Question on wet tumbling process.

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mugsie

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I am thinking of trying a wet tumbling process, but am not convinced it's worth the effort. From what I've read, I do not see any advantage to it. According to the literature, I would first have to clean (in dry media), then decap and size, then wet tumble. This is the only way in which to get the primer pockets clean. It seems like an extra process. Other than shiny brass, I don't see an advantage to wet tumbling. If I don't clean first I would be running dirty brass (and some nasty range pick ups) through my decapping dies. To say the least, it's not healthy for the die. Also not cleaning first means the primer pockets never get cleaned.

Those of you that do use this process, what can you tell me as far as an advantage goes, or at least give me some advice on the process. Other than shiny brass, is it worth it?
 
You don't have to clean in dry first. I use a universal decapping die on the heavily crimped stuff and that works on dirty brass as well. Yes it is another (useful) tool.

If you don't want the pockets clean you don't have to decap first, your choice. You'd have to decap before dry to get clean there so no difference.

The only advantage is truly spotless brass inside and out but as you noticed it takes a bit of effort. Dry media will not get the inside clean but does that matter?
 
I'm not a user of wet tumbling either, but my son has been describing it to me in some detail. Maybe I can help.

I think most guys use whats called a Universal Decapping Die to pop out the primer. That's all it does. No sizing, simply depriming. Then they place the de-capped, but unsized brass in the tumbler with the SST tumbling pins, LemiShine, and lots of water.

But the complicated part to me is separating out the tumbling pins and the nasty water. You can put the brass in a sieve and let the water and pins fall through. Then you got to strain out the pins. Then what do you do with this polluted water?
 
Other posters are on track. A universal decapping die that only removes the primer is used first. Then I drop the dirty cases in the combination of water, blue Dawn dishwasher detergent, lemishine, and stainless steel pins. I run them for 4 hours and open the tops. I pour the dirty water carefully into a 5 gallon bucket topped with an old T-shirt to catch any stray pins. Bit by bit I add clean water and pour the dirty water through the T-shirt until the water comes out clean when pouring. I then extract the cases by hand and inspect the flash holes for any stuck pins (happens periodically). If there are no pins stuck in the flash holes (or pins are removed), I put them in a cheap hot plate I bought for $6 at a thrift store and dry the cases in a matter of minutes at about 200 degrees. I remove the cases after they are dry and put them in a metal container to cool. I also dry the pins and wipe out the barrels to make sure everything starts clean for the next batch. The entire process takes about 6-7 hours including the 4 hours of tumbling. It's kind of labor intensive, but I was completely dissatisfied with the "cleaning" I was getting from a vibratory tumbler. So far, I have only done this for rifle cases. I don't plan on doing this for pistol cases.

Advantages? I KNOW there will be nothing to ruin my reloading dies when I run the cases through them and I can definitely inspect the cases for any damage or developing problems. Mostly, I like knowing my brass is clean inside and out as if they are new.
 
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I think you all are over complicating the process

For pistol since I use a single stage press I resize first as long as the brass is not nasty. For rifle use a universal decapper

The brass then goes into the ss media, dawn and lemishine for about 2 hours.

I separate brass from media in a media separator on the driveway with a garden hose for rinsing. The brass is shaken in a towel to remove the bulk of the water. I pick up any lose pins with a magnet

Small batches of around 300 40 sw or up to 100 308 go straight into my vibrating tumbler with corn cob and nufinish for 20 minutes. From there it is either stored or loaded. To get the brass spotless, I can take a decent amount from grime to shine in 3 or 4 hours.

Large batches are dried at 200 degrees for one hour. I am going to try armorall wash n wax soon. It may eliminate the dry tumble all together as it leaves a light coat.

I also did a batch of 1k 9mm brass the other day without decapping and had no issues.
I use the Frankford arsenal unit
 
I think you all are over complicating the process
Click to expand...

Agreed!

No disrespect to the folks who dry tumble intended here. After all I cannot say it improved my shooting in any way...BUT,

I used to dry tumble and found it to be woefully ineffective. 4 hours of irritating buzzing and dirty brass with dirty primer pockets. The outside of the cases were shinny but the primer pockets and the inside of the cases were still filthy, even after 5 or 6 hrs. I wet tumble 100% of the time now and it takes LESS time to clean brass than dry tumbling with night and day results. The first wet tumble took about 4 hours to get rid of all the crud dry tumbling leaves behind, and it's considerable. Now that I wet tumble every time I run the brass about 1 1/2 hrs with ss pins, Dawn and Lemi shine and the brass is spotless! I always decap first because I noticed some left over soap residue in the primer pockets on some brass that was not deprimed by a friend of mine.
Here's my process.

Decap (time depend on how many you do, but it goes quick if you are organized.

Wet tumble 1 1/2hr

Dump out filthy water and rinse everything right in the tumbler until the water runs clean. This takes less than 5 min. I used to try to pour the water out through a strainer, but that was a waist of time.

Pour wet brass and pins into media separator. I use the same separator as I did for the dry process, just go slow at first so the pins don't go flying. (5 min)

Place wet brass in a cookie sheet you buy at the dollar store with a towel over it and pat the cases dry so they don't water spot. (2 min)

Sit the cases in the sun until dry, In my case here in Fla thats about 2-3 hours.

Sit back and stare in amazement why you ever dry tumbled in the first place.

DONE!

Oh, BTW, my guns SEEM to have much less residue on them after a trip to the range than when I dry tumbled. With all that crud gone from inside the case seems to make a big difference! YMMV.
 
Agreed, it is not complicated.

I decap using a Lee universal decapper. Unless it is really nasty range pick-up, I don't clean before hand. I can do over 1000/hour.

I use the Frankford rotary tumbler, it can process 1000 .40 casings, or over 1200 9mm in one load. Since the overhead for loading/unloading/rinsing/drying is fixed regardless of quantity, I wait until I have enough to fill the tumbler. Economy of scale.

I load the casings, SS pins, Armor All Wash-n-Wax, Lemishine, and water. Run for 2-3 hours. (I have used Dawn, but recently discovered the Armor All. I think it leaves the brass shinier and doesn't tarnish with handling later. Runs through the dies easier, too).

RCBS media separator, filled with water, to separate the pins.

I have a wooden frame with a screen that I place the wet casings on. I stick it over a space heater, or in front of a fan, or in the sun on the back deck - depends on the conditions.

In large loads like this, the overhead is not much more than dry tumbling. The obvious advantage is the casings are clean inside and out. I don't get my hands dirty during inspection or reloading. The casings go through the dies easier. Since the primer residue has lead in it, I don't worry about exposure to lead since that is all washed away. (I also primarily use plated bullets). Inspecting the casings is easier since the insides are clean.
 
where do you get lemishine from? i use the same stuff you do locogringo except add vinegar. maybe i need lemishine instead. after using the wet tumbler for brass cleaning, i'll never go back to dry because wet works so much better. at least, that's what she said! lol
 
It is fairly simple.

-Universal de-cap
-Harbor Freight dual drum rotary tumbler, each drum gets ~2/3 filled with brass, water to just-over the brass, dash of dish soap, pinch of lemi-shine, run for a few hours (and SS pins that are stored in drums, about 1lb per drum IIRC, double check)
-Remove drums and rinse
-Separate, using small dish strainers and a small magnet make it easy enough
-Dry. Can use the shelf/tray in clothes dryer, set out in the sun, spread in front of a fan, spread to air dry, whatever


SEARCH YOUTUBE and watch some videos to see how it all works out in practice.

Lemi Shine
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047528HM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

SS Pins
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BI4DOI2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Harbor Freight Tumbler (use 20% off coupon, you can always find one)
http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html
 
Toprudder said:
I'm not sure, but I think my wife picked up the Lemishine at Target. Look in the dishwashing section. It is a water softener used in dishwashers.

http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=lemishine&category=0%7CAll%7Cmatchallpartial%7Call+categories&lnk=snav_sbox_lemishine
Click to expand...
I have wondered about where to get more and exactly what it was and what it does. I got it with my stainless steel pins. Don't need any more right now, but I eventually will 'cause we've got HARD water in East Tennessee.
 
could not find any lemishine anywhere. bought some calgon, which is a water softener. ill experiment with that along with my regular dawn and a splash of vinegar. the vinegar really seems to help brighten that brass also
 
I dry tumble most of the time until the insides of the cases get real dirty from soot from shooting. Then, I wet tumble to get the cases looking like new.

I do resize my cases before wet tumbling.

I get my Lemi-Shine in the dish washing aisle of Wal Mart.

I dry my cases by spreading them out on a towel. I mix/rotate them every 12 hours or so so that the water in them gets spread about to dry easier.

Drying this way takes three days or so. When wet tumbling, I do not plan on using the cases instantly. But, I prep cases shortly after shooting and store the resized/prepped/clean cases for a future reloading session. Therefore, drying time is a non-issue for me.

I do not accelerate drying by placing cases in a warm oven. I do not need to.

Wet tumbling is not difficult or complicated. It is just a bit different from dry tumbling.
 
You don't even have to deprime to gain the advantages of never having to change your media again and have your brass clean in an hour.

I built my own tumbler so large batches could be done. This is one such batch of around 3000 cases. In the Texas sun, in 2.5 beers not only are they all dry but also too hot to hold a hand full of them.

IMG_20130727_144639_090_zpsd9095290.jpg
 
Magnum Shooter said:
Lemishine is just citric acid. It is much cheaper here.
http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=citric&affiliate_pro_tracking_id=17:36:
Click to expand...


My link is 12oz for $8.25 which comes to $0.69/oz.

Your link is 8oz for $5.99 which comes to $1.34/oz. Or if you buy the 2 lb bag it's 32 oz for $10.99 which comes to $0.34/oz. And so on as the quantity increases.

So I guess it depends on how much you want/buy at a time.

How long does each oz of lemi shine or citric acid last you guys?
 
rfwobbly said:
I'm still wondering what people do with the water.
Click to expand...

That's a good question...what do people do with the air around their dry tumbler or with their old dry media whenever they get around to replacing it?
 
I deprime while watching soccer/football/baseball using a Harvey deprimer. Easy pie. Wet tumble and dry is not as nasty as it seems. Brass is clean and ready to run through resize and loading.
 
"what can you tell me as far as an advantage goes, or at least give me some advice on the process. Other than shiny brass, is it worth it?"

I came to the party late. Do I still get to dance?

Lots of the previous stuff is right on but not all in my view.

Wet cleaning is what you want it to be.
For me, I get pristine inside and out cases. I don't much care if they are sparkling or not, just clean.

Pistol brass (from my 45 or 40) seldom gets a wet wash. If it is overly gritty, the rattle tub does all I need.

Rifle brass, I want it clean inside and out, primer pockets as well. The old rattle tub is noisy and dusty and doesn't get the insides as well.

Depending on just how grimy the brass is, it may get a quick ride in the rattle tub but that is seldom. .223/5.56 and .300 AAC Blackouts routinely get sized and deprimed before hitting the water. Most other rifle cases only get a depriming and my straight wall mag pistol cases the same.

I don't add acid/s to the mix. Yes, that stuff will make the brass bright and dazzling.

I have a double rubber rock tumbler. I put in brass and SS pins, followed with a daub of Dawn (to break up the oils and clean better), followed with water. I will let the rubber tubs role.

I dump the brass, pins and nasty water into a pan to flush with clean water. (My septic tank is full of things I don't want to handle and the carbon filled water from these cleanings doesn't bother me one bit.) As I pick the brass out of the water, I shake it under water to get all of the pins off/out. (I don't like to wet clean brass with primers still seated.) Drop them on an old towel. I used to put the brass in a preheated oven, 200 degrees or so, and shut the oven off. Of late, I'm using an old food dehydrator. It is slower but also keeps the process in my loading area.

So, what are the advantages? Super clean brass.
What are the dis-advantages? More steps.
Ideal situation, only load new virgin brass. If I were made of money, I still wouldn't do that.

If 'you' are happy with your process as it is, don't change. If you want cleaner brass....
I went for over 25 years with only wiping my brass with an old t-shirt to clean it. We will get by with what we need.
 
Warp said:
My link is 12oz for $8.25 which comes to $0.69/oz.

Your link is 8oz for $5.99 which comes to $1.34/oz. Or if you buy the 2 lb bag it's 32 oz for $10.99 which comes to $0.34/oz. And so on as the quantity increases.

So I guess it depends on how much you want/buy at a time.

How long does each oz of lemi shine or citric acid last you guys?
Click to expand...
Lime shine is only about 45% citric acid. So you do not use very much citric acid, less than 1/4 of what you would normally use.
 
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