Thanks guys.

I will probably start cleaning the lube from the casings after sizing then.

the reason I did not do it before, is because I have allways used very little amount of lube on the casings. your not able to see the water soluble lube, but you can feel it to the touch.
when I cleaned them before after sizing I noticed that from rubbing the lube off with a rag, some lube would get in side the neck of the casing. when poring powder, a few grains of powder would stick to the inside rim. then after setting the bullit you can see a little distortion in the brass casing there the bullit was pressed down. had to take it back apart, clean, size and remake it.
then I just started leaving the fine lube on the casings till I was done setting the bullits. have not had any problems. and I check my dies and clean.
was thinking I was not using enough lube, till I grabbed a casing that was not lube, and wow, there is a huge difference.

I do not have a tumbler. I have just been cleaning the casings with a small wire, cloth, or plastic round brush to get all the debris out from the inside and a regular primer hole cleaning tool.
then just site and wipe the casings clean with a rag by hand.

I would like to get a tumbler but was not real keen on spending the money for a new one.

other than not tumbling, I very precise on making the size, length , powder measure, and over all measure to be exact as possible. using a RCBS weight scale. and have two pairs of calipers.

Hey Ripper,

As you can see there are as many ways of doing it as there is people doing it. Here is my two cents. About 40 years ago I found an industrial grade cleaner that was very cheap. It is 96% detergent and 4% alcohol. I have taken surplus range brass and mixed my solution (2 oz. per gallon of water) and it can make bad range brass look new in about 45 minutes. One nice thing is you can mix a batch of any size and store it or just make small batches. I used to sell the stuff via mail and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. wrote an article on the stuff about 30 years ago. They recommended it. After you finish resizing the cases you tumble them in the solution. When you finish tumbling for 30-45 minutes you rinse with water and let dry-DO NOT HEAT. You can take the brass out and reuse the same batch until it turns almost black from cleaning. Each one gallon batch will do about 300-500 rifle rounds of the worst looking brass. It will work on pistol brass and I have even cleaned wrenches etc. that has been wet and started to rust. When dry just finish loading the round as normal. This detergent is used to clean machined parts in an industrial machine shop. It will clean and polish the case as it has a minute amount of an abrasive in it. When you touch it the liquid feels like dish soap. The Material Safety Data Sheet says it contains the detergent and alcohol mentioned above. It will not bother skin etc. because it is basically soap. The only thing is the tumbler however small or large must be water tight. Small tumblers are available on eBay.com. If you are interested let me know at circle8 @ wildblue.com and I can give you the info.

Welcome to the HuntingNut circle8 Sit and stay awhile
Joe

Hi Ripper

The other thing I forgot to mention is what someone else said and that is if you leave the lube on the case while seating the bullet you could get the lube in the powder. That would or could cause an problem with the detonation of the powder and give you an uneven burn. That of course could cause other problems re: accuracy and safety. Take care. Circle8

Lester, I lube, re-size CLEAN then tumble.

My reasons for doing in this order is pretty straight forward.

I always wipe my cases clean of crud after firing them so there is not anything on them to scratch the dies.

I lube them for the re-sizing process, including the inside of the neck.

I then re-size, which includes decapping the spent primer, in preparation for reloading.

After re-sizing I wash my cases in CRC BRAKLEEN as mentioned a couple of posts back.

I then throw them into the tumbler for a cosmetic clean, although with the empty primer pocket, this area also gets a bit of a clean. I do however still clean the primer pockets anyway.

So, that is my rationale...is it right or wrong? Neither....it's just the way I do it cause that's how I think is best for me.

As for the liquid car polish....it does tend to slow down the tarnish rate, but I don't see that it is a "war winner" so I don't worry about it. I suppose there is also the thought of that polish being compressed into the chamber on firing....yeah I know...very minor, but its there nonetheless.

Cheers, Vince

Thanks Vince,

It all sounds very logical to me. I had the same thoughts about the car polish, and it's affect inside the cartridge as well as in the primer pocket.

Thanks again for clearing this up.

My goal in cleaning has always been to have bare brass, no films or coatings. I would be a little concerned about cooking stuff into the chamber if the brass wasn't completely clean. I'm not worried about appearance so much as function.

I basically do this

tumble
lube
re-size (put in a touch of lube inside a neck every ten rounds or so)

Tumble
Prime
Charge
Seat bullet
Crimp(if needed)

I also do any trimming or culling as needed before last tumble before loading sequence. That is how I do it.

I may be way off put I just clean one at a time using rubbing achohol and a rag. Been doing it for many years?

Vince wrote:

Ripper, I ALWAYS wash my cases off in a few teaspoons of CRC Brakleen in a wide mouth soft drink (pop) bottle. Drop the sized case into the bottle, shake them about for about 30 seconds, dump it all into a plastic container, take the cases out and pour the Brakleen back into the bottle and seal it up. About 4 or 5 teaspoons of Brakleen is enough to wash about 20 rifle or 50 pistol cases a number of times. I takes all the lube off the case, then I throw them into the tumbler. Its not all that expensive, and the best part is it will not damage the cases in any way. A word of warning...BRAKLEEN is pretty volatile, so use it in a well ventilated area and away from naked flames. Oh yeah...and the missus will complain something chronic about the smell if you do it in the Lounge Room. Cheers, Vince

I know how effective CRC Brakleen is. I'm sure it works great. This post reminded me of how I cleaned cases long ago when I would use white gas in a 1 gallon glass jar. I would put my cases in there and give them a shake. Pour the gas thru a screen into another jar and then back into the original jar. Set the cases outside for an hour and they would be done.

Today, I use Hornandy One Shot or Dillon Lube. I don't bother cleaning of the One Shot. Dillon's lube gets cleaned off after everything is loaded up, I just thow em back into the corn cob tumbler.

I use method A: tumble, lube, re-size.

I myself prefer to wash my cases in Acetone after resizing, to remove the lube and also wash out the primer pockets and inside of the cases. I return the Acetone back to the can for future uses. It evaporates quickly, and I can get back to the reloading task quickly, rather than waiting for a tumbler or wiping with a rag.

Welcome to HuntingNut IowaCrow. Grab a beer, pull up a stump and sit awhile mate.

Cheers, Vince

I don't own a tumbler but clean the cases to either a brushed finish or a polished finish with a protective coating


with either ScotchBrite or Flitz


The Flitzed cases chamber a lot easier and stay clean a lot longer.

Hello,

I do only neck sizing for my Lapua brass .308 w (two-thirds of the neck) with Forster bench rest reloading dies and I find out, that is not necessarily to lube it at all. Of course, I will lube it after 5 shots, when I will do full lenght sizing.

Is my procedure correct?

Best regards from Slovenia.

Danny