Brass and Hard Water Deposits

[Itchy Trigger]

Has anyone had issues with hard water deposits inside the brass affecting the powder burn?

 

If I wet tumble or use a sonic cleaner, it is virtually impossible to keep hard water deposits from appearing.

 

If may be necessary for a bottled water bath or a dry tumble after cleaning.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Do you do a double rinse?

[Lazy Eeyour]

Try rinsing with distilled water or if you have a dehumidifier use the water in the waste bucket.

[Itchy Trigger]

2 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Do you do a double rinse?

I do more than 2 rinses, but it will be necessary to use bottled or distilled water to remove the hard water residue. The other option would to be dry tumble w/ media to remove the residue.
 

Just curious if this causes problems. Clearly not desirable, but it might not be detrimental to the powder burn. Then again, it could! Sure that there are other people that have had this issue.

 

Even w/ a water softener, we have unbelievably hard water in central Texas.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

I lay'em out on a old bath towel with a small fan blowing. 

Are you sure you're not seeing powder residue? 

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Don't POSSIBLY see you getting enough carbonate deposits in your cases to affect combustion of the powder.   We've got hard water here, too.   Washing cases in our tap water never bothered a thing.

 

Worry about something important, like primers. 

 

good luck, GJ

[mean gun mark]

to the point of causing any problems ? no      Try adding a teaspoon of "lemi shine" to your tumbler....it seems to help some.......

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

My WAG would be that if it affected anything, it would only be the most critical applications (opposite of CAS).  I'm thinking a query to Hodgdon might answer that question.

[Eyesa Horg]

15 hours ago, Itchy Trigger said:

deposits

Find it hard to believe a water mark would effect anything at all.

[Itchy Trigger]

11 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

I lay'em out on a old bath towel with a small fan blowing. 

Are you sure you're not seeing powder residue? 

 

Guess you don't have hard water.    ;-)

 

I dump the brass on old bath towels and then place bath towels on top. This removes almost all of the calcinate carbonite from the "outside" of the brass. I can greatly reduce the residue if I then place the brass with the bullet side down (works well for 38cal in the 9mm/38cal plastic ammo trays with no bottom) in a timely manner allowing most of the water to drip out. This is aided with a hair dryer. 

 

Placing the brass in a low heat oven like others do, would be counterproductive since it would remove the water and leave all of the residue.

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

I put my rinsed brass in a bath towel and 'see-saw' it back and forth a few times.  That gets most of the water drops off.

 

then a few hours in the Texas Sun results in them too hot to handle + water is all gone

 

don't care/worry about inside, though it's clean too.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

23 minutes ago, Itchy Trigger said:

 

Guess you don't have hard water.    ;-)

 

I dump the brass on old bath towels and then place bath towels on top. This removes almost all of the calcinate carbonite from the "outside" of the brass. I can greatly reduce the residue if I then place the brass with the bullet side down (works well for 38cal in the 9mm/38cal plastic ammo trays with no bottom) in a timely manner allowing most of the water to drip out. This is aided with a hair dryer. 

 

Placing the brass in a low heat oven like others do, would be counterproductive since it would remove the water and leave all of the residue.

 

LOL, I lived in the Mojave Desert for 28yrs 

[Irish Dan O'Shootem]

On 7/18/2022 at 7:26 AM, mean gun mark said:

to the point of causing any problems ? no      Try adding a teaspoon of "lemi shine" to your tumbler....it seems to help some.......

Try Lemi shine it works it for me>

[Von Dutch, SASS # 7995]

On 7/17/2022 at 6:24 PM, Lazy Eeyour said:

Try rinsing with distilled water or if you have a dehumidifier use the water in the waste bucket.

Thats is what I do! I rinse with tap water then I do a final rinse with distilled water no deposits, I save the distilled water and I use it three more times then I open a new jug. V.D.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

The carbonates are alkaline precipitant solids.  Probably adding a dilute acid, like 5% Acetic Acid (Vinegar) to the final rinse could reduce the problem. 

Has anybody tried a vinegar rinse?  I have not.  Be sure to test it first.  It could discolor the brass.  

 

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

When I need to remove strong oxidation and BP residue (greenish carbonates) from my handgun brass, I do a quick soak (30 seconds) in this mix:

 

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon grout cleaner crystals (or Lemishine - which is mostly sulfamic acid too), which is cheapest in the form of tile and grout cleaner crystals found in good hardware stores - also called "sulfamic acid cleaner"

2 tablespoons vinegar

 

Stir up well.  Dump in a few pieces of brass, fish them out within 30 seconds - once any bubbling has quit.  DON'T leave them in this solution very long, or the zinc in the brass starts to dissolve.  Which weakens the brass.

 

This will even make the brown oxidation on six-month-abandoned range brass possible to remove with a light pass with a green scrubbing pad.

 

If you have LOTS of oxidation, some copper from the dirty brass will dissolve in the cleaning solution, then plate back on the brass leaving it pink colored.   It is does not scrub off easily.  Other than that, the brass will come out pretty shiny. Tumble or vibrate as you would other brass to finish your cleaning step.

 

Straight vinegar will get aggressive with the brass, and will take longer to get clean.  The sulfamic acid is the key to loosening the carbonates and oxidation quickly.

 

good luck, GJ