Down side to wet tumbling

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Hondo 60

Hondo 60

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For those who wet tumble, how do you keep your press clean?

After maybe 5 or 6 boxes of handgun ammo, (50 rounds each) my press
was a mess! :barf:
I had to take it apart & clean it with Hoppe's 9.

Then lube & put it back together.
With dry tumbling, the brass didn't touch the press until it was clean.
Didn't have to do a deep clean but once a year.

With wet tumbling, I've been depriming, then tumbling.
So my press gets REALLY grungy. :what:

Is that normal?
If so, I think I'll go back to corn cob & maybe wet tumble every 5th or 6th time.
 
Or get a cheap single-stage press to deprime on and don't worry if it gets grungy. Or put a pistol decapping pin in your drill press and decap over a 1/4" hole in a piece of hardwood. Wouldn't need to move them in and out of shell holders that way.

I've been depriming on all my presses for decades and haven't had to disassemble one for cleaning yet. I can't imagine what's in your cases that would require that.
 
At this time I reload 9mm exclusively. Sometimes I switch back and forth between these two cleaning routines:

Routine 1: dirty range brass goes straight to wet tumble with no pins, allow to dry, then resize/deprime on single stage (press stay pretty clean), then into a bucket of soapy water which is capped and shake around a couple minutes to get lube off, rinse and allow to dry, then reload on 550b

Routine 2: dirty range brass into a bucket of soapy water which is capped and shake around a bit and let soak, rinse and allow to dry, resize/deprime on single state, wet tumble with no pins, rinse and allow to dry, reload on 550b

I actually have pins that I stopped using. It thought it added a painful separation step and tried without them. Only difference without pins that I see is the primer pockets are not perfectly clean as they would be with pins.

Fortunately, I have been picking up a lot of brass since I got started and have thousands of cases in each stage of cleaning process, including thousands ready to go after all steps are complete. My single stage still gets a little dirty, but my 550b stays very clean.

Before I refined my process to where it is now, I used to deprime with universal die and then continue to either routine 1 or 2 above. However, that added 1 additional touch of each piece of brass which equates to more time than I wanted when dealing with 15,000 cases.
 
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I use the LEE hand press and a universal decapping die so i can keep my proggesive clean and set and watch tv while i de prime. I even get my wife to do some for me sometimes.
 
Simply put the whole press in the wet tumbler to clean. Not big enough? Pressure wash it! :D

Perhaps clean the brass first and not worry about the primer pockets??:eek:
 
The press on the right all set up was ~$35. Press, universal decapper and (extra) shell holder. Every once in awhile I blast off the ram and moving parts with silicone spray as a cleaner. Everything - spent primers, dirt, etc into the can. I wear nitrile gloves and I can MOVE a LOT of brass through. This deprime - wet cleaning is a completely separate to build up clean ready to go brass.

bench1.jpg
 
How about you do the same thing you did dry, tumble then reload them.

If your using a progressive press you won't even be able to see that you didn't make the primer pocket pretty.
 
Hondo 60 said:
After maybe 5 or 6 boxes of handgun ammo, (50 rounds each) my press
was a mess! :barf:
I had to take it apart & clean it with Hoppe's 9.

Then lube & put it back together.
Click to expand...

Wow, your tolerance for dirt must be way less than mine. In 35 some years of reloading, I have never felt the need to disassemble a press for cleaning. It just does not get that dirty that a simple brushing and wipe down won't handle

Anyway, not cleaning cases before resizing will leave more dust and dirt in the case which could get on the press. I find some powders leave a layer of soot on the walls of the case after firing that resizing then dislodges.

Hoppes #9 will leave an oily film behind which is a magnet for dust and dirt.

Too much lubrication oozing out of joints and pivots also is a dust magnet.

I'd find a cleaner that does not bother the paint on the press but does not leave a film behind.

Clean the cases again before sizing.

Do not over do the lubrication.

You could get a bargain priced used press or one of the inexpensive Lee C-frame presses to use exclusively for depriming. Then clean the cases, wet or dry, before reloading.
 
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I do what OilyPablo does, decap on my cheap Lee single if its really crusty. I do run some stuff on my LnL to decap. I just blow it off with the air hose, and I wipe it down between calibers changes. Once in awhile I full clean the primer slide, but thats about it.
 
I like to keep my tools in as good of a condition as possible (I have used hand tools for over 50 years to make a living and appreciate clean, well cared for tools). I deprime on my turret, but I don't care for the carbon and gunk from fired primers, especially on my ram so I often wipe/relube the ram, and brush the rest of the press with a nylon brush. Once in a while I'll remove the ram, just a couple bolts, and clean/relube the ram bearing surface...
 
am I the only one that uses a hand held deprimer it works great so far,
I can deprime away from the bench like sitting in the sun in the backyard ect..
:confused:
 
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Since I have the brass feeder setup on my LNL-AP, I deprime on it using a universal depriming die. I do remove the primer seater punch so if any debree falls out it does not collect on the base.
 
Six Step Process

First: Tumble range brass in Walnut to rough clean.

Second: De-prime and resize

Third: Wet Tumble

Fourth: Tumble in Corn Cob

Fifth: Reload

Sixth: Shoot and go back to step one:D

PS: walnut and corncob have polish in them.

that's my hobby and sticking to it.:eek:

LeftyTSGC
 
FWIW ...

At the end of my bench I have an upright HEPA (w/hose) "bagged" vacuum cleaner (Eureka The Boss) parked.

Whenever a quantity of crap has accumulated (as happens when decapping a bunch of brass) on the bench and/or press and whenever I have completed a stage, I vacuum the area clean.

While emptying the powder reservoirs, no matter how careful I am, there is always some little bit that escapes. The vacuum cleaner does a great job quickly cleaning up those escapees and removing any little bits from mechanism crevices.
 
Don't vacuum up any loose primers that are sitting around. Makes weird noises for the wife to discover I've been using the vacuum. Ask me how I know
 
Hondo 60 said:
...handgun ammo

With dry tumbling, the brass didn't touch the press until it was clean.

With wet tumbling, I've been depriming, then tumbling.
So my press gets REALLY grungy.
Click to expand...
The obvious answer is in your OP.

Don't deprime before wet tumbling

I see almost no dirt from spent primers on my press...but then both of my presses, Hornady LNL AP and Lee Classic Cast, route the spent primers through the ram and down a tube into a container
 
You can wet tumble without depriming...I've been doing it for 9 years. Just takes a little longer to dry. And when you do deprime afterwards, there's less primer residue.
I use ceramic media too, no steel pins.
 
If you're not going to deprime, there really isn't much sense in using steel pins either.

All I add to the water is some Lemi-shine and Armorall Wash & Wax
 
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