The Vinegar Connection To The Wet Tumbling Of Our Brass
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Vinegar has been used to clean everything from showers to grills to dishes. For the past dozen years, Lemi Shine has been recommended for our wet brass tumbling with great results. In this video, we'll check out how effective 1 oz of vinegar would be in our Frenkford Arsenal Wet Tumbler instead of the use of a 3/4 teraspoon of Lemi Shine. We are replacing the citric acid in the Lemi Shine with the mild acetic acid in our common vinegar. Neither acid will weaken our brass in the tumbling cycles we are talking about...
My wife and I started laughing when we watched your video. Last weekend I went to tumble a bunch of brass and I couldn’t find my Lemi-Shine. After a while I found out my wife gave it to our daughter-in-law cause she never uses it and didn’t know where it came from! Perhaps you need to question your wife! LOL
Yes citric acid (lemishine)vs acidic acid (vinigar, also used as stop solution in photo development) both good choices of safe acids. Nice video
Acetic acid, rather. But yes, both are weak organic acids.
My name on here used to be gunnut. I haven't seen your videos in a while, youtube un subbed me for some reasons, but I started reloading again and remembered you glad to see your still on here love your content and will definitely be switching to vinegar thank you Sir👍
Being a 45 year reloader... I found that taking a empty distilled vinegar plastic gallon jug, a bottom full of Dawn dish washing soap, and 1/3 fill of the distilled vinegar, topped off with boiling water to about 2 " to the top gets any caliber of de-primed brass, 3/4 filled in the gallon container gets my brass just as clean as yours with no expensive or hard to get brass cleaner stuff. Let it soak after few shakes for about an hour or so... just enough time for the Dawn to loosen and dissolve the majority of powder, then just tip it upside down in the sink and then either shake the brass out the spount or just cut open the jug and straight into the tumbler,... and mine has the dirtest walnut media from years of use, for several hours... and whalaa the cleanest brass - on the cheap! Several hours in my garage, which is usually always pretty hot I live in Central Texas gets the brass dry as well
When I was in the Navy, many moons ago, we used powdered vinegar added to water with table salt to clean very corroded brass. I think the salt was mostly an abrasive. Of course, there was quite a bit of elbow grease needed too. Thanks for the video!
"Powdered vinegar" IS citric acid. Vinegar is 5% acetic acid which evaporates at room temperature. You can't powder acetic acid at room temperatre, therefore, you can't powder vinegar.
@@stl9111 I believe you, but can still remember the brown foil packages that said powdered vinegar. I use citric acid and the texture is more granular than what I remember the powdered vinegar. It was almost like talcum powder. Could they have added other ingredients to make it taste like vinegar?
I use 1 Tbsp of Tide and 1Tsp of vinegar for 30 minutes in my Hornady Ultrasonic and the cases come out looking brand new. I rinse them in the sink for a minute with some baking soda to neutralize the acid. I'm no chemist but this works great for me!
I just cleaned some 45 acp brass in a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. I used a teaspoon of each, lemi shine, dawn, peroxide, and baking soda. No pins were used. They we like new. Amazing results.
I'll try that. I've used vinegar to clean brass antique lamp parts for years, it does a great job.
Thanks for the great tip Steve, being newly retired I'm always looking for ways to save a few bucks. 👍🏻
Good to know , thanks for doing the testing and how it all came out to be .
Thank you for the tip Steve!
Did the limishine vs red wine vinegar test tonight on .308 shells. It's amazing how much more shiny the vinegar got.
Vinegar might be a plausible replacement for Lemi-Shine if you only used it as a cleaning agent.
The primary purpose of using Lemi-Shine is to ' soften the water ' if one has ' hard water',
Being in Las Vegas, NV, we have some of the hardest water in the US, 278 ppm or 16 grains per gallon.
As such, I feel compelled to continue to use Lemi-Shine / citric acid to help soften the hard water here.
Interesting video, by the way !
Those look awesome great job👍👍👍👍
I double clean/tumble all my brass these days. First I deprime the cases and put them in the Frankfort Arsenal Platinum 7L with stainless steel pins, warm water, Lemishine, Dawn dish soap. After I get rid of the pins and excess water via Frankfort Arsenal Wet/Dry Media Tumbler and rinse them off with clean water. I lay them out on a beach towel to dry. After they are dry I put them in my Dillon CV-2001 dry media tumbler with corncob media and their polish. I separate the dry media from the cases when they come out using my Dillon CM-2000. They are restored to "as new" condition following these steps. Before the stainless steel pin wet tumblers came out I only used the Dillon combo. This works better this way using both of them in this process. I have never had issues with any of my presses and the primer feeds because I always deprime my cases with a Lee Universal decap die prior to tumbling and loading them.
Awesome find Steve!
They look great! Gotta swap that for the Lemi-Shine next time
Vinegar is a solid cleaner. We even use dawn, water and vinegar in a spray bottle for the shower and hard water.
Iv,e used the vinegar solution for a little while now. I did some 9mm the last time I was using this solution. I must have had a case or two with shellac or varnish on them because the whole lot of them came out with a light olive color. Didn't hurt them and they look kinda cool. Thanks F.C.45.
Thank's FC, keep up the great work!!
Absolutely vinegar is a great cleaner I use it plus peroxide to clean my suppressors
I’m going to try this. I don’t have a wet tumbler but i do have a Lyman ultra sonic cleaner. I’ve got some real dirty 45 lc brass.
Very helpful. How much Dawn per batch?
@kenjohnson3412 - Just a squirt of Dawn ( probably a rounded teaspoonful) is all that is needed for the full FA tumbler and 1 oz of the vinegar. Good reloadin' to ya, Steve
Thanks
Beautiful job I’m going to try it right now! 1 once vinegar and water ! Thank you! I have some 45 Colt sitting around that bp was used and even though I quickly rinsed them they have gotten pretty rough looking. I’ll let you know how I made out!
Question geared towards your hardest video I have an 1873 rifle would you recommend 16-1 or 20-1 or something other trying to keep loads under 1000 fps preferably 850 fps
Lemi Shine is citric acid. Distilled vinegar is also an acid. I know apple cider vinegar has a pH of around 2 to 3 (7 being neutral of course). Would make sense to me that distilled vinegar would be a good cleaning agent. I use Dawn detergent and distilled vinegar mix (about a 3/10 ratio respectively) in a big spray bottle to soak down the shower before some light scrubbing and a rinse. Cuts the scum and cleans chrome and plastic really well.
Instead of chemicals in the shower, sink, kitchen sink and stovetop, countertops, I have a spray bottle with undiluted distilled vinegar I just spray around the kitchen and let sit a while, and use a scrub-sponge to loosen any remaining grease or food bits and stuff wipes right off. Does as well or better than chemical de-greasers or soaps, and without all the suds and fumes to deal with. Spray 100% distilled vinegar onto the stainless sink surfaces and let sit a minute or two, use a scrub sponge and that metal shines up really well. I've also heard professional home cleaners often only use Dawn and vinegar with water to do most all their cleaning, especially glass.
Vinegar mixed with distilled water is a great glass cleaner. Just don’t use it on tinted windows, some films don’t like acidic cleaners. In that case, use straight distilled water
@@4570Govt Agreed, any films/tints would probably be destroyed to some degree.
Wow that’s wild, can you do you a test with a control?
One batch untouched and Very dirty, another with dawn soap, another with vinegar, and a test case in pure vinegar.
I've used apple cider vinegar and if left in a long time makes a kinda fools gold color. I've heard it could weaken the brass idk but make sure you don't leave it in too long! Also with bp substitute the vinegar leaves a weird streaking.
Looks great! Could it possibly alter the metal makeup?
Great video and great information… have you switched to vinegar or still use lemi shine
Great tip!
I literally use dawns dish soap, and use white vinegar. Clean for 1 hour periodically stir it every 10 minutes. And in shocking surprise they come out clean and fully functional.
It is just a different mild acid.
The small amounts used slightly alter the ph of the water, giving the detergent(Dawn) a boost.
I am sure you rinse the brass in clear water, so the residual soap and acid are removed so tarnish would not occur unless salts and oils from your skin affect the brass.
Vinegar is surely less $ than Lemi Shine.
Those look great 👍
Looks great!
The vinegar is a lot cheaper also good stuff 👌👍
I can't believe anyone wants to dry tumble & clean anymore. Good results.🙂
Not that I want to dry tumble ,don't have a wet tumbler setup yet . On a budget
@@larryalexander4833 I understand the budget but when you see the results you'll be really happy, I use a double rock tumbler, each drum will do 40 rifle or 100 pistol. I have no need to upgrade, go for it, you'll be glad!
I can see my reflection in dry corncob tumbled pistol brass. Doesn't get any better than that.
@@HobbiesHobo I have used my dry vibratory tumbler to wet tumbler using stainless media to clean very corroded brass . Not perfect but worked pretty well
@@luvtahandload7692 Try wet tumbling and you'll never go back. Clean brass is nice but far from necessary! Stainless steel pins last many years which is nice too!
Thank you, Christopher Walken!
Did you also use the dawn soap or did the vinegar replace that as well?
I understand he used dawn and vinager.
3:45. "and one ounce of vinegar". Normal concentration like you use in your kitchen for food, or high concentration like the kind of vinegar you can buy at Home Depot?
I have some home depot cleaning vinegar... I'm sure it will work. I was thinking 10 90 with hot distilled water and maybe some meyers dish soap on the first run then just vinegar and distled water on the final run.
I have cleaned with distilled water and Brasso and it works great and I have used ISSO cleaner which is expensive, but it works.
Try cleaning brass without the steel pins, they are more trouble than they are worth.
I may just try that.
@daniel-vm3qn - If you do, you surely will not be disappointed...It's been 1 1/2 weeks now, and that brass is lookin' good...!! And that vinegar is surely ready and handy in the kitchen...Best Regards, Steve
¿Do you "rinse" the tumbled brass with anything, or blow them off with compressed air, or both? ¿"Drip-dry"?
@Able-Man : Yes, I run rinse water through the FA Tumbler before using rotating media separator (with more water in the bucket) to finish the rinsing while separating the SS pins. Works well and the good rinsing is key to getting that shine to be stable lasting. Best Regards, Steve
How many cases per load? How much dawn?
I use a large 25 - 30 oz coffee can to measure my brass for both my Frankfort Arsenal Platinum 7L wet/dry tumbler and my Dillon CV-2001. I still have some of the slightly larger vintage metal coffee cans and use them too. If it fits in that can it will stay under 30 pounds with the water, pins and brass. They say you shouldn't exceed 28 pounds on the Frankfort Arsenal in the instructions. The huge Dillon can do more but I don't and my equipment lasts not overloading it. Dawn gets a 3 second squirt 1-2-3 and Lemishine is about the size of a nickel but smaller than a quarter.
I don't use wet tumbling but has anyone ever tried a solution with borax added to it?
How do you deprime your cases
@dougmotter12258 - My procedure is anathema and contrary to current thinking. Word is that running uncleaned brass through our carbide full length resize dies is a no-no because grit can scratch the dies. However, when I first got into reloading, there weren't any vibratory tumblers in existence - we didn't clean our brass, wiped 'em off if they were really dirty - just ran 'em through the dies with our Dillons. The carbide is like artificial diamond - no common grit will scratch the carbide. The grit might scratch the brass though - but even that did not happen. Our carbonized brass made grundgy looking handgun reloads, but they shot just fine. We did wipe off our rifle brass though. Soon after I got my Dillons, they came out with the vibratory tumblers. I tumbled my brass for three hours without depriming. And then into the Dillons they went. Dirty primer pockets were never a problem. Reason - the primer pocket residues never built up as excess resdues were blown into the firings, plus the primer seat contact areas never fouled to prevent next primer from seating. This information is never mentioned. Answer your question - I run my brass through the FL carbide sizing dies without cleaning to size and deprime - then they go through the wet tumble to get the results you see. The polished cases are ready to neck expand, prime, powder charge and bullet seat to get exceptional looking final loads. The sizing procedure does nothing but degrade that great looking brass that comes out of our wet tumblers. Sizing and depriming before the wet tumbling solves that for me. Good reloadin' to ya, Steve
Rather than Dawn try Dishwasher soap pods with spot remover like Cascade Platinum Plus
@rangervapes571 - Only a rounded teaspoon of the Dawn is needed, and I haven't had any water spots on the brass at all...The pods seem to contain a lot more detergent in there. Might try 1/3rd of a pod, but just a squirt of the Dawn is much easier, and I don't have a left over pod to store. I'll check under the sink to see if there is a box of Cascade in there somewhere... Best Regards, Steve
I clean my brass DIY, with vinegar, water, dawn soap and a little salt in an ultrasonic jewellery cleaner. the worst thing to happen is a bit of discoloration, sometimes. and then i dry them in a toaster oven. cheers to modern mountain man for that one.
a great video might be "what adjustments to make if your case length doesn't correspond at all to any book youve got." 😂
Maybe better than new brass? 🏆🏆🏆🍩☕🤠👍
@andrewmunchkin7212 - I just compared the look of that brass with factory new brass - To me, it looks like the wet tumbled brass is a hair better than the factory, but at worse, it is as good. ...that eye of the beholder thing, dontcha know?? Best to ya, Steve
@@FortuneCookie45LC you have more reloading experience in your toenail than I do. I'm going to be using vinegar too. Thanks fc45lc
No more cleaning primer pockets!!! That’s the only way to go.
I'm concerned..are you having difficulty with your breathing? It sounds very labored.
Better then Lemishine? Heresy!
@roquri - Yes, heresy. I'm thinking, use the Lemi-Shine...but if none is handy, just raid the kitchen for that good vinegar.... Best Regards, Steve
Don't know how dirty your brass is/gets, but mine is my own fired brass so one day I just decided it shouldn't need extra stuff to clean it. Well I filled up my FA tumbler with water and threw in my ss media/pins, closed the lid, set it on the rollers, and hit the switch to 3 hours because I really didn't have anything else to do. Wouldn't you know it, my brass came out looking like new without any dawn or lemishine. I have come to the conclusion that just the pins rubbing against the brass is what is really polishing it. Since then, I have thrown out my lemishine and just tumble with pins and water.
@user-gu6nj8lf3w - You might have something there...only testing will tell... Best to ya, Steve
Just try citric surf works for me