DRY TUMBLING VERSES WET TUMBLING
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irishlad
Contributing Member
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For drying I lay them out of a piece of stainless steel, in the Texas sun they are not only dry but too hot to hold in your bare hand in 2.5 beers.
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For drying I lay them out of a piece of stainless steel, in the Texas sun they are not only dry but too hot to hold in your bare hand in 2.5 beers.
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Soonerpesek
Member
Maybe I'm too new, but wouldn't the sizer, mandrel, expander (whatever you choose) take care of that.....?
CQB45ACP
Member
Okay then, next time I’m bringing mine down and you better have a couple cold ones for me! It’s a long drive…[/ATTACH]
For drying I lay them out of a piece of stainless steel, in the Texas sun they are not only dry but too hot to hold in your bare hand in 2.5 beers.
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barnfrog
Member
Tastes great!
Less filling!
"Marvelous" Marv Throneberry: "I knew this was a bad idear."
Less filling!
"Marvelous" Marv Throneberry: "I knew this was a bad idear."
GW Staar
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Banging together in a cement mixer, perhaps. But I've never seen anything in case mouths that wasn't already there, before a tumble in my Thumblers tumbler. If your tumbler is denting brass, I'd get a new tumbler.
The bulk LC 7.62 brass I bought once had some dents in mouths, and grant you, the tumbler didn't remove them........but those dented like that one beat square in jmorris's picture sure wasn't caused by any tumbler I've seen. I believe I'd have tossed that one before it got to tumbling.....the little dent in Nature Boys picture, I doubt was caused by a normal tumble either, least not with one like mine. And on that case, the sizer/ expander process comes after. So does the trimming. So why are you guys giving SS pins the blame......?
That said, pins may make edges a hair rougher, but for pistol I've seen no difference at the target, and for rifle it's trimmed off anyway.
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Just for my edification; name one error...
Nature Boy
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Yes, but, then you have to remove the lube.
I guess you could forgo another round in the tumbler by using the dry vibratory process to do that, but then why not just do dry from the beginning, which is exactly what I do.
One reason I rarely talk to the resident "Range Rats" at the range (or bet on some stuff I see on forums). Way too many are "experts" on all things shooting and are too willing to educate me. I once made a comment on another shooter's brass. My first experience with reloaders was back in1970. I was watching two shooters at a police range producing 2" groups with their 1911s. I edged near and they noticed me watching and struck up a conversation. I had noticed their ammo was in 30 cal ammo cans, loose and most were brown, so I asked about it. I asked and they explained their brown ammo was reloads and performed better than any factory ammo they bought. I was embarrassed a bit by my ignorance, but they were kind and explained a bit about reloading. Next time I was shooting my 38 Special I thought
"I wonder if I could reuse these cases?". Next day I went to the library (this was waaaay pre web), read up on reloading, researched in some gun magazines and bought a Lee Loader, one pound of Bullseye, 100 CCI primers and some generic 158 gr LRN bullets (I already had a plastic mallet.). And so it began...
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CQB45ACP
Member
CQB45ACP
Member
lightman
Member
Dry tumbling, wet tumbling and ultrasonic cleaning all will clean brass. It depends on just how shiny you want your brass. All have advantages and disadvantages. All have a small learning curve. I use dry tumbling on brass that I have loaded and shot myself and wet tumbling for range brass or brass that I plan to give away or sell.
Dry tumbling;
I use ground corncob with a cap full of NuFinish polish and a cap full of mineral spirits. I used to use polish labeled by the loading companies and discovered that liquid car polish worked as well and was cheaper. I usually run my Dillon polishers 12 hours at a time.
Wet tumbling;
I use a 15 pound rated drum on a "Big Dawg" tumbler frame. It has a 1/3hp motor with a 1'2inch belt and will easily handle it even if its loaded more than 15 pounds. I use 5# of stainless pins, a 40 S&W case of LemiShine and a slightly overflowing cap full of ArmorAll Wash and Wax. I'll put 5 or more pounds of brass in it and nearly fill it up with water. I run it for 2 hours.
Wet tumbling will polish brass that dry tumbling will never get clean. I think its probably the Citric Acid. In the Summer time I dry them on a steel baking sheet out in the hot Sun. Other times of the year I stand them on end and let the heat and air conditioning in the house dry them. I think that Dawn will get them cleaner but the Wash and Wax leaves a protective coating where as the Dawn gets them so clean that they will tarnish.
Dry tumbling;
I use ground corncob with a cap full of NuFinish polish and a cap full of mineral spirits. I used to use polish labeled by the loading companies and discovered that liquid car polish worked as well and was cheaper. I usually run my Dillon polishers 12 hours at a time.
Wet tumbling;
I use a 15 pound rated drum on a "Big Dawg" tumbler frame. It has a 1/3hp motor with a 1'2inch belt and will easily handle it even if its loaded more than 15 pounds. I use 5# of stainless pins, a 40 S&W case of LemiShine and a slightly overflowing cap full of ArmorAll Wash and Wax. I'll put 5 or more pounds of brass in it and nearly fill it up with water. I run it for 2 hours.
Wet tumbling will polish brass that dry tumbling will never get clean. I think its probably the Citric Acid. In the Summer time I dry them on a steel baking sheet out in the hot Sun. Other times of the year I stand them on end and let the heat and air conditioning in the house dry them. I think that Dawn will get them cleaner but the Wash and Wax leaves a protective coating where as the Dawn gets them so clean that they will tarnish.
I have been playing with metals all my life and have machined/formed brass. When brass is too clean, bare metal, it will gall forming tools and in a reloader's case, sizing dies. It will not slide smoothly, metal to metal without some sort of lube, whether is be oil, wax, water, carbon or tarnish.
The moral of my story is my Rule #1. I pay very little attention to any load data or many reloading "hints" I see on any forum, hear from any range rat, gun counter clerk, of gun shop guru. I get my load data and reloading info from published manuals and texts. Reloading since the '70s and have had one squib, no kabooms, no ruined guns, dies or any reloading tools. I have all my fingers and eyes are still good for a 76 year old reloader...
J.K.!
CQB45ACP
Member
I’m not arguing, but am saying my results are very/completely different with both Lee and Redding dies.
And as I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t just go for clean, I want jewelry-like results and get them.
Agree on latter points.
Edit: but hold on, I mostly decap/size dirty cases and expand squeaky clean ones. Thus the different results. So no commercial lube, just natural gunk.
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Varminterror
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Wet tumble > Ultrasonic > Dry tumble
I own a Dillon and a Frankfort vibratory (dry) tumbler, a Hornady Ultrasonic bath, and a Frankfort wet tumbler (which replaced a Thumler’s model B).
I wet tumble without pins for almost all of my regular use. Half hour rolling with Frankfort solution and brass is clean, inside and out, with minimal residue left in a few scattered primer pockets.
I use a modified recipe for ultrasonic cleaning, a twist on the “Clean and Shiny” recipe from accurateshooter.com. I run 50/50 white vinegar for ~25-30min, then ~15-20min with Hornady One Shot Ultrasonic solution, and then 5min with distilled water to rinse. Cases come out clean inside and out, and pockets are clean. Not perfect, but clean enough, and quite shiny. This takes more hand-moving for me, and really works best when I orient all of the cases - wasting more time - and it really cleans only as well as wet tumbling, so I don’t use this much.
I ONLY tumble with pins or chips, or ONLY use dry tumbling when I want to “polish” brass. My son processes some range brass he picks up at matches, so he’ll run brown brass for a day and a half in the dry tumbler and it’ll come out looking like new. We typically rinse and dry just to get rid of residual powder on the cases before either using or packaging.
If we didn’t process this weathered range brass, I would not dry tumble, ever.
2ndtimer
Member
“The bulk LC 7.62 brass I bought once had some dents in mouths, and grant you, the tumbler didn't remove them........but those dented like that one beat square in jmorris's picture sure wasn't caused by any tumbler I've seen.”
The sad part about those dented case mouths, if you read Jmorris’s post carefully, was that they were NEW Winchester brass. A sad commentary on the current state of quality control at Winchester.
As to slight dents in the case mouths, my money would be on the dents were there BEFORE they were wet tumbled and would be easily straightened out by resizing.
The sad part about those dented case mouths, if you read Jmorris’s post carefully, was that they were NEW Winchester brass. A sad commentary on the current state of quality control at Winchester.
As to slight dents in the case mouths, my money would be on the dents were there BEFORE they were wet tumbled and would be easily straightened out by resizing.
CQB45ACP
Member
I don’t have a set formula or ratio of dawn and lemishine, but it’s clear I’m using way too much of the latter.
And I really don’t like the tarnishing but it’s not always the same degree. I’m going to try some car wash/shine next time.
jmorris
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Anyone that uses them as a measurement of elapsed time, would surely have plenty for fellowship, should others stop by.
Nature Boy
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Any dry vs wet threads is always good for at least 5 pages
barnfrog
Member
Almost there!Any dry vs wet threads is always good for at least 5 pages
GW Staar
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Ahhhh, so since you start out dry you don't need to lube when you size rifle........
GeoDudeFlorida
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Question is, how many metric tons can you do before your paying customers start to complain about the toe-jam?
CQB45ACP
Member
Well I’ll contribute a little more:
What I don’t like about dry tumbling instead of wet tumbling is simple…it doesn’t clean nearly as well and makes for dirty media more quickly.
When I have extra time and energy I will dry tumble w/Flitz already clean brass and then hand buff.
But this is what I use more frequently:
What I don’t like about dry tumbling instead of wet tumbling is simple…it doesn’t clean nearly as well and makes for dirty media more quickly.
When I have extra time and energy I will dry tumble w/Flitz already clean brass and then hand buff.
But this is what I use more frequently:
