I'll probably get yelled at if I try this.

[George P]

What do you do with the water from an washing machine if you put one in the garage? Run the water out onto the ground outside?
Tear up the floor to put in a drain?
It's definitely cheaper to buy a wet or dry tumbler and do what the rest of us do.

My garage (when I had a house with one) had a deep utility sink in the garage; putting one in the garage would be easy.

 

[Average Joe]

I get hell for leaving tissues in my pockets, I can't imagine what would happen if I left brass in them.......

 

[Project355]

I get to REPAIR what she puts in our fancy dancy machine (that she HAD to have). Things like ripped down pillows.... A pillow case of saved up coffee grinds (why for Gods sake!!!!!). Don't even ask what 10 lbs of wet matted down will do to a pump and shift mechanism...

If I wanna put brass in there, it goes in there! If the brass leaks outta the bag, its big enuf fot the coin trap, no problem.

 

[mokin]

Is it really worth getting yelled at? Or even risking it?

ETA:

Maybe you could slip two or three cases in you pockets every time you wash them.

 

[Bush Pilot]

Washing machines are given away a lot, find one and make it a shop washer

Or you could just buy a tumbler that takes up much less space.

 

[Project355]

Laundromat!

 

[jmorris]

See guys you newly weds don’t know how to go about these things. Solution, volunteer to do the laundry.

Must be nice to have to volunteer...

 

[tmd16556]

I’m bad about leaving things in my pockets when my wife is doing laundry (I tend to wait and see what turns up missing to search my pockets). The best so far was a loaded 20 gauge shell in my hunting pants. It’s really clean though. I set it aside with my collection of misfit shotgun shells.

I’d not put any Federal hunting hulls in there though. I can’t see water being good on the paper basewads.

 

[Dudedog]

Don't think I would want any lead residue in my washing machine and 100% sure I wouldn't want it in my dishwasher....

A tumbler is the best way to go, make one, buy one, that way you cans use pins.

You could always tell the wife the tumbler only costs as much as a couple boxes of 9mm
(of course ammo prices are insane right now but no need to mention that)

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Don't know what kind of washer you have, but do you really want to intentionally was metal cases routinely in the wash basin of the washer? Especially if it's not a stainless wash basin?

Seriously, if this is the route you want to go, just find a small used washer somewhere you can dedicate to this. You can find one for less than $100 pretty easily.

 

[doubleh]

Cleaning your brass in the washing machine is a great way to chip the enamel away in the drum. This will lead to rust which will lead to staining your clothes . Just go to Harbor Frieghts and buy a small cement mixer and clean your brass that way.

I have already stated it's a "fancy" machine and I'll add I had nothing to do with choosing it. After seeing the price tag and trying to offer another option I was told I could choose the machine when I started doing the washing so I shut up and walked across the store and looked at new tv's. I could have bought a couple of really, really nice guns for what these things cost.

No worries about chipping enamel as it has a stainless tub as does it's matching dryer.

Just to put everyone's mind at rest I have no intention of washing my brass in the machine. The subject was to show that a regular washing machine will clean brass very nicely and that I like to agitate my wife now and then. If I cleaned a lot of brass I might rig up a dedicated (and inexpensive) washer to do so but I don't.

 

[forrest r]

Washing machines work and can be found cheap. Cement mixers work a lot better, used 1 for years. Got it for $5, electric motor was shot & electric motors are easy enough to come by.

 

[Armored farmer]

I bet 100rds of .357 brass and a dozen foam earplugs tied in a pair of old wool hunting sock would kill three birds.
Win/win, and win!

 

[Kp321]

Reminds me of one of my first tries at tumbling without a dedicated tumbler. This was a long time ago, in the days of IBM key punch cards. The process was to put your brass in a gallon pickle jar with key punch "chads" then put it in the dryer, wrapped in a sleeping bag to keep it centered. The instructions failed to mention taping the lid to keep it on the jar. In addition to making a colossal mess, the brass wasn't cleaned at all.

 

[Master Blaster]

Get a tumbler

 

[Riomouse911]

Cleaning your brass in the washing machine is a great way to chip the enamel away in the drum. This will lead to rust which will lead to staining your clothes . Just go to Harbor Frieghts and buy a small cement mixer and clean your brass that way.

It seems like all the new tubs are made of plastic now. I guess it saves the makers money, I don’t know. The elevated fire ring is the fate of the old enamel/steel tubs out here, the tubs sell for as much as 30 bucks at the local swap meets because they’re getting harder to find.



I got this tub for free. I cut a 6’ fence post into 18” sections and welded them onto little Sputnik here as legs...

As for washing brass or hulls in my wife’s washer? I’ll be bunking on the laundry porch until Easter if I tried that. Follow the guys’ advice: get a tumbler.

Stay safe.

 

[jwamplerusa]

...I have been thinking about getting a small laundry bag to put my brass in and throw it in the washing machine but my wife will have to know what I'm doing...

Do you have a death wish? I wouldn't dare...

 

[Hondo 60]

Don't you wash your hands after reloading?
Now you want that gunk all over the washing machine?
All over her fine unmentionables?

I'd have to disassemble & SCRUB out the washing machine every time it was used.

No, no & HECK NO.

But you do as you wish!
I wouldn't.

 

[Howland937]

I do my own laundry and most of the cooking around my house. Mostly because I spent a good part of my adult life as a bachelor and learned how to do all of it myself. She knows we're not together for her to take care of me and appreciates that.
I've randomly washed forgotten pocket brass and on one occasion a whole, loaded 1911 Mag. None of it made it to the dryer, but it was all clean and man it smelled good.
She did offer to do my laundry, but the expectation was whoever checks pockets keeps what they find. No thanks.

 

[FROGO207]

I am really, really cheap and single for most of my adult life. That said, I have both a buzz box and a Thumlers tumbler to clean my brass.
On a side note many years ago a garage mechanic I went to had a washer filled with kerosene that he washed car parts in. Rigged the drain to squirt back into the washer so he could rinse off parts. Said the pump would last 6 months before it needed to be changed.

 

[xring3]

Coin-op landramat. 50 cents a little soap and you’re done.