Good brass cleaner?

What is a good cleaner to soak those grungy, dirty or green cases in? You know...the ones the tumbler won't even begin to polish with out a good pre-cleaning?

Since ammonia is a no-no , what else works well to clean them tarnished cases? Don't list ultra sonic cleaners...not everyone has one or can afford one.

Acid based solutions work....but are somewhat hazardous and may also be removing metal along with the crud. Wire wheel cleaner for auto detailing works fabulous....but I am looking for other options. Steel wool or sos pads will also remove the tarnish but takes time and starts to wear on the fingers after a while.

What else is out there? This will also help any new to reloading people...so chime in if you can.

Lemishine mixed in really hot water and let soak. You could also get some boiling water, mix a tablespoon of lemishine and let them boil for a while.

I use the Lemishine and hot water methond int he sonic cleaner and they come out mirror finish....

Lemishine can be found, (here at least) walmart in the dishwashing section. They are granuals.

Also, heard of people using suger free Lemonade packs mixed with water and soaking for a while. Anything lemon. Take some Lemon juice and squirt some in hot water maybe......

I personally use Lemishine.

Sierrareloader likes the IOSSO case cleaner, I've never been a fan of the stuff.

I think it was JPrice that said Ketchup also works.

If a case is really that bad, I chuck it up in the drill and take some steel wool to it.

Yeah.. I usually do the steel wool treatment. My brother gave me a pile of 44 special brass that was left outside. I steel wooled about half of them(until my fingers hurt) and soaked the rest in a light acid bath solution.

I guess I'm always looking for the easy way out,LOL

Actually, a combination of stainless steel media, water, and Lemishine in a ROTATING TUMBLER is the way to go for badly corroded/highly dirty brass.

blue]Stainless Tumbling Media]http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/[/url]

Lemishine is awesome but i was out and had some really nasty brass so i went searching around the house and found out that oxyclean works great in boiling water.... worked just as good as lemishine if not better...