Drying after Wet Tumbling......

[Henry45]

What do you guys do to dry your brass? I'm thinking of getting in to wet tumbling, but don't have a lot of options in drying.

Some use a corn cob tumbler to dry. I have that. Does that really work or does it make a big mess in the very clean cases?

What are you guys using to get the job done?

 

[BCRider]

I use an ultrasonic instead of wet tumbling. But water is water....

I lay out the wet casings with the old primers still in place in a single layer on an old bathtowel. The towel aids in wicking away the water and gives more surface area for drying. The single layer of brass does the same for aiding in getting the air to reach all the cases evenly. I allow for at least a good 48 hours for drying so set the towel out somewhere that won't be in the way.

A few times when I pass by I'll stir the brass around to aid in any cases that had their mouths blocked by others to get some better exposure to the air.

When in a hurry I've used a hair dryer on low heat and set up the brass I need to load soon in a narrow line so the hairdryer blows along the line up of brass. This generally is only for a small batch needed right away. I run the hair dryer like this for about 2 hours and move the brass around every 5 to 10 minutes again so they all get a chance at having an open mouth to the air movement. I'll do a couple of hundred 9mm or .38Spl this way and they work fine.

I used to dry them in an old toaster oven at 150F. But this was hot enough to darken the brass from oxidation and the batches of casings I could do in the small tray made this pretty horrible.

A few times I've thought about making up a box in a box setup where the upper tray has a wire mesh bottom and the lower box that the tray fits into snuggly would have a hairdryer blowing into it with warm air. This way the warm air blows up through the tray and I could fill it three or four layers deep. The air movement and warmth should be able to dry a few thousand at a time in a few hours.

 

[X-Rap]

I know nothing of the wet tumbling but I think I'd try a few tests and leave a known quantity with some having varying amounts of residual water left in the cases and check to see how long it takes to fully dry. You could use talcum powder or something like it to check.
I'm thinking water could remain puddled for quite some time in a large case, small bullet situation like .264 mag.

 

[johnandersonoutdoors]

My advice is to let them air dry.

I have been wet tumbling for 2 years. I started using the stainless steel pins but have since stopped using them. My cases go in, along with the perfect mix of water, ajax, and lemishine. The brass 98% clean in a short time, and I no longer have to spend time separating out the pins after the wash.

I rinse the brass after the wash, spin for a moment in a standard media separator, then dump on a hand towel or old tshirt rag. They are swooshed back and forth in a hammock effect for a minute and then get dumped on a metal baking tray to sit. I usually leave them overnight because I am not in a rush, but they don't even take that long to dry.

As I mentioned I just let them air dry since I am not in a hurry. I always have a couple of thousand 9mm cases in each stage of my case prep process. I am already using energy to clean them, and I am glad I am not using more to dry them in an oven or something.

 

[hollywood63]

Drying

I started wet tumbling with ss pins and will never go back. When the cases are cleaned and rinsed I set the oven to 200* and leave them in for 20-30 minutes. Works great for me anyway.

 

[Sunray]

150F isn't hot enough to do anything, unless you leave 'em in there for an hour. Use a cookie sheet and your oven set on 'warm' or whatever is the lowest temp. 15 minutes will dry 'em. Still be too hot to touch.
You don't need Ajax, Lemishine or anything else.

 

[Rule3]

I do not wet tumble but have washed nasty range brass. Here in Fl I just leave it on a screen on the driveway and it's to hot to touch in 30 minutes

So folks use a food dehydrator. The sell them now as a brass dryers

It's all a bunch of extra work and money to me but for those who need "surgical clean brass" Whatever floats your boat.

You can buy a medical autoclave for a few thousand!

 

[9mmepiphany]

I have several friend who wet tumble and drying methods vary...these are all for handgun cases

Most common is to lay them out, in a single layer, on a cookie sheet, and let them air dry for a day.

In wet weather, the option of choice seems to be to use a food dehydrator and let it run several hours...depending on how many trays of cases you stack in

I have a friend who puts his wet cases on the sweater rack of his dryer and runs the dryer for 20-30 minuets on High

 

[LeftyTSGC]

What do you guys do to dry your brass?

I bought a $25 food dehydrator from Harbor Freight. I use SSM on all my brass, only takes a little while to dry. And with the 5 layers I can keep adding if needed.

Lefty

 

[Hungry1]

I use a food dehydrator too. It works very well, and very fast.

Good Luck

 

[Gravedigger56]

I use a food dehydrator too. It works very well, and very fast.

Good Luck

Yep! Great timesaver. I found a like new food dehydrator at a garage sale for $10. Since then I've noticed they seem to be a common item at garage sales for cheap. I place the S/S pins on the bottom and spread the brass out on the trays, set the unit for 110° and an hour later everything is warm, dry and spotless.

In my 5 tray dehydrator I can easily dry my 8 lbs of media and 1,000 pieces of .223 brass with room to spare.

 

[MEHavey]

Spread`em out on a pizza pan and throw them in the oven on "warm" (170°).
Walk away....

 

[Gravedigger56]

Spread`em out on a pizza pan and throw them in the oven on "warm" (170°).
Walk away....

That was my plan at first but the wife put a stop to that REAL quick!

It was bad enough when she found out that the dehydrator wasn't going to be used for jerkey or drying fruit.

 

[Rmeju]

I use my dry tumbler for about 5 mins. It prevents spots (or even rust) from forming on your shiny new brass.

The corn cob does get into the flash holes (assuming you deprimed first), so I still put them through the sizing die or, if rifle, through a Lee universal decapper on my first station. If you are loading on a progressive, this knocks out the corncob out of the flash hole without adding an extra op.

 

[cheygriz]

Roll on old thick towel. lay out on large cookie sheet and pop 'em in a 200 degree oven for an hour.

Been doing it that way for 20 years.

 

[lezmark]

I just tried the wet ss pin method with an el cheapo Harbor Freight tumbler. I am very impressed with the results. After tumbling I tossed them on a bath towel and shook them around some and tossed em in my other walnut shell tumbler with a little auto wax. I like a lite coating on the brass and this worked like a charm! Like new brass.

 

[USSR]

I set the oven to 200* and leave them in for 20-30 minutes.

Yep!

Don

 

[LocoGringo]

I bought a cheap hot plate at a thrift store, set it to 200 degrees and after rinsing the brass thorougly, throw them in the hot plate for 10 minutes and agitate using a wooden spoon. Take them out with a set of long nose pliers, set them in an aluminum bread pan to let them cool and then stow them whereever you want.

 

[lckdnldd]

Oven at 170 degrees (lowest setting) for 30 minutes. Then cut the oven off and let them set inside until they cool down to room temp. In summer when the AC is running I have had some brass start sweating if I pull them right out of the oven. That kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, it works for me.

 

[tcj]

I use an ultrasonic. After rinsing I use a salad spinner to get most of the water off and then just lay the brass on a microfiber towel for a day. I have plenty of brass and work in large batches so waiting for it to dry just isn't a big deal.

 

[Handloader109]

I dry for free, called putting out in the sun. Us's are pretty cheap an don't spend money to get in a hurry. An extra day in the sun won't hurt.

 

[GLOOB]

Some use a corn cob tumbler to dry. I have that. Does that really work or does it make a big mess in the very clean cases?

Yes, it works GREAT. And you can add some Nufinish to the corn cob and get some extra bling and lubrication.

One downside is when you do a lot of cases, your media will take longer and longer to dry. You may have to rotate media if you have a lot of throughput. But for the first couple of batches, it takes me only about 45 minutes to dry and clean my cases (I swish all my cases in water and detergent immediately before I dry tumble them).

And if your bottle-necked cases get clogged with media, which rarely happens to me, no worries. The media is just not dry yet. Dry them in the oven and the media will fall right out. You could say, why not just dry the cases in the oven in the first place. Because if you put them in the oven wet, they will tarnish and streak pretty bad, IME, unless the residual water is very clean. I don't have a wet tumbler. But if it works for ldkdlndd, then I would give that a try. You can stick a heck of a lot of cases in an oven, and it's really easy.

 

[OilyPablo]

Garage sales always seem to have food dehydrators. They work really well.

 

[RussellC]

I first put them in media separator which removes pin and a lot of water. Then I have a wire mesh trash basket and a bunch of paper towels I use over and over. cramp a layer of towels in the bottom of basket, pour on some brass, more papre towels, layer after layer until done. Then I dump the whole mess into a 5 gallon bucket, pull out the paper towels, stuff them back in the mesh trash basket where they dry for next time.

Then I put them on a cookie sheet on top of several layers of paper towels Which are also reused over and over, whole thing into 200 degree oven for 30-45 mins.

The whole paper towel stages can be skipped, but you will get some water spotting. Doesnt hurt, but the pins clean brass like brand new so I take the trouble. I do it not in a hurry and always have plenty on hand.

My whole protocol is to tumble an hour without pins, just armour all wash and shine, which cleans all the black soot mess off. Then deprime, clean 3 hours using Armour all wash and shine and a little Lemishine with pins, then above drying. Plopping brass out on a towel and have a fan blow on it also works if I dont want to heat up kitchen.

Takes time, but brass including primer pockets looks brand new. I think its worth it. I get several chances to find anything questionable brass and Im in no hurry reloading. I have quite a large quantity of brass I use on hand, when I need some, I run a batch. Ideally I keep brass in my calibers cleaned sized and reprimed. I prefer keeping it like this...it really makes loading day quick

I like the idea of a dehydrator and must get one. In winter, I dont mind the oven on so much.

Russellc

 

[Dentite]

I live in Phoenix. No extra work required.

In reality, after I separate the pins from the brass in the rotary separator, I throw in 3-4 heavy duty paper towels and tumble the brass in the paper towels for a minute or so. That will soak up a decent amount of water. Then I just lay them out in a shallow bin to air dry.

Rinsing with hot water before separating pins will heat up the brass and the brass will dry faster.

I've also used a towel and done the hammock style back and forth motion. This works pretty well at getting water out of small case mouths like .223 etc.

Hope that helps.