Tumbling questions

Longshot338

Longshot338

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Southern Ontario
Hello fellow Nutz,

I have some questions regarding tumbling.

For the Rifle brass, I follow the following steps:

Resize
Trim
Chamfer
Deburr
Polish case mouth with SS wool to smooth it
Clean primer pockets
Tumble
Clean with Never Dull wadding polish
Brush out the case mouth

With all these steps, it ticks me off that there is dust from the tumbling media left inside the case walls and base.

What is this going to do to my loads and my gun barrel? Will it leave unwanted deposits? Tumbling media is obviously abrasive to a certain extent; do I really want that in my barrel and what will it do to my gun? Also, will it lead to inconsistencies in my loads with a detriemental effect on accuracy?

Secondly, what can be done to get rid of the residue in the cases prior to loading?

I realise that clean cases don't have much of an effect on acuracy, if any, especially in the battle rifles I load for mostly (M14 and 3 Enfields). For me; it is more of a pride in workmanship than anything else; I like to pit my best effort into my handloads and take care of my rifles. I don't have any qualms about the time it takes, nor am I looking to simplify the brass prep process.

Another thing that is annoying is the almost certain prospet of getting media partiles in every primer pocket.

I am intrigued by the Stainless Steel tumbling. Looks like it gves good results. Cleans inside and out as well as primer pockets. How do I do this? Do I use my conventional Lyman tumblers and a bag of steel shot? What size shot or ball bearings do I buy, and how many?

Another brass leaning method that I am interested in is the Sonic Cleaners. Lyman and Hornady both make good ones (from what I've heard), and both are available in several models at reasonable prices in my local gun store. Does the sonic ation clean in the primer pokets with the primer intact, or do I still have to punch the primer first? Also, do they do a better job than the SS media? Also, will they remove the case lube from the brass? One of the reasons I resize before tumbling is to get the moisture off the case before loading it.

Alec
 
I switched to the wet stainless pins method. Cleans inside and out, it's cheap (once you're setup) and I can do huge batches compared to what the sonic cleaners you mentioned can. If you do a search on here, you will find tons of info on the stainless pin method.
 
Longshot338 said:
Hello fellow Nutz,

I have some questions regarding tumbling.

For the Rifle brass, I follow the following steps:

Resize
Trim
Chamfer
Deburr
Polish case mouth with SS wool to smooth it
Clean primer pockets
Tumble
Clean with Never Dull wadding polish
Brush out the case mouth
Click to expand...

You are putting too much work into it.
You don't need to trim every time, only when they start getting up near max length. Same goes for deburring, you only have to do that after you trim.
No need to clean the case mouth with steel wool. Cleaning primer pockets is a waste of time, you won't gain one point or even a V Bull by cleaning primer pockets.
Get yourself some extra fine, unteaded corn cob media. You might get one or 2 cases out of 50 that you have to pick the media out of the flash hole. Untreaded corn cob will shine them up and so you won't have to use Never Dull afterwards. Any little bit of dust that reamains in the case will soon disappear under the extreme heat once the primer sparks the powder.
 
Last edited:
"...Polish case mouth with SS wool to smooth it...Clean with Never Dull wadding polish...Brush out the case mouth..." None of that is necessary.
"...don't need to trim every time, only when..." They exceed max length. Close only counts with horse shoes, hand grenades and nuclear weapons.
"...Tumbling media is obviously abrasive..." It polishes. It doesn't abrade. And it's not going to bother steel.
 
Wow, you must like a lot of excess work but hey, some folks like that part of it and all the power to them. :p

Cut up a sheet of fabric softener into squares and dump that into your tumbler. That'll help with the dust problem.
 
You are in guelph, as am I. You are welcome to come and grab my stainless setup to try for a week if you like. Then you can decide which way you want to go after trying another option. Let me know.
 
I bought a tumbling setup and the guy at my club who is known as the best reloaded for miles around said "what for?" I haven't tumbled my rifle brass yet. The tumbler sits. I wipe off the brass with a rag as I inspect it. It never hits the floor at the range. Guess he was right. Maybe if I was shooting a semi or trying to reuse someone else's leftover brass or might make sense but for my bolt action brass shot at the range, it hasn't made sense yet.
 
I tumble in treated walnut media for an hour, followed by untreated walnut for 15 minutes. I trust the untreated media to remove any chemical or abrasives from the treated media. I dump the finished cases into an old pillowcase and roll it around a few seconds to remove any external dust. Internal dust I don't worry about.
 
Trinimon said:
Wow, you must like a lot of excess work but hey, some folks like that part of it and all the power to them. :p

Cut up a sheet of fabric softener into squares and dump that into your tumbler. That'll help with the dust problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah; I don't mind the work; I like reloading. I enjoy putting quality into my work. I realise this isn't doing ANYTHING for accuracy; I'm not deluding myself into thinking I am gaining a lot for my effort. What I do get is the piece of mind and confidence that comes from a thorough job done well, and a bit of pride in my workmanship.

Thanks for the idea of the dryer sheet in the tumbler; I will try that. Question; how small do I have to cut them so as not to impede the tumbling function?

Alec
 
Longshot338 said:
Yeah; I don't mind the work; I like reloading. I enjoy putting quality into my work. I realise this isn't doing ANYTHING for accuracy; I'm not deluding myself into thinking I am gaining a lot for my effort. What I do get is the piece of mind and confidence that comes from a thorough job done well, and a bit of pride in my workmanship.

Thanks for the idea of the dryer sheet in the tumbler; I will try that. Question; how small do I have to cut them so as not to impede the tumbling function?

Alec
Click to expand...

Absolutely nothing wrong with going the extra mile or taking pride in your handiwork.

For the drier sheets, I just cut it up into 6 pieces. Once the dust starts to build up (the sheets starts looking tattered), I replace them.
 
do you use new dryer sheets or used?
I don't use dryer sheets because it makes my skin itch...(and it's quite pointless anyway, unless you want to perfume your clothes) can you use new ones?
 
For the little effort it takes I use the Wet Stainless Tumbling method.

I came back from the range earlier this afternoon.
I deprimed using a universal decapping die.
I dumped the 100 pcs of brass in the wet tumbler, added water, a touch of soap, and a sprinkle of LemiShime.
I fired up the tumbler and 3 hours later voila.
I spent another 10 minutes towel drying them and there you have it brass ready to be reloaded.
AE5339BB-730A-4D7C-AA48-597B86751443-5728-000009A31FA0037F_zpsbda2a771.jpg
 
Kryogen said:
do you use new dryer sheets or used?
I don't use dryer sheets because it makes my skin itch...(and it's quite pointless anyway, unless you want to perfume your clothes) can you use new ones?
Click to expand...

I have used new and used ones (cut into 4) both have worked well at reducing dust. I just the cheap no name drier sheets and use a new one every other time.
 
will buy some. I hate dusty cases. Right now I cut old t shirts into squares.

I have a huge SS tumbler but I don't like to use it for small batches. It's too big, really.
It can process 2000 223 cases at once... not convenient for 100 cases or so.

I just toss in the corn cob all night and thats it.
 
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