How to clean range brass for reloading - easy technique for shiny brass!
Welcome back to Jim's Armory. This one's a bit of a departure from the usual gunsmithing content - Jim's recently gotten into reloading, and after a few unimpressive early attempts at cleaning range brass, he's worked out a process he's happy with. In this video, he walks through his full technique for cleaning brass in a rotary wet tumbler with stainless steel pins, from filling the drums to drying the finished cases, and shares what he's learned after cleaning thousands of pieces of brass.
Filling the Tumblers Jim sets up two rotary tumbler drums from Frankford Arsenal, each loaded with about 5 lb of stainless steel pin media - one for 9mm, one for 5.56. He's found the sweet spot is filling the drums a little more than halfway with media, especially when the brass going in is really dirty. Overfilling, in his experience, doesn't clean as well.
Soap and Lemi Shine To each drum, Jim adds Armor All Ultra Shine Wash and Wax, which he understands leaves a thin coat of carnauba wax on the brass - a method he says is commonly recommended online and by a friend who used to do this. He adds roughly half a teaspoon (give or take) rather than measuring precisely, and hasn't found a noticeable difference from being more exact. He also adds a small amount of Lemi Shine.
Pro-Tip: Fill the drum with as much water as possible. Jim's theory is that water only has so much capacity to hold dirt and grease before the soap stops being effective, so maximizing water volume helps the cleaning process.
Tumbling and Changing the Water Rather than running one long cycle, Jim tumbles in short bursts - 30 minutes to an hour - and checks the brass in between. In his experience, running dirty water for hours doesn't clean the brass further; it actually makes it look duller and dirtier. When a batch comes out still filthy, he dumps the water (carefully, over a bucket, so he doesn't lose the steel pins), adds fresh water and more soap, and runs it again. He repeated this process up to three times for his dirtiest 5.56 brass.
Pro-Tip: After sealing the tumbler back up, dry the outside off with a rag before running it. That way, any leak during operation will show up as an obvious drip instead of getting lost in residual water on the threads.
Media Sifting Once the brass is clean, Jim uses a media sifter, filled with water so the pins don't fly everywhere, to separate the steel pins from the cases while simultaneously rinsing off the soap. Turning the sifter a few times in alternating directions clears most pins out in a few minutes; bottleneck cases like 5.56 need a bit longer since pins can get lodged inside them. He then transfers everything to a screened container to finish the rinse, and uses a media magnet to pick up any stray pins - including ones that escape and end up scattered on the ground.
Identifying Corroded Brass While sorting, Jim points out some 5.56 cases that have shifted from a gold brass color to a copper tone - a sign of dezincification, where the zinc content of the brass has leached out, likely from long-term outdoor exposure to acid (like rain), leaving brittle copper behind. He calls this brass unsafe to reload and sets it aside for the trash.
About Lemi Shine Jim addresses some of the stricter warnings he's seen online about Lemi Shine dosing. Since Lemi Shine is citric acid, and acid can cause dezincification, he ran his own test: a tablespoon of Lemi Shine with a couple of 9mm cases sitting for about a day, with no visible change. His own tumbling cycles run only 30 minutes to an hour with roughly half a teaspoon per drum (his tumblers are 7 L, close to 2 gallons, and he references a common recommendation of about a quarter teaspoon per gallon). He notes one batch accidentally sat overnight and still came out fine the next day, but doesn't recommend leaving brass in Lemi Shine solution that long as a general practice.
Drying the Brass For drying, Jim loads the cleaned brass into a multi-tier Frankford Arsenal brass dryer, discarding the corroded copper-colored cases and anything that looks like steel along the way. He runs the dryer at 160°F for 2 hours.
Drying the Stainless Media To dry the stainless pins, Jim rinses them, then dries them in the oven at around 180-200°F. He notes his 5.56 pins still had some water spots afterward, suspecting he should have tumbled or dumped them more thoroughly first - the 9mm pins, by contrast, came out looking great.
The Results and Waste Water Jim uses a bucket and cheap magnet to fully recover all stainless pins after tumbling, and stresses keeping the media clean of soap buildup. On disposal, he's careful about where the used wash water goes since it can contain lead from primer residue - he empties his into a drain leading to a natural outdoor area rather than the sewer or anywhere near a well.
Pro-Tip: Use a magnet to quickly identify steel cases, and check weight and shine to tell aluminum (very light, dull) from nickel (heavier, shiny) - aluminum and steel cases should be thrown away since they can't be reloaded.
Final Thoughts Jim's takeaway: don't overfill the tumbler, don't run marathon cycles, change the water and soap as needed, and be responsible with your waste water and Lemi Shine dosage. It's a simple process once dialed in, and he's clearly enjoying the learning curve - he mentions he's about to go all-in on a Mark 7 Apex 10 press next. Stay tuned for more reloading content, and subscribe so you don't miss it.
