Best method to clean cases…field tested and proven

[Ru4real]

The other thread has some good ideas. But I didn’t want to derail that thread, so starting a new one.

What methods have you tried, what worked, what didn’t?

Clean to me means same cleanliness as new brass.

I’ve experimented and tried them all in the last 20 years. If you’ve only tried one method and are convinced your method is the best, I would ask, How do you know?

Dry vibrating with media. This method results in shiny brass on the outside, but not fully cleaned primer pockets or insides. A darn good way to start.

Wet tumbling. With & Without pins. With & Without soap. With & Without chemicals. Wet always requires a drying step and usually results with spots on the cases. Same as a car wash without a wipe down afterwards. Good case cleaning inside and out, but slow, messy and that pesky drying step. But if you have time and money to burn, probably the best method.

Ultrasonic. The same $100 spent on a wet or dry tumbler gets you an ultrasonic cleaner good for 50-75 pistol cases at a time. Get the chemical ratios slightly wrong, and you get pink cases. Slow, drying step required, no thanks. But it can win honey-do points making old jewelry look brandy new.

Chemical soaks. Pretty similar results to dry vibrating, but now with that drying step. Not recommended because not better than dry vibrating.

Dry tumbling using wax, Pledge, etc. Tend to inhibit dry media effectiveness. Skipping dry media doesn’t yield in the shiniest cases.

 

[Ru4real]

Field Proven Best

Dry tumble using a wet tumbler. Dry. No liquid. 45 min tumbling total. The ratios are important for efficiency. Brass = pins > media. Change the dry media after about 1000 cases, it’s used up. The SS pins clean the cases, inside and out, while the media polishes the cases, inside and out.

3 parts brass
3 parts SS pins
1 part Lyman Tufnut media, polish infused
Important: keep the tumbler about 3/4 full. Need room for tumbling action.

I got here after trying to perfect wet tumbling, utltrasonic cleaning, etc.

 

[Ru4real]

 

[teerex.otw]

Field Proven Best

Dry, using a wet tumbler. 45 min tumbling. The ratios are important for efficiency. Brass = pins > media. Change the dry media after about 1000 cases, it’s used up. The SS pins clean the cases, inside and out, while the media polishes the cases, inside and out.

3 parts brass
3 parts SS pins
1 part Lyman Tufnut media, polish infused
All parts keeping the tumbler about 3/4 full. Need room for tumbling action.

I got here after trying to perfect wet tumbling, utltrasonic cleaning, etc.

I wonder if this could be adapted to a vibratory tumbler (probably would require more media to work)…my last wet (rock) tumbler gave up about 25 years ago and got replaced with my current Lyman vib. unit.
It would be nice to get the insides cleaner w/o having to deal with a drying hassle.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

I loaded for years without cleaning cases at all.

No tumbler.

Usually, I would wipe the cases with a rag. Sometimes I went so far as to wash brass in hot water and soap.

The only thing I can see bright shiny brass does is make it easier to see defects.

A great deal of discussion about something that is not, IMO, all that important.

 

[Ru4real]

I loaded for years without cleaning cases at all.

No tumbler.

Usually, I would wipe the cases with a rag.

Me too. Kids were little, money was tight. Now, kids are grown, and pride in finished product is pretty high.

 

[mdi]

FWIW; from experimenting for maybe 8-10 years with tumbling media (from beach sand to glass beads pet litter, rocks, BBs, wood chips, ceramic media. beans, rice, crushed charcoal briquettes, wet with pins and maybe a dozen more) I settled on corn cob blast media, 14-20 with about 10% hard resin pyramids in a rotary tumbler. No abrasives, rouge, or polish, only a bit of auto wax. For me the only "advantage" of shiny brass is it can be easier to find in the dirt, rocks, trash at the "range". If I want "BBQ Ammo", I'll just leave the cases in the tumbler long enough for a shine....

 

[mdi]

I loaded for years without cleaning cases at all.

No tumbler.

Usually, I would wipe the cases with a rag. Sometimes I went so far as to wash brass in hot water and soap.

The only thing I can see bright shiny brass does is make it easier to see defects.

A great deal of discussion about something that is not, IMO, all that important.

Me too! 12 years for me. Cleaning, tumbling is maybe the most talked about but least important topic on reloading forums...

 

[.38 Special]

Apparently, wet tumbling with pins and distilled water leaves brass looking like factory new, inside and out. I haven't tried it myself and don't intend to, as I can't see any possible reason for needing the inside of your cases to sparkle, but there you go.

 

[Ru4real]

Apparently, wet tumbling with pins and distilled water leaves brass looking like factory new, inside and out. I haven't tried it myself and don't intend to, as I can't see any possible reason for needing the inside of your cases to sparkle, but there you go.

I’ve not tried distilled water. But again, drying adds another step. I wasn’t looking for a method to make the insides like new, just happened that way while looking for a no-brainer efficient method.

 

[Skgreen]

After some experimentation, I consider spot-free drying to be both easy and quick.
Place wet brass on a towel. Blot dry.
Place cases single layer deep on their sides on dollar-store cookie sheets
20 minutes at 210 degrees - done.

 

[Dudedog]

If you want like new brass wet with pins is the way to go IMO.

Wet always requires a drying step and usually results with spots on the cases.

Auto wash and wax seems to prevent spotting for me.
My range has nasty 40-80 grit dirt, so I do a quick first pass for 1/2 an hour or so auto wash&wax+citric acid.
Dry,
then resize/deprime and do another 30-45 minute pass.
Drying is not really an issue it just takes time,
in the winter I just dry the brass with a towel and then dump it on another dry towel in an out of the way room inside,
in the summer whens it's 105 outside same thing but lay the towel out in the sun, dries quick and is almost to hot to touch!

Of course nice clean shiny brass may not make your ammo shoot any better but it does make me smile so for me it's worth it.

Bling is good

 

[Ru4real]

If you want like new brass wet with pins is the way to go IMO.

Auto wash and wax seems to prevent spotting for me.
My range has nasty 40-80 grit dirt, so I do a quick first pass for 1/2 an hour or so auto wash&wax+citric acid.
Dry,
then resize/deprime and do another 30-45 minute pass.
Drying is not really an issue it just takes time,
in the winter I just dry the brass with a towel and then dump it on another dry towel in an out of the way room inside,
in the summer whens it's 105 outside same thing but lay the towel out in the sun, dries quick and is almost to hot to touch!

Of course nice clean shiny brass may not make your ammo shoot any better but it does make me smile so for me it's worth it.

Bling is good

When I used to do wet, I had similar steps with towels, ovens, time, etc. But it’s not the best method for clean brass, inside and out. See post 2.

 

[Otto]

What methods have you tried, what worked, what didn’t?
.

A washing machine worked for me. No tumbler or media to buy, no chemicals, no dust, less noise and ready in 35 minutes.
Jerry Miculek basically does the same thing using a cement mixer.

 

[Mk-211]

This is why I like Iosso.

Toss a couple hundred pieces in factory mesh bag. Toss into Iosso for a minute or two.

Dump brass into strainer, water, reload bag, toss rinsed on cookie sheet, place in oven for 10 minutes, repeat until done.

If you're worried about time, even this is wasting 15 minutes of your time.

The simplest thing is just wiping them off. Unless your brass is falling into mud, do you need to tumble them for hours?

If you want to get tarnish and other stuff off the brass, get back to reloading now, Iosso is by far the fastest.

If you want to win a contest for shiniest brass, SS pins, wash and wax armorall, wet tumbler for the win.

A friend uses a cement mixer for large quantities of brass. Loads it up, pours in a liquid cleaner, walks away. Half hour later he dumps it, tosses in a large bag of corncob and walks away.

Brass is still wet, doesn't care, brass comes out dry and shiny. It's all about want you want to do.

Your dies will wear out at some point in time. The cheapest part of reloading.

 

[ms6852]

I do a lot of sonic cleaning since it is range brass and cleaning it this way loosens a lot of dirt and mud. I picked up a trick on the internet where some one placed brass on mason jars and filled it up with water and cleaning solution. In this manner one uses less cleaning fluid. I then fill up the sonic cleaner with water only. It works fine for me. When the jar gets pretty dirty I dump it out and then rinse the brass in the water of the sonic tank while a fresh mason jar with dirty brass is being cleaned. If I want shiny brass I normally do about 20 minutes in the Lyman vibratory bowl using walnut media.

 

[lightman]

A great deal of discussion about something that is not, IMO, all that important.

Yeah, I agree! The main importance is to remove the dirt and grit so that it does not get stuck to the chamber wall or the sizing die. After that it just depends on the level of shine that you want.

Like a few others, I have tried just about everything. I pretty much wet tumble using Citric Acid and Wash-n-wax and I run them for 2 hours. It takes my dry tumbler 12 hours to even come close to the level of shine that wet tumbling archives. I use the dry tumbler mostly for removing case lube.

I don't get whats been said that wet tumbling is slower. I wet tumble for 2 hours and dry for 20 minutes in the oven at 200º. Or a few hours outside in the hot sun.

 

[LiveLife]

I used to do wet ... See post 2.

I think many members are not getting your post #2. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/best-method-to-clean-cases…field-tested-and-proven.920048/#post-12648965

OP used to wet tumble but now dry tumbling with walnut media and SS pins.

Dry, using a wet tumbler ... SS pins clean the cases, inside and out, while the [DRY] media polishes the cases, inside and out

And OP found following DRY TUMBLING recipe to work with wet tumbler as walnut media alone did not clean the inside of case but with addition of SS pins, now even inside of cases get clean and polished :

• 3 parts SS pins
• 1 part Lyman Tufnut media, polish infused

 

[eddiememphis]

In Colorado we have very little humidity so the cases dry very quickly.

I dump them on a towel, gather the corners and give 'em a shake then dump them out on a tray overnight. In the morning they are dry.

 

[Skgreen]

I've contemplated using just dry media in my FA Tumbler. Hadn't thought of adding pins.
Curious if running the barrel 'dry' w/pins would, over time, erode the lining inside?

 

[Varminterror]

Clean to me means same cleanliness as new brass.

It seems pretty well “field proven” that this really isn’t applicable.

 

[Varminterror]

I clean with no pins in a wet tumbler. Top to bottom in under 2 hours. Tumble for 40-45min, rinse, dry for an hour, and I’m off to the races.

When I sell reclaimed range brass, I dry vibratory tumble with media and polish for ~24hrs, then run it through a bucket with a couple dryer sheets and scrap fabric to wipe dust. It takes a long time, and doesn’t shoot any better than the wet method I use for my own brass, AND it takes forever - but it looks new.

 

[Thomasss]

I dry clean tumbling cases and went to walnut 4 years ago and am very happy with that method. I seem to be using less media polish. I have both Flitz and Cabela's private label and don't see any difference between the two except the price. 45 min. to 1 hour is good. I do not de-prime before tumbling. To de-prime would be to run a dirty case thru a die. That, to me, is going backwards, getting a die extra dirty, possibly scratching the interior. I did try to clean primer-less cases once with corn cob and also with lizard bedding and was getting lots of both media stuck in the flash hole. I also found neither really cleaned the primer pocket very well either. A clean primer pocket is important to me when shooting a Garand, and is done manually afterward.

 

[LiveLife]

I think many members are not getting your post #2

People, OP IS NOT wet tumbling.

OP is DRY tumbling with a wet tumbler.

Dry tumble using a wet tumbler

 

[Soonerpesek]

People, OP IS NOT wet tumbling.

OP is DRY tumbling with a wet tumbler.

He is ALSO asking:

What methods have you tried, what worked, what didn’t?