A Dirty FART

[lgjhn]

I recently wet-tumbled (with pins) a couple of batches of 7.62 in my FART.
Both batches had a lot of old hardened carbon in em.
I used 9mm case of LemiShine, a quick squirt of Dawn and warm water for both batches.
The first batch came out fairly decent, no carbon or dirt...not super bright, but they were acceptable.
The 2nd batch...not so much. they were pretty darn dingy.
I looked inside the FART and wiped with a clean paper towel. I picked up a lot of black soot.
So I filled it with hot water, added dishwasher soap Pod and a couple of clean micro-fiber towels and let it run for a couple of hours.
When I dumped the water, it was black like it would be if I was actually tumbling dirty brass. Kinda surprised me. Both towels rinsed out dark water as well. Rinsed it out well, then wiped it dry inside with another clean paper towel and didn’t pick up anymore black soot marks.
I did a search on here, but nothing came up about this particular issue.
Has anyone else run into this where the inside of the FART becomes grungy along with dingy brass from it? Thanks.

 

[Skgreen]

Has anyone else run into this where the inside of the FART becomes grungy

Not if I use the right balance of chemicals and don't overload the machine.
After tumbling your brass, were there any suds left? If not, you may consider using more Dawn.

 

[lgjhn]

Not if I use the right balance of chemicals and don't overload the machine.
After tumbling your brass, were there any suds left? If not, you may consider using more Dawn.

I may have been a little light on the Dawn compared to the first batch as the suds were no where near as heavy as on the first batch.

 

[dcloco]

Use more lemishine.

The PH of every person's water is different across the U.S. Water here is HARD water. I use a tablespoon of lemishine. Anything less, leads to dull brass.

 

[peels]

Agreed on not enough dawn. I usually get bad results when I try to go easy on the dawn. If you don't notice at least a 1/4 inch layer of suds at the end of tumbling, it's probably not enough dawn.

 

[Highland Lofts]

For our city water I use a cap of ArmorAll Wash & Wax, a 1/2 teaspoon of lemishine and a small squirter of Dawn.
Put the brass in the tumbler, fill with HOT tap water, add the additives.
Run an hour or so, dump the dirty water, fill the tumbler with cold water & drain to rinse the brass.
Fill the tumbler up again with hot tap water & run about fifteen minutes. I then dump the water.
Dump the brass in a big plastic bowl or small bucket with warm tap water. I take a small handful of the brass in my left hand, grab two cases & swish them in the warm water, give them a quick check over and put them on my drying racks.

It take a little extra time, but I check the brass for damages, the cases get 100% dry and I have an accurate count on my brass for storage afterwards.

Rinceing the brass then tumbling the brass again in hot water helps eliminate the crud in your tumbler.

Cases do get a lot of carbon and other nasty material on them that dry tumbleing leaves behind. Wet tumbleing is the only way to go.


I tumbled a bunch of 9mm today.

 

[WeekendReloader]

I use Wash&wax and Lemishine. No Dawn. Definitely need the suds when you open it up. No suds = dull brass and dirty pins.
The soap helps hold all the carbon in suspension so it doesn't cling to everything.

 

[Blue68f100]

Most all times if your pins come out dirty (or drum) you did not use enough soap (surfactant) to suspend all the dirt. Don't skimp on the soap, extra does not hurt. I use W&W since it has a polymer to prevent the brass from tarnishing. When I switched over to county water from my well water I had to increase the LimeShine from 1/4 tsp to 2 tsp. My well water was very acidic, enough it was damaging copper plumbing. So the amount citric needed varies depending on your water.

 

[AJC1]

I see this when I dont have enough for two loads of wash and I try and do to much at once. The problem can always be fixed with a short second cycle like you did to get the rest of the dirt out. Ten minutes is usually plenty.

 

[lgjhn]

I use Wash&wax and Lemishine. No Dawn. Definitely need the suds when you open it up. No suds = dull brass and dirty pins.
The soap helps hold all the carbon in suspension so it doesn't cling to everything.

Thanks, guys, for the responses.
I do believe that’s what happened....I didn’t use enough soap in both batches and ending up with the dirt hanging to the cases in the 2nd batch as well as inside of the FART.
The pins got a good rinse afterwards and do not feel show or feel dirty.
The two micro-fiber towels, dishwasher pod and hot water for a 2-hour run seemed to do the job in cleaning it all out....no signs of dirt now.
It will be awhile before I need to clean another batch, but I’m definitely going up the soap amount. I may even give AW&W a try as well, especially on brass that won’t get reloaded for awhile.
Again, thanks to everyone for the assistance.

 

[lightman]

With that thread title I was hesitant to click on it! LOL

Occasionally I'll get a load of brass that comes out dull and gray looking. I just run it again. Several years ago I quit using Dawn and went to ArmorAll Wash and Wax. I don't think the cases come out quite as shiny as they did with the Dawn but I like the wax coating from the Wash and Wax. I started the habit to occasionally tumble my media in Dawn to just wash it and the drum.

Everyone's water will be different and coming up with the right formula is trial and error. But whatever kind of water you have you want to see soap suds when you empty it.

 

[lgjhn]

I couldn’t help it. Honestly, I couldn’t. I had to know.
Some say I’m OCD. Others just call me an ornery, old, grumpy man.
I had to run em again....just to be sure. I just had to.
I cut the batch in half, hot water, added a pinch more LemiShine that was dissolved before adding in. a hefty squirt of Dawn and a capful of AW&W.
Ran em, without pins as the insides were already clean, for about 45 min. Two good 10 min cold water rinse cycles....and Voila!!!
The batch on the right is the dingy, that batch on the left is the newly cleaned.
The difference is more dramatic in real life than the picture shows, but yeah, it did the trick.
They’re now on their way to the food dehydrator for drying.

 

[Rule3]

You guys need to add Finish Jet Dry to your formulas.

Tired of unloading a FART full of wet and spotty brass? Don't blame your FART. Simply fill your machine's rinse aid compartment with Finish Jet-Dry 3in1 to solve three problems at once - it rinses, dries, and shines what detergent alone can’t! • Rinses away leftover food and film • Dries left behind water droplets • Clears spots for a brilliant shine • Easy to use, simply refill the rinse aid compartment every few weeks, not every wash

 

[Highland Lofts]

I'm getting out of the house for a couple of hours I think I'll stop by Walmart and pick a container of Jet Dry up and try it out tomorrow.

I'll try it alone and then with the other stuff I use.

 

[Rule3]

I'm getting out of the house for a couple of hours I think I'll stop by Walmart and pick a container of Jet Dry up and try it out tomorrow.

I'll try it alone and then with the other stuff I use.

Don't buy it based on what I wrote, I was kinda being sarcastic.

 

[45CalPal]

I was talking to a local shop here in the midwest and he says he uses CLR diluted to a 60/40 with tap water, then a good water rinse and air gun dry.

 

[brewer12345]

I just have to say that the thread title is awesome. Up there with the best muzzleloading terms (nipple wrench, etc.).

 

[lgjhn]

I was talking to a local shop here in the midwest and he says he uses CLR diluted to a 60/40 with tap water, then a good water rinse and air gun dry.

I’ve done experiments, using ruined, unusable brass split in two, with CLR via of an ultrasonic cleaner.
Full strength is a complete no-no. It caused the brass to leach out, especially where it was annealed.
I then tried different diluted strengths on my samples and found that the 40% strength as you mentioned and running at two 8-minute cycles in an ultrasonic didn’t seem to bother the brass much, but yet, did a fairly good job of lifting off stubborn carbon.
I was kinda leery of running it in the FART and decided to stick with what others have successfully used.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Don't buy it based on what I wrote, I was kinda being sarcastic.

I've thought about trying it out before and never gave it a second thought. It will be interesting to see what it will do by its self and with the other additives.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I'm getting out of the house for a couple of hours I think I'll stop by Walmart and pick a container of Jet Dry up and try it out tomorrow.

I'll try it alone and then with the other stuff I use.

Try the pods that includes detergent plus Jet dry. They’re terrific with a little Tobasco.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I'll leave the tide pods to the younger generation.


I did buy a small plastic bottle of the jet dry at Walmart to try out.

 

[Spare Parts]

Some say I’m OCD. Others just call me an ornery, old, grumpy man.

Adjust the process until it works for you. We all have different water. Here on the Front Range, the snow melts, runs over granite, is pH 7.0 and not a lot of minerals. YMMV, most likely.

I don't adjust pH with LemiShine, which kinda says starting pH 7.0 is a good number, before adding degreaser. Personally, I use laundry detergent, which has a bit more ooomph than Dawn.

After not using enough laundry detergent, my Harbor Freight tumbler (what the poor kidz use) was really schmutzed. There should be a healthy head of sudz in the tumbler when yer done.

 

[merlynski]

Hot distilled water, citric acid, Simple green, tumble, rinse with hot distilled water.
(I use an old coffee percolator with no guts in it to heat the water.)
Sift out then Tumble out the pins, dump brass on a towel, let dry overnight, tumble out the last few pins

 

[Rule3]

Does anyone use Dishwasher detergent (pods,liquid or powder) in their wet tumblers?

I still dry tumble but have washed many 5 gal buckets of range brass with all kinds of mixtures and just dried them on a screen mesh in the Fl Sun.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Rule3
Try Dawn Dish Soap and some Lemi-shine next time.