How long do you wet tumble with ss pis, and what cal?
- Thread starter Canadian Bush Wacker
- Start date
hillbros_96
Regular
- Location
- Nowhere BC
I just turn my dial to three hours and let it go. Most of the time it is just right.
but I might
DiabeticKripple
CGN Regular
- Location
- Red Deer, Alberta
3 hours doesn’t matter how much I have in there.
Squirt of dawn and a touch of lemi-shine
Squirt of dawn and a touch of lemi-shine
The tumble time depends on the capacity of the tumbler and the tumblers speed/rpm.
I would go by the tumblers instructions and its number of cases or weight.
If you put too many pieces of brass in the tumbler it will take longer to clean and pound the case mouths more.
Meaning overdoing it will peen the case mouth.
Below on the left a .223 case that tumbled too long and had the case mouth peened. Before tumbling the case mouth had been freshly trimmed and deburred with sharp edges.
The case on the right is brand new and as it came from the factory.
I have a STM model B tumbler and did too much eyeballing and guessing at the amount of cases. I now weigh the cases per the directions and my cases come out cleaner with much less tumbling time. Bottom line, less is more.
I would go by the tumblers instructions and its number of cases or weight.
If you put too many pieces of brass in the tumbler it will take longer to clean and pound the case mouths more.
Meaning overdoing it will peen the case mouth.
Below on the left a .223 case that tumbled too long and had the case mouth peened. Before tumbling the case mouth had been freshly trimmed and deburred with sharp edges.
The case on the right is brand new and as it came from the factory.
I have a STM model B tumbler and did too much eyeballing and guessing at the amount of cases. I now weigh the cases per the directions and my cases come out cleaner with much less tumbling time. Bottom line, less is more.
I too think less is more. I often run the tumbler for an hour. The cases are not exactly shining like gold, but I'm ok with that.
Couple thoughts on peening, the bottleneck cases obviously need trimming regularly, so peening might not affect case life too much, but on straight wall cases that don't usually stretch, I try to avoid peening as it most definitely does limit case life.
A guy on another forum suggested using a lot of soap to reduce tumbling somewhat, I tried that and I think it does actually work. There is so much foam in there the cases can't roll around near as much.
Couple thoughts on peening, the bottleneck cases obviously need trimming regularly, so peening might not affect case life too much, but on straight wall cases that don't usually stretch, I try to avoid peening as it most definitely does limit case life.
A guy on another forum suggested using a lot of soap to reduce tumbling somewhat, I tried that and I think it does actually work. There is so much foam in there the cases can't roll around near as much.
mmcintyre1220
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Tillsonburg, Ontario
I have the Frankford arsenal tumbler. I don't know the capacity but I fill it with brass, hot water, a 45 case of lemishine and a good amount of dawn. 2 hours and the brass looks brand new inside and out (I use pins)
