How do you like to dry your brass?

hillbillywilly85

hillbillywilly85

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So a buddy of mine that’s recently started hand loading brought over an ultrasonic cleaner tonight and told me to try it out. (Yeah I know these have been out for a while and I’m late to the party) So he mixed up rcbs solution and I tossed in a basket full of .45acp cases and he set it and we forgot about it for a 1/2 hour. So the time was up and I was pretty impressed on how quickly it cleaned the cases inside and out with a decent shine.

So I’m now thinking of buying one after using his tonight, but I wanna ask what’s the best way you find to dry your brass after rinsing it with clean water. Also which solution to water ratio do you find the best to brighten and clean your brass?
 
I don’t use an ultrasonic but I have a wet tumbler, after my final rinse I spread them out on a towel on a large baking pan and put them beside the wood stove to dry. I only use my wet tumbler for dirty bulk pistol brass currently and I generally do that over the winter, so the wood stove is always lit.
 
I do wet tumbing not ultrasonic and can handle bigger batches of brass, this does not matter much for the drying as that is the same.

My brass is decapped when I clean it, this enables the brass to dry faster and I also get the primer pocket clean.
When done cleaning and rinsing I dunk the brass in very hot water (This warms up the brass and helps with drying), take it out and put it on a towel, grab the ends of the towel and rol the brass back and forth a couple times in the towel then dump the brass in a strainer and put The strainer over a floor register in the heating season or spread it out on other dry towel if it’s not heating season.
 
I also wet tumble. Here’s my drying trays with wet brass after tumble cleaning. (Cookie sheets with dish towels.)

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About two to three hours, and they’re dry. Nothing fancy, just patience.
 
On a cookie sheet in the oven at 200F for 15 minutes. I have also put them on a towel on the shoe rack in the clothes dryer. ***note that his should only be done when the wife is away for the day***, also note, make sure towel does not get snagged on the rotating dryer drum.
 
Our water is from a well - quite high mineral content - if allowed to air dry on about anything, it will leave spots - so I use water that has gone through our water softener as my rinsing water for brass. I was always concerned about liquid water ending up pooled in a case on it's side or on the case head - so usually I place them mouth down - thinking that allows them to drain completely.

As above - I do not use Ultra Sound for brass cleaning - but I use stainless steel pins in wet tumbler to clean and shiny up fired brass. Also, as above post, the fired primers are punched out before the cases get tumbled. Recipe for the fluid is as found on CGN elsewhere - pretty much healthy shot of Dawn dishwashing soap and 1/4 teaspoon Lemi-Shine crystals - likely will vary with the water quality that you have to work with - generally, if "suds" are left after the thing times out, that was too much soap.

I have stacked rifle cases mouth down in metal bread (loaf) pans and just left them "air dry" out in garage over night. I have fired up the oven to perhaps 250 F and put in a metal cookie sheet of "wet" brass for perhaps an hour. Water turns to steam circa 212 F - so just get the brass to be hotter than that and will be no more liquid water - but also is not about annealing the brass, so do not want to get close to that temp. Our oven has a fan - I presume that is also a vent, but I do not know, so "just because", I tend to turn on that fan when I am drying brass in the oven. Often let it go for an hour - then shut off and let it sit in there overnight - deal with it in the morning.

We can get Dawn dishwashing soap at local grocery store. Lemi-Shine crystals came from Canadian Tire. I bought a jug of those crystals several years ago - still working on that one - I have not had to buy replacement yet. I use RCBS Case Lube-2 to lube the rifle cases to re-size, AFTER tumbling them to clean and dry them. So, I use a Lee Case spinner - each case gets trimmed to length, chamfered and then spun against a wet rag to remove the case lube after re-sizing. Others, I understand, will use a tumbler to remove the case lube - then re-dry a second time.

I do have an Ultra Sound machine, but have been using that mostly for parts cleaning - 3 litres water and healthy shot of Dawn dishwashing soap - or 3 litres of water and parts in a plastic baggy or peanut butter jar with various solvents like Ed's Red, kerosene, Varsol or ATF - the dirt stays in the container - water in the tank stays clean and can be re-used multiple times. As I have previously posted on CGN, you probably want to distinguish between making your brass to be "clean" - no grit; versus to be "shiny" - which it appears that some equate with "better".
 
I used to put them on an old cookie sheet in the oven at 170 F for a bit. Now I just don’t get them wet in the first place. If you just leave them out over night in a relatively dry place (near the wood stove, etc) they’ll be ready to go the next day.
 
Potashminer said:
Our water is from a well - quite high mineral content - if allowed to air dry on about anything, it will leave spots - so I use water that has gone through our water softener as my rinsing water for brass. I was always concerned about liquid water ending up pooled in a case on it's side or on the case head - so usually I place them mouth down - thinking that allows them to drain completely.

As above - I do not use Ultra Sound for brass cleaning - but I use stainless steel pins in wet tumbler to clean and shiny up fired brass. Also, as above post, the fired primers are punched out before the cases get tumbled. Recipe for the fluid is as found on CGN elsewhere - pretty much healthy shot of Dawn dishwashing soap and 1/4 teaspoon Lemi-Shine crystals - likely will vary with the water quality that you have to work with - generally, if "suds" are left after the thing times out, that was too much soap.

I have stacked rifle cases mouth down in metal bread (loaf) pans and just left them "air dry" out in garage over night. I have fired up the oven to perhaps 250 F and put in a metal cookie sheet of "wet" brass for perhaps an hour. Water turns to steam circa 212 F - so just get the brass to be hotter than that and will be no more liquid water - but also is not about annealing the brass, so do not want to get close to that temp. Our oven has a fan - I presume that is also a vent, but I do not know, so "just because", I tend to turn on that fan when I am drying brass in the oven. Often let it go for an hour - then shut off and let it sit in there overnight - deal with it in the morning.

We can get Dawn dishwashing soap at local grocery store. Lemi-Shine crystals came from Canadian Tire. I bought a jug of those crystals several years ago - still working on that one - I have not had to buy replacement yet. I use RCBS Case Lube-2 to lube the rifle cases to re-size, AFTER tumbling them to clean and dry them. So, I use a Lee Case spinner - each case gets trimmed to length, chamfered and then spun against a wet rag to remove the case lube after re-sizing. Others, I understand, will use a tumbler to remove the case lube - then re-dry a second time.

I do have an Ultra Sound machine, but have been using that mostly for parts cleaning - 3 litres water and healthy shot of Dawn dishwashing soap - or 3 litres of water and parts in a plastic baggy or peanut butter jar with various solvents like Ed's Red, kerosene, Varsol or ATF - the dirt stays in the container - water in the tank stays clean and can be re-used multiple times. As I have previously posted on CGN, you probably want to distinguish between making your brass to be "clean" - no grit; versus to be "shiny" - which it appears that some equate with "better".
Click to expand...

So you find the wet tumble will bring your brass back brighter then an ultrasonic?
 
hillbillywilly85 said:
So you find the wet tumble will bring your brass back brighter then an ultrasonic?
Click to expand...

I absolutely find this to be the case, it ends up sparkling like new. The biggest benefit I've found to ultrasonic is that it doesn't roll over case mouth edges on brass I've set aside for neck sizing. Range pickups, pistol brass, black powder fouled cases are what I get the most benefit from wet tumbling.
 
hillbillywilly85 said:
So you find the wet tumble will bring your brass back brighter then an ultrasonic?
Click to expand...

Wet tumbling with stainless pins gets them looking like new, the pistol brass is filthy range brass pickup or ipsc brass. Both full of dirt and gravel. Wet tumbling is the way to go with bulk or really dirty brass, I pre soak the ipsc brass to get rid of as much dirt and particulate as possible.

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Butcherbill said:
Wet tumbling with stainless pins gets them looking like new, the pistol brass is filthy range brass pickup or ipsc brass. Both full of dirt and gravel. Wet tumbling is the way to go with bulk or really dirty brass, I pre soak the ipsc brass to get rid of as much dirt and particulate as possible.

Interesting , I’ve been using dry tumbling corn cob media with polish added since I started hand loading , but might have to give the wet tumbling a try. I’m kinda tired of checking and then cleaning walnut or corn cob media out of some of the primer pockets especially if I may not have to. I’m aware of Frankfort arsenal kit, any good or bad reviews on one , or other brands you’ve used ?

The ultrasonic cleaner did excellent job cleaning the cases , but I will admit the cases had a decent shine that I wouldn’t call a polished new shine we all want.
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hillbillywilly85 said:
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Interesting , I’ve been using dry tumbling corn cob media with polish added since I started hand loading , but might have to give the wet tumbling a try. I’m kinda tired of checking and then cleaning walnut or corn cob media out of some of the primer pockets especially if I may not have to. I’m aware of Frankfort arsenal kit, any good or bad reviews on one , or other brands you’ve used ?

The ultrasonic cleaner did excellent job cleaning the cases , but I will admit the cases had a decent shine that I wouldn’t call a polished new shine we all want.
Click to expand...

I use the Frankford Arsenal tumbler thing - compared to the ancient walnut media vibrator that I had, I think it is an improvement - but I have found three of those little pins wedged into a firing pin hole - does not make the process "fool proof" - so far as I am concerned, you still have to check for potential blockages in the firing pin holes - except I find a LOT less of that with the stainless pins - versus what I was finding with the walnut media. And unlike some others, I do punch out the primers before I tumble - is in my head that I want to clean out the primer pockets - as if that does not seem to be a significant thing to worry about.

Other aspects of it - the drum has got screw ends on each end - I do not know, but I think if I use HOT water in there, that the plastic relaxes a bit and the ends get loosened a bit - and then leak. So I bought a "strap wrench" to assist to snug up those ends - and I started to use tepid or room temp water - no more leaks, and not really sure if extra tightening or cooler water did that. I think if I was going to do it again, I would get TWO strap wrenches - one to hold the barrel and other to snug up the end collar.
 
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hillbillywilly85 said:
Interesting , I’ve been using dry tumbling corn cob media with polish added since I started hand loading , but might have to give the wet tumbling a try. I’m kinda tired of checking and then cleaning walnut or corn cob media out of some of the primer pockets especially if I may not have to. I’m aware of Frankfort arsenal kit, any good or bad reviews on one , or other brands you’ve used ?

The ultrasonic cleaner did excellent job cleaning the cases , but I will admit the cases had a decent shine that I wouldn’t call a polished new shine we all want.
Click to expand...

The Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler and stainless steel pins is what I use and it works amazing, I add a little squirt and I mean little squirt of No Name blue laundry soap and a case ( 9mm/40s&w case) full of citric acid to the mix. After I tumble I pour dirty water through a dollar store strainer to catch the majority of the pins, I rinse 2-3 times with water like this and then dump the cases into a dry media separator that spins out the remaining pins and water. One final rinse with clean water and dry by the wood stove.

I use a dry vibratory tumbler as well with crushed walnut blasting media with varsol and Nu Finish car wax added, I dry tumble small batches of once fired brass that’s not overly filthy. Brass that just needs a quick clean, I really like having both wet and dry cleaning options. I clean first and then decap and clean primer pockets, decapping after removes any walnut media from the flash holes.

I find you need to figure out how much soap to add to make the rinse process go quick, if you add too much soap you rinse a lot longer to get all the soap residue off, I do all my tumbling in the shop and don’t have running water out there. I use 5gal pails to rinse and have played around with how much soap I need to reach the same level of cleaning with the least amount of rinsing, I find the ammount of citric acid (Lemi Shine) is more important than the soap. I’ve done a straight water/citric acid/ss pins cycle and brass is plenty clean as well, if I had a lot of once fired brass that was relatively clean to begin with I would wet tumble without soap and be happy with them.

Frankford Arsenal makes two sizes of drums for wet tumbling, I’ve thought of buying the smaller size for smaller batches or rifle brass but the big drum is the way to go if you clean any volume of cases, I usually end up with 1-3 5gal pails of pistol brass a year so the big drum is perfect. Takes me roughly three drum loads to do a 5gal pail of 9mm brass.

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Potashminer said:
Other aspects of it - the drum has got screw ends on each end - I do not know, but I think if I use HOT water in there, that the plastic relaxes a bit and the ends get loosened a bit - and then leak. So I bought a "strap wrench" to assist to snug up those ends - and I started to use tepid or room temp water - no more leaks, and not really sure if extra tightening or cooler water did that. I think if I was going to do it again, I would get TWO strap wrenches - one to hold the barrel and other to snug up the end collar.
Click to expand...

I’ve read that before about hot water and leaking end caps, I tried hot water initially and switched to cold. Not because I had a leaking drum but because I didn’t notice any difference in how clean cases came out with hot vs cold.
 
I only do rifle so vibratory tumbling is it for me. Got a system dialled in that I love and get the results I want. I can see bulk pistol brass or really high volume being great use cases for wet tumbling.
 
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