Ultra budget wet tumbling

fiftycalforsquirrels

fiftycalforsquirrels

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Figured I'd share my idea of super budget stainless pin tumbling.

I tossed roughly 350 brass into the 1 gal plastic jug, 3lbs of pins, sprinkled some leminshine in, a healthy squeeze of yellow dish soap, enough hot water to submerge the works, set the oven timer for 5 minutes, and flipped the jug end over end and shaking it so the brass went round and round. I rinsesd everything, separted the pins with the magnet on the bottom of a flashlight... below are pics. Turned out pretty dang good for 5 minutes of work...

https://imgur.com/a/Yanf8oi
https://imgur.com/xQUQdnK
https://imgur.com/e9fmCWx
https://imgur.com/bT7ghzJ
https://imgur.com/ZmK4GHn
 
They turned out pretty good, I put mine on the treadmill for 90 minutes without the SS pins and they also come out really nice. I also decap the brass first.
 
I just used a factory wet tumbler. Worked okay. (shrug emoji)

Edit - In theory 38 Special brass won't spend much time in the dirt getting grimy. Improvised wet tumble works here. (edit 2 coming up after computer change) - Edit

Edit 2 - Here are some problem children brass prior to wet tumbling... eek - Edit

wZqBN5T.jpg


Here are the problem children and others after a cycle through the wet tumbler. Ready for the range!

SmMBBjz.jpg


One more trip through the wet tumbler after the range and the problem children are mostly cured.

 
Last edited:
calibrecarstairs said:
I just used a factory wet tumbler. Worked okay. (shrug emoji)

Edit - In theory 38 Special brass won't spend much time in the dirt getting grimy. Improvised wet tumble works here. (edit 2 coming up after computer change) - Edit

Edit 2 - Here are some problem children brass prior to wet tumbling... eek - Edit

wZqBN5T.jpg


Here are the problem children and others after a cycle through the wet tumbler. Ready for the range!

SmMBBjz.jpg


One more trip through the wet tumbler after the range and the problem children are mostly cured.

Click to expand...

True... 38spl stays mostly clean.... into a cylinder, fired, then into a container. I reckon I'd be at it for quite awhile with brass that looked like yours... how long is one of your cycles?

Blastattack said:
5 Minutes? I usually run my tumbler for about 3 hours. Looks good though.
Click to expand...

3 hours in a wet tumble? If so thats a long time! I could have done longer for sure... but I didnt want to be shaking a 10lb jug around for too long... I was impressed how much they cleaned up in so little time by a hand tumble. Can see in my pics some of the primer pockets arent 100%... more time would take care of that.
 
Be careful using hot water combined with an acid (lemishine / citric acid) since it will make the acid much stronger and you will likely end up with a bunch of pink spotted or coloured brass.

I prefer to throw it in the wet tumbler with cold water and set timer for a few hours.
 
I think three hours is a long time to tumble, Ive never seen any better results leaving it in that long. And you should only be using a small amount of Lemi Shine, about a 9mm case full is all you need. That should keep your cases from turning pink.
 
bertn said:
Be careful using hot water combined with an acid (lemishine / citric acid) since it will make the acid much stronger and you will likely end up with a bunch of pink spotted or coloured brass.

I prefer to throw it in the wet tumbler with cold water and set timer for a few hours.
Click to expand...
I am cutting back on the lemishine to just a 1/4 tsp because of dis-colorizing
 
bertn said:
Be careful using hot water combined with an acid (lemishine / citric acid) since it will make the acid much stronger and you will likely end up with a bunch of pink spotted or coloured brass.

I prefer to throw it in the wet tumbler with cold water and set timer for a few hours.
Click to expand...

Yup, I found out that using cold water works much better.
 
I use a similar method to the OP, but without the pins.

Hot water, squirt of dish soap, and a bit of nail polish remover. They don't come out as shiny as other methods but I'm not really concerned about how they look, just how they perform.
 
fiftycalforsquirrels said:
Figured I'd share my idea of super budget stainless pin tumbling.

I tossed roughly 350 brass into the 1 gal plastic jug, 3lbs of pins, sprinkled some leminshine in, a healthy squeeze of yellow dish soap, enough hot water to submerge the works, set the oven timer for 5 minutes, and flipped the jug end over end and shaking it so the brass went round and round. I rinsesd everything, separted the pins with the magnet on the bottom of a flashlight... below are pics. Turned out pretty dang good for 5 minutes of work...

https://imgur.com/a/Yanf8oi
https://imgur.com/xQUQdnK
https://imgur.com/e9fmCWx
https://imgur.com/bT7ghzJ
https://imgur.com/ZmK4GHn
Click to expand...

Let them soak in the water and detergent for 30 mins or more before adding the lemishine and then carry on like you did before. Loosens up more grunge that way.
 
jethunter said:
Let them soak in the water and detergent for 30 mins or more before adding the lemishine and then carry on like you did before. Loosens up more grunge that way.
Click to expand...

Good call. I'll try that. Maybe be able to knock my tumbling down to 3 minutes ;)

Ultimately I'm going to build a tumbler, but for the time being and how little brass I use my method seems to be sufficient. I havent done rifle cases, maybe those may require extra continuous time.

I did do a couple minutes without the pins one time, didnt seem touch the primer pockets or internal of the case at all. Adding pins got the insides and starting touching the primer pockets.

I used hot water because I figured it would aid in getting the brass clean quickly, and hot water makes the brass dry very quickly .... but my brass did end up darkening a bit overnight. Maybe I didnt get tons of discoloration or spotting because of the limited time the brass was in contact with the solution. Next time I'll try cold water, flush and rinse cold water, and then do a final hot soak of straight water to aid in fast drying.

I also probably used 2-3tsp of lemishine if I had to guess.. next time I'll measure an actual tsp.

I'm mostly just concerned with getting the brass clean to handle during the loading process and shooting, I'd like my hands not to become filthy while manufacturing ammo. Nice shiny mirror polished looking rounds are an added benefit, but not crucial.
 
I use as hot of water I can get out of my tank and run for no more than an hour, with lemishine and have zero discoloring.
 
I ran several hundred pieces of 38 Special through the wet tumbler today out of curiosity. They were untouched in my brass archives for three years or more.

Cycle was 45 minutes with no SS pins, warm water, Dawn, and Lemishine.

Really no difference in the brass after tumbling. The water was more clear than grey when done.

Revolver brass just won't get that dirty.
 
Without pins the insides of the cases/primer pockets esentially remain untouched. Likely only going to notice cleanliness while handling the brass... un washed/tumbled brass will be dirtier to handle. Add pins and I bet there'd be a difference visually on the outside at a minimum. Increase time and you get mirror shine.....those are my observations anyways.

In no way would I expect several hundred victims of the environment range pick ups to clean up via a quickie hand tumble.... those would need pins and continuous cycle for some time.

Fwiw my water came out black. These were also all fired on unique and bullseye, and not factory loads. I've noticed revolver brass comes out of the gun cleaner if its a factory load.
 
pins only matter for primer pockets and inside of cases, my cases look exactly the same externally with or without pins. As I don't care about the inside of my 9mm cases and prefer not dealing with pins, I wet tumble without. I also use laundry detergent instead of Dawne, I find it does a far better job and is easier to rinse off.
 
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