citric acid brass cleaner

nemesisenforcer

anybody use citric acid and water to clean brass? Heard about it and was wondering if members had any home remedy recipes?

I was thinking lemon/lime juice or possibly vinegar?

perry shooter

I would be very careful with any kind of acid . Acid and any metal that that acid would react on + high pressure is IMHO an accident waiting to happen. YMMV

Hawk Carse

The steel pin wet tumbler mix is Dawn dish detergent and Lemishine additive which is mostly citric acid.
Some people are just soaking their brass in that combination without tumbling. It doesn't take much, a dash of Dawn and half a teaspoon of Lemishine to a gallon.

Actual citrus juices are too dilute and too expensive and vinegar is acetic acid, not citric. Vinegar has been used, though, with salt in the mix.

jonk

I remember a guy on the cast boolit forum who knows more about chemistry than I, describing what happens and that it doesn't harm the brass or weaken it.

I bought 5 pounds of citric acid powder from fleabay. Lifetime supply, under twenty bucks. Plus I can use it in winemaking for limited things, if the acidity of the wine needs tinkering with.

In my wet tumbler, I usually put in the brass, pins, fill about half full with hot water, squirt of dish soap, and about a teaspoon of citric acid powder. Make sure to rinse the brass in clean water after, as the citric acid will cause tarnish if left to dry on the cases.

Vinegar does work, but bleaches the cases out to an orangeish color.

gunnut505

As an experiment, I took some of my homemade miracle bore cleaner, and let a few .45acp cases that were filthy with dirt, verdigris & tarnish sit in a coffee cup for about 15 minutes, then tumbled with walnut/rouge for 20 minutes; they looked very nice.
I ran them through the sizing die, and they looked like new brass, except for about 1/8" above the rim where the dies don't touch.