Black film after a vibratory tumble?

[Adician]

Hello all, I'm curious about something that happened to a shellholder of mine today.

I was decapping and resizing brass and accidentally used too much lubricant, and a lot of it was all over my shell holder. This is the same I use in the RCBS hand priming tool, and I've heard the lube kills primers deader than hell. I normally wash it off with distilled water (it's just RCBS case lube, the kind that solves with water) but this time I dropped it in with the brass during a tumble.

Well... The shellholder came out black. Not silver as it normally is. I tried scraping the black stuff off with a fingernail, and no-go. I barely scratched some off. I coated it in Hoppes #9 solvent, and still no go. I've yet to try a stiffbristle brush though.


And lastly, I have a few pieces of brass that are a pink color. They each have one band around the brass that is gold as it should be, then it turned the brass tarnished most of the way up the length of about four or five pieces. (what I can only assume to be the pieces that touched the shellholder.)



Anyone have any insight as to what happened?

 

[Leaddog]

Re: Black film after a vibratory tumble?

What chemicals have you added to the media in your tumbler? Perhaps there was a metallic reaction?

I usually decap first with a Lee decapping die, clean my .308 cases in a rotary tumbler with stainless media before doing any resizing. When I do resize, I use Imperial Sizing wax. It's the best you can use. All the others are too messy.

 

[High Binder]

Re: Black film after a vibratory tumble?

Sounds like you somehow introduced some sort of mild acid to the tumbler.

 

[Suasponte]

Re: Black film after a vibratory tumble?

carbon from the media bonded to the shell holder.

Soak it in a little warm water with dish soap and some Lemi Shine. Let it soak for 15 min or so while agitating it. Maybe even scrub it with a old tooth brush and said solution.

Terry

 

[Suasponte]

Re: Black film after a vibratory tumble?

Did you get your shell holders Cleaned?

Terry