Cleaning Brass

[Dr.Tramp]

these "pins" ? where do you get them?

You can get them from several sources like USA Midway, BC Precision, STM, etc. so you can shop around for the best price.
STM and USA Midway offer complete kits, tumbler, pins, everything to get started.
I initially bought 5lbs and only use half of that to tumble so since they apparently last forever you don't need a huge quantity.
As mentioned, if you choose to de-prime the shells before tumbling it's a good practice to check for pins lodged in the primer pockets after cleaning. I've never found any in small primer pockets but have found a couple in the larger primer pockets of my 45-70 brass. No biggie to remove.
A friend that shoots "Long" distance bench rifle competition stopped using stainless pins because he saw signs of microscopic peening on his shells and thought it might effect the hardness of the brass.
When you shoot at 1000+ yards as he does such little things are considerations but I'm just a plinker and have never seen any negative effect on my brass shells or my stainless 38sp stuff.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp..............

 

[jcelect]

My only experience with pins!

I have never used wet/pins tumbling and will never use it! I bought some 327 Mag cases over the internet from someone that had used the water/pins method! After two broken decapping pins I inspected ALL the purchased brass and found enough pins logged inside the cases to fill 1/3 of a small pill container! I have used corn cob and/or walnut shells with Nu Finish car polish in a vibratory tumbler for over 40yrs. The brass is clean and slippery making it very easy on the dies and reloading!
jcelect

 

[mikld]

I wet tumbled in the late '60s in a machine shop where I worked. The "wobbler" (today called "vibrators") held about 100 gallons of liquid. Maybe 20 gallons of ceramic media and one or two 20 gallon drums of machined parts, depending on the size of the parts. When working, the whole shop shook.

I tried wet tumbling cases a couple times but the pristine brass didn't shoot any better, and the mess wasn't worth it (I could easily get shiny brass by just leaving the tumbler running a bit longer (corn cob blast media 14-20). I shoot alone, no need to impress anyone with my "purdy" handloads and I prefer to judge my handloads by what happens on the target...

Way back when, brown handloads were a sign of a handloader, a "badge of honor"...

 

[max503]

Way back when, brown handloads were a sign of a handloader, a "badge of honor"...

Heck yes. A point made by the late John Wooters. He also said something to the effect, "Heavy handloads, over time, will cause undue wear on even the best made, strongest firearm". (I just got done reading the other thread about the heavy lead bullet/Unique loads and I had to throw that in somewhere.)

 

[CH4]

I rarely need to clean my brass, but when I do, my FA vibratory case cleaner and corn cob media is plenty adequate to give me pretty brass.

 

[rockquarry]

I rarely need to clean my brass, but when I do, my FA vibratory case cleaner and corn cob media is plenty adequate to give me pretty brass.

Simply put, but about all that needs to be said. These threads always turn into the vibratory cleaner and dry media vs. the wet, ritualistic cleaning methods of the fastidious. Nothing new, nobody swayed either way, and everyone gets back to business as usual.

 

[dmar]

Simply put, but about all that needs to be said. These threads always turn into the vibratory cleaner and dry media vs. the wet, ritualistic cleaning methods of the fastidious. Nothing new, nobody swayed either way, and everyone gets back to business as usual.

Agreed, we all seem to gravitate to what works best over time. I'm a corn cob media with a cap full of NuFinish car polish guy. Brass comes out great; clean, shiny and smooth. I don't find dust to be an issue at all, I think the NuFinish helps with that... I never decap prior to tumble, nor clean pistol primer pockets, to me, it's a waste of time. I'll clean rifle primer pockets.

One thing I've evolved to over the past year is that I bought a second tumbler. Cuts down on my prep time, as I have my .38, .357, 9mm and similar diameter cases cooking in one tumbler while my .44 and .45 size cases are in the other. I get them all done at once.

 

[LostintheOzone]

I don't need my brass to look new, which I'm sure wet tumbling does. I just want it clean enough to not scour my dies, which dry medium does.

I don't wash my car every week either. I live on a gravel road and this time of year it's pretty much a waste of time.

I've sold a lot of dry medium cleaned brass and nobody has complained about it being dirty, but I understand why some would want it as clean as they can get it.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Gone back to dry media ...treated walnut shell from Midway .
I gave the wet method a try ...didn't care for all the water mess .
Don't have running water or a sink in my reloading out building ... also didn't care for the drying process and occassional pin stuck in the small flash holes that keep appearing .
Treated Dry media cases come out shiney and stay that way ... no need to treat them to keep them looking polished ...
No right ... No wrong ... just whichever way is most convenient for you ...nothing wrong with Wet or Dry ... Clean is Clean .
Gary

Me...........Lizard Litter with Nu-Shine car polish.......Does take long.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Soap, water, salt, citric. I won't do dry anymore because of the dust.

Throw 1/2 dry sheet in the mix and no more dust.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Throw 1/2 dry sheet in the mix and no more dust.

Remember to use a Used dryer sheet. New ones make a mess on the brass. They also help the medium stay clean.

 

[Goblin]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a sonic cleaner. Curious to hear about those results.

I use dry media with Flitz polish. Shiny as new in about two hours, and I have a crank-turned basket separator. I don't recap first, as I use a progressive loader and don't want the extra step.

 

[mikld]

I used a sonic/heated cleaner at work, a Heavy Construction Equip. Repair shop. Sometimes I'd sneak in gun parts and a couple times I cleaned some brass. The cleaner we used held about 100 gallon of liquid w/"soap" and worked OK for my use except the City had to keep eveything "environmentally friendly" whether the product worked or not and the liquid we had to use was no better than plain water which is worthless on a Cat diesel head...

 

[Boudiepitbull]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who adds an extra step to their case prep and decaps before tumbling. Shiny brass makes me smile and I like to believe clean cases resize with less wear on my dies. Walnut media with an occasional squirt of Flitz, start the tumbler in the morning, go to work, and come back to a future so bright I need to wear shades.

 

[len917]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a sonic cleaner. Curious to hear about those results.

I use dry media with Flitz polish. Shiny as new in about two hours, and I have a crank-turned basket separator. I don't recap first, as I use a progressive loader and don't want the extra step.

I use the Lyman sonic cleaner. Warm water, Dawn & Lemishine for 20 minutes/batch, rinse and set on driveway to dry. Decap first.
They come out looking almost new but clean.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

Dry tumblers pose a huge lead exposure risk. Save them for cleaning the lube off of loaded ammo. Lead exposure is also a good reason to decap before tumbling.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a sonic cleaner. Curious to hear about those results.

Cases get clean but not shiny. If you don't care about shiny brass then it's a good alternative. It's a dual use tool because you can clean gun parts with it. Sonic cleaners are also less expensive and more compact than tumblers.

 

[Krogen]

I used to dry tumble brass. Not routinely, but when I felt like it. Shiny on the outside, but not inside. Corn cob would stick in the primer pockets. Then somebody mentioned the dust. Hmmm... I quite doing that.

Like many folks, I went to wet tumbling with stainless pins - sometimes. Rifle and revolver cartridges as a rule are just wiped off and loaded. Semi-auto cases hitting the dirt usually get "pinned." Now that I started shooting ISSA, I use 9mm range pickups. Those get deprimed and treated to pins. Not only hard on my dies, but I'd probably wind up shooting sand and bugs down my pistol barrels.

The stainless pin approach really does make case inspection easy. That's a good thing with range pickups. It also makes the cases squeaky clean - literally. And therein lies a problem. The cases do squeak and drag on the expander. Sizing is more difficult even with carbide. Cases are so clean they have greater friction. I read about adding car wash n' wax to the soup. It does help by leaving a bit of "slippery" on the cases. I tried mixing Meguiar's wash and wax with the soup of Dawn and Lemishine. I found it's better to first clean up the cases with pins, Dawn and Lemishine. Then tumble the cases without pins in a soup of water and wash n' wax.

Perhaps I'm obsessive, I guess. But it works for me.

 

[rockquarry]

I've been using either a tumbler or vibratory machine, always with dry media since these machines became a fad about forty years ago. I've not had the dust problem that many here mention. If you're getting dust it may be because you're using a dry media not intended for brass cleaning or maybe the media is of poor quality. Put a tablespoon of mineral spirits or a commercial liquid polisher like Dillon and others sell. That should eliminate dust entirely.

 

[kbm6893]

If it's filthy range pick-up brass, I wet tumble with no pins to get them clean enough. After they're dry I resize and de-prime. I figure it's a waste to use a universal de-priming die if I'm gonna have to resize them later anyway. After they are resized I expand them. When I have enough expanded (the tumbler limit), I wet tumble with pins. Now they're clean inside and out. When they're dry I tumble them in crushed walnut. The wet tumble gets them so squeaky clean they can stick in the dies. The dry tumble with Nu-Finish polishes them up.

It sounds like a lot but the tumblers do all the work. The initial tumble without the pins is effortless. It's the pin separation that takes some time.

For my own brass that isn't filthy since I pick it right up, I skip the no pins wet tumble and just resize and de-prime, then expand and wet tumble with pins when I have enough to fill tumbler for capacity.

I find the process soothing. I like clean brass.

 

[Maurice H]

Start the tumbler and let it do it's thing for at least 4-5 hours; sometimes all day.

4-5 hrs seems excessive. Mine look great within two hours.