Polishing brass with stainless media, and some prep work pics. LOTS of pics!

[68wj]

There is nothing new about this tech. Same idea is a constant in industrial and rebuilder circles. I saw this idea in practice 30 years a go at a automotive parts rebuilder. And some much more advanced operations concerning clean up and core part prep work.

There really isn't anything ground breaking and new in the firearms world. LMAO!!!

Of course it isn't new. That is why the materials and equipment already exist and he didn't have to fill half the thread with how to fabricate this miraculous new invention. It may help some other members out. Please feel free to contribute if you picked something else up in your 30 years of industrial expertise Thanks for your input.

 

[kelbro]

It is nice to be able to adapt a method from another industry to serve a purpose in your hobby.

As for the costs, I spent $39 for my Lyman tumbler about 25 yrs ago. And consumables... I bought $8 worth of walnut and corncob about 4 years ago. Still have more than 2/3 of that unused.

Shiny brass is nice but I prefer to spend my reloading dollars on equipment that helps me shrink my groups.

Besides, dirty primer pockets can sometimes get you another loading or two before the primer pockets are too loose for even the larger primers (I said I was frugal )

 

[doctorxring]

.

I recently started up with this stainless media wet tumbling. I really
like it. The brass comes out CLEAN. That's what I like about it. No
powder or media residue. I hesitated at first because I thought it
would be a lot more trouble with it being wet media. But I found
it not that much trouble and the end result is so good that it's worth
whatever trouble it is. I don't de-cap before tumbling it. After
it's finished, I take the brass and dump it in the same colander type
separator I used before sitting in a bucket of water. Shake it some and
the media falls out. Then I dry the brass a bit in a beach towel and then
put it in the oven for a while a 275F to dry it out. That's it.

I bought a large rock tumbler off of Ebay and some stainless media
from http://pelletsllc.com/ Don't worry, when you call them they
know exactly what to send you for cleaning cartridge brass. The gal
that answers the phone fixes you right up. What is nice is their media
can be attracted by a magnet which makes chasing the little bits of
it a breeze.

I did corncob for 30 years and I'm glad that's behind me. I just wish
I would have found out about this sooner. Yeah, it costs some money.
But so did a lot of the reloading gadgets I have that I don't HAVE to have
but enjoy thoroughly. I think you know what I'm talking about here.

dxr

.

 

[SilentVectorX]

So wet tumbling is expensive, doesn't shrink groups, and doesn't do anything absolutely necessary to the reloading process.

I do it anyway. To me, CLEAN means no waxes, polishes, or abrasives (like red rouge) on my brass, running through my dies and chamber.

Reposted from another forum:

I've tumbled .223, 9mm, 45cal, and 308. I usually use 2 tablespoons of dish soap, a teaspoon of Lemishine, and tumble overnight (tumbler outside on back porch). To dry, just rinse the cases in clean water, shake them out, and throw them in a cardboard box lined with a towel. I get hardly any water spotting, and the cases are dry overnight.

 

[Geneseo1911]

Thank you for the write up. I have not seen this before, and will likely be adopting it. Heck, I'm using a rotary tumbler anyway.