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Usiing car wax in tumbler


Bull Creek Cole

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I read on another thread where someone mentioned using a teaspoon full of Mothers car wax in their tumbler and it helped the cases slide in and out of the re-sizer a lot easier. I didn't want to hijack the thread so I thought I'd start another thread and see what I could find out. I've never heard of this tip before but it sounds like it has potential. I recently ran out of my old lube and switched over to the RCBS lube and pad. I've been loadiing non-CAS necked cartridges and it does it's job as a lube but it's a lot like vaseline and a real pain to clean off the brass after it is reloaded. My pard put some loaded cartridges in the tumbler to clean them, but I don't like that idea. Something like this car wax tip could come in handy, at least on straight walled cartridges. Anyone have any experience with usiing car wax?

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I often use a liquid car wax in my tumbler. One of the usual ingredients is some sort of petroleum distillate. Basically a solvent. I think that the solvent helps with the cleaning. The waxes seem to trap the dust a bit and they do leave the shells slick and shiny. Cases tumbled this way do seem to have a little less resistance in the sizing die.

 

I still use an occasional spritz of the newer spray on lube to keep things working even better. You don't have to spray every case, just spray a few and add one every 10 or 20 cases.

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Ditto the fine Professor's comments.

 

Start vibrator with media in it, add a cap of car wax. Let it run until there are no blobs of wax, add cases.

 

Use your mother's wax, your uncle's wax, whatever. Brand does not seem to matter. I've got turtle's wax that I use.

 

I've even been known to run loaded ammo in vibrator for just a couple of minutes with clean walnut hulls and a cap of paint thinner (do this outside). Cleans case lube and most bullet lube off the loaded ammo. Don't get carried away and run it several hours, or you MIGHT degrade the powder and change it's internal ballistics (aka Pressure).

 

Good luck, GJ

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I use Brasso in my tumbler. B)

 

Brasso is tarnish remover and I believe it contains ammonia. The real old guys think (and some of us not so old guys) that ammonia is a no-no on ammunition. Might be a old wives tale or an I read it on the Internet...

 

Olen

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I am confused... You mention adding wax to the tumbler to eliminate lubing your cases?

Is this while you are cleaning the cases in the tumbler?

 

I have added Turtle Wax Chrome polish to the tumbler media in order to help clean the cases and it also seems to add a slightly slippery feeling to them that may help them going and in and out of carbide sizer dies... But I would never think of using this as a lube for non carbide sizer dies.

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Any time you use acids (vinegar), bases (ammonia), or salt on cartridge brass, you can get chemical reactions that alter the brass. The key element is time, how long is the substance in contact with the brass.

 

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It is softer than bronze and is more malleable (flows under pressure). It is subject to cracking when exposed to ammonia which can cause cannons to explode upon firing. This was discovered during war time when supplies were stored in horse barns and the urine with ammonia caused failures.

 

Cartridge brass is 70% copper and 30% zinc. Chemicals and resulting voltaic cells leeches the zinc from the brass at a rapid rate, the longer the contact time, the more that is being leeched (key words). A small reduction in the % zinc will cause the brass to be brittle and can cause catastrophic rupture of the case. Try this experiment: put a dab of Brasso on a case that is trashed. let it sit for an hour, then remove the Brasso. You will see the brass is now reddish. This is the copper showing on the brass that has lost zinc.

 

If you use a little Brasso in the tumbler, it is diluted thru the media, and the ammonia is probably dissipated by evaporation, causing little damage to the brass. Compare the color of the well Brasso'ed brass with new. I would wager that it will be a slight bit on the coppery side compared to new.

 

Over long use of chemicals is spinning the roulette wheel. And with continued over long exposure, it's only a matter of time before a case ruptures.

 

Brass cleaning and polishing products do not contain ammonia.

Lefty

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I use Nu-finish, I put a little ring around the media, then tumble until it is mixed, the last time I did this, I used mineral spirits, put some in a spray bottle, sprayed it around the media, tumbled for awhile to mix in, then put brass in, 2 hours later took it out, the brass was the shiniest it ever has been, don't know if the mineral spirits had anything to do with it, will use mineral spirits the next time this summer when I have brass to clean

 

 

 

All for now JD Trampas

 

 

P.S. Now I don't care about shinny brass, thought I would try it, I just care about clean brass before I load

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Heee Haaa.. I use Mothers California Gold Carnaube cleaner wax..I put the fired cases in water and Dawn Dishwashing liquid..Rinse well..Dry the cases .. put them in the tumbler with Kaytee walnut litter for Birds,add the Mothers .. tumble over night..They come out clean and Shiney.. I shoot 44-40's ..I DO NOT Lube the cases before I run them on the Dillon.. :D I was told that the Carnauba Wax is all I need for lube.. Ive ran thousands of round with any Problems..I should add I only shoot FFg Goex.. :wub:

 

Heee Haaa Crazy Mingo :wacko::wacko::FlagAm:

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Must be screwing up, never really thought pistol brass was hard to get thru the sizing die. I did start loading on 308 and 06 high power gas gun ammo. Had to pull the handle pretty good on those even with case lube so pistol brass always felt easy.

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Many of the brand name "re-activator" additives you see in stores contain petrolium disiltates as their main ingredient.......essentially paint thinner.....I've added a capful or two of paint thinner to my media to "reactivate" the polish (midway sells the best you can get) that I had already added a few loads before......People are probably getting that benefit from adding the car wax......I don't like the idea of adding wax to my media myself.....to each their own though.....Heck some guys swear by addding Brasso too :wacko::rolleyes: ...but that's a different argument....

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+1 Been doin' it using Turtle wax for a while now. Even ran out once and used a spray type car wax. Sprayed it on the brass and dropped it in the media-came out nice and shiny! ;)

 

DB :FlagAm:

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Using liquid wax, Flitz, Turtle, Mother's, etc. has the benefit of keeping the media dust down, a definite plus when separating media and cases.

 

Never tried mineral spirits to reactivate the wax, might need to try that.

 

Doc McGee

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Brasso is tarnish remover and I believe it contains ammonia. The real old guys think (and some of us not so old guys) that ammonia is a no-no on ammunition. Might be a old wives tale or an I read it on the Internet...

 

Olen

 

Not an old wives/internet tale at all Olen. It was first discovered that ammonia can wreck cartridge brass in India in the 1920's. Some Indian Army units were storing their ammunition in the stables, and the ammonia fumes from the manure reacted with the rifle brass causing it to split on firing. Subsequent investigation found the ammonia causes something called "stress corrosion cracking" in brass.

 

Brasso is OK on uniform buttons and candlesticks, but I wouldn't use it on cartridge cases.

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I used to use car wax then I bought some of that Iosso Media Polish and will only use car wax for my cars from now on. That stuff is awesome. The brass goes in the media and 20 minutes later it comes out looking brand new inside and out. I won't use anything else from now on.

 

Car wax in a pinch maybe? But try the Iosso.

 

JEL

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Sounds like the car wax will be worth a try, along with a couple of other ideas. I've tried several different brands of cleaners in the past but nothing that would make the brass a little slicker going into the resizer. I'm not trying to do away with lube-ing, especially necked cartridges (I don't even think that would be possible). I use carbide resizers and the straight walled brass resizes easily enough but I still use lube on about every tenth shell just help ease things along.

 

I have also put brass (straight walled) into a plastic baggy and sprayed some Hornady One-Shot on them and then shook them all up. That also seems to help ease the brass through the resizer.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

 

Bull Creek Cole

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I used to use car wax then I bought some of that Iosso Media Polish and will only use car wax for my cars from now on. That stuff is awesome. The brass goes in the media and 20 minutes later it comes out looking brand new inside and out. I won't use anything else from now on.

 

Car wax in a pinch maybe? But try the Iosso.

 

JEL

 

Whats Iosso? Did a search, kundt find it. maybe the spelling eh LOL :)

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Actually, the reason most are having problems finding this is because you are misspelling the co. name.

 

The correct spelling is IOSSO not LOSSO. Google IOSSO and it will come right up.

 

RBK

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