Can you overtumble brass

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Albertarookie

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So being new to reloading I have a question for all you wonderful cgn'ers. Is it possible to overtumble your brass? I am using tufnut media, will it prematurely wear brass if I were to let it tumble for say 6 or 8 hours overnight?
 
maybe 6-8 months might be a bad idea, but over night is fine... realistically an hr is more then enough to get any dirt off, after that your just polishing for aesthetics .
 
Thank you for the quick reply gentlemen. Like I said new to the game and learning as I go so I will tap the mass knowledge here often.
 
Heck for the odd batch of really grimy corroded brass that gets put away wet and forgotten about for a while... I'll throw it in for 24-36 hours till they polish back up. You won't do harm to your cases.
 
I would add that of course brass is eroded when tumbling - this is very evident if you use a stainless pin media with water.
I would agree it is largely negligible for the amount most tumble for to get it clean, but it would be interesting to know how much it would take to do some damage.
 
Just remember your tumbling media is consumable so does break down over time also. So just keep in mind if you are running long periods you are just degrading your future performance of your media.

I recommend a block heater timer from Noma at Canadian Tire for like $20 for three reasons
  1. Ensures a repeatable process
  2. Prevents excessive wear to both equipment and media
  3. I set it to run at off peak hours as running equipment during that time causes my hydro bill to jump $20 to $30 a month


Here is my rough process for really really dirty brass

  • Rotary Tumbled with water / lemon shine / dawn soap (no SS pins though) and run it and that for 2 cycles of 1.5 hours (change water at each interval)
  • Vibratory Tumbler - lizard bedding (crushed walnuts) and or absorb-all (crushed corn cob) and some dillon polish & nu finish for 2 -3 hours to finish it.


I do not go for a mirror finish. My goal is to ensure they are clean and smooth to ensure reliable feeding in my firearms.
 
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SS pin tumbling has its place. I recommend it for large body cases with mouths 6mm <= and pistol cases it does work and will advocate its use for them.

However I do not recommend it for .223 Remington or any other case with similar body dimensions. Unless you can get special pins. The reason I say this is that the length of most of the pins is the identical to the inside of a large percentage of .223 brass. Hence you will get pins stuck (I found around about 3 to 5% would become fouled) in cases.... causing all kinds of headaches.

Just my experience. But my primary calibers are 223 and 9mm for the most part.
 
I've tumbled about 30,000 pieces of .223 with SS and I don't have problems with stuck pins...
I have a regular Thumbler bought as a kit from STM.
 
beltfed said:
I've tumbled about 30,000 pieces of .223 with SS and I don't have problems with stuck pins...
I have a regular Thumbler bought as a kit from STM.
Click to expand...

I have the same result as this fellow with my STM setup and .223

I also tumbled brass upwards of 8 hours with SS media and looks and performs absolutely fine. Obviously you don't need that long to clean your brass, 2 hours is more then enough time to clean the most ugliest range brass...
 
Again I say thank you gentlemen. Now for phase 2 of the noob questions; is there any distinct advantage to supersonic cleaning vs. tumbling?
 
Albertarookie said:
Again I say thank you gentlemen. Now for phase 2 of the noob questions; is there any distinct advantage to supersonic cleaning vs. tumbling?
Click to expand...

Stainless pin set up is cheaper in the long run. The SS pins last forever and all you need to replace is water, dish soap, and Lemishine. Ultrasonic cleaners are expensive, and the cleaning solutions are expensive.
 
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