Cleaning brass in an apartment

C

calvados.boulard

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Hello all,

I'm looking for suggestions on cleaning brass in an apartment. Noise is a big issue, as my place is built pretty thin, and I'd rather people not know my business.

I don't as of yet have a reloading setup, but am preparing my "to buy" list, and cleaning my brass is the last thing to check off.

I don't have a garage, or a friends place to run a tumbler, and I'm afraid having one churning away for hours will draw unwanted attention upon myself. I've heard of the ultrasonic cleaners, but have heard some pretty poor reviews, and the capacity of said units seem to be on the smaller side.

I'm shooting around 300-500 rounds a week, and am currently looking to reload 9mm, and 45ACP, but will be doing rifle calibres shortly afterwards...

What are your experiences, suggestions, or ideas?

Thanks everyone,
Cal.
 
Put it inside a couple boxes. Muffles the noise a lot. If you really want sound deadening then put insulation in a larger box then place the smaller one inside it with the tumbler followed by a layer of insulation on top of the smaller box. Depending on the media(wet)/tumbler a baking sheet is a good idea to catch drips.

Ultra sonic cleaners are designed to polish jewelry as a final stage in the finish process(when gems etc are installed) and useless for this application.
 
On carpeted floor, you can try placing the tumbler on a piece of 3/4 inch plywood or particle board. The carpet will absorb the vibration transmitted by the tumbler through the board.

You need the board to allow the tumbler bowl to vibrate better than if you placed the tumbler directly onto the carpet. As well, if placed directly on carpet, it may block cooling vents in the bottom of the tumbler and thus overheat the motor.
 
Stick it in the fridge, freezer, oven, dishwasher?
Maybe put a stickee on the appliance so you don't, cook, clean,
freeze the tumbler????
 
Sonic Cleaner

I'm currently using Hornady's sonic cleaner and have been very impressed with the results. I clean pistol and rifle brass with it mostly .204 ruger(about 200 at a time) and 9mm(about 300 at a time). Hornady also released there new magnum cleaner which looks quite intriguing but I can't comment on its performance but I'd expect similar results. Hornady claims 3 times the size and twice the power of the standard one plus the magnum one has a built in heater to increase the cleaning effectiveness. I would seriously consider a sonic cleaner as they are faster and don't leave residue in your cases.
 
i would suggest the stainless steel tumbling it is much quieter then vibratory tumbling much to my surprise and if you put a box over top of it its almost silent and it is by far the best cleaning method out there only draw back is initial set up is a little pricey but the media lasts forever so in the long run it will be a savings
 
Your neighbors will probably not hear a vibratory tumbler through your walls, but they will hear/feel the noise/vibration through the floor, if you have a unit below yours.

You just have to isolate the noise/vibes as I mentioned in post no. 3 above

or you can use alternate methods to prevent/isolate the vibes from travelling down.
 
My Dillon tumbler is quite well sprung; there's not a lot of transmitted vibration. Doesn't make too oppressive a noise either. Just don't do it in the middle of the night and I doubt you'll get complaints.
 
Take this for what it's worth 'cause I have nothing to back up my comment, but I remember reading that the brass tumbler is the most toxic part of a reloader's setup. No matter how careful you are, lead, mercury and other nasty particulates tumbled off the dirty brass will rise into the air and deposit around the tumbler.

Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable tumbling indoors.
 
Cerdan said:
Take this for what it's worth 'cause I have nothing to back up my comment, but I remember reading that the brass tumbler is the most toxic part of a reloader's setup. No matter how careful you are, lead, mercury and other nasty particulates tumbled off the dirty brass will rise into the air and deposit around the tumbler.

Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable tumbling indoors.
Click to expand...

another reason i prefer stainless as its all in the water so no dust sonic cleaning would have that same advantage but i just don't believe sonic cleans as well as stainless
 
OR just simple fill a bowl with some detergent and water, take a wooden brush and give it some scrub.

tAKE out and let dry in the sun or in front of a parabolic heater dish. The detergent will cleans out risedual powder or grains of dust which can damaging your dies. OK its not SHINY but most of the gunk is gone ;)
 
just gonna put my two cents in...

haven't set aside the funds to buy a tumbler, but must remove the resizing lube; what's a scrooge to do?

I buy Super Clean (purple jug from CanTire, repackaged Castrol product) and add it one cup to a bucket (half a bucket...) of warm water. Drop in the brass, swish around, let sit, swish around, then dump the water and rinse a whole lot. The brass doesn't come out real shiny like, but this aggressive degreaser removes absolutely every speck of grease, and most carbon fouling. Then to dry I out the brass on a cookie sheet and bake at 170F til dry. Bam! Cheap (takes time tho') and noise-free.

If I'm really on the ball the freshly resized/deprimed brass goes right into the bucket. !

...but I've heard of this stainless media, indeed, magickal it is, Frodo my boy...
 
ripitup911 said:
i would suggest the stainless steel tumbling it is much quieter then vibratory tumbling much to my surprise and if you put a box over top of it its almost silent and it is by far the best cleaning method out there only draw back is initial set up is a little pricey but the media lasts forever so in the long run it will be a savings
Click to expand...

This

Avoid covering your tumbler because it will make the motor to overheat. Be careful of the surface where you put your tumbler. A few years ago, I tried to muffle the vibration by placing my tumbler on a folded towel. The tumbler walked away from the table and it felt on the floor making a huge mess.

The stainless steel media / thumler tumbler combo is simply the best. No noise, no dust and no mess. Cost is high but it will be the last tumbler you'll ever buy. + the media last forever.
 
Minor note from OCD safety guy: Your tumbler (especially if it vibratory) will almost certainly have been designed assuming reasonable air flow around the motor. Encasing it in a bag or box that allows it to overheat can reduce its lifespan, cause it to fail altogether or even start a fire.

You can decouple the vibration from your floor with a sheet of foam rubber (you can get foam rubber matting squares from most hardware shops) with something hard and flat on top. Don't sit the tumbler directly on the matting - the sponge will damp the vibration and make it work much less efficiently.
 
Antoine22 said:
This

Avoid covering your tumbler because it will make the motor to overheat. Be careful of the surface where you put your tumbler. A few years ago, I tried to muffle the vibration by placing my tumbler on a folded towel. The tumbler walked away from the table and it felt on the floor making a huge mess.

The stainless steel media / thumler tumbler combo is simply the best. No noise, no dust and no mess. Cost is high but it will be the last tumbler you'll ever buy. + the media last forever.
Click to expand...

i have the thumler tumbler and i have a cutout at the motor and a extra computer fan wired onto it so it doesn't over heat i probably should have mentioned that in my first post my apologizes
 
Use a rotary rock tumbler instead of a vibratory tumbler. Lortone and Thumler both make good ones that are much quieter than the vibratory tumblers marketed for reloading.
 
If you are only loading 9mm and .45, you might just consider washing them. I used to use a large towel in my laundry tub, using some good liquid dishwashing detergent. Put a couple of hundred cases in the hot water inside the towel, make a ball and swish and squeeze for a couple of minutes. Then air dry.
I would not use a kitchen sink for this.
Not shiny, but clean.
 
If you have some left over laundry soap jugs and vinegar packets from take out food you're on your way. I did the following for a year until I got my tumbler,

Half fill a medium size laundry soap hug with hot water
add two cap fulls of regular liquid dish soap
add two vinegar packets
add 100 or so pieces of brass

Tighten the cap on the laundry soap jug and give it a shake for 5 mins
Let it sit for 10 mins
Empty and rinse the brass well two or three times with warm water

put the brass on a towel to dry for a day or so or into a warm oven until dry. The brass is ready to reload. It takes a little longer but the only noise is the 5 minute shake This worked very well for me and even got the inside of the case clean. It works with untouched and resized / deprimed brass.

Cactus
 
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