Tumbling brass

[PPCLI-Jim]

When i tumble it's for two reasons
#1 clean any residue from the shooting of it, or debris as I'm a brass goblin and pick up any brass I come across BEFORE I deprime/ size check for trim length.

#2 IF I have to trim , and due to use of DIY case lube a second tumble happens. This removes the case lube and any metal shavings from trim and chamfering.
Spotless pockets is a bonus. I occasionally go to some local shows, get a table and flog excess to need brass. It sells better if it's been processed all the way to "just start reloading status" Primers punched, sized, pockets reamed, etc

 

[Butcherbill]

I understood what you are doing. The pins left behind when wet always make their way out so I have never bothered with the separator.

I’ve been playing around the wet tumbling process a bit, trying to find the balance of soap and citric acid to keep the rinse process to a minimum.

I don’t have a laundry sink to use and am on a well/septic system, so I do all my rinse into 5gal pails and too much soap in the mix makes that part longer than needed. I bought the wet tumbler to do volume ipsc 9mm/.40 and .223 brass.

Think I’ve got things dialed in, the ipsc brass is always filthy and full of dirt/sand etc. Once I separate the brass by caliber I give it a soak in a 5gal pail and strain to get rid of the major of the grit/dirt, I have found a drop or two of blue dawn or blue no name laundry detergent to be enough to cut through grease/dirt and a 9mm/.40
case full of citric acid is plenty. The pins do the bulk of the cleaning anyway, have run a cycle of just hot water with pins or pins and citric acid and the visually are just as shiny. The less soap I use the better, you see it foam/bubble once you start rinsing so it’s easy to tell if you have too much soap in the mix or not.

 

[franktank]

I do that first as well but find there’s still pins in the wet cases, the media spinner/separator gets out the remaining pins. Might find 1-3 pins on the towel I dry them on the odd time, usually they’re all out.

This is pretty typical when I rinse/spin, I rinse the FA drum with strainer cap through the strainer into a pail and get the majority of the pins. The rest gets spun in the media separator and the last of them are caught in the process, works well for me and is quick.

I need a separator like that, I’d save me some time.

 

[Butcherbill]

I need a separator like that, I’d save me some time.

I found mine used so you’ll have to do some searching online, Frankford Arsenal makes a similar one that might be easier to find or the Lyman version. Tenda & Cabela’s have them.

 

[mjay22]

You can get polishing additives to add to the dry media, ive used the Hornady one, worked well. Though now i just ultrasonic everything and toss it in the lyman case dryer, alot less effort but u dont get that tumbled shine

 

[sonichanxiao]

Doesn't clean the primer pocket.



I use a heat gun with the brass in a shallow, metal baking pan. Five minutes and the brass is nice and dry.



Without the pins, the inside of the case and most importantly the primer pocket do not get cleaned.

Experiments have shown that cleaning primer pocket would not affect accuracy. SS pin in web tumbling only give you more shiny brass and inside of the brass, nobody cares if it is shiny or dirty, as long as there is no sand in there, competitive shooters E.g. Eric Cotina does not even consider to clean brass as it wouldn't make any difference if you don't shoot in a dirty/wet condition and your brass does not even drop on the ground.

What matters about primer pocket is the flash hole, people do uniform the brass's flash hole to make sure primer ignite powder consistently without any blockage. Sorting primers by weight would contribute more to the group size than a cleaned primer pocket.

 

[B]

I was more concerned simply with aesthetics as opposed to concerned about anything at all when I mentioned primer pockets. Not sure if others were thinking the same. Shiny gold and perfectly clean brass may not be necessary but it is nice.

 

[old303]

I'm running all my pistol brass through the Dillon to decap/recap, and occasionally getting high primers and seating them with a hand priming tool. I'm starting to think possibly I should also mark those primers with a Sharpie so that when I see them in my post-shooting brass I can manually deprime just those and give the pocket a sweep with the reaming tool and ensure there's no longer anything in the way of the next primer properly seating.

 

[Crowbar64]

Wet tumbling with pins is certainly faster, i just yse a vibratory and do it longer, they get super shiny. Add some nu-finish car wax to my tumbler media. First i resize, then tumble, i have my vibratory tumbler in a 5 gallon bucket so i never get any dust anywhere. I used to use an ultrasonic cleaner and i dont miss waiting fir them to dry. Though i usually dont have a rush when reloading. I am usually one batch ahead of needed and reload in my own sweet time.

 

[Bubba Yugga]

I have not used Lemi-Shine yet, but have used lemon juice and too much of it for too long will turn the brass a pinkish colour.

Pink is the colour of copper after leaching out the zinc.
Copper thickness is at the molecular level, and will easily be abraded back to "gold" by steel pins or vibratory media.
Could be an issue if you don't want girlie colours on your manly things...

 

[JohnnyPython]

I primarily reload pistol brass. I tried a vibratory tumbler but quickly sold it. I made my own wet tumbler. Used to use SS pins but don’t bother anymore.

I soak the cases in the drum overnight with the hottest tap water. I like powdered laundry detergent or liquid Dawn/Lemishine.

I only tumble for 1 hour the next morning and then rinse. I air dry on some screens I made.

 

[PPCLI-Jim]

I built a diy wet tumbler, but after a while, I went with a Frankford.

 

[remington jim]

Any brand of car WAX. In walnut media polish’s brass up Good N BRITE ! I will put 2 capfuls at least into my media every 3 rd brass tumbling Nu Finish works great or McQuires or what ever u have . RJ

 

[DiMP]

I like powdered laundry detergent or liquid Dawn/Lemishine.

Recently I switched from dish soap to laundry soap. It started because in my new place we have a laundry sink near the reloading room where I fill up (and later dump out) the wet tumbler. Now I've kept doing it because it creates less suds than dish soap and I find it takes less rinsing cycles. How do you feel about the powdered detergent?

 

[Butcherbill]

I’ve used the hard detergent pucks for the dishwasher before, generally half a tab has been enough.

 

[JohnnyPython]

Recently I switched from dish soap to laundry soap. It started because in my new place we have a laundry sink near the reloading room where I fill up (and later dump out) the wet tumbler. Now I've kept doing it because it creates less suds than dish soap and I find it takes less rinsing cycles. How do you feel about the powdered detergent?

I prefer powdered soap over liquid.

Same here, the laundry soap was closer since I rinse in the laundry room.

 

[Raton57]

My last batch of brass in the tumbler got really shiny. Not had time to look them over yet but turned it on and seemed to have forgot about it till the next day so over 24 hours. Hopefully not to much damage as they at impossible to find here brass. The 30-06 I did before that turned out to be 7mm mauser formed from 30-06 so am batting a 1000 so far this month .

 

[Gatehouse]

My last batch of brass in the tumbler got really shiny. Not had time to look them over yet but turned it on and seemed to have forgot about it till the next day so over 24 hours. Hopefully not to much damage as they at impossible to find here brass. The 30-06 I did before that turned out to be 7mm mauser formed from 30-06 so am batting a 1000 so far this month .

The brass won’t have any damage from tumbling.

 

[remington jim]

I think I need a Wet SS pin brass cartridge washing Machine ! Tell me what I should buy RJ

 

[track]

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.

For decades I've been using the RCBS Vibratory case cleaner with great results. I place both corn and walnut media together, one will clean and the other will polish. Washing brass cases with soap and water sends me bad optics.