Tumbled my brass, big problem!

[Hulley]

I tumbled some of the brass i have and it didnt go too well. I used crushed walnut with a teaspoon of Franklins brass polish and now all the 5.7 brass has a nice coating of walnut and goo. The other brass that was in the mix, .45 and .357 came out great. It looks like I could clean the brass with a solvent of some kind but was wondering what i did wrong.

How do you guys clean your 5.7 brass?

[HK SD9 Tactical]

I tumbled some of the brass i have and it didnt go too well. I used crushed walnut with a teaspoon of Franklins brass polish and now all the 5.7 brass has a nice coating of walnut and goo. The other brass that was in the mix, .45 and .357 came out great. It looks like I could clean the brass with a solvent of some kind but was wondering what i did wrong.

How do you guys clean your 5.7 brass?

The 5.7 brass has a laquer coating on it that is needed for extraction purposes. You should never clean your 5.7 brass in a tumbler or using any other method that will remove the lacquer. Rinsing in Simple Green is one of the ways to clean this brass.

You may want to try the SG to take all that goo off of the brass but I suspect that this brass might be toast. It all depends on if sufficient lacquer has remained. I read a post on the other site that someone was using some sort of spray lacquer to repair their brass. I also think that EA is developing a technique as well.

Try the SG cleaning and report back on your results.

[flyingirish04]

Yep, simple green, no tumbler. Get a hold of EA. Jay has some fix for this if I remember correctly. This is a tricky round to reload, so do your homework. I wildcat a ton, and I still think this is more difficult than any of the wildcats I like to load.

[Hot_Shot]

I used a solution of warm water and Dawn dish washing liquid on some 5.7 casings earlier. It worked great. Just make sure that you rinse them well and let them dry after rinsing.

[Hulley]

Thanks for the replies guys. Its a good thing I didnt have much in the tumbler. I'll try the SG method with before and after pics to let you guys see what happens.

[124C41]

If you keep the brass clean from dirt/mud at the range and don't get crazy with the case lube, just wipe them off with a damp towel. Simple green on a paper towel is fine.

[Hulley]

Well I forgot to take pics before the cleaning but after a simple green bath the brass is looking pretty good. I'm gonna let them soak a little longer and wipe them down and call it a day.

[HK SD9 Tactical]

Well I forgot to take pics before the cleaning but after a simple green bath the brass is looking pretty good. I'm gonna let them soak a little longer and wipe them down and call it a day.

Don't oversoak them in the SG. The SG is powerful enough to remove the lacquer as well.

[Hulley]

Gotcha, I'll remove them now.

[Hot_Shot]

Not to point this out, but let me go ahead and point it out...

Soap will not remove the lacquer. Most people already have soap and access to warm water. And soapy water is really only ever harmful if you splash it in your eyes. If you already have it (not expensive either), then you do not have to go buy quantities of some other cleaner.

I think that using the soap and warm water is a pretty good option. I would suggest putting a hundred or so casings in some kind of sealable plastic container with the soap and warm water and shake it around a bit.

Then rinse and dry.

They come out looking pretty damn good.