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Wet Tumbling (Page 2 of 2)
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I’m not doing any hand loading these days but I used to do quite a bit. I was an early adapter of wet tumbling and had pretty good luck with it. I would deprime brass with a Harvey deprimer before tumbling. The brass would be very clean inside and out including the primer pockets. Drying the brass would take a few days so I would plan ahead but it was never a problem. One thing I did run into was peening of the case mouths. As a result I shortened the tumbling time considerably. The cases weren’t quite as clean but were good enough imo. There are advantages and disadvantages to any method. Back when I was using ground walnut shells I would frequently get pieces stuck in the flash holes and that created an extra step to deal with, not to mention the dust. If I was to get back into hand loading I would definitely clean brass using the wet method but I would be conservative with the time and would probably experiment with tumbling without pins. |
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As @Sinister said, it's not supposed to take that long or be that difficult. Tumbling for more than an hour is a waste of time and you risk damaging the brass with the pins and dinging them against each other. I always wash before decapping & sizing and have never had a problem with pistol brass. The only time that I've had to stop and change the water was if the cases were extremely dirty. Running a hose while spinning the separator has always been a sufficient rinse. Doing all the extra steps seems to be costing you more time and adding frustration. Get the self contained spinner and life will be much simpler. The one that sits on top of a bucket is, IMO, a pain in the rear. The smaller unit makes it much easier to retrieve the pins and rinse as many times as you like. |
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Minimal effort wet tumbling rivals the best you can get from high effort dry tumbling. For reloading it doesn't really matter - we're just trying to get relatively clean brass, and 1 hour in a wet tumbler with no pins is going to achieve better than that easily. If you don't care about cosmetics, you save about 90% of the effort you can expend on tumbling, and still get pretty nice looking ammo (better than almost everything I did with dry tumbling). For me, the biggest benefit was the easy of workflow, dramatically cleaner process in terms of lead dust getting all over, much cleaner reloading press - cleaner everything - including my hands after loading a bunch of mags. If you want to go absolutely ham and get gorgeous brass, you can do that too, and I won't judge you (too much). |
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Originally Posted By dryflash3: Your primer pockets are the result of not decapping and not using pins. Don't size dirty cases. You can get results like I do, but no shortcuts. In all these posts, I am trying to clarify and report results. I am more disappointed than frustrated, I'd hoped for a better outcome. The primer pockets shown in the photo were after two hours of tumbling AFTER decapping. I have not been taking any shortcuts. I just haven't been using pins. I'm going to run these 45ACP cases with pins just to finally get them clean inside and out. My perception is there's a low risk of trapped pins due to the 45ACP case design. |
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Okay, one hour tumbling with pins got the 45 ACP cases clean. They are not perfectly clean - there's still a small amount of primer residue in many of the pockets but the insides are clean. Still, they are very much better and in just one hour. I suppose more pins or longer run time would have taken them to 100% clean. I ran the cases in my water-filled media separator to rinse them off and recover the pins. Once I thought I had all the pins, I ran another cycle to prove no more were trapped. I managed to recover quite a few pins. Then, I ran it again and got no additional pins. Then, I ran it one last time and got no pins. The cases and pins are outside in the sun drying off. Thanks for the help and for the discussion. P.S. - When the cases are dry, I am going to use some for a load development test for the Speer Gold Dots and Berry's Bullets Hybrid Hollow Points I bought. |
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Wet tumbling Always deprime before tumble Use Dawn and Lemishine 9mm go in alone .223 usually go in alone Sometimes i will do 10mm 40 and 45 together I use the small FA wet tumbler because I rarely have enough brass of one size to fill a big one. I never tumble with pins I rinse my cases in the bathroom sink. I bought a Lee Breech lock press just for depriming. Keeps the rest of my machines clean also the short handle throw is nice. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: Okay, one hour tumbling with pins got the 45 ACP cases clean. They are not perfectly clean - there's still a small amount of primer residue in many of the pockets but the insides are clean. Still, they are very much better and in just one hour. I suppose more pins or longer run time would have taken them to 100% clean. I ran the cases in my water-filled media separator to rinse them off and recover the pins. Once I thought I had all the pins, I ran another cycle to prove no more were trapped. I managed to recover quite a few pins. Then, I ran it again and got no additional pins. Then, I ran it one last time and got no pins. The cases and pins are outside in the sun drying off. Thanks for the help and for the discussion. P.S. - When the cases are dry, I am going to use some for a load development test for the Speer Gold Dots and Berry's Bullets Hybrid Hollow Points I bought. I am glad to hear you got better results….with the pins. This latest “kick” I have been on with the 9mm… Yeah, I always set the FART’s timer to an hour and a half (90 minutes) The batch I pictured on the first page of this thread ran for 2 hours. I was getting hungry, so I ran out to Subway, for that last hour. So when I got back, I was really impressed by the bling. 
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: In all these posts, I am trying to clarify and report results. I am more disappointed than frustrated, I'd hoped for a better outcome. The primer pockets shown in the photo were after two hours of tumbling AFTER decapping. I have not been taking any shortcuts. I just haven't been using pins. I'm going to run these 45ACP cases with pins just to finally get them clean inside and out. My perception is there's a low risk of trapped pins due to the 45ACP case design. But not using pins will effect how clean the primer pockets get. In my world a short cut. Pins are so easy to separate, why not use them? |
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Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
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Originally Posted By dryflash3: Pins are so easy to separate, why not use them? If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. 
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Originally Posted By RWEIII: Learning indeed. I will run 9mm, 300blk, 223/556 (load these on progressive) filthy brass with primers in, dry in oven, run great through press when reloading. Yep. No dirty cases to handle and deprime, just oven dry. Or lately I just put out in the sun for a few hours since it has been hot… |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: I punched a bunch of 45ACP primers out. Even though they sat out in the sun for about 8 hours, there was still some water trapped in the primer pockets. It was a lot less than for the 223 cases but it was still there. Also, all the primers and pockets were covered in a white coating/residue rather than the normal black appearance. Whether it was corrosion of the metals or a reaction with the combustion residues or just soap residue or... I do not know. When I have punched all the primers, I will return them all for another tumble to clean the primer pockets. Will use hot water this time. I may oven dry them to see how that goes. I do like being able to see the metal sides and bottoms in all the 45 cases. I may bore scope a few of the 223's to see if they are equally clean deep inside. I have a batch of 6mm cases that I will process once I get this process worked out. The Process (as it stands now) Dry tumble (to remove dirt) Lube, size & decap, trim & deburr Wet tumble for 2-3 hours (without pins) Allow to dry You can’t just leave them in one position and expect the water to all be removed. Roll them around in the sun a bit. . When oven drying I just set it at 230 degrees for 2 hrs, and I literally pile the brass an inch or more deep in a deep pan, and occasionally I stir the brass. That gets rid of any water that is collected inside the brass, do it a few times per batch and it will be fine. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: I finished decapping the brass and the 45ACP cases are back outside rattling around inside the tumbler. The need to decap before wet tumbling means that next time I will be sizing/decapping and trimming before getting wet for the very first time. Lesson learned - decap primers before getting wet. Another lesson learned - if you see brand new, shiny 45ACP brass on the ground, it's likely small primer brass. Beware! I think we should form a posse and go arrest the pin head who thought it was a good idea to make 45 ACP cases with small primers. <-- Out here in the west, we cowboys do stuff like that.  Started due to lead free pistol primers only being made in small size, then I think they realized they could save a dollar per case of .45 ammo… |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: Do we have hard water? Drinking it will turn you to stone if you don't keep moving. I used MUCH more citric acid than you guys mention. The large FART is just over half full of cases. FA says not more than 30 pounds, I am nowhere near that. I fill to the top shoulder with water, as shown in the FA instructions. There is plenty of space for tumbling, as you can see thru the end cap port hole. I could try pins for the 45's because you can see the interior of every case but won't do that for my bottlenecked cases. I have a Dillon media separator and used it as described when I first ran with pins. It was NOT 100% effective (that thread has slipped into the archives). Relative to dry tumbling, it has been hard, and long and had a disappointing outcome. I put another hour on the 45 cases with fresh water, lots of Dawn and lots of citric acid. Dryflash3 said, if the cases aren't clean, add Lemishine (citric acid). They were a little better with this more concentrated solution but that's now a total of six hours tumblng. We use Lemishine in our dishwasher. Maybe I should try that instead of the food grade citric acid. Maybe I should try deionized water for the wash water. Just use pins. They work. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. https://i.ibb.co/NgFjSGm3/Stuck-Cleaning-Pin.jpg I tend to shake the pins out of bottleneck cases and then rinse and shake them out again. I do this while holding 30-50 casings in my hand. Yeah it takes longer than straight wall brass, so be it. Not a big deal. If you use a brass separator the casings will orient themselves mouth up and makes it easier for you to grab a bunch at once. .223 are the most problematic, larger diameter bottle neck cases tend to let the pins out easier. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. https://i.ibb.co/NgFjSGm3/Stuck-Cleaning-Pin.jpg Could one magnetize the decapping rod assembly enough that any pins stuck inside a bottle necked rifle case would get pulled out? or if you have an extra decapping rod assembly could you epoxy one of those neodymium magnets to it? |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. https://i.ibb.co/NgFjSGm3/Stuck-Cleaning-Pin.jpg Originally Posted By Trollslayer: Originally Posted By dryflash3: Pins are so easy to separate, why not use them? If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. https://i.ibb.co/NgFjSGm3/Stuck-Cleaning-Pin.jpg A few tips from a seasoned wet tumbler, if I may. -Carefully collect all your pins and dump them into a recycle bin. And go buy the magnetic SS chips. -After tumble. Pour out the fouled water and refill with fresh water. Repeat 3 times. Is typically sufficient for clean brass. FWIW, I pour out down the driveway, I don't pour into my household drain systems. Definately don't pour anywhere that might someday be used for gardening -Use the big green rotating RCBS media separator after your last pour, to separate brass from media and residual water. 20 seconds of cranking is sufficient, and no, the wet chips do not adhere to the brass, you get a good separation. -in handling of your brass over the next weeks, any random chips (very very few) will fall out. -I just pour my brass on a towel, spread it out. And walk away. Time is your friend. You dont need to oven/hair dry. To me that is hassle and route to problems, screw that - juat let it air dry woth time. Though as another noted, annealing is pretty marvelous at drying brass! -I never decap pistol brass. I dump in, as is. But wait a week or 2 of air drying and respread a couple times. The air exchange for moisture removal in a short straight wall case in pretty good. The spent primer dries out well enough with time. But in a bottle neck rifle, terrible, so those dont dry out, unless decapped already and exposed. So I typically pre-decap. Usually in a progressive using a high end (now) Dillon spring loaded decapper. In pistol. Simple handling will cause any residual pins to fall out of the open mouth case (if any, generally none) In rifle, the resize, trim etc operations are your QC check. I OLD SCHOOL wet lube still - just what works best for me. And so have to wet tumble again to get that lube off, or it'll chemically crack my Giraud Trimmer (yes, a known oddity). So I have a second no-pin or media dedicated drum for that. If there are any fugatuve chips that made it through this far, they would show up here. And none do, I dont think I've ever pulled out a single chip from that drum, meaning no - chips don't stick around and make it this far (and thus, dont make it into your gun). And yes, I learned the hard way to hate pins. Chips are the way to go Of course you need to get a magnetic pick up tool, because the chips are a bit messy. No big deal. Enjoy the completely scoured clean brass, that will make mud coated range trash come out looking new. Helps you read headstamps better too. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: If I use wet tumbling with pins again, it will likely only be on straight-walled cases. That worked. When I last tried, I could never get all the pins out of my bottlenecked cases. The failure rate (trapped pins) was unacceptably high. Even using the media separator, I had to inspect and tap every single case to ensure I got ALL the pins out. I was surprised how many pins came out with tapping. Then, there was one instance where a pin got wedged across the opening of the case mouth (see photo below). That is just not okay by me. The thread with those stats and pics has slipped into the archives. I was using the 45 cases as a surrogate for a batch of bottle-necked rifle cartridges sitting on my bench. Many said you do not need pins to get them clean, so the 45's were a test of that. The test was a failure. https://i.ibb.co/NgFjSGm3/Stuck-Cleaning-Pin.jpg Pins wedged in neck. That's easy, they are out of spec, remove them and throw in trash. In the 15 pounds of pins I use in 3 tumblers, I've had that happen about 5 times. Haven't had that happen in years. You are going to get out of spec pins. Condemn the who batch because of a couple pins? Not in my world. |
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Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
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I bought some of the stainless steel chips. I'll see if they are any better (more certain to come out of bottle-necked cases). The Dillon media separator is a key piece of this process. It took several attempts but I got two in a row that yielded no additional pins coming out of the brass. It also rinsed the pistol brass. The Process (as it stands now) Dry tumble Lube, size & decap, trim & deburr Wet tumble for ~1 hour with chips (Dawn & citric acid) Dispose of tumble water down toilet Separate media and rinse clean Allow cases and media to air/sun dry The magnetic pick up also a key for pin handling. It works so well and is inexpensive. I even used mine under water. I hope I was able to drain and dry it. I was thinking of drilling a drain hole in the side. |
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We're cleaning brass here and it isn't a highly complex piece of gear that will determine the fate of mankind as it runs the plutonium thermal generator that is meeting our alien overlords three galaxies away. I get it, reloading is a hobby and you can get as simple or as complex as you want. It's up to you, but seems to be a tremendous amount of added and unnecessary work some of you are putting into it. |
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Originally Posted By Piratepast40: I get it, reloading is a hobby and you can get as simple or as complex as you want. It's up to you, but seems to be a tremendous amount of added and unnecessary work some of you are putting into it. Truly! I made a comparison of process step for dry tumbling versus wet tumbling. At the risk of further offense to some here, it is a joke, and a bad joke at that. Still, it is just a hobby and you can do it any way you want for whatever goals you have. Dry tumbling has 3 basic steps, 5 if you include all minor details. It uses 2 pieces of equipment (tumbler and separator) and 2 materials (media and a solvent). Dry tumbling is done with no significant involvement by the reloader. Wet tumbling takes at least 19 steps, 8 pieces of gear and 4 materials. It takes a lot of work. You have to really want the bling and those other side benefits of super-clean cases to buy all that stuff and do all that work. Does anyone know the chemical composition of the effluent from the wet cleaning process? |
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 It's a labor of love for me, as I like the bling. I come from the days before any tumbling. We were wiping fired cases with rags to remove grit before lube/sizing. Then we hand wiped the lube off the case one at a time. We ended up with stained grungy cases, but our loads shot fine. Only time we had nice looking ammo is when new factory brass was loaded. I was an early adopter of dry tumbling. Outside of case at least was clean. Still had to contend with primer build up in some cases. But at least our ammo now looked good, and NO more hand wiping of cases. Then I started wet tumbling in 2012 or so. Now we had clean cases inside and out. I was hooked. My policy is any cartridge case, other than new, get decapped (Lee APP with universal decapper) And wet tumbled before being placed in storage. No more having to tumble cases clean before loading them. I just lube and size. I kept my dry tumblers to use Corn cob to remove case lube. Using a wet tumbler is too much work to remove lube. You are correct on that point. At the moment I am working through 1K 5.56, and 24 pounds of 30-30. Have all 3 wet tumblers going. |
Selling agent for Algores carbon credit scam.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
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THREE ! ! ! ? ? ? LOL! Don't shoot, I surrender. Well, for most of us here it's just a hobby, so do what you like when it needs to be done. I'm still awaiting delivery of my polishing chips. I suspect it will be a while before I can do some runs with those. If they work for 223, I will use them on my 6mm. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: THREE ! ! ! ? ? ? LOL! Don't shoot, I surrender. Well, for most of us here it's just a hobby, so do what you like when it needs to be done. I'm still awaiting delivery of my polishing chips. I suspect it will be a while before I can do some runs with those. If they work for 223, I will use them on my 6mm. I use 4-6 things to wet tumble, the Fart, the FA cleaner, dawn dish soap, a small bucket for catching pins if/when I use them, and an old towel to dry them on..I suppose you could add water as well..the process is only as hard or as good as you make it... |
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Wash 1. 30-60 minutes in water/dishsoap. I have a FA collander and a 3 gallon bucket. Collander rests on bucket rim. dump brass into bucket. Drain bucket. Fill bucket till it covers brass completely. Swish brass, shake and rotate to fully clean. I dry brass in a modified nesco food dehydrator. Works great. Decap and resize. 2nd wash Soap and lemishine. Southern shine chipped media. Tumble for about an hour. Drain and flush. Brass must be under water to help get all the media to fall into bucket. Dry with Nesco. My last batch came out perfect. ETA. I corrected this post because I didnt actually think it was posted lol.  |
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1. Dry tumble with lizard litter (walnut shells) to remove dirt and carbon. Add a little Kroil/WD40 to prevent tarnishing if I'm not going to process further in the near future, and as a carbon solvent. 2. Lube, Size/Decap on a progressive press. 3. Wet tumble with dawn, lemshine, and BC Precision 5 LB 1/8" Stainless Steel Diagonal Tumbling Media. Here. 4. Trim with Giraud Tri-way like this.  Giraud Triway bench grinder powered 5. Prime on progressive press, label the brass with pertinent info, and store for next reloading session. There are other ways, but they are all wrong, and heathen bread commie nonsense. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: Truly! I made a comparison of process step for dry tumbling versus wet tumbling. At the risk of further offense to some here, it is a joke, and a bad joke at that. Still, it is just a hobby and you can do it any way you want for whatever goals you have. Dry tumbling has 3 basic steps, 5 if you include all minor details. It uses 2 pieces of equipment (tumbler and separator) and 2 materials (media and a solvent). Dry tumbling is done with no significant involvement by the reloader. Wet tumbling takes at least 19 steps, 8 pieces of gear and 4 materials. It takes a lot of work. You have to really want the bling and those other side benefits of super-clean cases to buy all that stuff and do all that work. Does anyone know the chemical composition of the effluent from the wet cleaning process? Wet tumbling has been less work for me, but I keep it simple. I don't use pins, I don't change water multiple times, I don't tumble for more than an hour, I don't use a dryer. I simply tumble, rinse, spin off excess water with a media separator, spread on a towel to dry, which can be a few hours or overnight depending on temps. Dry tumbling requires prepping the media, disposing of it, usually it takes at least a couple hours..I wear nitrile gloves and a mask and even eye pro to avoid exposure to lead dust. Then I have to clean my case feeder and various components on my press more often. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: When counting steps, you are glossing over a lot of them. https://i.ibb.co/8Ln7nq3P/Wet-vs-Dry-Tumbling.jpg Woah, step 1 has way too much in it, for my processing. I decap only, before the wet tumble. And sort as I decap into needs crimp removal vs does not, as I toss into 2 boxes, before wet tumble. I Don't lube and resize while still dirty, the wet tumbling cleans the brass before it touches a sizing die. |
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Originally Posted By lazyengineer: Woah, step 1 has way too much in it, for my processing. I decap only, before the wet tumble. And sort as I decap into needs crimp removal vs does not, as I toss into 2 boxes, before wet tumble. I Don't lube and resize while still dirty, the wet tumbling cleans the brass before it touches a sizing die. The process is a work in progress. The process for pistol brass might be different than for rifle brass. Step #1 would be preceded by dry tumbling if I was doing anything but decapping. While I was doing it, punching primers seemed like such a waste of time, as I could have been both decapping and sizing. The thought was, once sized why not trim, too. Then again, it might be better to trim after cleaning to remove any case mouth burrs. I don't yet know, as I have not gotten through this whole process even once yet where I walked away happy. |
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Originally this case was turned 180° from me, right before I was going to seat a bullet: Attached File Would I have noticed it without the bling of wet tumbling? I don’t know. Would the Armanov “hundo” caught it when I went to case gauge ‘em? I don’t know. But if wet tumbling creates enough bling that it allows me to spot a bad case before it gets into my gun, especially at a match, where time is just about everything, and jams are match score killers, I’m going to keep wet tumbling.
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If you couldn't see that, I don't know,... My "chips" will be delivered Friday, according to USPS. I'll start with a few 9mm cases, then do 223 Rem. I expect the 223 will be a real challenge. If all goes well, I will do my 6mm stuff afterwards. |
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Originally Posted By borderpatrol: Punch the primers out now! If you forget to, corrosion will occur over time, causing headaches. For me, it's more likely I will want to get started and not want to wait to punch primers. I won't be forgetting that wet primer mess any time soon. The "diagonals" (chips) have arrived two days early. Thank you to USPS. This will make some of you laugh, I'm sure. Now I need an annealer for my shiny, clean brass. I also need a radar chronograph to simplify range testing. Oh well, it is only another kilo-buck for the shooting sports?
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I skipped over the 9mm trial and went straight to punching primers from my rifle brass. I ran half a tumbler's worth of cases in 223, 6XC and 308. I used 5 pounds of what's called "chips" or "diagonals" rather than the pins. I used a healthy amount of Dawn and 1 1/2 tablespoons of citric acid. OBSERVATIONS - It took two hours to get the primer pockets really clean. Chips easily trapped by water's surface tension due to their low mass (more so than pins). Chips have less chance of getting hung up inside a case due to their small size. 6mm case necks fit inside 308 case necks. Everything came out clean. Wet tumbling is a real PITA compared to dry tumbling. Remind me again, why do you guys like this wet tumbling thing, other than for bling? ETA - The wife asked me, "Why are you washing your bullets?"
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| To each their own. OCD at it's best for sure. I have the ability to wet clean, with Thumlers Model B. But the time etc involved mess involved. No Bueno! Corn Cob and Dillon polish, Iosso polish, or Flitz polish work just fine for me. |
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Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
R W Emerson
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
R W Emerson
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Originally Posted By borderpatrol: Punch the primers out now! If you forget to, corrosion will occur over time, causing headaches. I am lazy, so I just oven dry them after cleaning with the primers in place. No corrosion issues. If you fail to do that though, yep there will be problems. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Originally Posted By borderpatrol: Punch the primers out now! If you forget to, corrosion will occur over time, causing headaches. Not sure what situation you're talking about. Are you suggesting storing wet brass without drying? When you run the uniformer in the primer pocket, should clean it out anyway, unless you're planning on doing additional case prep that involves liube, but why wouldn't you complete those steps first? In any case, it's your junk. You can clean it as fast and as long as you like. 
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Wait till you wet tumble with a pin size that roughly matches the case neck diameter. Thats a lot of fun to have pins stuck in the case mouth. Anyways, love wet tumbling. Dry is too dusty and messy for me. I only tumble one size at a timefor reasons you've found, different sized cases love to nest inside each other - Deprime using as depriming die - Wet tumble for 2 hours or so in water with Dawen and dash of Lemishine - Turn on oven at 170 - Drain out water, dump tumbler into bowl, sort out brass - Turn off oven (Once its heated up) - Rinse off brass. Place on cookie sheet. Dab with towel to get off worse of the wtaer, roll around a bit and dab some more - Put cookie sheet in oven - After half an hour or so take cokie sheet out, roll brass around, back in oven There ya go. Shiny happy brass. |
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Originally Posted By 2JokersWild: Wait till you wet tumble with a pin size that roughly matches the case neck diameter. Thats a lot of fun to have pins stuck in the case mouth. (snip) Dry is too dusty and messy for me. Look at Post #9. A capful of solvent means zero dust when dry tumbling. I only tumble outdoors, so it doesn't matter. I can't imagine doing either type indoors. |
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I tried wet tumbling like 10 years ago and started with the china freight dual drum to get a feel for it.Wont go back to dry tumbling again.Few years ago got an FA wet tumbler and been pretty happy with it. I use pins a shot of dawn and lemishine for good results.Both methods still require some after work dry had to poke the primer pockets out wet its separating the pins.Which i have a method for doing but it aint as bad as poking pockets.What i like is that the brass is clean and shiny but also does a great job of cleaning inside and the primer pockets. Normally tumble brass without pins after range then do my resize then again to tumble with pins followed by trimming. |
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Originally Posted By Trollslayer: ... I only tumble outdoors, so it doesn't matter. I can't imagine doing either type indoors. The only issue with wet tumbling is the noise. In the winter, I run the tumbler in the garage. Spinning out the water and pins is a little noisy, but I do that next to the sink so I have a place to dump the water and also rinse the brass a couple of times. I get it, we all have our methods and there are many ways to achieve thee same result, IMO, some just seem to be more painful than others. |
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Any one ever heard of wet tumbling too long work hardening the necks of the cases? Just wondering, saw a FB post someone making that point. Of course considering the source. I dry my brass using a food dehydrator my brother got me for making jerky. Using Alton Brown's method for making jerky you don't want heat. I digress. But for those interested in drying their brasswith one. Amazon has one on sale. NESCO FD-1040 Gardenmaster Digital Pro 4 Tray Food Dehydrator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9F7WJW?lv=shuf&linkCode=ll2&linkId=88ad71c943346518cf77a0db0e073d99&th=1&language=en_US&tag=pd001174829-20&channelId=1&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&plpRedirect=mhFallback |
Global Warming Hoax Skeptic before it was cool
Joined:
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WA, USA
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Originally Posted By vizsla1: Any one ever heard of wet tumbling too long work hardening the necks of the cases? Just wondering, saw a FB post someone making that point. Of course considering the source. I dry my brass using a food dehydrator my brother got me for making jerky. Using Alton Brown's method for making jerky you don't want heat. I digress. But for those interested in drying their brasswith one. Amazon has one on sale. NESCO FD-1040 Gardenmaster Digital Pro 4 Tray Food Dehydrator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9F7WJW?lv=shuf&linkCode=ll2&linkId=88ad71c943346518cf77a0db0e073d99&th=1&language=en_US&tag=pd001174829-20&channelId=1&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&plpRedirect=mhFallback Others report peening issues which I suspect is caused by inferior pins. All my 15 pounds of pins, for 3 tumblers, were bought back in around 2012. Pins available now? who knows. |
Selling agent for Algores carbon credit scam.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
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I de-primed some .45ACP’s the other night. Put them in the FART, set the timer for two hours. Then I went out to eat dinner. When I came back, it was still running. I did some other odds and ends. When I heard it shut off, I rinsed them, spun them in the media separator, rinsed them again, laid them out on a towel, and lastly, put a box fan blowing across them. NOPE! No issues with the mouths getting peened. And the brass looked bling bling brand new. (Funkelnagelneu for you German speakers) So, my random thought of the day…. A pic from a bing image search: Attached File Are there any dry media tumblers that have a built in timer? When I lived over in Illinois, there was a kitchen table FFL guy who bought military surplus brass and processed it. Here is his tumbler…it looks like stainless steel pins:  Fast and Friendly Brass Vibratory Tumbling |
Wet Tumbling (Page 2 of 2)
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