Tumblers and Stainless Pins

Any other drying , separating, prepping tips. Lets hear them all. Big and small.

If you de prime 1st the primer pockets come out nice and clean

A drop of oil on each of the bearings makes my thumbler run smoother and quieter

Lemishine or bottled lemon juice in a rinse cycle for when you want the brass to shine
I usually don't
I wonder if the acids weaken the brass?

One hour in the oven at 190 degrees F
Then you know for sure a drop of water is not left in the case when you reload

For reloading make sure you buy the right model thumbler, it is based on motor RPM
It has been a few years since I bought...
I believe the higher RPM for rocks
Lower RPM for brass
Can somebody else confirm
 
If you de prime 1st the primer pockets come out nice and clean

A drop of oil on each of the bearings makes my thumbler run smoother and quieter

Lemishine or bottled lemon juice in a rinse cycle for when you want the brass to shine
I usually don't
I wonder if the acids weaken the brass?

One hour in the oven at 190 degrees F
Then you know for sure a drop of water is not left in the case when you reload

For reloading make sure you buy the right model thumbler, it is based on motor RPM
It has been a few years since I bought...
I believe the higher RPM for rocks
Lower RPM for brass
Can somebody else confirm

20 minutes in a preheated oven is plenty though
 
You won't regret it.
biggest complaint about it is you have to wait for your brass to dry, easily solved by having enough brass in rotation already washed and dried.
 
If you de prime 1st the primer pockets come out nice and clean

A drop of oil on each of the bearings makes my thumbler run smoother and quieter

Lemishine or bottled lemon juice in a rinse cycle for when you want the brass to shine
I usually don't
I wonder if the acids weaken the brass?

One hour in the oven at 190 degrees F
Then you know for sure a drop of water is not left in the case when you reload

For reloading make sure you buy the right model thumbler, it is based on motor RPM
It has been a few years since I bought...
I believe the higher RPM for rocks
Lower RPM for brass
Can somebody else confirm

It only makes sense to deprime first but you find that a lot of fellas do it after tumbling. The speed isn't critical to the quality of cleaning, but it will make a difference in the time it takes to clean. Too slow and it will take a long time, if its way too fast it centrifugal force will make it want to stay against the drum. There is a happy medium in between.
 
I would be interested to try the food dehydrator but I clean my brass way before I ever reload it so not in a rush to dry it. Having said that I still wanna buy one to try it out. It doesn't have to make sense to buy more stuff for reloading, plus this way I can make a bigger bench.
 
I went with the CED Brass Dryer that was a good match for their tumbler. I can process ~700 pcs of 9mm brass at a time. The only downside I've noticed is I wish that the dryer had a built in timer to turn off.

P9100239_zps5ff8c8a2.jpg
 
Hot days in the summer will dry the brass while your mowing the lawn, nice to kill two birds with one stone.

X2. In winter I utilize the horizontal heat vent under the kitchen sink cupboards, put brass in a large towel and spread out in front of vent, fold over towel to form a tent
securing the folded over towel in the under sink cupboard doors. When furnace comes on it dries the brass very quickly.
 
I would be interested to try the food dehydrator but I clean my brass way before I ever reload it so not in a rush to dry it. Having said that I still wanna buy one to try it out. It doesn't have to make sense to buy more stuff for reloading, plus this way I can make a bigger bench.

Heard that. I probably 'need' about 10% of the stuff I've bought for reloading. I made peace a long time ago with the fact that buying stuff and tinkering with it is a big part of the hobby for me.
 
For those of you with semiautomatic firearms that throw perfectly good brass away there is another major plus to wet tumbling. The stainless steel pins will scrub the vast majority of imbedded dirt and grit from your brass. The first thing I noticed was I didn't have any scratched case from sizing and didn't have to polish the inside of my dies to remove imbedded grit from the die.

And don't fall asleep when you are wet tumbling, the cases below were in my tumbler for 6 plus hours and pounded each other and peened the case mouths.

peen-b_zps89c5c4f1.jpg


peen-a_zps2fc373bf.jpg
 
Woops, never seen this thread before I posted my results. I have the Frankford Arsenal, and ended up buying a food dehydrator at Walmart. Just use warm water, Dawn and small amount of Lemi Shine.
 
I went with the CED Brass Dryer that was a good match for their tumbler. I can process ~700 pcs of 9mm brass at a time. The only downside I've noticed is I wish that the dryer had a built in timer to turn off.

P9100239_zps5ff8c8a2.jpg

You can get a timer that you plug your tumbler into, we have one that we use for the Christmas lights that would work. I'll probably repurpose it for that use when I'm cleaning brass.
 
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