Techniques for cleaning out brass after tumbling?

Blackcloud said:
Hey, now thats a novel idea. 1st on the list to try:D Now, when you ran the media did you run it dry or with polish?

Thanks
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Walnut I run dry. Corn cob I run "Peek" polish. It is by far the best if you want mirror-like brass. It cut my polishing time in half and the case don't tarnish as easily in the future.
 
I use corn media with Lyman polish and bounce sheet strips. The media separater is a 4L ice cream pail with the bottom cut out and a piece of concrete/stucco screen rivited to the bottom. I shake it out into a 10L pail and get the brass rolling around. There isn't any dust on the cases and I haven't found any media in a flash hole in years. Total cost about $1.50 for the screen. :D
 
Gatehouse said:
I dump the cases and media into a plastic $1 colander, which is positioned in a bucket. then I swirl them around, and pick the brass out, dumping any media still inside individially.

I do the same. I drop my unprimed casses in tumbler with the treated walnut. Once done swirl in colander. I shake each case out individually,tap them together whatever it takes to empty them. I hate it when you run a case into a die with it still containing a amount of media or finding a smaller case stuck inside the one I am trying to size.
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How about skipping the tumbling step altogether?
My setup is kinda ghetto, but it's got its advantages.

Modified Radio Shack ultrasonic cleaner + Hot water + Vinegar

Cleaning capability goes down with more cases, but if you do like me and modify your cleaner to run constantly; you don't have to keep getting up and turning it on every 3 minutes. Just cleaning with water and soap is almost useless. You need the vinegar to kick it into high gear.

So far, I've been using several quick rinse cycles to finish, but if you wanted to shorten the time required to balance the pH, you might want to throw in a bit of baking soda.
 
adriel said:
How about skipping the tumbling step altogether?
My setup is kinda ghetto, but it's got its advantages.

Modified Radio Shack ultrasonic cleaner + Hot water + Vinegar

Cleaning capability goes down with more cases, but if you do like me and modify your cleaner to run constantly; you don't have to keep getting up and turning it on every 3 minutes. Just cleaning with water and soap is almost useless. You need the vinegar to kick it into high gear.

So far, I've been using several quick rinse cycles to finish, but if you wanted to shorten the time required to balance the pH, you might want to throw in a bit of baking soda.
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Try that with 4000 cases!
 
Yeah, the radio shack cleaner won't do 4000 cases very quickly. I have done 800 .45 ACP cases in an evening, between surfing the net or whatever. The nice thing is that it's small and "kinda" quiet. Running a tumbler all day in an apartment is not an option for me.

No poking media out of flash holes, no built up crap on cases, just a short dry time.
 
I use my ultrasonic for some stuff. But I felt I was getting a little anal with my polishing. Now I just clean in plain walnut and move on.
 
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