Finally picked up my components, cleaned some brass, then I thought about this...after I put the brass through the tumbler, is it g2g,  or do I need to clean the "dust" from the media off? Should I just wipe it down, use soap and water, what's the best method? Is it even necessary to clean it off?
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to reloading!

If you add either a commercial brass polish (like Midway) or some liquid car wax to condition the media, you'll have less dust as well. Just let it mix in a few minutes before the brass gets added.

I also wash the brass with dish soap in a bucket before tumbling and it keeps the media clean longer. I roll the cases in a towel and put them straight in the tumbler. The added moisture keeps the dust down and I think they come out shinier as well. Tumble with the top off and the brass is dry when the media isn't clumped in the primer pockets anymore.    

I tried the dryer sheets, but I load the tumbler up to the top and the sheets were pushing media out of the bowl. I probably need a bigger bowl. I don't get much dust anyway.

I also have a separator basket that sits on top of the tumbler and the vibration shakes most of the media off and out of the cases. Like this one

Even with all the care to remove the media off the cases, always seem to get some walnut media on my lube pad. I have toothbrush and make sure the shell holder is cleaned occasionally if some of the media gets caught in there.

c:  What sort of media are you using?  I use plain corn cob and get no dust or residue at all.  You should be able to take fired brass straight from the range, clean it for a couple hours in your vibrating tumbler, then move on to sizing without any intermediate steps.  After sizing, you should "tumble" the brass again for about 2 hours to remove the case lube.  Personally, I don't care whether the finished brass is shiny or not, so long as its completely clean on the outside.  I don't expect the inside of the cases to come clean, therefore, I lube the inside of rifle case necks with dry graphite rather than anything sticky.  Additives for the media like jeweler's rouge is NFG as it gets inside the cases and stays there.  Corn cob granules will occasionally stick in the primer flash holes, but you can poke them out with a paper clip later when you are getting ready to prime a batch of cases. good luck - CW

Go read these tutorials, BEFORE you go any further.

They will get you mostly spun with the basics you need to get going.

And to answer your question yes, yes, yes.  You must lubricate bottleneck rifle cases - or the by the third very hard pull on the handle you will have a stuck case.  If you don't get them cleaned off the dust and the lube make sludge.

Good luck.  Reloading is a lot of fun and good occupation therapy for some of us!

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If you're using corncob media you could add a cap-full or 2 of mineral spirits to help clean and keep the dust down. Add it with the tumbler running with no brass in it, wait a few minutes then add brass. I don't advocate using car polish or stuff like that because it makes the brass slippery. You want it to grip the chamber walls as much as possible,if it's slippery it puts more pressure against the bolt and locking lugs.

Since you have cases with dust on them now either roll them around on a towel or blow off with compressed air.

Just use one dryer sheet. Cut it in strips about 1'' wide. Change when dirty.

I get some fine dust from the corn cob Midway carries. For the times I don't use polish I keep the brass in the separator basket (after the spinning process) and blow it with the air compressor.

The blowing gets off the dust ... provided I attack it from different angles and shake it a little in between blasts.

The dryer sheet works well, but doesn't eliminate all the dust.

I use crushed walnut and have never cleaned the residue off