WET TUMBLING - VERY IMPRESSIVE

Went to a friends house today to pick something up and he showed me his new system of tumbling Brass with his Wet Tumbler and Stainless Steel Pins. When I looked at the Brass it looked like it just came off the manufacturing line! I have been using a Dillon Vibratory Tumbler with the Green Lyman Treated Corn Cob Media and thought that was the Cat's Meow! He de-primes all cases prior to cleaning and even the primer pockets come out shinny new looking.

While I was thoroughly impressed with the results I have to decide if I want to deal with the extra steps of de-priming first (kind of defeats the progressive press process) and drying wet Brass in a food dehydrator. Yes quite impressive but my re-loads have always functioned perfectly even though they might not look Factory new.

I am also a little concerned about inadvertently leaving some stainless steel pins inside cartridges - can't help your barrel if they get shot out!

I've cleaned cases in my old lyman tumbler with a mix of bartenders friend and water.It works quite well.

I'm brand new to reloading and I'm still learning so thanks for the info! The cleaner set-up I'm using is a Hornady Case Tumbler and the first media I used was Hornady corncob media. After about 12 hours I was not too impressed with the result's as I could still see powder burns on the case mouth. After some further research I tried the Lyman "TUFNUT" tumbler media which is crushed nutshell treated with rouge.

After 6-8 hours I was REALLY impressed with the result's as the used brass looked newer than the unused Hornady cases I have on hand!! The cases seem to be a bit slick after cleaning so I wipe/inspect each individually after tumbling...

BTW, this is a dry set-up!

Wet tumbling and the green corn cob media are great for cleaning, but don't put the high polished shine, factory fresh look. For that , remove the corn cob media in your tumbler and try some walnut/nut hulls treated with polishing rouge, it has a dark reddish brown color to it.
I have used it for years all by itself . Some clean them in corn cob or wet tumble first, to get all clean, then run them in the polish media for the final high shine step. In theory the polishing media lasts longer...good economics if you tumble a lot of cases.
I tried wet tumbling, but didn't care for the extra drying step or the matte ( not shiney bright) finish . Some looked ok at first but in time turned dull. So I went back to rouge treated walnut, and just change it when it wears out.
Gary

Lizard litter from pet store or Walmart is walnut shell. Much cheaper than the stuff sold by the tumbler folks. Dillion's rapid polish works well, as does car polish.

chief38 said:

I am also a little concerned about inadvertently leaving some stainless steel pins inside cartridges - can't help your barrel if they get shot out!

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After I shake off most of the pins I toss a strong, small magnet into the tumbler, along with a dry cloth, and tumble that for about 2 min. That gets the bulk of the water and stray pins.

Then into the vibratory with cob and walnut and another magnet. This usually nets the last pin or two. Haven't found a stray pin in the brass since I started doing it that way.

I generally inspect my brass before it goes on the press. Not too worried about having a pin get in there.

I dump my fired brass into a bucket of water just to get rid of the grit and let dry for a day. Then I resize and deprime them. Then I tumble them with lizard litter and a cap full of Nu Finish car polish. Come out great. 3 hours in the tumbler. Final step is a sonic cleaning. I do this all in bulk. I'm in no rush and I actually enjoy the process.

If I were do do it all over again, I'd probably go with the wet tumbling with steel pins. The results are impressive and the steel pins last pretty much forever.

Reloading is like painting the house. Some guys really enjoy it and some guys do it only because it has to be done. I reload only to shoot - can't say I love it. Therefore the simpler and easier the process the better it is for me.

My real joy now-days is in Smithing and precision shooting, be it Bullseye or Combat. Reloading to me is strictly a necessity. Not that I turn out sub par ammo, but as long as it works reliably, looks respectable and is accurate, it is OK by me. Still ....... when I saw this Brass wet tumbled I was jealous......

Ordered the STM kit 3 days ago,should be receiving it this week. Looking forward to trying it. I reload 9mm,38sp,357M,40S&W,10mm,44sp,44M,223/5.56,308/7.62,30-06,35Rem,& 358Win. So it will get used.

chief38 said:

Reloading is like painting the house. Some guys really enjoy it and some guys do it only because it has to be done. I reload only to shoot - can't say I love it. Therefore the simpler and easier the process the better it is for me.

My real joy now-days is in Smithing and precision shooting, be it Bullseye or Combat. Reloading to me is strictly a necessity. Not that I turn out sub par ammo, but as long as it works reliably, looks respectable and is accurate, it is OK by me. Still ....... when I saw this Brass wet tumbled I was jealous......

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Full disclosure...I love painting the house. Some are sicker than others haha.

The wet tumbling certainly is not a necessity. I totally dig it and love working the brass to near perfection so there you go.

chief38 said:

While I was thoroughly impressed with the results I have to decide if I want to deal with the extra steps of de-priming first (kind of defeats the progressive press process) and drying wet Brass in a food dehydrator.

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You could just air dry it.

epj said:

Lizard litter from pet store or Walmart is walnut shell. Much cheaper than the stuff sold by the tumbler folks. Dillion's rapid polish works well, as does car polish.

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Great info! I thought I had it all figured out because I've been buying corn cob pet bedding from WalMart for years. I'd like to give walnut a try, though.

epj said:

Lizard litter from pet store or Walmart is walnut shell. Much cheaper than the stuff sold by the tumbler folks. Dillion's rapid polish works well, as does car polish.

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This, but with a cap full of mineral spirits added. 3 hours or so and they look like new on the outside. May not be spotless in the primer hole but I've never had a problem. With my son ammo doesn't hang around very long to admire anyway.

I'm the "friend" who's house Chief38 came over to, and saw my brass. For those who say they aren't bright, are tarnished, aren't polished and smooth.......I don't know what you are doing because, none of that pertains to my brass or the methods I use. I have never had a pin stay in a case, never had a case tarnish and my cases are shiny, polished, smooth and glisten. I use a capful or so of Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner in the Frankford Arsenal Wet Media Tumbler, tumble with stainless pins for three hours, rinse off in a bucket, use the FA magnet to take the bulk of the pins out, use a regular media sifter/spinner to get the excess water and pins out and then place the brass in a Harbor Freight food dehydrator ($25.00) for an hour. The results are astonishing and I can tumble in my reloading room with no dust, no mess, no respiratory hazards, NOTHING!

G

mosquito said:

I'm the "friend" who's house Chief38 came over to, and saw my brass. For those who say they aren't bright, are tarnished aren't polished and smooth.......I don't know what you are doing because, none of that pertains to my brass or the methods I use. I have never had a pin stay in a case, never had a case tarnish and my cases are shiny, polished, smooth and glisten. I use a capful or so of Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner in the Frankford Arsenal Wet Media Tumbler, tumble with stainless pins for three hours, rinse off in a bucket, use the FA magnet to take the bulk of the pins out, use a regular media sifter/spinner to get the excess water and pins out and then place the brass in a Harbor Freight food dehydrator ($25.00) for an hour. The results are astonishing and I can tumble in my reloading room with no dust, no mess, no respiratory hazards, NOTHING!

G

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I have to agree in all aspects! Just got my FA wet tumbler and magnet this past Christmas and I would use it more, if I had the brass!

For once fired brass, only 60-90 minutes. For really dirty range brass, 2-3 hours. Water, Dawn dish soap and a touch of Lemi-Shine is all I use. My brass comes out as clean, sometimes cleaner than new, unfired brass and I've never had an issue with it tarnishing afterward.

After I rinse and separate the brass/pins, I rinse usually twice with clean water. Throw it all on a bath towel and then turn on the ceiling fan in the dining room and let dry overnight. Know those little trays factory ammo comes in? If they are vented/open on the bottom; put your brass in those and let dry overnight. Excess water drains right out of the cases!

The magnet and a large FA Media separator will save a lot of time. Only had 2 pcs. of brass that had 2 pins lodged in primer pockets; push them out with a punch or screw driver-done. The pins don't stay in the cases, but a few do wind up in the floor! LOL But the magnet picks them up-no problem.

My Lyman 3200 is on a shelf in the garage. It always did a good job, but the FA Wet Tumbling does an amazing job!

I've used just about every cleaning method on the planet and can state with experience and certainty that NOTHING works better that stainless steel pins in a wet tumbler. However, there are a few issues that anyone going in this direction needs to be aware of.

First and foremost is flash holes sized "just right" for getting 2 pins stuck in them side by side. Because this can be a major cause of misfires or a potential squib I now ream the flash holes of any fresh case before it's added to the mix. This means a new batch of cases get sized, deprimed, and flash holes reamed before any further operations or cleaning. BTW, a 0.083 inch ream is the perfect size.

The second issue is getting the pins out of the cases. With small rifle cases like the 223 it takes a rather aggressive approach with the seperator to get the pins out of every case and I use an additional rinse with aggressive agitation to provide an additional stage to wash out any stray pins. Some days I'll catch 2 or 3 pins during this rinse and other days I get nothing, so I have no intent on eliminating this extra step with rifle cases.

Third issue is tarnishing. Too much time rinsing will cause the brass to tarnish which sort of defeats the purpose of using the pins. The answer I've found for this is Turtle Wax Zip Wax. Just two cap fulls in the tumbler will result in nice shiny cases that look nearly new and they won't tarnish even if you dry them in a warm oven.

Final issue is water spots. I've found the best way to eliminate water spots is to put a batch of cases in a collander and "tumble" them with dry paper towels until the outside of the cases are pretty much dry. BTW, I like Bounty paper towels because I can hang them up to dry and re-use them 4 or 5 times.

So, the process isn't perfect. However if you do it right you can get cases that look nearly fresh off the press and are cleaner than any other method can produce.

I have recently started using the wet tumble with stainless pins method. I add about two squirts of Dove dishwashing liquid and a cap of cleaning vinegar to the mix and let it run for two hours. it comes out with quite a shine. I then dump off most of the water and pour the brass and pins in my old Cabela's media separator. After I spin the basket for a couple of minutes, I pour the brass out on a terry cloth towel in the sun and spread them out. I have found very few pins on the towel or in the brass after using the separator. I pour the water off of the pins in the separator, the put the pins in a cloth and dump them back into the tumbler. Any left in the separator are collected with a magnet.

MyDads38 said:

I would use it more, if I had the brass!

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I know how I can help you......

Received my kit yesterday,Wednesday March 18. Package was 'intact'. Assembled unit yesterday,no problems. Ran unit,per instructions,with 38 special brass I had ready for the test. Started it about 8pm and it ran for 11 hours,I know it was more than the recommended about 4 hours but I wasn't about to get up from sleeping. Opened it up today,messy but I was expecting that,and all brass was like new/unfired. Even the few test ones I put in that conventional vibrasonic tumbling wouldn't clean up were like new.

oldman, your over cleaning your 38 special cases by about 8 1/2 hours. Seriously, with the right cleaning solution you can take blackened cases that were left outside for a year or two to looking new in about 2 1/2 hours.

Now for the recipe for my cleaning solution that has pretty much eliminated the tarnishing I used to get prior to adding the Zip Wax. It's a rather mild solution in chemical terms and IIRC for volume of water I'm using is about 2 gallons (it's a Thumlers model B tumbler). I use to table spoons of Joy dish washing soap, 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine, and 2 cap fulls of Turtle Wax Zip Wax.

For 40 S&W, & 45 ACP I'll tumble the brass for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, for 38 special and 357 Magnum I'll go up to 2 1/2 hours, and 308 and 223 cases get a 3 hour bath. The reason for the variable times is because I've found by experience that the deeper cases need more time, probably because the pins can't migrate through the cases as rapidly in a deep case.

BTW, what is really a peasent surprise is how quickly that absolutely filthy and near black 223 and 308 military surplus brass will clean up enough to make sizing possible without concerns about scratching the sizing die. Just 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes will leave the outside of the cases as clean as 4 or 5 hours in a walnut shell vibrator. However, I would recommend using a universal deprimer before the wet bath because cleaning with primers in place will leave a trapped bit of water in the primer pocket unless you bake the cases for at least an hour in a 150 degree oven.