Play with your food: Clean brass with rice.
-
http://www.primalrights.com/articles/clean-brass-with-rice
There are many ways to clean brass.
Cleaning your brass is a necessity. Foreign material in or on our cases can cause all kinds of problems. Damage to expensive reloading dies, damage to rifles, and various other issues can arise if proper care is not taken. Historically, shooters tumbled their brass in walnut or corn cob media using vibrator tumblers. This method works fairly well and has long since been the "standard" method. In recent years, a couple new technologies were explored. Ultrasonic cleaning was first, and used the power of ultrasonic transducers to "explode" the surface of the brass clean. Next came using a rotary tumbler, water, dish soap, and stainless steel pins to clean the brass. I have used each of the aforementioned methods, and in each instance I was left with the feeling that there is much room for improvement. A couple weeks ago while researching a completely unrelated topic, I was sent down a rabbit hole on the internet. You know how that is. Well I landed on an old forum post in some obscure corner of the internet, which outlined the use of rice and a vibratory tumbler to clean brass. That particular user hailed it as the best possible solution to the problem. The thought had never occurred to me before. I scooped up a handful of rice we had laying around and just by playing with it for a bit, was convinced that it may have merit. I had to try it. This article is the culmination of that testing.
-
Thanks Greg.
Sounds like you saved me some $$ and aggravation.
I have been contemplating making or buying a wet tumbler. I have sketched a design and started scrounging some parts from my bone yard.
One question does pop up though; is brown rice a healthier alternative for the brass?:laughing:
-
@mamalukino said:
One question does pop up though; is brown rice a healthier alternative for the brass?:laughing:
-
Greg, did you clean the primer pockets or did the rice clean them?
-
Rice cleaned them. There's still some leftover crusties in there, but nothing major. Certainly not significantly more than is left with stainless tumbling.
A couple swipes in there with a nylon brush and they are spotless.
-
Interesting, sure would be nice not to deal with water.
But now I have to buy a vibratory thingy.
-
This looks like a good idea. I will try it in a few days. Thanks.
Rice is so abrasive that the combines have to be either major overhauled or fixed every few years. It makes sense that it would clean brass too.
-
@dddoo7 never thought of that, we're not in rice country though.
-
@orkan said:
Are you using a tumbler to clean a majority of the rice out, or vibrating each case 1 at a time? Thanks for the advice
-
@rhyno said:
Interesting, sure would be nice not to deal with water.
But now I have to buy a vibratory thingy.
................. nah, I think I'll leave this one alone. :grinning: lol
-
And what are you using to polish? Thanks.
-
@tscustoms nice catch, lol.
-
@markdjr said:
@orkan said:
Are you using a tumbler to clean a majority of the rice out, or vibrating each case 1 at a time? Thanks for the advice
I let the tumbler do most of it. I put the slotted top on the tumbler, flip it upside down over a tote, and turn it on. That vibrates most of the rice out. Then I put the cases in a different tote, and put the rice back in the tumbler. Then I kick the tumbler on and set each case against the tumbler to let the remaining rice vibrate out. I use that opportunity to inspect each case for defects, plugged flash holes, or plugged mouths.
@markdjr said:
And what are you using to polish? Thanks.
Not doing any polishing. Brass only needs to be free of debris, apparently. The rice-tumbled cases I've tested shot amazing. The stainless tumbling thing set off a trend of sparkly brass... but I'm finding it was a huge waste of time.
-
So, what are the best vibratory cleaners?
Is the Frankfort arsenal good enough or a pIle of plastic?
-
I don't know that there's a lot of difference between them. They all seem to work. I still have my old RCBS vibratory from forever ago. ... don't even remember when I bought it. ... like a couple decades ago. ;)
-
Well that was my first thought based on looks they all look identical.
-
@rhyno I have a Franford I bought about 10 years ago. The only problem I had was with the 1st bowl. It comes with a threaded rod that screws into the bottom of the bowl. If you do not loc-tite it, it will get lose and after tightening a hundred or so times the molded in nut came out. I repaired it a few times then bought a new bowl and loc-tited the rod with no problems for about 6 years.
-
Got my Vibratory cleaner today, thought I would spend a little more and try and get a quality unit...... yeah.... no.
I went with the Hornady M2 off of Amazon using the Gunhive link (I hope I'm using that correctly anyways anytime I buy something on Amazon I use it or try to)
I went with the Hornady over the RCBS because from everything I could find they are the same thing except one is red and one is green and the green one costs more.
Not impressed with it, chintzy as crap, I wonder how long it will last, will definitely make sure the warranty card is sent in.
This is my first Vibratory tumbler thing, I uses stainless steel before, but I was tired of pins stick in the necks, and the occasional one or two in the flash holes, and the case mouths were always messed up.
So I plugged it in, grabbed whatever rice I had in the cabinet, and fired it up.
These things are loud....
We'll see how it goes.
-
Looking forward to the report. I've been happy still. :)
-
Ha! This shit is funny. I just received my tumbler today and 15lbs of Orkan rice as well. I went a little more expensive on the tumbler. Hoping to get it running this weekend and will share the experience.
-
You guys that have never ran a vibrating tumbler...run em in the garage over night. You can also set them on a pad or towel to dampen the noise.
I have the Frankford Arsenal one and it does not seem that loud at all. I know my dads 20 year old Lyman was a lot louder.
-
I put it in the spare bathroom and ran it over night. After a quick look this morning it looks really good, few small things in the primer pockets but pretty clean.
-
-
@orkan ???
-
After work I'll throw some up.
-
-
-
@mamalukino said:
@norcal_in_az said:
@mamalukino said:
@orkan ???
Pics or it didn't happen.
I am confused.:confused:
Its not that hard to follow, lol.
Ryhno said he used rice and his brass looks good.
Orkan, said he need to provide pictures or he won't believe him.
-
@norcal_in_az
Orkan's post has no text.
-
lol... apparently the image is not able to be seen for some. I'll try again:
-
Found some heavier duty vibratory tumblers.
I went through the rice link first, hope this gets GH the credit.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=Vibratory+tumbler+polisher
Raytech Industries, a division of Lymann:
http://www.raytechmetalfinishing.com/
-
I know I'm late to the discussion, but what's the negative to having super clean brass as with stainless tumbling?
I understand beat up case mouths and such.
The only issue I found in my googling was a potential for the bullet to sorta cold weld itself into the case, which could affect neck tension and bullet release. Nobody had a solid answer to how quickly it could happen, and it seemed mostly to be a concern to benchrest shooters who loaded days before the match.It seems to me that this condition of uneven bullet tension is mitigated and uniformed by both annealing and full length sizing.
Or maybe I'm way off base. I don't have enough background with this thing to know.
-
Ignoring the case mouth problem for a moment... the main issue as it affects accuracy is how clean necks seem to affect seating pressure. This is something that is very easy to feel when seating bullets, as long as you're paying attention to it. Variances in seating pressure absolutely show up on target. So far, tumbling in rice, I've culled out far fewer rounds during seating than when I stainless tumble.
-
I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow. Just got home from work not to long ago and am beat.
-
Grabbed 5 cases out (only had like 20 in there to begin with)
The rice is a combination of brown and white shurfresh rice, it's meant for eating so it's fairly clean rice.
4/5 had rice in the primer pockets, but I just turned the case upside down and set it on the threaded rod of my tumbler and it poped out with a bit of pressure.
Looks clean on the outside.
Primer pockets look good.
-
@rhyno Those PPs look real good!!:smile:
-
Nice. Yeah, I'm really liking the way of the rice. :)
-
This post is deleted!
-
Project "PRIMAL RICE" has begun at 11:18 AM EST.-
-
Now that looks like a high quality tumbler!
-
It's the first run and been going for about an hour. About the same sound level as my stainless tumbler and has not walked an inch.
-
Ultra vibe lol
-
After 1 and 1/2 hours, brass is almost there. Primer pockets looking good. Gonna let it go for another 1:30... Will follow up then 👊💥
-
-
Holy cow. You went rock star mode with your choice of tumbler! Those buggers are spendy.
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out for you.
-
Here are results after 3 hours. 250 cases of 6.5CM 32 needed to have rice removed from primer pocket. Very satisfied and much much less hassle than stainless. Project "Primal Rice" a success by my judgement.👍🏼
-
I'm loving the Primer Pockets; looks like 1 step will be eliminated in future brass prep.:smile:
-
@orkan said:
Holy cow. You went rock star mode with your choice of tumbler! Those buggers are spendy.
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out for you.
Yeah, I heard to many reports of failed motors and loud, walking tumblers. After the first attemp I am pleased so far. Much quieter than others I've seen and it handled 250 cases easily.
-
Project Primal Rice.
... you clever bastard. Why didn't I name the article that!?!?!?!
You sir, will receive an undisclosed gift in the mail next week. ;)
-
😀👍🏼
