Brass too clean?

T

Tex S

New member
Have any of y'all that tumble with ss pin media ever noticed that the clean brass seems to be a bit more "grabby" when compared to brass cleaned with corncob?

It seems like it doesn't run through my dies as easy. Not a problem, but I did notice especially with my mouth expander dies.
 
Sounds like you should take a good look at your lube. I wet tumble, and with my homemade lanolin based lube, there is no problem.

Don
 
I don't wet tumble my brass, but I bought some once-fired pistol brass that had been wet tumbled, and yes, it stuck like glue to my powder through expander until I tumbled it for a few minutes in crushed walnut with some Nufinish polish mixed in. The polish lubed it up enough that some of it still grabbed lightly but nothing major. I also found brass streaks on the expander. Cleaning that up also helped.
 
Have any of y'all that tumble with ss pin media ever noticed that the clean brass seems to be a bit more "grabby" when compared to brass cleaned with corncob?
Click to expand...

Yes. And I believe it has galled up my flair dies. (Yeah I know brass is a lot softer than hardened stainless steel, yadda yadda yadda - it messed up my flair dies and I had to replace several of them.)

Learned this some time back. These days, I first tumble in corn cob. The corn cob doesn't remove the natural lubricant of spent propellant residue on the inside of the case. Then I resize and flair; followed by a wet tumble w/ ss pins.

And BTW, since I know they're going to get a thorough wet tumble with ss pins; I go ahead and take it a step further by giving them a spray of lube before the resize.

Now lever effort is a lot less. A LOT less. My dies are in good shape too.
 
a bit of lube is the answer. It reduces friction when seating rifle bullets in cases that have been wet tumbled also but for that I lube the bullets not the cases
 
Just to be clear, I'm talking about pistol brass and carbide dies where no lube should be necessary. Not rifle brass

I have started putting a bit of Hornady one shot inside the expander die, but it is only effective for about 25-30 rounds before it needs to be reapplied.

I wonder if polishing the expander die insert would help???
 
I wet tumble. My die is carbide, too. I give the brass a good spray of One Shot and toss around. I give a shot in my expanding die, too. Works for me. Periodically, clean the expanding die.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just to be clear, I'm talking about pistol brass and carbide dies where no lube should be necessary. Not rifle brass

I have started putting a bit of Hornady one shot inside the expander die, but it is only effective for about 25-30 rounds before it needs to be reapplied.
Click to expand...

Spray your pistol brass in a bag or box with Hornady One Stuck before resizing them. It's really the only thing it is good for.

Don
 
Grabby? I have had brake shoes that were grabby, if you want your shoes to grab the drum grease your shoes, I do not use pins and I want nothing between the case and chamber but air. I am the fan of 100% between the case and chamber, when it comes to holding there is nothing like 100% contact.

F. Guffey
 
I wet tumble with SS pins and auto wash & wax. Quite the contrary, my brass glides in and out of the carbide sizers quite smoothly....
 
I size pistol brass before cleaning, then wet clean with ss, and it goes through the Dillon great. USSR, I totally agree on One Stuck lube. I spray down a big load of brass before sizing, and it takes all the work out of that job.

Rifle brass, I decap, ss clean, then size with Imperial, no problems.
 
Maybe, but that clean brass being "grabby" is also on the inside of the case and grabbing your bullet and improving your neck tension. I can see where some might find that a double edged sword, but if you're hand loading for precision I think the benefits outweigh any drawbacks...at least for me. There is only one clean, but there are a myriad of versions of "dirty". You don't want even a plethora, much less a myriad, of variables in your hand loads.
 
One thing you might try is to reduce your tumble time. Cases that are over-tumbled in steel pins will actually start to become almost bead blasted. They start to loose that shine because the pins eventually make micro dimples and dull them up if you do it too long. That may be why it is more grabby, not because it is clean, but because it is over-tumbled. Just a thought.
 
I had that issue with cleaning brass before I sized it.

Yes it was more grabby and that was with the Corn Cob media.

Normally I just size it first, this was a one off.

Yes I know, not cleaning it rips the daylights out of the brass and scratches it, your dies and puts groves in the moon, though oddly, mine has not but I am sure one day all those cases will come down with leprosy and fall apart.

But for sure there is something about too clean.

As long as the brass is taken from the gun and put into a clean cartridge holder of whatever type, I have had no problems.

Once its sized then it get a single run through the tumbler and done.

As noted some of the wet cleaning agents may help if you want to clean it first.
 
Try cleaning the resizing die and expander with a copper solvent bore cleaner to remove brass traces, which would increase friction. Contrary to polishing, which I think would grab more, look at lightly roughing the expander surface with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper or something like it.
 
I switched to wet tumbling with stainless steel pins two years ago an will never go back. The brass comes out like new inside and out. With rifle brass I use RCBS case lube , sizing is smooth as silk , pistol brass 45 ACP you see how clean the brass comes out . When sizing 45 brass with a carbide die , it sized so easy keeping the plunger in the die clean no grime , it makes reloading even more enjoyable . I don't use any of the polishers , only Sun dish detergent ,water & very little LemiShine.
 
Last edited:
Try cleaning the resizing die and expander with a copper solvent bore cleaner to remove brass traces, which would increase friction. Contrary to polishing, which I think would grab more, look at lightly roughing the expander surface with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper or something like it
Click to expand...

Any time I clean a die it takes a lot of lube to get it working right again.

I have gone to the M die and won't use the expander ball in the sizer if I can avoid it. The grab going out would seem to be a distortion of the case.

I think all my sizer dies are RCBS so not sure if someone does it better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top