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Old 08-08-2021, 09:50 PM
barretcreek barretcreek is offline
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Default Wet tumbling.

Picked up some wet tumbled brass, nice. Think I'll give it a try. I know it requires a rotary tumbler. Any other 'musts'? Anything to absolutely avoid?
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Old 08-08-2021, 10:03 PM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barretcreek View Post
Picked up some wet tumbled brass, nice. Think I'll give it a try. I know it requires a rotary tumbler. Any other 'musts'? Anything to absolutely avoid?
Use the smal, SS media, from sources like Sleeping Giant Brass. They don't stick in the flash holes and case, like the larger ones do.
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Old 08-08-2021, 10:18 PM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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Also, I think you need to make sure the SS pins are magnetic, so so you can separate it out with a magnet.
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Old 08-09-2021, 12:19 AM
georgeld georgeld is offline
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About 15 years ago I bought brass and then sent several boxes
of my own brass to a fellow in the Seattle area.

Said he used a cement mixer, Dawn dish soap and #9 steel shot.
when the batch was done he'd drop a few magnets in and let it
run a few minutes longer to gather the shot.

I've never seen brass so well polished, better than mirror finish.

He was having health problems. A few years ago I tried contacting
him to clean more. Address was no longer current. Apparently he's
died.
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Old 08-09-2021, 01:06 AM
Oso Polaris Oso Polaris is offline
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This is one of my areas of excessive experience. Things that you need:
1) Rotary Tumbler
Frankling Arsenol has a nice wet tumbler, but a simple rock tumbler will work. If you buy a rock tumbler you need to make certain the canister is deep enough for the cases to lay down and also for it to have enough diameter to hold an adequate amount of brass... so not the little Harbor Freight cheap rock tumbler. I like a 6lb drum size.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020652544?pid=238852

2) Steel pins (small size) that fit through flash holes

3) Dawn Dish Soap & Lemishine

4) Clamshell Separator (spins pins free from inside cases and removes excess water)
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/101291700?pid=176956

5) Large Towel to roll clean brass in to remove any water droplets. Due to potential contaminants, you don't want to wash this towel in your laundry machine. Throw it away when it gets nasty.

6) Large Tupperware container
Sooner or later you will get a leak or the lid might pop off... keep tumbler in side bin while tumbling. Then conveniently use the bin to store all of the gear.

7) Retractable Magnet for picking up loose pins.
https://www.amazon.com/SE-Magnetic-S...%2C258&sr=8-51
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Old 08-09-2021, 01:21 AM
Oso Polaris Oso Polaris is offline
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With your typical rifle brass from a bolt gun or pistol brass you are only wet tumbling for 30 minutes. With heavily sooty/fouled brass from shooting AR15 suppressed (think burnt motor oil) it is a 1 hour tumble.

There is no science to getting white gold clean cases. Simply fill the tumbler 1/2 full of brass and add steel pins. Add water so that container is approx. 75% full. The trick is that you need the water to fill the cases, which is easier if the primer has been removed, but this isn't necessary. Just shake and bang the drum to help get the water to enter the cases and the air to leave the cases. Now that this is done go ahead and top of the water to get to the 75" fill. If you don't do the "shake" then you will have inadequate amount of fluid for the cases to smoothly tumble and polish off of each other.

Add 2-3 small drops of Dawn soap (Blue) and a tiny shake of Lemi-shine (water conditioner/spot remover). Tumble away.

After completing tumbling I pour off the dirty water, and then refill the canister with clean water and shake brass. I rinse 2-3 times until soap suds and water are clear. Drop brass into separator and close lid and spin slowly, which allows the pins time to work their way out of the cases. Spinning fast is great for flinging off water, but less effective for jarring the pins out of the cases. Dump brass into towel for a quick towel dry on outside of cases and either place in sunlight or under a fan to finish drying.

Last edited by Oso Polaris; 08-09-2021 at 02:05 AM.
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Old 08-09-2021, 01:01 PM
JIMinTN JIMinTN is offline
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I have both models of the FA wet tumblers, both work well but the larger model does hold 1000 223 cases, lower #'s of larger calibers, so. I prefer the smaller model (300 cases of 223) as it's easier to deal with in terms of size of the container, weight, # of cases, etc). I use the pins that are supplied with the tumblers, never had a stuck pin a lot of people talk about, but the largest case I have experience with is the 22/250. 6mmBR is in the future, but.... 20P and 204R never an issue. I use a FA media separator to get the pins out, highly recommend it too. I use the lemishine and dawn receipe, but I usually tumble for 2-3 hrs, depending on the number of cases.

I deprime before tumbling, and clean the pockets BEFORE wet tumbling as I've found not all pockets get cleaned as well as others do, and once the residue gets wet, then drys, it's harder/more time consuming to get the caked on residue removed. JMO & E. The more cases you clean at one time the better it works IMO as well.
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Old 08-09-2021, 01:56 PM
Oso Polaris Oso Polaris is offline
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I started out 15 years ago using a nice rock tumbler I had on hand. It has two separate tumbling canisters that are 4" deep by 8"diameter and will hold 6lbs. I have been using this ever since...back then there were very few options for wet tumblers. I haven't been able to kill it and so I haven't bothered to buy the new gear. When it comes time for a new unit then I will most likely buy one of the purpose built models wit a big canister.



What I do like about having the two canisters is that I have flexibility to do mixed batches and smaller quantities, or just load up both canisters and do 300 cases of large rifle brass. Yesterday, I ran a batch of 150 cases of 300 BO (really dirty) in one canister and in the other I ran 6.5 Grendel (100 cases), 17-222 (50 cases), 17 fireball (50 cases).

My pearls of wisdom after tumbling a couple hundred thousand cases:
1) Get a storage bin to store gear in as well as to keep your tumbler inside while it is running. The mess of a leak or having a lid pop because you didn't seal/tighten properly really sucks (black contaminated water, soap suds, and steel pins).

2) Run the magnetic across and through all of your brass before tumbling. One single lacquered steel case (budget friendly ammo for pistol or rifle) will absolutely ruin a load and foul your gear. It will take better side of a 1-2 hour of rubbing and scrubbing out you gear to clean off the oily residue from the canister and pins, which you then will need to tumble a time or two to really clean them. Ask me how I know this. Magnet check everything. The lacquered cases look really similar to a sooty pistol brass or brass shot through a suppressed AR15.

3) Break the mindset of long tumbling times ingrained from vibrating tumblers. 1 hour maximum.... I can take range pickup that has sat buried in mud and filthy suppressed AR15 brass that you only want to touch while wearing gloves and within 1 hour make it white gold... brighter then when it was fresh new. If the load is that filthy (carbon, powder residue, or dirt) and you are concerned then you can simply pour out the dirty water midway through the tumble cycle, and refill water and add a couple of drops of soap and let it keep running for another 30 minutes. I seldom bother to do this.

4) When you have finished using your gear then wipe down the inside of the drum as well as the inside of the separator with paper towels. and set the steel pins in the sun or under a fan to completely dry out for a couple of days. Yes, if you put them away wet they will lightly rust. If this happens then simply do a run of just the pins with water and a drop of soap in the tumbler. After 20 minutes the pins will be restored to sparkly clean.

Last edited by Oso Polaris; 08-09-2021 at 02:04 PM.
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  #9  
Old 08-09-2021, 02:02 PM
pertnear pertnear is offline
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Some great tips in this thread. I've used the FA large model tumbler for a few years now & here is my tip. If you tumble brass that still has sizing lube, eventually your pins will need cleaning. You'll notice that you're not getting that brilliant shine anymore & the brass will even look dingy. So every so often, as needed, I'll clean the pins with a 15 min tumble in Dep purple degreaser & then rinse them thoroughly. Things are back like brand new after that.
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Old 08-09-2021, 02:35 PM
SShooterZ SShooterZ is offline
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Thanks to wet tumbling, cleaning brass has become one of my more enjoyable steps in reloading. I try and find the dirtiest piece of brass I can at the range and tumble it and without fail, it comes out shining like a new dime. Amazing results.

My equipment is as follows:

Thumblers Tumbler
1 gallon container (old milk container is perfect)
5 lbs of stanless media (I think I bought mine from Brownells)
Dawn
Lemishine
RCBS rotary case/media seperator
Large kitchen strainer
Bucket

I typically deprime my brass, drop it in the tumbler, add 1 gallon of water and then 2 tablespoons of Dawn and a 1/2 teaspoon of Lemishine.

I tumble anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours depending on how dirty the brass is.

When I'm done, remove the tumbler, and remove the lid. I like to dump as much of the dirty water as I can into the bucket, while pouring through the kitchen strainer to catch any runaway pins/brass. I then dump the remaining brass/pins into the RCBS media separator. After a few spins, I dump the brass into the strainer for a fresh water bath. I then use another gallon of clean water to rinse all the brass and try to remove as much of the cleaning solution off them as possible. When done, I dump the strainer full of brass onto a clean rag that I toss around a little bit to free up any stubborn pins and remove as much water as I can. I then stand up the brass on a couple of paper towels and let sit for a day or two. When all is said and done, clean brass ready for prep.
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