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04-10-2016, 01:25 AM
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Which brass cleaning method?
Am feeling the need for some sort of brass cleaning apparatus.
Which is best: rotating drum, or vibrator?
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04-10-2016, 01:39 AM
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FART...started using the pins, lemishine and armorall ww but have since discovered that it works plenty good enough without the pins, maybe not quite as shiny but plenty clean enough.
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04-10-2016, 03:22 AM
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I originally had a rotary tumbler, went to the vibrator. Much prefer the latter. A lot faster and less hassle.
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04-10-2016, 07:32 AM
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For years I used my wife's dishwasher (with careful planning.) to wash my brass in small mesh bags . It cleaned but the brass was still ugly and needed extra attention to assure there was no residual water. Not ideal at all.
Then 20 or so years ago, I started reloading enough to warrent a better solution. After some research I bought a house brand vibrator from Midway. I've played around with different medias and polish's in that time (mostly due to availability) but have long since settled on crushed walnut shells and NuFinish 2000 polish. ( Throwing in a dryer sheet every now and then if range brass is especially raunchy.) Every batch comes out clean and shiny with little effort. Can't see any reason to "upgrade".
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Last edited by Wee Hooker; 04-10-2016 at 07:49 AM.
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04-10-2016, 07:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wee Hooker
For years I used my wife's dishwasher (with careful planning.) . It cleaned but the brass was still ugly and needed attention to assure there was no residual water.
Then maybe 18-20 years ago, I bough a house brand vibrator from Midway. I've played around with different medias and polish's in that time (mostly due to availability) but have long since settled on crushed walnut shells and NuFinish 2000 polish. ( Throwing in a dryer sheet every now and then if range brass is especially raunchy.) Every batch comes out clean and shiny with little effort. Can't see any reason to "upgrade".
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I agree, the only thing I would ad is that I would never introduce reloading components to any environment where it could contaminate my food or drink. Too much risk of lead exposure. I use the dryer sheet every time, cut into 1" strips, not only to help with the cleaning but to capture any dust created by the vibrator. I've found I can use once used sheets collected from the laundry and they still work great. I also do my cleaning out on the patio and not in the house or garage. Crushed walnut medium purchased at your local pet store is cheaper than the stuff they sell at gun stores and works great.
Nothing's more satisfying than to reload and shoot nice shiny brass. The intial investment and time spent at this endeavour are well worth it.
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04-10-2016, 08:41 AM
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Which is best? Depends on what your looking for. Want your brass to look like it just came out of a Starline bag? The wet tumblers are great for that. For me though vibratory polishers are plenty good enough. Cheap to buy, cheap to fill and easy to deal with. Dump in some media, cases, Nufinish and a dryer towel and walk away for 3 hours. Dump the contents in a media separator, give it a couple of turns and your done.
I have thought about a tumbler, but then I think "I'm only going to make it dirty again".
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04-10-2016, 09:05 AM
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If you go to a reloading forum and ask this question, or better yet search there instead, you'll see there's a lot of discussion on the topic. Here's what I have gleaned from some of those lengthy discussions.
Vibratory cleaners. Cheapest and easiest to use. Media types most popular, corn cob material and walnut shells. Popular additives, cleaning solutions and automotive wax. Down sides: doesn't clean inside of case well, nor primer pockets if deprimed first. Media becomes contaminated with lead dust. Use with solid lid if indoors to prevent adding dust to atmosphere. Plus sides: Cheap, easy, can also be used to clean loaded rounds of case lube (see below).
Wet tumblers. More complicated, better cleaner. Wet tumbling can be used with or without stainless steel pins. The advantage of using the pins is they will clean the inside of the cases and primer pockets if deprimed to look like new. The disadvantages of using the pins is they have to sorted from the brass afterwards, adding another step to the cleaning process. Also, they are very small and tend to 'escape', ending on the floor and else where. There have also been reports of pins being stuck in priming holes or left in cases and ruining barrels when the case was fired. Note on this last one: I've never experienced and expect negligence on the part of the reloader. Down sides: Much more labor intensive and costly. Can be messy. Brass can actually be too clean, resulting in the need for case lube even in carbide resizing dies. If proper techniques aren't followed, brass can be discolored. If you live in a location with extremely hard water, you may need to use bottled water to avoid deposits. Plus sides: Results looks like new brass. No lead dust or residue as all is rinsed away afterwards. Some add car wash with wax additives and report prolonged storage without discoloration or tarnishing.
No processing. Yes, there are reloaders out there that do not process their brass unless it's gotten muddy. The best I can say about it is it's the cheapest solution (if you can call it a solution). But it does nothing to get rid of lead contamination and leaves cases looking like, well, ****. NOTE: most lead contamination comes from primers, not bullets, unless you are using lead free priming compounds.
Note About Cleaning Loaded Rounds. This is very controversial and if you search the web, you go from extremes like it can blow your gun up to it can't possibly have any effect. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between. The danger does not lie in a round accidentally going off but in changing the burning characteristics of the powder by causing it to break into to smaller pieces. To my knowledge, this has never been conclusively proven, and some reloaders have done pretty exhausting tests, including one who loaded a batch of ammo, set aside some as baseline establishments, then tumbled different lots anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. Firing the lots over an chronograph proved no descernable difference. However, in all fairness, this was one type/brand of powder, and thus may not be representative of all powders. Most will agree that the few minutes (10 at the most, with 5 often adequate) in a vibratory tumbler will remove the case lube with no harm. If you choose to do this however, use clean media, as otherwise you will be coating your reloaded ammo with contaminated dust.
I think that covers everything.
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04-10-2016, 09:29 AM
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I use about a table spoon of Citric Acid, in a gallon of hot water, with a drop or two of Dawn dish washing liquid in a plastic bucket. I let the brass soak for about 10 minutes the rinse well, and let them dry in front of the AC/heat vent. Works well.
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04-10-2016, 09:39 AM
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I put in tumbler #1 with walnut media mow the lawn, then put in tumbler #2 with corn cob and car wax. look great if I want the inside clean ill throw them in the sonic cleaner..... How else would you do it
thewelshm
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04-10-2016, 09:45 AM
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I started years ago with a vibratory cleaner using dry media. When it failed electrically many years later, I tried an ultrasonic cleaner and wasn't happy with the results even when the chemical was mixed more strongly than recommended and the cases were cleaned repeatedly. Stains were still present, the finish was "dull" and I didn't case for having to dry the cases so I went back to a vibratory cleaner and probably have the same Frankford Arsenal one that Dave uses.
With the exception of case necks on bottleneck rifle brass, my cases come out looking like new or even better. Prior to cleaning them in the machine, I wipe the necks of those cases with Flitz to remove the black stain and then they too come out great.
Ed
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04-10-2016, 11:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ole Joe Clark
I use about a table spoon of Citric Acid, in a gallon of hot water, with a drop or two of Dawn dish washing liquid in a plastic bucket. I let the brass soak for about 10 minutes the rinse well, and let them dry in front of the AC/heat vent. Works well.
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this is all I do anymore for .38/.357/.45, I can't remember the last time I ran my tumbler. It all comes out fine reload after reload
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04-10-2016, 03:03 PM
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I just started reloading a couple months ago. I purchased the store brand tumbler from Midsouth Shooters supply along with their brand of brass polish and 10lbs of corn cob media. Total cost was around $65 for the whole set up. So far I've tumbled about 5k assorted cases and the media hasn't been changed yet. I usually dump the brass in the tumbler and turn it on before I go in for the night. The next morning I turn it off. All but the really tarnished brass comes out looking better than factory stuff and my total hands on time of cleaning it is about 15 minutes which is mostly separating the brass from the media. As I evolve through the loading process my ideas may change but for now the tumbler is the easiest, cheapest method for cleaning brass.
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04-10-2016, 04:58 PM
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They both work . I've used both and prefer any dry media method. The water mess and drying of cases is not to my liking so I use treated walnut in a vibrator. I have run walnut shell in my Thumbler's Tumbler but to me the vibrator type cleans them faster.
Gary
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04-10-2016, 08:53 PM
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I still use an old rock tumbler that my brother bought about 40 plus years ago, with some Dillon case cleaner added.
Tumble about 3 or 4 hours and they are clean enough. I never clean primer pockets, nor worry about it any more.
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04-10-2016, 09:38 PM
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I just put them in a tumbler of corncob with a cap of Nu Finish liquid car wax and let it run over night.
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04-11-2016, 06:43 PM
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Changed to SS wet tumbling and can't see myself going back. Less time tumbling and the added steps of rinsing, separating and drying still takes less time than dry vibrating and separating for me.
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04-11-2016, 07:54 PM
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I tried Joe Clark's citric acid wash today with 100 brass 45acp and 100 mostly nickel 38spl. They are laid out on old towel in front of hot air register now and look great. No noise, no dust, no walnut residue on cases. 20 minutes max time spent. This will definitely be my "winter" system when weather precludes putting vib machine outside.
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04-11-2016, 08:02 PM
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Vibrator with corncob media and a few ounces of Brasso dumped in. Gets them looking like new. I know you're not supposed to, but I also tumble the finished product for a while too in the same media. They come out looking like jewels, especially the full-jacketed ones. Never had a problem and I bet they feed easier too. Seems like they come out a little bit slick.
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04-12-2016, 12:36 PM
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A recent poster here stated that he used white rice.
Tried it yesterday with some Lyman's brass polish.
Actually works very well.
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04-12-2016, 12:46 PM
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Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-Ez Case Tumbler
In the tumbler I use a 50/50 mix of the 2 items listed below
Zilla Ground English Walnut Shells Desert Blend
Lyman Reloading Tumbler Media Tufnut
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04-13-2016, 10:48 AM
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Frankford Arsenal tumbler, crushed walnut shells (lizard litter from pet store), and Nu-Finish car polish here, but I add a couple of ounces of Odorless Mineral Spirits to the mix with the polish. That REALLY cuts the carbon off of the cases and shines them up. It's hard to tell nickel from the brass sometimes (at first glance) after they've tumbled together.
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04-13-2016, 10:53 AM
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Tumblers can be used bone dry. No need to add wet polish. I like corn cob media and instead of buying a tumbler from midway or somewhere go to a Rock shop and get a large rock tumbler. The are designed to run 24 hours a day and they last for ever. I've had my Lortone for over 20 years and it's still going strong.
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04-13-2016, 11:52 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smoothshooter
Am feeling the need for some sort of brass cleaning apparatus.
Which is best: rotating drum, or vibrator?
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How clean do you want your brass, and how much trouble do you want to go to to clean it?
A vibratory tumbler is easy and simple to use, and it will take all the superficial crud off of and out of brass, but it won't clean the primer pockets, and it won't touch tarnish. Plus that media has a habit of sticking in the flash hole and you have to deal with that.
A rotary tumbler with pins and detergents of your choice takes more steps and work, but it will make even the dirtiest, cruddiest, most tarnished brass look new... period.
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04-13-2016, 12:24 PM
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Vibratory cleaner. Walnut, corn cob, reptile bedding, whatever you decide to use. Just dump in your dirty brass, a squirt of car polish, turn it on and go away for a couple hours. Come back to clean shiny brass that does not require rinsing and drying. EASY PEASY!!!!!!!
Oh, and do it BEFORE decapping and none of the media will get stuck in the flash hole.
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04-13-2016, 02:44 PM
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But for the 10% or so of the cases that get a piece of media in the flash hole, a dental pick knocks it right out.
Ed
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04-13-2016, 03:03 PM
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The finely ground walnut shells from Frankford Arsenal doesn't get stuck in my primer pockets but corn cob and the Lyman Tufnut does.
The Lyman Tufnut has jewler's rouge so no additional polishing agents need to be added.
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04-14-2016, 12:08 AM
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Tumbler, corn cob, Nu-Finish.
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04-16-2016, 04:26 PM
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I do both but mostly just the vibratory tumbler. I don't bother with the additives as they take two trips anyway.
After a range trip, I'll break the firearms down, wipe off the loose stuff and give things a coating of Hoppes. While that's working, I'll take the shells over to my bench and pop the primers with a decapper. I'll set the trio up with a pocket cleaner and old brass brush for what ever caliber and a quick stroke on both. From there into either but usually the vibratory with some walnut. I'm usually back to cleaning the guns in half an hour.
If I only had one, it would be the vibratory as I like to use it with corn cob to remove any left over lube and a final polish, which is the second trip.
I also use it with the corn cob to slick up my factory .380's and 22LR's and then a quick blast of remi-dry lube the day before.
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04-16-2016, 07:54 PM
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vibrator with walnut shells
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04-17-2016, 04:30 PM
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I'm 73 now. 40 years ago, I bought a Thumbler's Tumbler designed for rock/mineral polishing. That's what I use today. I get compliments on my reloads all the time at my club's Sunday Pistol Matches. "That looks like factory new ammo" is what I hear most often. When I accumulate 300-500 empty cases, I size & deprime them. I clean the primer pockets of that hard ened residue with RCBS wire pocket cleaner and throw them into the tumbler. For media, I use crushed walnut media in the form of Parrot cage bedding from Petsmart, $17 for 25#, or about 5 refills for the tumbler. To the dry walnut I add an ounce of Flitz liquid polish and an ounce of mineral spirits. I start the tumbler at bedtime and stop it when returning home from work the next day. All I can say is my reloads always looks like factory new loads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
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