FN FiveseveN Forums - Mean Green Clean Brass

Posted by Medula Oblongata:

FN FiveseveN Forums - Mean Green Clean Brass: "I have been searching for a way to quickly clean the 5.7x28mm brass. As we all know, with laquer coated cases, dirt and grime tends to stick to the laquer coating more easily than to brass and this is especially true with sizing lubes. Not wanting to get grime and lube all over the place, I set about looking for a way to clean my cases.

I started with dry corn cob in my vibratory tumbler. It sorta worked, but tended to thin the laquer coating to almost nothing within two reloadings and took a very long time. Putting cleaning agents in with the corn cob only exaserbated the mess and the amount of garbage stuck to the cases. I even tried the Iosso liquid case cleaner, which made the cases really brite but also removed about half of the laquer coat. So, after six months of occaisonal experimentation, I decided to put warm water and SIMPLE GREEN in my tumbler... It works EXCEPTIONALLY well without damaging the laquer coating.

If you don't have a wet media tumbler, just put the cases in a container with warm water and Simple Green at a ratio of 10 parts water to 1 part Simple Green for heavy cleaning, or 30 parts water to 1 part SG for lite cleaning. Agitate the cases with your fingers in a sideways fanning motion, and in 2 - 3 minutes, your brass is clean, inside and out. When in the tumbler, even the primer pockets are much cleaner and most of the garbage left falls out when dry with a few taps on a hard surface. It only takes a second to clean the primer pockets on my RCBS case prep center now instead of the usual 4 - 5 seconds before cleaning in Simple Green.

Give it a try, Simple Green WILL NOT harm the brass or laquer coating, and rinses clean with no residue. I have been doing this for a few weeks now and have proven on my Agencie's 300x stereo microscope that repeated"

Follow-up by libertyman:

Have you tried Simple Green in an ultrasonic cleaner? It works amazingly well.