case cleaning

[BigChief52]

I see rolling type tumblers and vibrating tumblers for sale. Is there any reason to choose one over the other?

 

[9mmPatriot]

A very recent thread:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/668509-vibrate-tumble.html#post141363312

 

[The Norseman]

Shiny

Either one works just fine. Buy one you can afford.

Use crushed Walnut for the polish media, get from
Harbor Freight. You can add Nu Finish once in
awhile in the Walnut.

The Best to you and your Endeavors.

 

[mmaher94087]

I use Lemon-Shine dishwashing crystals, a squirt of Dawn dish soap and water in a large plastic coffee can. Dump in 100 brass pieces, cover and swirl around once or twice and let it sit for an hour or so. Swish around a few times and rinse with water. The longer it sits; the cleaner it gets. It will never be as shiny as tumbled brass, but it is clean enough to reload. I don't care if my brass is shiny, factory new, looking as I only want it clean so that it doesn't score my dies.

 

[H Richard]

I have always preferred the corn cob media, and add a minimal amount of a brass shine (made for vibrating cartridge brass with no ammonia). Add a "used" dryer sheet to soak up the dust.

 

[Tu_S]

Thing I noticed about the comment on roller v.s. vibrating, rolling generally means going to wet v.s. dry.

My personal experience is with vibrating for dry and ultrasonic for wet, and have found that ultrasonic does get things "more cleaner" but adds the drying step, and vibrating is more than good enough, and with the right cheap car wax does get it nice and shiny.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Just change the dry media when it starts to get old and dust, increases.

It is cheap and does a better cleaning job if not used too long, depending
on number of cases and running times.

Never used "Wet" but was sent some that were "Super clean".

 

[9mmPatriot]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wet+vs+dry+brass+cleaning

 

[1sailor]

Years ago I bought a Cabela's vibrating tumbler because it was on sale and the cheapest one available. I did not expect it to last very long but at the price it seemed like a good choice. It's been about 10 years now and it is still going strong. I once accidentally left it running for 4 days when I went out of town and it was still humming along just fine when I returned. My current method is running it once with cob that I added some Turtle Wax chrome polish to. Then again with cob and nu-finish. Works great. Brass looks like new and with the nu-finish the cases slide in and out of my sizing die much easier. Also, much easier to spot any cracks when polished.

 

[DWalt]

I don't particularly care if my brass cases don't look like they just left the factory. But I do use the previously described Lemi-Shine (citric acid) solution to clean them occasionally. I buy Citric Acid in bulk (usually 10 pounds at a time) off eBay, as my wife uses it in our dishwasher. Much cheaper than buying Lemi-Shine, which is the same thing, from the supermarket. 10# will last us around 2 years. But 99% of it goes into the dishwasher.

 

[MDF4]

I use Lemon-Shine dishwashing crystals, a squirt of Dawn dish soap and water in a large plastic coffee can. Dump in 100 brass pieces, cover and swirl around once or twice and let it sit for an hour or so. Swish around a few times and rinse with water. The longer it sits; the cleaner it gets. It will never be as shiny as tumbled brass, but it is clean enough to reload. I don't care if my brass is shiny, factory new, looking as I only want it clean so that it doesn't score my dies.

I use the same but run it in the Lyman Ultrasonic and comes out shiny and clean. One thing I did find was that it improved by using near hot water.

 

[Model52guy]

I have every type of brass cleaner. I have one small Lyman thumbler with corncob media, a homemade wet tumbler with stainless pins and a large harbor freight vibrating tumbler with walnut shells/nu finish. 90% of my brass goes in the HF thumbler with walnut shells. Does and excellent job and I can load a lot of shells in it. The wet thumbler is a lot of work with tumbling, rinsing and drying and I only use it when I have a lot of 556 brass to clean.

 

[Model52guy]

I forgot, I also have an ultrasonic cleaner I’ve used a couple of times.same issue with rinsing and drying. I usually rinse with water, then rinse in denatured alcohol to keep from spotting Works ok, but rather use the vibrating tumbler with walnut hulls

 

[MDF4]

^^^
I never had a problem with spotting but maybe due to me using distilled water?? Alcohol seems like a good process for finishing.
Question, if you use hulls is there a potential for getting stuck in the primer pocket?

 

[1sailor]

I've always tumbled mine with the primer in. When it's deprimed, anything caught in the flash hole gets pushed out. Also, I used to religiously clean the primer pockets. I stopped doing that a long time ago and it never seemed to make any difference. I reload pistol calibers mostly if that matters.

 

[chief38]

If you are SUPER anal and you "NEED" to have your brass looking like it was manufactured yesterday, then the wet method in a drum tumbler is the way to go. It is a lot more work and a longer and more tedious process but the results are spectacular.

If you want descent looking ammo that also functions perfectly and is more than clean enough but don't want to make it a dedicated job, then vibratory cleaning with Lyman Green pre-treated corn cob media ( no need for adding cleaners or chemicals ) is the way to go IMHO. Just throw your fired brass (no need to de-prime first) into a vibratory machine and after 3 hours your brass will be more than clean enough and look pretty good too. After vibrating, just separate brass from the media and start loading. No need to use a dryer and a machine like the Dillon 2000 will do about 1200-1500 HG cases at at a time. A small model will do about half.

 

[gwpercle]

If your loading area has a sink and you don't mind the water mess and drying the cases in an old food dehydrator ...rolling with pins , water and Dawn cleans them well ... they will tarnish faster if not treated to stay bright .

I've done both and much prefer the Vibrating unit with the Treated Walnut Polishing Media from Midway USA ... Frankford Arsenal might be their brand now ... it has just enough polishing rouge , just enough to NOT be dusty, and not be wet/clumpy when done , they are ready to load and they stay shiny ... No water , no mess , no drying and no tarnishing / treating to stay bright .
Get a Big One ... faster easier polishing when the cases have plenty of room . Usual beginner mistake is to buy one too small and then can't figure out what's wrong . Use Midway Treated Media ...just enough polishing agent ... too little = Dusty ...Too much = wet clumpy media that doesn't polish well . Don't over do any liquid Additives ... it get too wet clumpy and doesn't polish well . Too many add liquids and dryer sheets when they polish ...fight the urge . Midway Treated Walnut Shell Polishing Media ( Lyman shell media is too wet , I don't care for it ).
Do Not use Kitty Litter , Rice , Sand , Sand Blasting Media , pet store bedding of any kind ... I love saving money but this ain't the place to try and save a few cents ...Get The Midway Media ... it's not that expensive !
Gary

 

[jcelect]

Wet tumbling! ?

I hate the wet tumbling with the SS pins AND I have NEVER done it! The rest of the story! I bought some once fired 32 HR Mag brass over the internet! After breaking 2 decapping pins I found a stuck SS pin in the next case! After inspecting(and extracting pins) I found about 50 pins stuck in the remaining amount of 500 cases! I use corn cob w/NU Shine car wax! It makes the cases very shinny and very slick(much easier on the dies)!
jcelect

 

[Paul in Nevada]

My biggest reason for switching from dry tumbling to wet tumbling is lead exposure. This is the same reason you should decap before tumbling. I decap, wet tumble with pins and a squirt of D-Lead, rinse the cases thoroughly, submerge in brass polish, then dry in the oven on an old cookie sheet kept just for this purpose wrapped in foil. It's still faster than polishing in a vibratory tumbler. Save the dry tumbler for cleaning the lube off your cases after loading. No, it won't hurt the powder.

 

[Greenjoytj]

I tried dry tumbling with green coated corncob and red coated walnut shell media. I still had to rinse off the media slime and dry the cases.
So I bought the SS pins to try wet tumbling.
Wet tumbling with SS pins is much better, easier cleaner faster.
A lot less noisy than a vibratory style case cleaner.
Low sudsing Cascade dishwasher detergent works great.
A Lyman turbo sieve set into a 2.5 gal plastic bucket to catch the pins during the rinse off. Punch 8 holes in the bucket side high up just below the sieve for drainage.

The only disadvantage I’ve found is pins do get stuck in my small 22 Hornet cases, usually about 8 cases in 50 will have a pin jammed sideways in the case. Those pins are easily pushed out the case mouth by inserting a thin wire rod into the flash hole.

 

[ironhead7544]

Vibratory. Get some Zilla ground walnut shell lizard bedding. It is small and doesnt stick in the primer hole IME. Add two capfulls of Nu-Finish to one oz of mineral spirits and mix well. Run in machine for 20 minutes before adding cases. Works great.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

I hate the wet tumbling with the SS pins AND I have NEVER done it! The rest of the story! I bought some once fired 32 HR Mag brass over the internet! After breaking 2 decapping pins I found a stuck SS pin in the next case! After inspecting(and extracting pins) I found about 50 pins stuck in the remaining amount of 500 cases! I use corn cob w/NU Shine car wax! It makes the cases very shinny and very slick(much easier on the dies)!
jcelect

Did you ever consider inspecting the cases BEFORE you started your process...?

Cheers!