Off the wall question - how long do you tumble brass?

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CQB45ACP said:
Ah, nothing like the sound of brass tumbling as one drifts off to sleep...it’s the American lullaby.
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My tumbler is in an add-on to the house we use for storage. You could drop a flash-bang in the storage room and not hear it in the bedroom. It has it's own theft-protection, too: piles of krap. Step in the wrong spot and you trigger an avalanche. Buried alive in old Singer sewing machine parts and boxes of books. What a way to go....
 
Since I can stop my tumbler any time I want, I'll check the brass every once in a while. If it is clean enough, I'll stop. If I want to impress someone and have glossy shiny brass I'll keep going (the only reason I have a clock in my shop is so I don't miss dinner) . Wet tumbling isn't new or improved. I worked in a machine shop in '66 and helped fill a wet "tumbler" with machined parts. The "wobbler" held a few thousand parts and maybe 80-100 gallons of water (and from the looks of it, probably made in the '20s). Dry tumbling is for those not on a hurry, those that don't need pristine primer pockets, or the need to boost their ego or impress other shooters at the range. Dry tumbling was used because it is better for home use and simpler.

Tumbling brass is probably the most talked about, but least important aspect of reloading on forums (and everyone has their opinions/preferences)...
 
mdi said:
Since I can stop my tumbler any time I want, I'll check the brass every once in a while. If it is clean enough, I'll stop. If I want to impress someone and have glossy shiny brass I'll keep going (the only reason I have a clock in my shop is so I don't miss dinner) . Wet tumbling isn't new or improved. I worked in a machine shop in '66 and helped fill a wet "tumbler" with machined parts. The "wobbler" held a few thousand parts and maybe 80-100 gallons of water (and from the looks of it, probably made in the '20s). Dry tumbling is for those not on a hurry, those that don't need pristine primer pockets, or the need to boost their ego or impress other shooters at the range. Dry tumbling was used because it is better for home use and simpler.

Tumbling brass is probably the most talked about, but least important aspect of reloading on forums (and everyone has their opinions/preferences)...
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When I was a kid I had a junior lapidary kit - 1/2 gallon wet/dry tumbler, a selection of grits and wax beads, etc. - the kind of thing sold in hobby shops (when those were still around) for kids ages 6-16 (when kids 6-16 still went outside to play). Dry tumbling with various grits was for raw stones to get them rubbed down to smooth, then wet tumbling was recommended with very fine grits and liquid polish, and finally plastic beads to impart a wax covering. The dry tumbling with rough grits took the longest but produced the most drastic results/change, too. Wet tumbling with rough grit just didn't do as much as dry and was a lot messier to deal with. Later when I working as a machinist in the 80's I was introduced to shakers - like yours, probably from the 20's - and they were wet/dry also but the shaker tumblers always seemed to work better wet. As the chief of the floor explained it to me, rolling rocks with sand works a lot faster than rolling rocks with mud because you get more impact. Since the point of a lapidary set is to change the shape of rocks, that makes sense. We rolled metals, not rocks, and weren't trying to change their shape so we used mud in a jiggler, not sand in a roller. It took the tool marks out by hiding them, blending them together into a dull sheen, without actually removing enough metal to scrap a part. ;)

For brass, I don't really like wet tumbling. It's messy and an awful lot of work for not much gain. If my brass is really carbon-burnt, smudged and dirty, I drop it in an old pickle jar with MEK, give it a shake, and dump it out into a strainer. Clean in 20 seconds. Dull but clean. Then it's ready to be processed the rest of the way.
 
I use corn cob media and every few cycles I'll add a cap ful of NuShine.
I usually turn it on at night and turn it off before leaving for work the next morning.

I've forgotten to turn it off before and it ran for nearly a full 24 hours. Doesn't hurt anything, just uses electricity uneeded and wears your media out a little quicker.
 
I don't use my tumbler much any more since I switched to the FART. When I did 1-2 hr was all that was needed. As the media got old the time creeped up to 3 hrs. If it takes any longer than that I change the media. Now there are those times you forget about it and it runs for a couple of days, that was before I started using a timer. If your use pet bedding it will talk longer. Blast media has the good sharp edges needed for cleaning. Pet bedding is just whats left over after all the good is taken.
 
This is a terrific question. When I first started I looked all over for the answer, even called Lyman. No answers. On my own I came up with 6 to 8 hours. When I changed out the media ( used fresh Zilla Lizard) I, by accident, found I got the same results in an hour or two. My theory was/is that the media stayed coarser and gradually got less effective as it got older.
 
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I recently just got back into reloading, from a 7-8 year break due to 2 baby daughters. My 8+ year old media (I think it was Lyman media) wouldn't work. It was old, used media and I tumbled for 4, 6, then 8 hours and brass looked the same as before. I then had some fresh 8+ year old media and same thing, after 6 hours nothing. I finally went to the pet store and got the Zilla Lizard media and it was really shiny after 2-3 hours. I guess the media ages.
I think 3-4 is all you need. If it takes longer, you need new media or you like bling too much.
 
George P said:
Use a lamp timer and it will turn off after a certain time.
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I don't like to leave my brass in a tumbler that's not moving. At least with the walnut I use, it will stick in pockets and inside . then I need to run a pick around in each case to knock it all loose. Is that just a thing I get or is it everyone ? I will admit, I've only ever used harbor freight walnut- it's probably the cheapest on the market.
 
I do mostly dry tumbling. It gets the cases shiny enough for me although I do wish it would clean the inside of the case better.

Wet tumbling does a great job of cleaning but it is more labor intensive in separating the pins from the cases and drying the cases.

So, I wet tumble when the spirit moves me.

While the clock time for dry tumbling is longer than wet, my time is alot less.
 
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BigAlShooter said:
I recently just got back into reloading, from a 7-8 year break due to 2 baby daughters. My 8+ year old media (I think it was Lyman media) wouldn't work. It was old, used media and I tumbled for 4, 6, then 8 hours and brass looked the same as before. I then had some fresh 8+ year old media and same thing, after 6 hours nothing. I finally went to the pet store and got the Zilla Lizard media and it was really shiny after 2-3 hours. I guess the media ages.
I think 3-4 is all you need. If it takes longer, you need new media or you like bling too much.
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I wonder whether humidity softened your media over that time?
 
Obturation said:
I don't like to leave my brass in a tumbler that's not moving. At least with the walnut I use, it will stick in pockets and inside . then I need to run a pick around in each case to knock it all loose. Is that just a thing I get or is it everyone ? I will admit, I've only ever used harbor freight walnut- it's probably the cheapest on the market.
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I had some walnut media several years back. It worked fine, though when new, it left a reddish oily substance one everything. After using it a couple years, I got the bright idea of adding nu-finish, I believe, and then the media packed into every primer pocket. That media got dumped soon after.
 
I go from meh why bother, it's clean enough to overnight with corn cob. I mostly use SS pins and wet clean these days and use my buzz bucket to put a coating of NuFinish on finished ammo before putting it into long term storage.
 
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