Wet tumbling recipes

bcsteve

bcsteve

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Finally took the plunge and ordered a Frantfort Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (affectionately refered to as F.A.R.T. :)). On sale at Cabelas (US) for $154.99.

Been searching CGN and the web for info and although the solution of detergent and Lemishine is pretty much universal, there's several variations. Dawn dish soap, HE laundry soap, wash & wax car soap, etc... What do you guys use?
 
My tumbler is approximately 10 litres. I fill it one third to half full of brass. Water about an inch past the brass. Half a teaspoon lemishine and one or two tablespoons dawn or whatever dish soap. 1-2 hours for rifle brass. Sometimes 3 for pistol.
 
8-10 litres Very very hot water
1-2 9mm case of of low sudsing laundry detergent
9mm case of citric acid
5lbs stainless steel pin media
6-800 deprimed 9mm brass

30 minutes and you're done. A magnet is quite helpful.

Citric acid can be found at the pharmacy, home brew stores or in products like lemi shine and unsweetened kool aid powder. A little lasts a long time.
 
i have the same tumbler.

i put in enough cases to fill the container about half full, fill with water (i havent noticed any difference between hot or cold water) until it is about 2" from the lip of the container, add approximately 1 teaspoon of dawn and 0.25 teaspoon of lemishine. tumble for 90 minutes.
 
Dirty brass get's the drum filled to withen 1/2 inch of the top, a LEE 2.8cc scoup of Lemmishine, and 6 pump's of Dawn. Deprimed before tumbling and a 4 hour tumble to make sure the primer pocket's are clean.
I've used straight hot water and water from a garden hose that was almost too cold to drink. Water temp doesn't matter
 
I pour the waste water down the drain(it's black nasty looking stuff) then refill. Reach to the bottom and move it about to get it all moving and pour that out then pour it all in a Cabella's media separator. Spin it 20-25 time's and it's all separated.
Take out brass in the separator basket then pour all the water down the drain.
Put brass into an old towel with a rare earth magnet to catch all stray pin's. Grab the towel by the corner's and alternating lifting one side and lowering the opposite tumble them to get excess water off and avoid water spot's.
Pour brass into mesh basket and put it over a heating duct over night to dry off
 
VanMan said:
How much should you be rinsing the brass after wet tumbling? Is contamination from any Lemishine or detergent residue a problem?
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I rinse the brass to get the detergent off, but not excessively, then dry. Have never found any residual lemishine or detergent any issue at all. I find the biggest benefit of the wet tumbling is getting the primer pocket so clean, really saves having to do anything more to the pocket such as with dry media tumbling.
 
No need to over think this one.

Put the cases in the go round thingy , add some wet stuff, a dash of the softener , a dribble of detergent and off you go.

It is like making chili, no need to be exact.
 
Do you guys use a universal decapper first or your normal sizing die before tumbling? In my vibratory tumbler I would tumble, resize then tumble a second time for a short period to get rid of the lube. Do you guys tumble a send time to clean off the lube?
 
as mentioned, not an exact science.
Fill 1/2 way with brass, cover with water.. I normally fill it to 3/4 of water.
Add dawn dish soap and citric acid. I don't measure, just put some in.. I used to use lemishine when it was available, but citirc acid is the same thing. Bought off amazon a 10lb bag for $40 which I will be handing down to my children.
Cycle for 30-60 minutes. Empty water. I move them to a second plastic bin and rinse / shake, drain then dry on an old towel.

As for decapping, I don't deprime pistol rounds, but I will decap rifle rounds before cleaning with a universal Lee die. Have lots of extra decapping pins on hand from previous incidents. :)
 
I don't have a decap-only die, so I wet tumble my brass with the spent primer still on it. Not as good a clean up as doing it without the primer, for sure, but I don't want to pass dirty range brass through my decap/resize die. I'm planning to get a decapping die to fix that before the next season.

Recipe wise, for me it's brass, 6 liters of hot water, 1/2 tsp lemishine and 1 tsp of any available detergent to remove the oils. Once the tumbling is over, I pour out the black water, fill the drum again and manually shake a few times. Rinse and repeat until the water stops making suds.
 
bcsteve said:
Do you guys use a universal decapper first or your normal sizing die before tumbling? In my vibratory tumbler I would tumble, resize then tumble a second time for a short period to get rid of the lube. Do you guys tumble a send time to clean off the lube?
Click to expand...

I always use the decapper and then clean
 
I do a tumble first, then size, then another tumble to clean primer pockets and to get the sizing lube off. I try to keep the second tumble to a minimum. If you tumble too long after sizing, you'll get peening of the case mouth which is not good if you want to maintain any accuracy. After the last tumble, and an hour in the oven, I'll trim to length and chamfer.
It doesn't have to be bone dry to resize. If the primers are a bit wet, the press just gets a little messy.
 
BigRobb said:
I do a tumble first, then size, then another tumble to clean primer pockets and to get the sizing lube off. I try to keep the second tumble to a minimum. If you tumble too long after sizing, you'll get peening of the case mouth which is not good if you want to maintain any accuracy. After the last tumble, and an hour in the oven, I'll trim to length and chamfer.
It doesn't have to be bone dry to resize. If the primers are a bit wet, the press just gets a little messy.
Click to expand...

Tried this once.
Then ordered direct from Lee in the US a universal decapping die.
 
ruger22 said:
Tried this once.
Then ordered direct from Lee in the US a universal decapping die.
Click to expand...
I have a die as well, but don't see a point in decapping and then running through a sizer. Maybe when I neck size only.
It's nice to get the lube off after resizing anyways. There's nothing more annoying than powder sticking to the inside of the case mouth.
 
BigRobb said:
I have a die as well, but don't see a point in decapping and then running through a sizer. Maybe when I neck size only.
It's nice to get the lube off after resizing anyways. There's nothing more annoying than powder sticking to the inside of the case mouth.
Click to expand...

Cleaned primer pockets for 1 and quicker dry time for 2.
 
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