How do you like to dry your brass?

Well I broke down and went ahead and bought the Frankford arsenal wet tumbler with SS pins . I threw in a bunch of 45 acp pickup brass that was not the best looking by any means , and 3 hours later the brass was completely clean inside and out with a really nice polish.

Now mind you I did get on the ole YouTube and watch some videos , pretty much ever video they were using a home brew cleaning solution of everyday dawn dish soap with lemme shine detergent with citrus and it worked really well! I was surprised how much grime and dirt was in the water.

So tonight I threw in about 300 + 38 S&W dominion brass that has that typical dominion reddish tarnish on the brass, so we will see!
 
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hillbillywilly85 said:
Well I broke down and went ahead and bought the Frankford arsenal wet tumbler with SS pins . I threw in a bunch of 45 acp pickup brass that was not the best looking by any means , and 3 hours later the brass was completely clean inside and out with a really nice polish.

Now mind you I did get on the ole YouTube and watch some videos , pretty much ever video they were using a home brew cleaning solution of everyday dawn dish soap with lemme shine detergent with citrus and it worked really well! I was surprised how much grime and dirt was in the water.
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I also use dishsoap (whatever brand we have at the sink at the time) and LemiShine. Careful not to use too much lemishine or you can change the colour of your cases, some chemical reaction I assume? They turn more of a golden, dull colour with too much acid. I tend to personally tumble for no more than and hour and a half or I find it starts to scour the cases. As with the colour change, the brass is still perfectly fine to use, it just doesn't look as pretty :p
 
After cleaning my brass in SS pins and water, I dry them off by putting them in a couple of metal mesh trays (I think they are kitchen drawer cutlery trays from Canadian Tire or perhaps Walmart) inside a cardboard box with a hair dryer (purchased for something like $3.00 at the local Value Village) blowing through a hole in one end of the box. Takes about an hour or so to dry the lot.
 
I use the ancient NRA brass cleaning formula of 2 cups water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 tbsp salt, and 2 teaspoons dish soap to clean my brass. I substituted 3 cups of water instead of only 2 and tumble the brass in one of those cheap Vevor jewelry tumblers for 30 minutes. when the timer goes off I take the brass and dump it into a bowl and rinse it 4 times, the last rinse is with scalding hot water and then I dump it into a colander and shake it around to get rid of most of the water. right after that I dump the brass into an old towel and roll the brass around inside the towel to get more of the moisture off. by the time I dump the brass onto a piece of carpet there isn't any moisture on it and the brass is still quite warm. whatever water is left inside the flash hole evaporates by the next morning. I have a a lyman tumbler, and an ultrasonic cleaner and I haven't used either of them for a long time. the slightly modified NRA formula gets me to 95% of what pins will do in far less time without having to examine each piece of brass for a steel pin in the flash hole or stuck in the neck. took me more time to type this #### out on a keyboard. oh yeah, almost forgot, mix the ingredients before adding the brass or a few of them will take on a pink hue, and get them rolling around the tumbler asap. it works for me.
 
DiMP said:
I also use dishsoap (whatever brand we have at the sink at the time) and LemiShine. Careful not to use too much lemishine or you can change the colour of your cases, some chemical reaction I assume? They turn more of a golden, dull colour with too much acid. I tend to personally tumble for no more than and hour and a half or I find it starts to scour the cases. As with the colour change, the brass is still perfectly fine to use, it just doesn't look as pretty :p
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I m putting in a level teaspoon of Lemi Shine per wash, I was wondering how much was to much before I could ruin the cases.
 
barsik said:
I use the ancient NRA brass cleaning formula of 2 cups water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 tbsp salt, and 2 teaspoons dish soap to clean my brass. I substituted 3 cups of water instead of only 2 and tumble the brass in one of those cheap Vevor jewelry tumblers for 30 minutes. when the timer goes off I take the brass and dump it into a bowl and rinse it 4 times, the last rinse is with scalding hot water and then I dump it into a colander and shake it around to get rid of most of the water. right after that I dump the brass into an old towel and roll the brass around inside the towel to get more of the moisture off. by the time I dump the brass onto a piece of carpet there isn't any moisture on it and the brass is still quite warm. whatever water is left inside the flash hole evaporates by the next morning. I have a a lyman tumbler, and an ultrasonic cleaner and I haven't used either of them for a long time. the slightly modified NRA formula gets me to 95% of what pins will do in far less time without having to examine each piece of brass for a steel pin in the flash hole or stuck in the neck. took me more time to type this #### out on a keyboard. oh yeah, almost forgot, mix the ingredients before adding the brass or a few of them will take on a pink hue, and get them rolling around the tumbler asap. it works for me.
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Nice I’ve heard of this formula , have to give it a try. Does the vinegar/salt brighten that much tho?
 
If you're doing lower volumes, decapping the cases before tumbling results in much cleaner water after. I do this for .44 but not for anything else. Appears most of the crud comes from the old primers.
 
hillbillywilly85 said:
Nice I’ve heard of this formula , have to give it a try. Does the vinegar/salt brighten that much tho?
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I'm very happy with the results, it actually works much better than dry walnut shells in a vibe. it doesn't do as well as pins for shine though but it's a lot less trouble. the outside and inside are quite clean but there will be a bit of carbon left in the primer pocket. I think anyone using any solution formula should do a scalding hot rinse and tumble dry in a towel. if you want quick dry, put the brass in a screen tray and put it over a furnace vent, shake it up every few minutes or just wait until next morning.
 
hillbillywilly85 said:
I m putting in a level teaspoon of Lemi Shine per wash, I was wondering how much was to much before I could ruin the cases.
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I forget where I read it, but for my Frankford Lite (or small? Not their big one....) tumbler I use a 40S&W case worth, two if they are nasty range pick-ups.

toxic said:
If you're doing lower volumes, decapping the cases before tumbling results in much cleaner water after. I do this for .44 but not for anything else. Appears most of the crud comes from the old primers.
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I've always decapped before wet tumbling. I assumed everyone did? I bought a decapping die to save life and dirt from my main dies
 
DiMP said:
I've always decapped before wet tumbling. I assumed everyone did? I bought a decapping die to save life and dirt from my main dies
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I can't be bothered for high volume stuff I load like 9mm. Fill up the wet tumbler, let it go for 1-2 hours then it's to the slop sink for some serious rinsing. You can get theses screens to go on the Frankfurt Arsenal tumbler that makes rinsing way easier. You can deal with separating the pins from the brass after rinsing (media seperator) and then into the air fryer for drying. Reload brass and serve hot. :)
 
toxic said:
I can't be bothered for high volume stuff I load like 9mm. Fill up the wet tumbler, let it go for 1-2 hours then it's to the slop sink for some serious rinsing. You can get theses screens to go on the Frankfurt Arsenal tumbler that makes rinsing way easier. You can deal with separating the pins from the brass after rinsing (media seperator) and then into the air fryer for drying. Reload brass and serve hot. :)
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I don’t bother decaping before I tumble, it’s quick to clean pockets with that little Lee primer pocket cleaner chucked in a drill. I’ll clean pockets in batches a lot of the time, then it’s done before I start loading, when you clean volume it’s not worth it.
 
I rinsed a bunch of brass Sunday with hot water and dish soap in large ziplock bags by caliber then dumped each onto a cookie sheet and set it on top the woodstove for 15 min....
 
Wet tumbling with SS pins, I always deprime first, then don't have to clean primer pockets....which I guess is silly in a way, I always uniform the pockets afterwards anyway.
I use laundry soap (Tide) rather than dishsoap, as it doesn't make suds, and works as well. Not that suds are a big deal, just irritate me when rinsing the tumbler before I pull the brass out.
 
DiMP said:
I'll take the note of caution, but I thought I'd read before to anneal brass you need to bring it up to like 600*f? I'd assumed all would be ok when I preheat the oven to 300 and pull them out when it beeps (ie: they've only been in the heat for 10 minutes total and even less of that time at the top end of the range). I haven't done it too many times, but I haven't run into any issues as of yet for the batches I'd completed
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FYI You DO NOT pre heat brass prior to ANNEALING it . RJ
 
DiMP said:
I forget where I read it, but for my Frankford Lite (or small? Not their big one....) tumbler I use a 40S&W case worth, two if they are nasty range pick-ups.



I've always decapped before wet tumbling. I assumed everyone did? I bought a decapping die to save life and dirt from my main dies
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I think someone else said a 40 S&W case worth of lemi on a YouTube video review about the Frankford SS wet tumbler.

I’ve always decapped before any tumbling.
 
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