Fastest,easiest,shiniest brass cleaning set up.

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45C

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Hello
I’m currently using the Frankford wet brass cleaning tumbler, minis the pins.
I deprime,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.
Then resize,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.

Is there a faster set up?
I like shiny brass when it’s complete. 🙄
Ideally I would like to clean and dry in one step.. lol
 
imo, 6 hours is excessive. you are actually damaging your brass by peening and premature wear.

pistol - wet tumble with pins, dish soap and citric acid for 40-60 min, dry, load on progressive

rifle - deprime, wet tumble as above, dry, then it depends on caliber and application. for plinking or run-and-gun 223, I just feed it to Dillon as is

one day I will get a rollsizer… lol
 
45C said:
Hello
I’m currently using the Frankford wet brass cleaning tumbler, minis the pins.
I deprime,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.
Then resize,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.

Is there a faster set up?
I like shiny brass when it’s complete. 🙄
Ideally I would like to clean and dry in one step.. lol
Click to expand...
I've been using the FA wet tumbler for close to ten years.
Here is the way I do it, deprime and resize in one step, in the tumbler, a bit of laundry soap, a pinch of lemmishine, HOT soft water 2/3 full, a small amount of ss pins, about 100 grams.
Tumble for one hour, rinse and separate pins, dump the whole load on a piece of old carpet, let dry overnight, next morning brass is dry and looks like it just came from the store, clean inside and out including primer pockets.
 
M1-Garand said:
I've been using the FA wet tumbler for close to ten years.
Here is the way I do it, deprime and resize in one step, in the tumbler, a bit of laundry soap, a pinch of lemmishine, HOT soft water 2/3 full, a small amount of ss pins, about 100 grams.
Tumble for one hour, rinse and separate pins, dump the whole load on a piece of old carpet, let dry overnight, next morning brass is dry and looks like it just came from the store, clean inside and out including primer pockets.
Click to expand...
At what point do you trim the brass?
 
45C said:
Hello
I’m currently using the Frankford wet brass cleaning tumbler, minis the pins.
I deprime,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.
Then resize,tumble for 3 hrs and dry.

Is there a faster set up?
I like shiny brass when it’s complete. 🙄
Ideally I would like to clean and dry in one step.. lol
Click to expand...

Dang I like clean brass but that feels excessive.

This is what I do (and yes, it is probably excessive compared to others but each to their own):

9MM:

Wet tumble with Dawn and Lemishine for an hour (to get the brass clean enough for roll sizing then to lube and deprime / resize)

When sized and deprimed it gets another hour of cleaning with Lemishine and Dawn (with pins). I then rinse out the dirty water after an hour and replace with clean (including Dawn and Lemishine)


223 or similar rifle cases:

I try to keep the times as short as possible with rifle cases to avoid peening.

Deprime fired brass then 30 minutes of cleaning with Dawn / Lemishine and pins.

Anneal -> Lube -> Resize (minus the expander ball - leave the neck undersized)

30 minutes of cleaning with Dawn / Lemishine and pins / swap the water, add more Dawn and Lemishine and then another 30 minutes (with pins).

Dry then size necks with graphite and an expander mandrel.


My experience has been that lots of pins aid cleaning and prevent peening. YMMV.
 
Bangalore said:
At what point do you trim the brass?
Click to expand...

That question could be taken two ways.

1) When the brass is so long it no longer fits in a case gauge (due to excess neck length) or is over the max length specced in a reloading manual

2) On a practical level I do it when the brass is totally clean right after I have used a neck sizing mandrel and just before I prime.
 
Well, you asked if there is a faster way.....Guess I'm "old school" but I just use an RCBS vibratory tumbler and dry Lyman or Hornady corncob media. A couple of hours and my rifle and pistol brass is as shiny as I like it. Can tumble for another hour to get it sparkling but what's the point? No fuss, no mess doing it the "old way"!! And, you can lube and size right away instead of trying to dry cases.
 
Cariboo Rick said:
Well, you asked if there is a faster way.....Guess I'm "old school" but I just use an RCBS vibratory tumbler and dry Lyman or Hornady corncob media. A couple of hours and my rifle and pistol brass is as shiny as I like it. Can tumble for another hour to get it sparkling but what's the point? No fuss, no mess doing it the "old way"!! And, you can lube and size right away instead of trying to dry cases.
Click to expand...

I have never used a vibratory but I honestly think that for rifle brass it is the best overall option.

It wont get the cases as clean but it should eliminate peening (PITA - I know some will say it doesn't matter as you can trim / chamfer but I think that leaves the necks on the short side after a few cleanings - 223 in particular) and being too squeaky clean can cause issues with sizing the necks and seating.

For pistol brass wet is the ticket, particularly if you are doing sizeable volumes (as most pistol shooters do).
 
Had the vibration one for a few years, didn’t like the stuff getting stuck in the flash hole and having to tap the cases together to get all the stuff out
 
Deprime, wet tumble with pins for 1 hour. Seperate pins and brass. dry on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.
***WARNING*** Do not under any circumstance use your wife's cookie sheets (even if she isn't home) This could cause danger to life or limb.
Buy your own cookie sheets you cheap bastard.

I use spray lube for resizing then throw the cases in a vibratory tumbler to clean the lube off before trimming...
 
45C said:
Had the vibration one for a few years, didn’t like the stuff getting stuck in the flash hole and having to tap the cases together to get all the stuff out
Click to expand...
If you are using a vibratory cleaner you don’t take the old primers out until after cleaning.
Corncob is too big to really clean the pockets if the primer is out and you are correct that it’s a PITA to get stuck kernels out (most would only suffer this once).
It does add the step of cleaning the pockets after the primer is removed but that’s a quick job and the pockets don’t need to be virginally new.
Also to easily get the media out of cases you can either buy a separator and give them a tumble or do what I did a buy a tumbler that has a screen lid.
I use a plastic pan for a hot water tank and just flip the running tumbler over it (holding on to the bowl) until the media is out, it doesn’t take long and nothing stays in the cases…if it harms the tumbler my 30+ year old Lyman doesn’t know it…
If you add a bit of polish to the media the brass can come out shiny like new if that floats your boat and zero concern for peening.
 
A RCBS vibratory cleaner with Lyman treated walnut , 2 hrs and come out so clean , I need my sunglasses. Been using this setup for near 50 years, no fuss, no muss , no drying. Easy peasy. By the time people get done rincing and drying, I already have them loaded .
 
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This is my home brew wet tumbling brass cleaning set up. I found a single drum capable of 15# of brass was not enough for my needs. When shooting in multi day matches, I found that I needed to clean a lot of cases. And sometimes, different calibers could not be tumbled together because of getting smaller cases stuck inside larger ones. (Think .357mag getting stuck in a 45-70 case.) Thus up scaling to a dual drum set up. Now, I can max out to 30# of brass if needs be. And I have done two drums a lot.

IMG-2555.jpg


The motor is a 1/4hp wired for 120v. The bearings all have greasable points. The only “wearable” item is the red heater hose used on the roller shafts. Easily changed out when it gets too worn. Although after many years of service, I have yet to have to change it.
 
I use a Lee Universal Deprimer then toss in the brass (up to 300 pistol or 100 rifle brass) with SS pins, laundry soap, and a 9mm case of LemiShine. Unless they are really dirty range pickup brass, I tumble for 1 hour. If they are unknown age, out of the dirt, range brass, then it's usually 45 minutes, drain, replace with new soap, and another 45 minutes. I then just let the cases air dry upside down in reloading trays for a day or two. Then I do all the resizing, trimming as required, etc
 
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