Pink Brass

[Buchan]

Dipping the pedal digit into the reloading pool and starting some annealing as it just made sense on terms of working metal. Got the Uggly Annealer and have worked out a setting based on colour and the soap blackening suggested one here.
Gave the brass a clean (citric acid) and it goes pink with a variety of pink from mouth to full length. A bit of research and I assume this is a reaction of zinc in the brass with the acid and is probably superficial.
Poor typing of pink brass lead to an almost Father Ted esque foray into lingerie

 

[User00056]

The reaction removes zinc from the brass, which can weaken it over time. I've experimented with a variety of cleaning methods, from ultrasound, to tumbling, and wet tumbling. All work well, but my go to now is just to tumble in crushed walnut with some T-cut in it. I anneal after three firings (if I remember ) The beauty of the dry tumbling is it ensures each and every case is inspected as you need to be sure the flash hole is clear. A lot less onerous than it sounds

 

[Smellydog]

Never cleaned a case in my life.
I just anneal with a blow torch.

You guy's must have hours to burn away...

 

[paul o']

Over cooking too Strong a chemical will make them pink same as over heating them . my go to for ultrasonic one dishwasher tablet and a drip or two of fairy? Then wash in hot water and dry in my case a food dehumidifier .
It's not what everybody does but it's worked for me for years saving £££££on them posh chemicals. Food grade citric acid off Amazon 5kg is around £18 works very well and a bonus you can clean your kettle and washing machine with it as it eats scale.

 

[phaedra]

How much citric acid did you use?, in a Frankford Arsenal 7L wet tumbler it only needs about 1/4 of a teaspoon.

All it does is slightly soften the water which allows the washing up liquid and pins to work better.

 

[Rutland lad]

Dipping the pedal digit into the reloading pool and starting some annealing as it just made sense on terms of working metal. Got the Uggly Annealer and have worked out a setting based on colour and the soap blackening suggested one here.
Gave the brass a clean (citric acid) and it goes pink with a variety of pink from mouth to full length. A bit of research and I assume this is a reaction of zinc in the brass with the acid and is probably superficial.
Poor typing of pink brass lead to an almost Father Ted esque foray into lingerie

Irelands biggest lingerie department……….

 

[Buchan]

How much citric acid did you use?, in a Frankford Arsenal 7L wet tumbler it only needs about 1/4 of a teaspoon.

All it does is slightly soften the water which allows the washing up liquid and pins to work better.

Possibly too much "a shake" and definitely too long. Did an experiment after posting and the just fairy option gave no pink. 5% seems to be the suggested, so 5g in 100ml in future

 

[drone]

I just tried cleaning cases with a solution of 1 tablespoon - 20cc of plj lemon juice. another tablespoon of sugar soap and a litre of hot water out the tap submerged about 300 357 cases manky as they could be and about a dozen 30/30 cases.
Let them soak for along overnight and I was really surprised how clean the insides of the neck came up, as well as the externals. Surpasses my crushed walnut shell vibrationary cleaner by a country mile on the inside.
As an aside I didn't realise I put 3 primed 30/30 cases in until I fished them out, I HAD to try them. FWIW it's also a good way to inert primers .

 

[25 Sharps]

I just tried cleaning cases with a solution of 1 tablespoon - 20cc of plj lemon juice. another tablespoon of sugar soap and a litre of hot water out the tap submerged about 300 357 cases manky as they could be and about a dozen 30/30 cases.
Let them soak for along overnight and I was really surprised how clean the insides of the neck came up, as well as the externals. Surpasses my crushed walnut shell vibrationary cleaner by a country mile on the inside.
As an aside I didn't realise I put 3 primed 30/30 cases in until I fished them out, I HAD to try them. FWIW it's also a good way to inert primers .

Get yourself a wet tumbler and you’ll be even more surprised. Brass comes out like new, or often better than new!

 

[drone]

25 s, tbh i couldn't give a monkeys what my brass looks like as long as it goes bang. I tried that method as it's cheap and I had some plj that was best before july 2018 (my mrs keeps things to long) and some sugar soap left from the last redec about 8 years ago so had nowt to lose.
Wet tumbler you're having a laugh.