Cleaning cores

[SSG_Reloader]

The RCBS or Lyman case lube has worked great for me since they are water soluble. Makes core and jacket cleaning super simple.

For core seating or point forming I switch to the lanolin though.

[Dark Vaj]

I found that Woolite with citric acid excels at removing swage lube from jackets and the pins don't get gunked up. I've recently been going dry for small batches of heavy (69gn & 77gn) bullets, so I haven't gotten around to trying it for cleaning cores yet, but have a feeling that it'll work well.

Be aware that Woolite will NOT remove annealing scale! Use Dawn for that.

Where can I get Woolite from?

[Ajax111]

I'm not sure where you are located, but around here Woolite is available at most Drug, Grocery stores.
Anywhere selling laundry detergent.

[dimaprok]

I found Woolite in local Target but also ordered some on Amazon before. Its a game changer for me! My SS pins were so dirty, they looked dark and grey and clump together, now add dirty range brass and it was a mess that left my brass dull even tumbling for couple hours. Once I added Woolite, I couldn't believe how black the water came out! Actually took several cycles to fully restore my pins to be fully clean.

I recommend you order the bigger jug rather then small bottle. I transferred it to a used shampoo bottle that has a pump dispenser, its clear and all it takes one pump per drum load. I noticed it works better even with plain dirty range brass. The brass also stays bright and doesn't dull like it happens after using Dawn dish soap often. I still use Dawn if I am just going through large batches of range pickup brass.

Another trick with cores after washing is to rinse them with boiling water in the end, strain them and they will dry a lot quicker but if I want to use them right away I use a heatgun on a metal pan or strainer, also using old incandescent 60W lightbulb with a metal dome enclosure and it will heat them up real hot in minutes! Just make sure you're using metal container and not put them on any cloth as I learned it WILL burn it.

Also someone mentioned the Woolite doesn't remove the scale after annealing - it works just fine! The pins do the work, I don't think soap really makes the difference. When I do the annealing in batches in the kiln, I dump them in 50-50 diluted vinegar with water solution right after I take them from the kiln. It gives it interesting yellow color, like a mate gold, then I transfer to the tumbler I dump the same solution and add water if necessary and soap and tumble it for an hour or so. It comes out real nice shiny gold color, just make sure to rinse out well later as vinegar is pretty strong acid.

[Reload3006]

I give my cores and jackets a good wash in MEK. Nasty stuff I know so I use gloves and do the washing outside. There may be better options but it’s worked for me. As far as core jacket adhesion I actually use plumbers flux and melt/solder the cores to the clean jackets then run the core seating operation. I have not had a core jacket separation since I’ve started doing this. Word of warning though. After soldering the cores to the jackets boil the bullets in soapy water then rinse. The salts from the flux will rust the devil out of your dies. Sorry I’m just not buying the citric acid etching bond thing. It may but I can’t see how