Wet tumbling on the cheap? Yes! It can be done!

So I have been reading over and over about the Wet SS cleaning method. I always said I would never get involved because I hate the idea of decapping. Why get into another time consuming event when you can just dump your brass into a vibratory tumbler with corn cob, mineral spirits, nu-finish, and some dryer sheets for 4 hours and get amazing results. Well, I have been receiving brass from some of my customers who know I am into this hobby, and they have been giving me brass that has sat around for years, or was range pickups, etc. Basically, my tumbler could NOT get the cases to clean up the way I liked. I cannot load brass that is not almost new looking (just a pet peeve of mine), so I decided to dive into this side of brass prep.

The problem with me is I don't have the cash right now to go buy a Thumblers Tumbler, and building one like Bigdawgs is even more expensive. So, I was looking around at harbor freights website, and saw this. It was on sale for 50 bucks, and I had a 20% off coupon so after tax I was out the door for 43 bucks. I figured screw it. They even have a smaller 1 drum model. I took it home and started looking it over. I took some normal brass that I knew was going to be put into the scrap bin, and used some water, dawn dish soap, and a 9mm case of LemiShine and let it rip for an hour. They came out almost new. These were dirty but nothing crazy, maybe normal dirtiness from once fired type brass before I dumped them in. Either way, they came out nice considering I did not even have any SS Media in there.

I called Pellets LLC Monday morning and ordered 5lbs of media (SCW-41 X .255). Then I went to HF and picked up another tumbler while it was still on sale. If you really didn't have the money, you could get 1lbs of SS Media online for maybe 15 shipped from somewhere, and then the single drum tumbler for 40 bucks at HF. I spent 86 on the two tumblers out the door from HF, and then 40 shipped from Pellets LLC for the 5lbs of media. Still cheaper than just the Thumblers tumbler. Grabbed a small digital scale and started decapping some brass that I want to get done. I figured if I put 3lbs in each drum, that's 1lbs media, 1lbs water, and 1lbs brass. These tumblers from what I understand are designed to hold 2lbs in each drum, then the drum itself weighs 1lb. They are for rock polishing and are literally left on for 10+ Days at a time to polish rocks. I am going to load these to 3lbs inside each so it will be a little over weight, but running only 2 to 4 hours at a time vs days I think it should be OK. Only time will tell. Weighing each out I came up with the following.

In each drum, I can fit this many cases. Each amount comes out to 1lb on my scale.

45ACP = 85
38 Special = 100 (95 Nickle)
357 Mag = 90 (85 Nickle)
40 S&W = 100
9mm = 120

So for me, running 4 drums I can easily handle my weekly shooting. I love the idea of being able to separate the brass into the different drums so that I can run 45's at the same time as 40's etc. Normally I would have to do separate loads in my Hornady M-2 or they would all be having sex with each other when I put them through the media separator later on.

Mandatory pics:

The tumbler.



It is belt driven. They supply 6 extra belts. Some people have issues breaking belts, apparently they replace with vacuum cleaner

belts and dont have any more problems. I am waiting to see how mine hold up.






The containers are made of a hard rubber, but you can still manipulate it with your hands.


Here is a little scooper I made with a 9mm casing and some wire. I think I ripped this idea off of Dryflash3, but I may be mistaken. Either way, its a great cheap way to measure the LemiShine.



Now here is the way I do this:

Put the 1lbs of media into the container.


Then I put the 1lb of brass in. (This is about 1/2lb of brass. This disgusting brass is a test run)


Then I put in the water just to cover the brass. Then I add in a 1 second squirt of Dawn, and the 9mm case of LemiShine.


Seal it up, then put on the lid and tighten it down. The first part of the lid is metal with a rubber covering, that creates the air tight seal inside.

Here they are setup minus one drum.


And here is a video (Click the pic) of them running.


So here we go with some brass pics. I am still in the process of doing lots of brass. Some was given to me that was in a bucket which had about 2" of water in the bottom of it, and he said it was in his basement for 15 years. Who knows how long these sat in the water. You can see how disgusting and green some of them are. I honestly from the get go figured they would be trash, so I don't care that they did not come out sparkling new.

Here are the before pics.

308



223



38 Special


45ACP


So now here is the after shot. These are dry, sat them in front of a little fan for about an hour. I also towel dryed them when they came out. I use the bowling ball cleaning method to towel dry them. The way I dump the setup is pretty simple. I have this and I fill the bucket to the top with water then submerge the blue strainer half way. Then I undo the lids on the drums, pour out as much **** water as possible without losing the pins and then refill and do that about three times. Then I dump the whole shebang into the media seperator. Close it up and spin, and all the SS pins fall to the bottom of the 3 gal bucket.

Here is how they came out after a 2 hour run. From top left, running in a counter clockwise circle. Good 308, Crap 308, Crap 223,

Good 223, Good 38 (There was only one lol), Crap 38, Good Nickle 45, Good 45, Crap 45.


Some close ups. I know the pics suck but I will get more later.

223


308


38


45


So there is a HUGE improvement, and the clean ones feel so nice. They have no residue like how a dry tumbler leaves on them. So weird. Anyways, I am running the crap 45's again for 4 hours. I am also running some of my brass that I fired off this weekend. I am expecting that entire lot to come out like new. I figure running 4 hours should have everything come out amazing, minus the crap 45's. I really do not see how they could become better as they just seem totaled. Hell, at least they are clean scrap now!

Here are the 45's I am going to run again.


And the 357's and 9mm's I am going to run.


AND! Here we go. This is a 4 hour run time of the 357's, some 9mm, and some 45's. This is 3 drums total. I will get to the 4th drum in a few.







So now the last drum. Like I had said, the first run I had done were 2 hour times and they did not remove all the corrosion. Well, I ran the "crap 45's" in a drum for 4 hours with this last batch. They went from...

This


To this. Seems the corrosion has turned into a very faint pink now. I think I am going to run these again for another 4 hours with my next batch to see if I can get them back to normal.



So I will keep updating with this, but that is the basics of it. I am still in shock as to how well this system works.

Sure I can do that later when I get home from work. Those were only ran for two hours, but they looked nice inside from what I could see. The brass that has run for 4 hours is brand new condition. It's impressive to see it in real life!

I actually am not going to use the 308, it was given to me and I don't own anything chambered in it was just testing. I will still scrap it as that was way too corroded for me to trust.

I plan to back off the lemishine as one batch was a little bit too orangish. Gonna try half a 9mm with of it. I just love that it actually worked. Now just have to figure out the exact run times and lemishine amount to use.

I don't care about them being harder to go through the resizer, but I have not noticed a difference anyways.

Bling brass is worth it!

Going to section one of the 308's sometime soon.