloading tray and sit for a day incase theres any extra water inside.

When i wiped those cases down with a rag, i loaded them and shot a few weeks later (6.5grendel) and my accuracy was crap... didnt know what was going on, went home and pulled a bullet and dumped the powder, it came out in clumps where it absorbed the hornady lube i guess? But it made them shoot bad so I wet tumble now.
 
I don't understand why you don't just dry tumble to remove lube. Wet seems like WAY overkill to me.

I don't wet tumble so I may be missing a glaring reason for using the wet method to remove something as simple as lube.
It literally takes 5 mins in walnut to remove all traces of lube.

Eta, dammit, off topic again.
Oh well. Too late now.
 
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Slacker said:
I don't understand why you don't just dry tumble to remove lube. Wet seems like WAY overkill to me.

I don't wet tumble so I may be missing a glaring reason for using the wet method to remove something as simple as lube.
It literally takes 5 mins in walnut to remove all traces of lube.

Eta, dammit, off topic again.
Oh well. Too late now.
Click to expand...

It would work for sure, but folks talk about media in flash holes and it kinda sounds like a pain. Might would do it for a hundred or two hundred for precision, but for plinking .223 wet is a process I’m used to.

If I was comfortable running lubed brass through the case feeder I might:
Decap
Wet tumble
Swage primer pockets if needed
Trim if needed
Anneal if needed
Then lube and on the press,
Size
Prime
charge
Seat
And finally dry tumble the loaded rounds for a few minutes

There is an RCBS lubing die that I could put in station 1, just found out about that a couple weeks ago.

Been thinking about it, but whatever I do, rifle is a heck of a lot more work than pistol!
 
JimB said:
It would work for sure, but folks talk about media in flash holes and it kinda sounds like a pain. Might would do it for a hundred or two hundred for precision, but for plinking .223 wet is a process I’m used to.

If I was comfortable running lubed brass through the case feeder I might:
Decap
Wet tumble
Swage primer pockets if needed
Trim if needed
Anneal if needed
Then lube and on the press,
Size
Prime
charge
Seat
And finally dry tumble the loaded rounds for a few minutes

There is an RCBS lubing die that I could put in station 1, just found out about that a couple weeks ago.

Been thinking about it, but whatever I do, rifle is a heck of a lot more work than pistol!
Click to expand...

So you put powder in after lubing, without cleaning lube off?
 
jmccracken1214 said:
Ive been using the home made lube, with alcohol and lanolin. It's a bit more sticky than hornady lube. Thinking of switching back just for ease of use.

For my cleaning to just remove lube, ive wondered about taking the pins out and just letting them go in with water/soap, to mainly get the lube out of the inside of the case. Not sure if the pins cause wear on the brass? I use jewelers mix, little bead looking things, the pins were getting stuck in the necks of my brass.

I tried wiping off a box of 100 brass with a rag.. holy crap never again. My fingers were hurting lol. I have a mesh baking pan that once i rinse, I hit 2 cases at a time with my air compressor, inside/out. and lay them in that mesh pan for the day in the sun then I turned then neck down in the reloading tray and sit for a day incase theres any extra water inside.

When i wiped those cases down with a rag, i loaded them and shot a few weeks later (6.5grendel) and my accuracy was crap... didnt know what was going on, went home and pulled a bullet and dumped the powder, it came out in clumps where it absorbed the hornady lube i guess? But it made them shoot bad so I wet tumble now.
Click to expand...

Are you using 90%+ ISO?

If it’s too sticky, would using more ISO or less lanolin help?
 
jmccracken1214 said:
So you put powder in after lubing, without cleaning lube off?
Click to expand...

I do not, but I don’t think that doing so would hurt anything. I tend to spray the lube on the outside of the cases. The RCBS lube die would avoid this issue as only the outside of the cases are lubed.
 
I know a lot of people dry tumble to clean the lube off, and it seems to work just fine for them. I have to wonder about the lube loading up the dry media, though.

I wet tumble, so I know any lube residue is simply going to rinse away.
 
Toprudder said:
I know a lot of people dry tumble to clean the lube off, and it seems to work just fine for them. I have to wonder about the lube loading up the dry media, though.

I wet tumble, so I know any lube residue is simply going to rinse away.
Click to expand...
I tried once dry tumbling after lube and 75% had media in the flash holes and had to wet clean to get that off so I just cut out the dry step
 
JimB said:
It would work for sure, but folks talk about media in flash holes and it kinda sounds like a pain. Might would do it for a hundred or two hundred for precision, but for plinking .223 wet is a process I’m used to.

If I was comfortable running lubed brass through the case feeder I might:
Decap
Wet tumble
Swage primer pockets if needed
Trim if needed
Anneal if needed
Then lube and on the press,
Size
Prime
charge
Seat
And finally dry tumble the loaded rounds for a few minutes

There is an RCBS lubing die that I could put in station 1, just found out about that a couple weeks ago.

Been thinking about it, but whatever I do, rifle is a heck of a lot more work than pistol!
Click to expand...


Jim, are you trimming before resizing?
 
KnotRight said:
Jim, are you trimming before resizing?
Click to expand...
No, trim after resize, I typed it wrong.

Edit: I didn’t type it wrong, I was thinking about it wrong! That was my “if I was going to run lubed brass through the case feeder” hypothetical process, have never actually done it and would have realized that it wouldn’t work once I actually started setting it up.
 
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I've added annealing into my prep now, but I'm doing it like @jmccracken1214 I want my brass neck soft before it goes into the dies. I also clean before I deprime. I also trim after I size- because a full-length resizer will change the length.

Clean (wet, no pins, no lemi)
Deprime
Anneal
Lube
Size
Trim/Swage/Primer pockets
Clean (wet/pins/lemi)
 
I deprime first, but I do wet tumble without pins before I proceed. I have been using Dawn for the first cleaning, then use Wash-n-Wax for the final cleaning, after sizing.
 
Sas quatch said:
I've added annealing into my prep now, but I'm doing it like @jmccracken1214 I want my brass neck soft before it goes into the dies. I also clean before I deprime. I also trim after I size- because a full-length resizer will change the length.

Clean (wet, no pins, no lemi)
Deprime
Anneal
Lube
Size
Trim/Swage/Primer pockets
Clean (wet/pins/lemi)
Click to expand...
Why do you leave out the pins on the first cleaning?
 
Sas quatch said:
No reason other than it takes longer to get the pins out when I'm done. I'm just getting the dirt/powder out before it touches my deprimer or dies.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I use diamond shape jewelers mix since the pins would get stuck in the necks of my 6.5 cases. The mix works better, gets inside but will dump straight out.
 
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