Texas Sheepdawg wrote:OK, here’s the difference between a final polish with the corn cob media and going straight out of the wet tumbler to be dried and then to be loaded. The cases that were not run through the corncob media as a final polish have already started to tarnish. This is what they look like after 10 hours.
8DC12BDB-BC38-4EDC-AC35-76BAB0131D25.jpeg
I had brass that would tarnish that quick, so I starting testing a few things. What I came up with is wet tumble with just soap for 2-3 hrs to get them mostly clean. To dry, I use a towel, roll them around, pat them dry, then spread them out on another clean, dry, towel. During the summer, I stick them in front of a fan. During the winter I throw them in front of an air register. I'll then resize, and throw them back in the tumbler with soap and Lemi-shine for about an hour. I use a pinch of it. Anymore and the brass starts to tarnish quickly. I always rinse the crap out of the brass, then put it through the separator. I give it 2 washes because I use RCBS water based lube. Works good, but couldn't stand leaving it on brass. When I first started wet tumbling, I started with the recommended amount and noticed bad water spotting and brass would tarnish very quickly. Had some brass from one manufacture that turned a rose color (not good). So reducing the amount of Lemi-shine helped a lot, and then reducing the exposure time also helped.
I've thought about getting a vibratory tumbler to polish the brass afterwards, just haven't got around to it. Probably will when I start mass loading for storage. For the most part I'll prep brass a day or two before I load. If it's a little tarnished, I'll just load it, if it's really tarnished, I'll run it through the wet tumbler a little bit. I have some brass that are slightly tarnished after sitting in the open air for months, so not a big deal.