Rookie tumbling questions

ranbur

ranbur

CGN Regular
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Location
Okanagan Valley
Normally just throw my brass in a sock in the wash ... which actually works great but thinking of getting a dedicated tumbler.

Easiest to find seems to be the Frankford Arsenal tumbler ... Good? Bad? Ugly?

Also ... does a guy need the stainless pins to tumble with the brass or can you tumble say 400 or 500 9mm with just detergent and get decent results?

What are the minimum items I need to get started and quit having socks of brass explode in my washer ... :p

Thanks
 
I currently use a Lyman, with princess auto's walnut blasting media to shine the brass, even does a decent job of the primer pockets.
For brass that has sticky crud, like case or bullet lube, I put in a 2 litre plastic bottle; 1 litre hot water, dawn dishsoap, 1/2 c w. Vinegar and a tablespoon of salt. Let it set, shake it some, then rinse with hot water and dry.
I don't like wet cleaning , I only do it when I need to, seems to be a mess. for this reason I haven't bought a wet tumbler, But others do it and like it.
 
FA tumbler is great.

You can skip the pins. Such a pita... and you need the magnet or other to collect them.

If you need the insides of your brass shiny as well dump a bunch of .22 brass in with your batch.

Use a bit of lemishine (citric acid) and a squirt of Dawn.
 
No pins require. Hot water, soap and a little lemishine works well.

P.S. Putting .22's in with the 9mm is unnecessary and time consuming.
 
I use the pins, as well as the FA media separator. I did 800 .338 Lapua cases yesterday, shiny inside and out with clean primer pockets. I use hot water, a squirt of Dawn and 1.25ml of Lemishine.

Some handy advice on wet tumbling. Deprime first! You won't get the water out of small bottle neck cases with a primer in them. If you are doing multiple types of brass at the same time, check for 'nesting'. Known conflicts are 9mm fitting inside .40's and 40's inside of .45's. I did a batch of .17 Hornet with some .308 and the Hornets all ended up in the case mouths of the .308's. I had dirty Hornets with clean head stamps lol.
 
I have been using the Frankford rotary for a few years - most difficult I find is to get the ends turned on tight enough not to leak. Ended up buying a strap wrench from Amazon - lets me get a good grip on the end caps to snug them up - as if the warm water allows the plastic drum or the end caps to "relax" and start leaking?? Also started to wash the rubber sealing rings and the "see through" plastic end caps and install them wet - seems to seal better?? I did go ahead and buy that Frankford magnet tool, and have been using the 5 pounds or so of stainless pins that came with the tumbler. Whatever "juice" was in the carton that came from Frankfort had leaked out, so no idea if or how it works - from CGN got the idea to use a shot of Dawn dishwashing soap and spoonful or so of powdered Lemi-Shine - got the Dawn at grocery store, and the Lemi-Shine at Canadian Tire.

I do the "full meal deal", especially on very tarnished or brass picked up from ground or gravel pit - comes out "new" looking. For my own reloading, I often do nothing to the brass - they were never on the ground and are clean - but lose their "shiny" after a while. Just does not seem to matter. But I am quite certain that "clean" does matter, before going into a die or into a chamber - really easy to "clean" by dropping de-primed cases into a 4 liter ice cream pail with that same Dawn, Lemi-shine and warm water - about 1/2 full - squish them around for a while - lay out to dry afterwards. I inherited a metal "cookie tray" from my wife, so often dump the wet brass on there, into the oven with the internal fan running and temp set about 175 F - an hour later, thoroughly "done".
 
Couple things I changed since I started wet tumbling:

- SS pins when brass has lots of oxidation otherwise no pins

- soak brass in hot water/detergent overnight and tumble in the morning

- 1 to 1.5 hours tumbling max

- still use lemishine but switched to powdered laundry detergent

- use old salad spinner to get water out of brass

- always air or sun dry brass on screens
 
I wet tumble with the FA unit, works great. I do use the pins but they are well used so avoids some peening of the case mouths, new ones are pretty sharp. I use Dawn and Lemi shine but you can't use too much citric acid or the brass comes out dull. I have the separator and magnet so no issue with that, and i also deprime first so the flash holes come out super clean. I have vibratory tumblers as well but don't use them much any more unless i have a real small batch. As has been said it is best to avoid mixing any casings that will 'nest' together but common sense to me.
 
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