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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Wet tumbling with SS media, lots of pics New info second post 10-02-2015. (Page 2 of 23)
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How much louder is this compared to a normal vibratory tumbler? About 10 times quiter. Everything is in a thick rubber drum, and rotating not buzzing. Does it cause the same amount of vibrations? No vibrations, it rotates. I live in an apartment so I typically only tumble brass when the neighbors are gone and I put it in a closed room to "lessen" the noise. I keep thinking of picking one of these up and just keep the vibratory one for removing case lube and whatnot. You still need a vibrating tumbler for lube removal, a short run. I'm assuming you guys are running universal decapping pins so as to not muck up your sizing dies correct? Yes, I use a Lee. Brass dries better deprimmed, and the Primer pocket gets cleaned. |
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Wet tumbling looks interesting, however, I can't tumble the quantities I want in one of these small tumblers.
Has anyone thought about or tried this method with a cement mixer or something similar? Harbor Freight has some small mixers that may be just the ticket. |
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Wet tumbling looks interesting, however, I can't tumble the quantities I want in one of these small tumblers. Has anyone thought about or tried this method with a cement mixer or something similar? Harbor Freight has some small mixers that may be just the ticket. Using the small one from HF now. The paddles that come with it is too tall, got some plastic strips and put 4 speed bumps, works good, but is noisey, had to caulk the seam in the barrel. Did 1k of 308 Sat, and it's a pain to seperate the media, will make a 1/4 screem to help that out. Thought about coating the inside with something like Rhino Liner to quiten it down, but haven't found any that wasn't just paint. 'Borg |
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Thanks for the write up. Has anyone tried dropping the water content to say 3 quarts to make more room for brass? Also, does anyone know of the best place to pick up Thumler's Model B? Edit: Are you guys using a universal decapping die to deprime before you run the brass? 
Well I tried the "less water" method. Water level is 2 inches from the top. I normally run about a inch down from the top. Tumbled overnight, brass was not shinny. So I retumbled with my normal water level, they came out great. |
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Thanks for the write up. Has anyone tried dropping the water content to say 3 quarts to make more room for brass? Also, does anyone know of the best place to pick up Thumler's Model B? Edit: Are you guys using a universal decapping die to deprime before you run the brass? http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/dryflash3/Wet%20Tumbling/P6050137.jpg Well I tried the "less water" method. Water level is 2 inches from the top. I normally run about a inch down from the top. Tumbled overnight, brass was not shinny. So I retumbled with my normal water level, they came out great. Good to know. Thanks for testing it out. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Thanks for the write up. Has anyone tried dropping the water content to say 3 quarts to make more room for brass? Also, does anyone know of the best place to pick up Thumler's Model B? Edit: Are you guys using a universal decapping die to deprime before you run the brass? http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/dryflash3/Wet%20Tumbling/P6050137.jpg Well I tried the "less water" method. Water level is 2 inches from the top. I normally run about a inch down from the top. Tumbled overnight, brass was not shinny. So I retumbled with my normal water level, they came out great. Sorry, - too little water. When I use less water, I still never let it drop down below the one inch mark. What I meant is if you put more brass in, it will take up some of the volume inside the tumbler therefore if you fill it to the one inch mark, even though it is the same mark, there will be less water in there. Obviously you can push this too far..... If that is how it looks when you first open the tumbler, you did not put in enough soap - more dirty brass - more Lemishine, more soap. |
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FedEx dropped mine off this morning, I went home on my lunch to put a load in. I took a couple before pictures to compare with the finished product. Dryflash I might have missed it but your belt looks black, mine came clear, did you replace it or does it just look black in your photo? |
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FedEx dropped mine off this morning, I went home on my lunch to put a load in. I took a couple before pictures to compare with the finished product. Dryflash I might have missed it but your belt looks black, mine came clear, did you replace it or does it just look black in your photo? The last belts I ordered from Tru Square were clear. Sometimes an o-ring can be found that will fit, and some people with access to the equipment make their o-ring belts. |
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Did my first batch of SS media polishing today.
All I can say is two things... 1) I love this stuff! 2) I need a media separator - badly! 
Did .357 mag brass and some junky looking .223 range pickup brass. BLING BLING! ETA: Buffalo Arms is where I got the media and the Thumbler's Tumbler. |
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FedEx dropped mine off this morning, I went home on my lunch to put a load in. I took a couple before pictures to compare with the finished product. Dryflash I might have missed it but your belt looks black, mine came clear, did you replace it or does it just look black in your photo? It was clear when I got it. My tumbler has been running 24 hours a day since I got it in April. So it's turned darker with age. |
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Did my first batch of SS media polishing today. All I can say is two things... 1) I love this stuff! 2) I need a media separator - badly!
Did .357 mag brass and some junky looking .223 range pickup brass. BLING BLING! ETA: Buffalo Arms is where I got the media and the Thumbler's Tumbler. Welcome to the wet tumble club. 
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After completing my first batch of rifle brass that was on for 4 hours all I can say was wow it sure makes the brass look pretty. I ran a batch of .40 for two hours and it looked pretty good too. Time to experiment this weekend. Another new member of the WTC. (wet tumbling club)
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Well, I'll contribute a tip I discovered.
My media from Buffalo Arms is magnetic. As such, I had a little bit of media in the bottom of my bucket, so I grabbed a magnet. It just happened to be the little plastic encapsulated, rare-earth magnet used to unlock our child proof locks on the kitchen cabinets. It worked so well, I just left it in the bucket, a few shakes and all the loose media was clinging to the magnet. The outer surface is smooth and seamless, very easy to pull the media pieces off. Plus it wont corrode. It was one of these... |
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Is anyone else having issues with water spots on thier brass after drying? I cant tell if its hard water or soap or what. It comes out looking great, bright and sparkly. I rinse in water and then double rinse, which i figure should get the soap off. The first few batches turned out great, but the last two i did today had a slight spotting to them once they dryed.
Any thoughts? Pat |
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When I first started, I got water spots, so I started rinsing better.
But I think the real reason was I wasn't getting the outside of the cases dry before final drying. I have a large towel I use to dry the outside of the cases with. Fold towel in half and dump wet cases in center. Rub towel over cases to remove all water on the outside of the brass. Then use whatever drying method you use to dry the inside of the case and the flashole. |
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See there, you used that twice. 
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Quoted: Is anyone else having issues with water spots on thier brass after drying? I cant tell if its hard water or soap or what. It comes out looking great, bright and sparkly. I rinse in water and then double rinse, which i figure should get the soap off. The first few batches turned out great, but the last two i did today had a slight spotting to them once they dryed. Any thoughts? Pat after i've rinsed the tumbler a few times (with the brass and ss media still in it), i'll then separate the media and toss the the brass into a bucket of warm clean water. brass then goes into a ktichen strainer sitting atop a five gallon bucket. i'll shake a bit to get some water out of the cases, and then run a blow dryer at high heat on the brass while it is still in the strainer, periodically "turning" the the brass with my hands. it only takes a few minutes to dry the brass this way (it conducts hot air very quickly) ... and no water spotting. |
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See there, you used that twice. I couldn't pass on the opportunity! 
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Okay, so I got my new thumbler tumbler a couple of days ago. I made the suggested modifications that Dryflash did and recommended to his (spray painted inside of drum, gluded rubber gasket and washers to lid, and I too got some better washers and wing nuts). I also did a similar modification that jlow did with a brace on the other side. Everything is done and dry so I just finished putting the whole thing together. I gotta work today, but I was going to try it out tomorrow. I got the 5lbs of SS media from buffaloarms, the dawn and lemishine from Target (Walmart was out  ), an empty 1 gallon jug to measure the water, and was going to measure out 2 lbs of 223 de-primed brass using a small scale that I use to ship packages. Is there any order of how you guys recommend adding everything to the tumbler? I was going to add the brass and media, then water, and lastly the teaspoon of dawn and 45cal of lemishine and then seal it up, put it on the tumbler and turn it on.
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Congrats! Good to see that you are up and running – exciting times! In terms of order to add stuff, the only thing I make sure I add last is the Dawn. I find that adding it before the water cause a lot of foaming and make it hard to see the fill level. My media pretty much stay in the drum between runs. |
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When I clean my media, its in a bucket that has a line (sharpie) at the 2 gallon point. The gray bucket. After cleaning, the water gets filled to the line.
So I dump the water and media in the drum as one. Sometimes the cases go in before the water/media mix, sometimes after. Then the Lemishine and Dawn. Definitely want the Dawn to go in last. Lemishine is not particular what order it goes. Glad to hear you can get Lemishine at Target. 
This was all my local Walmart had, must be another Arfcommer near you.
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Thanks guys. Yeah maybe-they had a ton of the lemishine rinse agent next to the empty spot where the lemishine was supposed to be  . I asked an associate and they said that they were going to get some in later this week.
I took a chance and proceeded to my local target and there it was. I am going to try to do a couple of batches today and hopefully I can take some before and after pics to display.
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Okay, like I promised, I got some pics.
This first pic is of some brass that was previously dry tumbled in CC media only (not wet tumbling) for approximately four hours before I tried out my new tumbler. 
Here is a closeup of one of the primer pockets of the same brass. As you can see dry tumbling really didn't clean it out that well. 
Here is a pic of some brass after I tried using my new wet tumbler the first time. Clean, but not super shiny. 
Here again is a closeup of the primer pocket of that same brass. Pocket much cleaner, but still some debris in some of them. 
Now here is a pic of some brass after my second attempt of using my new wet tumbler. Brass is much shinier. 
Again a closeup of the primer pocket of it. Pockets are all nice and clean and case heads look really nice. 
Here is a pic of one of each brass. Starting from left to right-the first is a drytumbled round only, the second from my first wet tumbled batch and the third from my second wet tumbled batch. 
And here is a closeup of the primer pockets of the same three in the same order. 
Here are my thoughts on this. When I wet tumbled the very first time I checked after about two hours and when I took the lid off there was hardly any suds. I added more dawn and then tumbled another two hours totaling four hours. When I opened them up they were very clean, but two things I found where that the brass wasn't very shiny (had almost a nickel kind of color) and though the primer pockets were indeed better, some were still not completely clean. So I made the following correction. I kept all the main components the same (two lbs brass, five lbs of the ss media, one gallon of hot water from the sink), but instead of adding a 45cal round of lemishine I added twice as much and I added alot more dawn(did the two second squirt like Dryflash  ). The second batch came out much shinier and the primer pockets were all clean. I still tumbled the same amount of time (four hours). Here is one last picture taken of my two wet tumbled loads side by side. I will let you guess which one is which.
I am about to stop my third and final batch from today (currently tumbling) and see how it turns out. I didn't deviate much from the second batch, but I did add even more lemishine to it though 
Let me your thoughts guys. Cheers, Mav |
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Okay, like I promised, I got some pics.
This first pic is of some brass that was previously dry tumbled in CC media only (not wet tumbling) for approximately four hours before I tried out my new tumbler. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/drytumbled.jpg Here is a closeup of one of the primer pockets of the same brass. As you can see dry tumbling really didn't clean it out that well. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/drytumbledpp.jpg Here is a pic of some brass after I tried using my new wet tumbler the first time. Clean, but not super shiny. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/Wettumble1.jpg Here again is a closeup of the primer pocket of that same brass. Pocket much cleaner, but still some debris in some of them. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/WetTumblepp.jpg Now here is a pic of some brass after my second attempt of using my new wet tumbler. Brass is much shinier. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/WetTumble2.jpg Again a closeup of the primer pocket of it. Pockets are all nice and clean and case heads look really nice. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/WetTumble2pp.jpg Here is a pic of one of each brass. Starting from left to right-the first is a drytumbled round only, the second from my first wet tumbled batch and the third from my second wet tumbled batch. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/AllThree.jpg And here is a closeup of the primer pockets of the same three in the same order. http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/AllThreepp1-1.jpg Here are my thoughts on this. When I wet tumbled the very first time I checked after about two hours and when I took the lid off there was hardly any suds. I added more dawn and then tumbled another two hours totaling four hours. When I opened them up they were very clean, but two things I found where that the brass wasn't very shiny (had almost a nickel kind of color) and though the primer pockets were indeed better, some were still not completely clean. So I made the following correction. I kept all the main components the same (two lbs brass, five lbs of the ss media, one gallon of hot water from the sink), but instead of adding a 45cal round of lemishine I added twice as much and I added alot more dawn(did the two second squirt like Dryflash ). The second batch came out much shinier and the primer pockets were all clean. I still tumbled the same amount of time (four hours). Here is one last picture taken of my two wet tumbled loads side by side. I will let you guess which one is which.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx295/chrisn_home/temp/BrassSidebySide.jpg I am about to stop my third and final batch from today (currently tumbling) and see how it turns out. I didn't deviate much from the second batch, but I did add even more lemishine to it though
Let me your thoughts guys. Cheers, Mav looking good!!! just finished my 4th batch tonight i think i have my recipe down now. |
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I don't think more Lemishine is needed. You have seen my pics, all I use is one 45 case full.
The original wet tumbling threads here suggested a 9mm case full. I think the key to bling brass is tumbling time. Do you have the fast (3,000 rpm motor) or the slow (1,500 rpm motor)? I have the slow, and found that 4 hours didn't clean enough for me. I tried overnight (about 14 hours) and that was almost enough, but not quite. So now I tumble for 24 hours. Try tumbling a little longer. Very nice post and great pics. You did not disappoint.
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I don't think more Lemishine is needed. You have seen my pics, all I use is one 45 case full. I agree. I tried upping the amount in a third batch and they didn't come out much different. The original wet tumbling threads here suggested a 9mm case full. I think the key to bling brass is tumbling time. Do you have the fast (3,000 rpm motor) or the slow (1,500 rpm motor)? High speed 3000rpm I have the slow, and found that 4 hours didn't clean enough for me. I tried overnight (about 14 hours) and that was almost enough, but not quite. So now I tumble for 24 hours. Try tumbling a little longer. I have been tumbling for 4 hours, but might try 5 hours on some more I am going to do tomorrow. Very nice post and great pics. You did not disappoint. Thanks! Glad you like the pics. While tumbling, I spent a couple of hours today cleaning out most of my reloading dies. Man there was some gunked up stuff in some of them. Now they are all nice and clean and waiting for some clean brass to be reloaded with. I thought of some questions too while working:
1) Would it be a problem if I let the contents sit in the tumbler awhile after tumbling before I tended to them? I ask because I am afraid of staining from the dirty water. 2) Can I trim the brass prior to tumbling or should trimming always be done after re-sizing? My plan now is to tumble brass clean, then re-size afterward so my dies stay cleaner. The reason I am asking is because it would be nice to clean out the shaving from the brass trimming while tumbling. |
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I discovered I was using WAY too much lemishine, which was half a teaspoon. I had really clean but ORANGE brass!
Dialed the Lemishine down to 1/4 teaspoon, followed with the two second squirt of Dawn, and tumbled for 4 hours. Nice, clean, bright "white" brass
I think water hardness might play into the amount of Lemishine needed to get the desired results. |
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I have a queston too. do you prep normal before you wet tumble? 1) dry media 2) size/deprime 3) trim 4) wet tumble is that your process? my process: rifle cases 1) decap with universal de-primer 2) lube and resize,trim and remove crimp if needed 3)wet tumble again for a half hour to clean off lube then store for loading for pistol brass 1) deprime with universal de-primer 2) tumble for 2.5 hours 3) dry and store for loading. |
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I have been using SS media for a few months now, and here are a few more pics for your enjoyment.
Thumler's Tumbler Model B High Speed - 5# media My mixture is. 3 tbsp Dawn, 1/4 tsp Lemi-Shine, fill water 2" from the top. 308 brass. 4 hour tumble. 
223 brass. 4 hour tumble 
9mm brass. 1 hour tumble 
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I don't think more Lemishine is needed. You have seen my pics, all I use is one 45 case full. I agree. I tried upping the amount in a third batch and they didn't come out much different. The original wet tumbling threads here suggested a 9mm case full. I think the key to bling brass is tumbling time. Do you have the fast (3,000 rpm motor) or the slow (1,500 rpm motor)? High speed 3000rpm I have the slow, and found that 4 hours didn't clean enough for me. I tried overnight (about 14 hours) and that was almost enough, but not quite. So now I tumble for 24 hours. Try tumbling a little longer. I have been tumbling for 4 hours, but might try 5 hours on some more I am going to do tomorrow. Very nice post and great pics. You did not disappoint. Thanks! Glad you like the pics. While tumbling, I spent a couple of hours today cleaning out most of my reloading dies. Man there was some gunked up stuff in some of them. Now they are all nice and clean and waiting for some clean brass to be reloaded with. I thought of some questions too while working:
1) Would it be a problem if I let the contents sit in the tumbler awhile after tumbling before I tended to them? I ask because I am afraid of staining from the dirty water. 2) Can I trim the brass prior to tumbling or should trimming always be done after re-sizing? My plan now is to tumble brass clean, then re-size afterward so my dies stay cleaner. The reason I am asking is because it would be nice to clean out the shaving from the brass trimming while tumbling. 1. I think the staining is caused by improper rinse and not drying the outside of the cases. Go back in this thread, I use a towel to dry outside of the cases then air dry. No stains. 2. I normally wet tumble brass that has only been decapped. No other prep. But I am going back through my fully preped brass and wet tumbling them. I don't think it matters when in you prep cycle you wet tumble. Just remember cases must be free of grit before sizing. So for me, I use a Lee universal decapping die to deprime dirty fired cases. Wet tumble, dry. Lube, size and remove lube by dry tumbling in plain corn cob. Then I trim, remove crimp if needed, and uniform primer pockets. Ready to load. |
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I have been using SS media for a few months now, and here are a few more pics for your enjoyment. Thumler's Tumbler Model B High Speed - 5# media My mixture is. 3 tbsp Dawn, 1/4 tsp Lemi-Shine, fill water 2" from the top. 308 brass. 4 hour tumble. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/5681906713_8df643717c_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5104/5675168684_c63f954c1a_z.jpg 223 brass. 4 hour tumble http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3493/5698416125_ac0838c4c6_z.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/5698418883_abc9c3b6d7_z.jpg 9mm brass. 1 hour tumble http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/5756177809_f78d26530a_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5756179099_5849cc3eb9_z.jpg Nice pics.
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Flash Not sure if you saw the other thread where the guy built the dryer for the top of his A/C coil outside. Pretty slick idea IMHO. I saw that thread, and asked about the aluminum screen. Not a problem OP said. Up in Wa. the AC season is August. I'm still using the woodstove in the mornings in my shop. For me, I'm thinking a light bulb for heat and a small fan. |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Wet tumbling with SS media, lots of pics New info second post 10-02-2015. (Page 2 of 23)
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