brass cleaning poll

Dry tumble here also, gets the brass clean enough for me.

Wet here, love it.

Dry for me. Its all Ive tried but I dont see much reason to seek an alternative.

Dry works just fine and is easy enough.

I prefer wet cleaning, myself. Right now, that means ultrasonic, but I've been looking at SS wet tumbling lately.

As far as clean, tumbled brass certainly looked shiny, but the residue left on my fingers got me suspicious.

To test it a bit, I divided an equal number of cases into 2 groups. Group A got ultrasonically cleaned, while group B got tumbled (with relatively fresh media). After that round of cleaning, I did a second round where the cleaned cases from each group were put in the ultrasonic cleaner. After this round, I collected the cleaning solution, figuring the cleaner cases going into the 2nd round should leave the 2nd cleaning solution cleaner. Below's the result.

A = US-cleaned; B = tumbled:

Wash in soapy water. Then dry and clean in the dry tumbler.

Been dry tumbling for over 50 years and it still works. I've got three tumblers running right now, in fact. I see no reason to change at this point, though I have an ultrasonic cleaner, but I don't care for it, or the mess..........

Hope this helps.

Fred

As others have stated it works so why change it, and for me I only have to do it about every few months as I have a lot of brass.

Potatohead,

Try area LEAD DUST contamination, small children, grandchildren, etc.

I resize/decap, wash it, rinse, soak it in phosphoric or citric acid solution, rinse, dry and then dry tumble in a VCC.

I've been dry tumbling my brass for 40 years now using a Lyman Turbo and I've always been satisfied with the results.

I have never felt the need to do anything other than tumble in a 50/50 mix of corn cob and crushed walnut shells.

Sure wet/stainless media will make the cases look new but at what cost? I'm not interested in drying brass and having water near my reloading bench.

Lyman 1200 set outside when it is not cold.
But, I've found a plastic 3 gallon bucket with a gallon of hot soapy water cleans brass just fine, and is plenty fast for my usage. Dump in brass a couple hundred at a time, stir a couple times with plastic or wooden spoon letting it sit for a few minutes between stirs. Strain out brass, rinse, dump in towel and shake out water. Place brass on old cookie sheet and oven it at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. Dump brass in clean bucket to set for a day at least to make sure it is dry.
That takes about 15 minutes of wash, 15 to dry 99% of the water. It is quite fast and easy to do.
No one tumbled until a few decades ago(And naturally it is pushed as a required tool by the manufacturers). Brass cleans up fine with a dry cotton rag for that matter, and it was done just that way for many, many decades.

I dry tumble most of the time.

When cases get real dirty, I wet tumble with stainless pins to get the pins back to like new clean.

I started out with a Lortone QT12 wet tumbler after doing my research. It is quiet and smooth, and known to be a high quality rock tumbler made to run for months at a time and last for years. I use it a few hours a week so I would expect a long service life.

I also started out with some great stainless pins that really make the brass 100% brand new in appearance, including primer pockets.

However, I have since stopped using the pins and just go with my water/soap/lemishine recipe. Leaving pins out allows me save time separating everything after the wash cycle and the results are 98% completely brand new in appearance. I really like the results, especially due to the ease of just putting in some water/soap, letting it run, and then rinsing for a min and letting air dry.

I have never used a vibratory machine with walnut or other media so I can't necessarily comment, but I know that I won't ever need media again and there is no dust or separating for me to do.

Wet tumble. Went that route from beginning. Brass is like new outside AND inside. I usually never have shortage of brass, so laying it out to dry for couple-3 days is not a problem.

Only problem is that it's clean to the point that I use spray lube before reloading, otherwise it's rough. Put ~200 cases in a bag, 1-2 sprays of Hornady lube and then shake. I mix those 200 cases with 400 others in a case feeder and it seems to work best for me.

I tumble all the time with a few exceptions. If they are muddy you need to wet wash them. The only part that needs cleaning is the outside to help protect the dies under normal clean conditions. Carbon inside is actually a plus over squeaky clean dry. You need some kind of lubricant when it comes to seating bullets. Having a consistent repeatable neck tension is required for accurate loads.

If they are picked up off concrete, I just dry tumble. They get washed in the sink if picked out of the mud/dirt.

I clean the necks of CF rifle brass with fine steel wool.

I dry tumble with walnut and add about a tablespoon of mineral spirits. The brass looks like factory new after just a couple of hours.

I have the time and enough brass that after universal depriming, a wet tumble with SS media and Dawn/Lemi Shine is the ticket for good looking brass. Then when dry a quick tumble with corn cob and Nu-Finish before sizing to make it slippery again is what I do. Use lube for bottle necked brass as well. I have even reloaded nasty brass (tarnished/sooty and just wiped with a damp rag and lubed) a time or two or lots with good results so what I do to clean my brass to mirror shine is just due to my OCD. YMMV

Dry tumble with a cap full of Nu Finish and a dryer sheet. Brass comes out sparkly and the sheet catches much of the dust.

I tumble with walnut, deprime, tumble with walnut, then tumble with corncob and brass polish (Frankford Arsenal Brass Case Polish). Brass comes out shiny, seems to shoot as well as I can shoot.

gonoles_1980 said:

I tumble with walnut, deprime, tumble with walnut, then tumble with corncob and brass polish (Frankford Arsenal Brass Case Polish). Brass comes out shiny, seems to shoot as well as I can shoot.

Click to expand...

Sound excessive. ..