Tumbling brass

HIGHLANDBEAGLES

HIGHLANDBEAGLES

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I de-prime and wash the brass first with dish soap and a splash of lemon juice ( not using an ultrasonic machine ) , then generally uniform the flash hole and primer pocket depth before tumbling prior to sizing. After tumbling in walnut media in a vibrating style tumbler, not for a extended time, the brass seems to have a mat or dull bronze look to it. Do I need to replace, refresh with the additive ( brass polish ) or change to a different media or just tumble longer ? I have the RCBS rotary tumbler as well, but find it takes longer to achieve the same results compared to the vibrating style. I also have corn cob media but find it also added to the cleaning time over walnut regardless which machine used. I hear the stainless steel pins works well. Has anyone used the ceramic media ? What size of SS pins work best and what weight of it, is required to fill a tumbler of average size ?
Thank you in advance for all responses / advice.
 
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You may want to go with stainless steel pins, warm water, some lemon shine and a little Dawn liquid soap in a Thumlers Tumbler or a Frankford Arsenal tumbler.

The old days of breathing in walnut dust are over. Do yourself a favor and upgrade to steel pins and water, you will be amazed. The time you save will pay for the new units.

https://www.amazon.ca/Thumler-Lapid...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584345030799920&psc=1

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/66173/frankford-arsenal-platinum-series-rotary-tumbler-kit

https://www.frankfordarsenal.com/case-cleaning/rotary-tumbler-lite/1097878.html

Seeing you already wash your dirty brass, using this new method will forever change your life. The clean and polished brass from these tumblers are absolutely incredible to say the least. The results are brass that is good as new, or even better than new!

I've been loading for over 45 years now. The time I lost with those old RCBS tumblers with walnut media is colossal. Not to mention all that blasted dust. No more dust, wiping each brass individually, adding fresh additive or long wait times. If you load a lot, you owe it to yourself to upgrade.

I even sold my older used equipment to recoup some of the new costs. That was twelve years ago now since I started the stainless steel pin method, I wish I would have learned about it sooner.....:)
 
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Any of the additives will help make them shine. I purchase walnut on amzn by the 50lb box. It's considerably cheaper that way. No guilt when throwing out the older dirty stuff. I leave the primers in, then anneal, then hot citric sonic wash, then vibrate in walnut for an extended time until they are at the level of shine I'm looking for. I clean them with compressed air then de-prime and deal with pocket and flash at that stage. Wash and dry before resize and trim then back to vibrate for a quick clean to remove the sizing lube. I like them to be shiny and not tarnish from the size lube ect. Cheers
 
One of the best things I ever did was give up using walnut or whatever to clean the majority of my brass. Frankford SS pin kit or build your own and don't look back. You will still have your vib for 'special" brass if you are concerned about case mouth peening or other overblown issues.
 
Using the pins will drastically reduce the time to shiny gold brass. Hard to get crud out of the primer pockets without too. I have cleaned lots of stuff without pins but it may or may not be as effective regardless of how much time.
 
I have run a FART (wet tumbler), after about 1 year with a vibratory. Huge difference between the 2, while I do have to dry them I prefer wet over dry. I run all brass untouched through the wet then I deprime while using DIY case lube, trim if required then retumble. This removes the case lube and all trimmings, if you dry tumble the media gets contaminated with the lanolin after a few runs. But with wet the water/lanolin is disposed of safely down the drain. I've had friends ask how I afford new brass all the time but its actually just cleaned well. With the pockets and interior shiny people think i have tubs of new brass here
 
B said:
Using the pins will drastically reduce the time to shiny gold brass. Hard to get crud out of the primer pockets without too. I have cleaned lots of stuff without pins but it may or may not be as effective regardless of how much time.
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And you don't need a lot of pins either, I put less than 100 grams in with a big load of brass.
Hot water, a bit of laundry detergent and a pinch of lemmishine , run for one hour and the brass comes out like new.
 
I've just got started tumbling with steel pins. Amazing is not quite adequate for describing the brass. Clean inside and out, shines like new brass. I am busy "unloading" boxes and boxes of reloaded ammo. Pulling bullets, depriming, tumbling brass. Saved all the primers, brass and bullets. Powder goes to an Indigenous friend who uses it in ceremonies.

There is a bucket of really black looking brass that will be the test of all tests.
 
Thunderhog said:
The old days of breathing in walnut dust are over. Do yourself a favor and upgrade to steel pins and water, you will be amazed. The time you save will pay for the new units.
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Walnut dust is the least you have to worry about. Dry vibratory tumblers spread lead dust around your home or wherever the unit is located.

I went to wet SS pins years ago and would NEVER go back to dry walnut. The first time you run the wet SS tumbler you will be SHOCKED at how dirty the water is.


B said:
One of the best things I ever did was give up using walnut or whatever to clean the majority of my brass. Frankford SS pin kit or build your own and don't look back. You will still have your vib for 'special" brass if you are concerned about case mouth peening or other overblown issues.
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Case mouth peening is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. The wet system is 100x better.
 
PPCLI-Jim said:
I have run a FART (wet tumbler), after about 1 year with a vibratory. Huge difference between the 2, while I do have to dry them I prefer wet over dry. I run all brass untouched through the wet then I deprime while using DIY case lube, trim if required then retumble. This removes the case lube and all trimmings, if you dry tumble the media gets contaminated with the lanolin after a few runs. But with wet the water/lanolin is disposed of safely down the drain. I've had friends ask how I afford new brass all the time but its actually just cleaned well. With the pockets and interior shiny people think i have tubs of new brass here
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What is all used in the wet tumbler process that you do ?
 
HIGHLANDBEAGLES said:
What is all used in the wet tumbler process that you do ?
Click to expand...

Recent thread on the topic https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/threads/brass-cleaning.2490991/


My procedure for wet tumbling.

I dump a 5 gallon pail of brass into a cement mixer, fill the pail with water and give them an initial rinse for about 15 minutes. Drain and rinse then add a pail of HOT water, squirt of Dawn and a heaping tablespoon of citric acid. Let it roll in the cement mixer about an hour, drain, rinse and spin then drain into a strainer bin. Then dump the brass into dryer rack screens and let sit in the sun to dry. In winter the brass goes into dehydrators. So I usually try to get as much brass as possible cleaned and dried in the hotter months.

Gets the brass nice and clean and no effing pins to deal with! :)
 
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