Cleaning brass?

[ChillyDog]

Not new to reloading and I use a RCBS vibratory tumbler with walnut shell media, with a splash of new finish. It works pretty good. Over the last 5 years or so I've started a lot of loading for pistols. Been reading up on the wet tumblers and different media for the dry tumblers. Such as ceramic media. Looking for some tips and info on what you all use. I use a good bit of once fired brass, I have a tumbler running a few times a week.

 

[Hair Trigger]

I've never used a wet tumbler; I have good results with my Lyman
Pro 1200 vibratory tumbler and medium fine walnut media. I load my tumbler with a lot of brass at one time (couple hundred .40 or similar size), and it seems to give me cleaner and brighter brass than if I do a small batch. I suppose the cases rubbing each other add to the cleaning and polishing.

 

[ChillyDog]

I load my tumbler up full as well. I had a bunch of untreated walnut shell I found on-line used for pet supplies it has worked well, but i'm needing more. I was going to ask what grit you
all use as well. With the walnut shell?

 

[22hipower]

I've tried various methods over the years. Finally settled on a wet tumbler (cheap stone polisher from Northern Tool). Brass, hot water, a little Palmolive dish soap and a bit of one of the citric acid based dishwasher cleaners. Let it run a couple hours and the brass comes out looking like new.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

 

[Hair Trigger]

I load my tumbler up full as well. I had a bunch of untreated walnut shell I found on-line used for pet supplies it has worked well, but i'm needing more. I was going to ask what grit you
all use as well. With the walnut shell?

I started out with a coarser material than I use now, had a lot of issues having to dig kernels out of the primer holes. I quickly learned to clean the brass before sizing and depriming, but mainly to save my dies from scoring from grit, etc. The stuff I use now is a Lyman product, about half the size of the previous media. The pieces are about the size of masonry sand, fairly fine. It cleans well, but is rather dusty after a few uses. I'll go back to a coarser material when I use this box up.

For those who wet tumble, how do you go about drying the brass afterwards?

 

[22hipower]

For those who wet tumble, how do you go about drying the brass afterwards?

If the wife isn't around I turn on the oven up to a couple hundred degrees, lay the brass out on a cookie sheet, put it in the oven and turn the oven off. Repeat if necessary.

If the wife is home. . . .I lay the brass out on paper towels on the tailgate of my truck and let the sun and breeze dry it.

Both methods work although you'll likely to get yelled at less using the second method if the wife comes home unexpectedly. Good luck.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

 

[Llance]

I laid my wet brass out on an old bath towel then set a small fan to blow over it all night. No heat just the basement air. My basement is mostly finished so they were laid out on the top of a chest freezer with the fan on one end. Two speed fan set on low.

 

[glenwolde]

I never used a wet tumbler. Until I did. I can't believe I wasted 40 years using loud, dirty, vibratory tumblers.

I just got a cheap Harbor Freight two-drum tumbler and a pound of steel pins to try it out. I'm still using it. I just lay them out on a plastic tray (it's actually a lid to a tote) in front of a box fan overnight.

The Harbor Freight unit is fine, especially if you're mostly dealing with smaller cases. Those little drums don't hold a lot of big magnum revolver cases. If you do a lot of those you might want to build a bigger single drum out of PVC pipe ala YouTube.

Pro tip: Keep the steel pins away from your garbage disposal!

 

[toad67]

If you do go wet, don't get rid of your dry one. The large wet one's work great for cleaning large amounts of brass, but if you decide to work up a reload for a gun, it doesn't make sense to run a full load of laundry for 20 or so cases. JMO...

 

[DeplorabusUnum]

Wet tumbling for me with SS pins, small squirt of dish soap and some Lemi-shine. When done, spread 'em out on a towel and turn on the fan. Perfectly dry sparkling clean brass in the morning.

 

[Rlg#17]

I was THAT guy that scoffed at the wet method until I tried it. I had a Lortrone rock polisher that I used with dry media that I finally wore out after 30 plus years. Tried the vibrating models, including the Magnum models and no joy there either!

Went to the wet model. I don’t even use the ss pins per an RCBS rep. Water, a bit of dawn dish soap (HALF a capful is Lenny!), and a pinch of lemonshine. Careful with the ls, or the brass will have a rainbow �� hue to it! Set timer and walk away. Rinse and dry.

Bought my bride a super new, mondo sized dehrydrator as she needed a new one. Took the old one and in the winter inside that is what I used to dry the cases with. Summer, just spread it outside.

Works well for me.

Regards, Rick Gibbs

 

[lrrifleman]

I am moving to the idea of a wet tumbler. How do stainless steel pins improve the cleaning? I have the Harbor Freight wet tumbler, how many pounds of stainless steel pins would be recommended?

 

[mikerjf]

Anyone tried a tumbler with pins but dry? Just wondering...

 

[jake1945]

franklin armory

The best brass cleaner is by far the wet method. I have Franklin Armory equipment that includes everything having to do with wet cleaning. Amazing equipment!

 

[gwpercle]

I've tried it all over the last 50 years . Rotary Thumblers Tumbler with wet , with dry .
Vibrating unit with cat litter , corn meal , rice , grits , sand blasting media , lizard litter - all with various additives like Nu-Finish , liquid car wax , Turtle Wax Chrome Polish ...
After it is all said and done ... the best method for me (mostly handgun)
is a large capacity dry vibrating model with Midway USA brand Treated Walnut Shell brass polishing media - this stuff is treated with brass polishing rouge and is not dusty ... adding liquids just shortens the life of the media ... don't add anything except matbe a tablespoon of mineral spirits to a dirty batch but not every time (mineral spirits will evaporate and not wet the media .
Have plenty of room , plenty of media , run unit with top on , Midway Treated Media is perfect , not too wet / too dry and is the correct size .
When it stops polishing ... change it .
Worst mistake is using too small a unit and not enough media ... cases clean faster when they have room to swim around .

What I don't like about wet tumbling is the need to get the cases perfectly dry inside and out and wet tumbling leaves no prtection on the brass ... you have to treat the squeaky clean brass with something or the shine quickly turns dull and corrosion will soon set in if you aren't careful .
With the dry treated walnut media ... remove and load !
Gary

 

[22hipower]

How do stainless steel pins improve the cleaning?

I bought the stainless pins when I decided to try the wet tumbler but tried it without them first. The pins are still sitting unopened somewhere around my bench; no need for them to get the brass sparkling and certainly don't need the hassle of separating the pins from the brass.

As to the concern about wet tumbled brass "quickly turning dull and corrosion setting in;" I've been using a wet tumbler for several years now and have no experience with that happening.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I've been loading since 1978. First "tumbler" I had was one I made from a 5 gallon bucket and a wash machine motor (using several small to large pulleys to reduce the RPM's to 7. This one used Corn cob media. It worked great for 5 years but I moved and couldn't take it with me.

The second was a Thumbler's Tumblers vibratory largest model and it would do about 600 223 brass at a time. I used it so much I burned out the motor in 4 years. It often ran 24/7 for weeks on end! I used bath fan motors but they only lasted about 6 months. I went to Lyman and RCBS vibratory with Walnut hush (shell) media. These all had bath fan motors and short life spans.

About 11 years ago I broke down and bought a Thumbler's Tumblers Rotary tumbler. (These were designed to polish large batches of rocks and were made to run weeks or even months non stop!) When I tumble normal brass I size and decap first.
2 pounds of brass,
5 pounds of stainless steel pins,
4 quarts of Hot water,
a large squirt of lemon Ajax dish detergent, and
a 1/4 teaspoon of Lem-a-shine (citric acid)
Let run 2 hours.

For brass that has been stained by sulfur based Black Powder and Pyrodex let run 3 to 4 hours max. What was blackened brass comes looking brand new INSIDE AND OUT, INCLUDING PRIMER POCKETS!

The only down side is the 2 pounds of brass limit. I gave my B-I-L my brand new RCBS vibrator.

When the Columbus PD reloaded all their training & Practice 38 Special ammo. They cleaned their brass in a rotary 30 gallon drum they made. It turned 3 RPM and used Corn Cobb media, and capacity was around 6000-8000 pieces of brass and took 1.5-2 hours.

Ivan

 

[Baltimoreed11754]

I’ve got an old Lyman orange ball vibrator. I shoot my cas match on Saturday, sort through my range brass bag to remove any shotshells. Sunday morning they go into the tumbler along with any practice brass from the preceding week. It gets plugged in inside my screened gazabo and I go to church. In the afternoon I separate the brass from the media with a colander. Sort out the brass into their correct containers and reload the appropriate brass for whatever guns I'm using next month. Doing BAMM/DA revolver next so I’ll need to reload .30-40 krag, ‘06 and .38-40 for my New Services.

 

[glenwolde]

I am moving to the idea of a wet tumbler. How do stainless steel pins improve the cleaning? I have the Harbor Freight wet tumbler, how many pounds of stainless steel pins would be recommended?

I use 1/2# of pins per cylinder. I then weighed the fully loaded cylinders and was within the maximum weight spec they give you for the cylinders.

The pins get them super clean in about two hours. Without pins not quite as shiny, but clean enough. It seems somewhat dependent on how much brass you put in if you're not using pins.

It is a bit of a hassle separating the pins. I found some kind of weird kitchen plastic container that had a basket that fit inside. I dump them in and stir vigorously with my hand while raising the basket up and down.

There's a youtube video of a guy that built a cylinder out of PVC pipe. But he drilled a lot holes in it. He dumps them in the pvc unit over a bucket and then tumbles them with a cookie sheet under the whole unit to catch the pins.

A colander doesn't work well for me, the holes are too small for my pins. If you can find the right thing to help separate the pins it goes quick. I sometimes find a pin or two in my drying rack, so you do want to be sure they get separated. If you shake them up dry you'll find any that made it through.

 

[Krogen]

I switched over to wet tumbling with stainless pins several years ago. The result is sparkling cases inside and out, clean primer pockets too. The resulting gunk in the bottom of the tumbler is surprising. One difficulty, is that this method leaves cases squeaky clean - literally. They squeak and drag on the expander plug. I learned that adding a dose of auto wash and wax to the solution cures that trouble. Others use One-shot to lube cases before they start loading.