Just bought one from harbor freight , they wanted $6 for a small jar of powder, it looked like powdered laundry soap, I'm cleaning brass, any suggestions for the juice?? . Thanks in advance
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Jewelry cleaner, solvent????
- Thread starter potenza
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Using what a vibratory cleaner? Some of the guys suggested Nu-Finish (orange bottle) and that stuff works great, a capful in about 500 medium size brass does the deed and cheaply.
Uhm, you mey want to re-read Op's post. He's talking about an ultra sonic cleaner. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
my 2 is save the receipt swap for their wet tumbler and get some stainless pins. no harsh chemicals. and waaay cleaner.
Sheesh. The vinegar and salt isn't doing the cleaning! It's the soap! And Dawn is the best there is (unless something's changed in the last few years). The vinegar is making the brass shiny, but etching it. But it's not doing the cleaning.
If you are considering using vinegar, try this first: leave some brass in his solution for an hour or two, or overnight. Notice the pink color? That's because the vinegar has dissolved some of the zinc, leaving a coppery color. I'd prefer to keep my metal intact, thank you very much. It keeps that pesky hot gas out of my face.
Use citric acid. And for God's sake, don't use salt to clean parts that can rust! (I don't think the salt does anything to help, in any case.)
Try it if you don't believe me, with or without the ultrasonic. Citric acid is way better than vinegar at shining brass. Cheap, too-- 8 oz. will do thousands of batches of solution. One pinch will do many hundreds of cases. You'll see after you try it. I use the citric acid in the rinse cycle, if I want my brass to look pretty.
Keep the vinegar and salt where they belong-- on potato chips.
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While I'm no chemist, every thing I've ever read says ammonia will weaken the brass, and lead to split cases.
I would politely suggest looking into that before using ammonia products (including Brasso).
The vinegar, salt and dawn solution was never meant to be used for hours, period. The original NRA published recipe stressed 10 minutes only. Any longer and dezincifization will occur.
