Tumblers!!!

How long do you tumble the brass? also what do you guys use for drying? i had set mine out in my shell holders but ended up with a few waterspots, thinking of building a drying rack or something similar get some air moving over them,

Any ideas?
 
For me it depends on the condition of the brass as to how long I tumble. Dirty Range brass, will usually be left for a few hours. Brass that Is clean and fired will only need an hour or so to make it sparkle again. The clean brass would take less time, but I like to make sure the primer pockets are clean. As for drying, I only put them on a towel, with a lamp(one of the ones used for reptile tanks) hanging about a foot over top. I tried once, putting them in the oven on low, but forgot about them and half an hour later, they had turned dark in color with spots etc.
 
2.5-3 hours gets them pretty damn clean for me.

I have yet to try this, but somebody recommended throwing them in a bucket of alcohol (not the drinking kind). Apparently pretty cheap at Walmart.

He said by the time you separate the brass from alcohol and lay them out they will be dry...

Alcohol displaces water.


Sounds like a good alternative to remove the drying time out of the wet tumbling equation. I just need to pick some up to try it out!
 
What do y'all use to separate brass from pins and sludge and then pins from sludge? Do you not get pins sticking inside the cases just with the water surface tension or does the soap take care of that problem? Do you have to rinse the soap and lemshine off after tumbling, I assume you must? Just plain hot water or boiling needed? I'm really getting sick and tired of picking media out of flash holes, but not sure this method sounds any faster, what with drying time and all. Alcohol rinse sounds like maybe the ticket to speed up this process.
 
my first time i used a kitchen strainer worked decently little bit of work, pick the brass up empty any pins that are inside, i had no pins stick on the batch i did, i rinsed them with just hot tap water and i let them air dry, got some water spots but other then that it went pretty slick, ive heard alot about those media separators few turns all your brass is separated, i guess the alcohol thing might work, may discolor the case though, kind of like using brake clean,
 
I have never heard of the alcohol thing, but I don't think I would try it. Once the tumbling is done, I just run water into the drum until it is clean...cold water btw.
If I have hundreds of small pistol brass like 9mm, I just toss them into a strainer with larger holes and toss it like I'm flipping pancakes. Otherwise, I just turn them upside down in the water and pull them out..pins fall right out. This way, I also see if there are any pins stuck in flash holes, but that does not happen often. 223 brass cases seems to fill on occasion though and so you have to keep an eye out for that if you're doing that caliber.
If you are constantly doing large amounts of pistol brass, I would invest in a media separator. I'm sure they don't cost that much,
As for drying, it's like I said. I just lay them on a towel on their sides and drop a reptile lamp with a regular bulb to about a foot over the brass and they are dry in no time. If you are in that much of a hurry to load your brass, start tumbling sooner....
 
Its not for the separation. I have a media separator and till this day have not had one pin remain in the brass.

It's the 2-3 days it takes to dry the brass (for me at least). If I could have it dried in 2 minutes that would be amazing.

I might pick up some rubbing alcohol and give it a shot. Would be amazing to displace the water and flash dry in seconds, not days.
 
2-3 days to dry your brass???
I can't see any situation where it would take 2-3 days to dry brass.

My brass is dry in 30-60 minutes just sitting on a towel under a hanging lamp.
 
I can't see alcohol affecting brass as it is neither caustic nor acidic and can be placed directly on the skin with no ill effects. The upside is total moisture displacement and a drying time in seconds to maybe a maximum of a minute. I also have compressed air right handy and could even accelerate that process. HHHMMMMMMM.......
 
Wired leader said:
2-3 days to dry your brass???
I can't see any situation where it would take 2-3 days to dry brass.

My brass is dry in 30-60 minutes just sitting on a towel under a hanging lamp.
Click to expand...

I have seen it where nothing will air dry, as soon as the humidity index exceeds 70%, it is almost impossible for the air to accept any more water through evaporation.
 
I have heard of people using denatured alcohol, but have never seen the need.
I just use a lamp like this one except plain aluminum and hang it about a foot over the brass. The brass is warm and dry usually in half an hour.
p-27550-60269-reptile.jpg


Never had any issues with water spots either.
 
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