Absolute best brass dryer for wet tumbling.

Chrossphyre

Chrossphyre

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Southwestern Ontario
Let me save you guys a pile of time if you are like me and like to hot air dry your brass after wet tumbling. I started doing this because my brass would come out of the tumbler beautifully shiny, then fade or tarnish a little while they dried on a towel. Now I'm not saying this makes a hell of a lot of difference in how the brass reloads or shoots - it probably doesn't. But dammit if I'm going to put the time and effort into wet tumbling my brass, then they better finish gleaming like brand new and stay that way. And yes, I tried smaller amounts of Lemishine to see if that helped - nope.

So I researched a bunch of dryers (also known as food dehydrators) including the latest offering from Frankford Arsenal. I settled on the Hamilton Beach 32100C and picked one up at Canadian Tire on sale for $62 and change. This dryer has 5 usable trays so you can dry a crap ton of brass (of different types if you want) and the trays are rectangular and large. The slots won't allow 9mm to drop between them but does allow .22 cases and the odd stainless pin to drop into the bottom where they are easily picked up after the drying cycle is done. I set the unit for 150 degrees for 2 hours with it's built-in timer and temperature setting. Even brass that was tilted up and still had a bit of water in the bottom came out totally dry and shiny. But here's what put this unit over the top for me against the competing dryers: It comes with two extra plates for the top tray. One is a finer mesh for drying smaller pieces (you could easily do very small cases on this mesh with no worries). The other is a straight flat insert for the top tray that is perfect for laying out your stainless steel pins in and drying those at the same time as your brass. The overall rectangular shape of the unit fits very nicely on my bench and I have no wasted space as you would with a circular unit. To top everything else, there is a 5 year manufacturer's warranty (which would assume you refraining from mentioning what you are actually using the unit for I suppose).

Here's an Amazon link for those with family that doesn't have a clue what to get you for Christmas.

https://www.amazon.ca/Hamilton-Beach-32100C-Hamilton-Beach-Dehydrator/dp/B013JL6J7Y

Happy reloading gang!

- Chrossphyre
 
Very cool......I have my dehydrator....but I will pass the info along to my buddy that is gearing up now.....

Thanks for the heads up....

Graveman
 
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I stopped using heat as it tarnished the cases somewhat. I do a final rinse with a wash n wax solution, rinse with clean water, then re tumble for a few mins with a cut up shamwow. Then the brass is placed on a towel and air dry overnight. The cases are all deprimed before this.

I am going to try some meguirs liquid wax as well to up the wax, supposedly it’s a water soluble synthetic wax.
 
I also use the floor register.

Dump all the brass in a metal bbq veggie tray like this one and put it on 2" spacers above the floor register.

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Before putting them on the tray I put the brass on a kitchen towel and grab the corners,
go outside and swing most of the water out.
For final rinse I use very hot water so the brass is a bit pre heated so the water evaporates faster.

@op, why would you dry your pins? Mine go straight back into the drum and stay wet until the next batch.
 
I saw that dehydrator and thought about getting it but not so much for drying brass but more for trying out some jerky.

I don't mind slightly tarnished brass anymore and I've got 'nuff brass that I don't need to be burning more $$ trying to dry 'em in a hurry. But that's just me.
 
bertn said:
@op, why would you dry your pins? Mine go straight back into the drum and stay wet until the next batch.
Click to expand...

Well two reasons really. One - wet pins stick together and I find them hard to handle, for instance when you tip the jar they are in and 3 pounds come out in a clump instead of the one pound you wanted. Two - I get bits of lead or copper jacket and other detritus left in the the pins. Once dry, it is really easy to pick out the unwanted bits and throw them out.
 
Chrossphyre said:
Well two reasons really. One - wet pins stick together and I find them hard to handle, for instance when you tip the jar they are in and 3 pounds come out in a clump instead of the one pound you wanted. Two - I get bits of lead or copper jacket and other detritus left in the the pins. Once dry, it is really easy to pick out the unwanted bits and throw them out.
Click to expand...

Right on.
I pick mine up with a magnet and release them straight in the drum and always tumble with all the pins (5 lb) so don't really get to "handle" them much besides the few stray ones.
By picking them up with the magnet it also leaves unwanted bits behind.
 
i put them on a towel after tumbling and banging them out on the edge of a 5 gal pail. then i put another towel in a aluminum baking tray and put the brass in that and into the oven for an hour (i usually forget its in there)
 
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