Tumbling Question

[junkyarddog]

Hi All,

I have been reading reloading forums and articles for several months now and have learned quite a bit from the great folks in the reloading community. I’m about to complete my reloading bench and tumbled my first batch of brass today.

How long should I tumble my brass? Some say a couple of hours, and some tumble overnight. I filled my Hornady tumbler half way with walnut and a couple of capfuls of Dillon Polish. They clumped even after running several minutes. I added 3 used dryer sheets cut in quarters with about 250 38 and 357, and a handful of 223 and 45.. I tumbled for 4 hours but not sure if it’s enough. Most of my brass are nickel so they were shiny to start with. The insides looked like dull nickel. The web of the casings have dark spots. Is this normal?

The insides are dusty. How do you clean that dust, or is it ok to deprime and size? I'm thinking of rinsing them. My experience is it’s still dusty even with the dryer sheets. From a health perspective, how concerned should I be with this dust? Thanks in advance.

 

[BADUNAME37]

If it is a vibratory type tumbler (kind of rattles in a bowl), there is a minimum amount of medium you need to put in for it to vibrate properly. Make sure you have the minimum in there.

I found that out the hard way when I started mine empty and it didn't vibrate, when I added all the medium, then it started.

Tumble anywhere from an hour and a half (minimum, I would say) to an average of about 3-5 hours and maximum 8-12 hours.

The longer you tumble, the more shine you will get.

You can do it with the primers in place or after you have resized. If done without primers in place, pick each primer flash hole to eliminate the little piece of medium that typically gets caught in nearly every case. That is when I do a quick wipe-down of the case to remove medium dust and any polish.

I find that it is nearly impossible to get the insides of the cases clean. Also, the primer pockets will still have some carbon in them which I use a steel primer brush - one or two quick clockwise motions and the primer pocket is usually clean.

When you go to seat primers, if the cases have been reloaded or shot with a really hot load, the primer pockets may be a bit large, so the primer will have almost no resistance going in. When that happens, I either throw the case out (a drop of oil into the flash hole should kill the primer), or if I think it is safe for one more loading, I will mark the bottom with a black permanant marker, so I know after I shoot those with the marked bottoms, I can just toss them.

 

[ccjcc81]

Found out the hard way that when you tumble different calibers they get stuck in one another and won't get clean. I like mine really pretty so I run them overnight, but this is probably overkill.

 

[medalguy]

Try a few things differently. First, add the polish and let the tumbler run about 10 minutes before adding the brass. This will prevent clumping of the compound inside the brass, Next, add a capful or two of mineral spirits, depending on the size of your tumbler, when you put the brass in. This will greatly reduce the dust and help the polish remove any carbon and junk on the brass.

Also be sure the dryer sheets have been thru the dryer. New ones don't have the matrix opened up enough to catch very much dust. I usually use the dryer sheets in dirty media which will clean the brass, and I use a separate batch of media with polish following the first cleaning run. Makes the polish last much longer, and when it finally gets worn out, I dump the cleaning media and use the polishing media to clean, and start a new batch of polishing media.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I was about to say you shouldn't tumble 45 Auto and smaller calibers at the same time. They will get stuck as said above...

As for how long, as long as it takes to clean the brass. The newer the brass the faster it will clean up. I have tumbled brass as little as 2 hours and have left it overnight. Leave it tumble until it's clean. Shinny isn't necessary but you really want it clean so as not to damage the brass or your dies when resizing.

Welcome to the forum...

 

[Hey_Allen]

I'll third the statement about 45 cases and just about anything else.
(I didn't know any better, got .38/.357, .223, and .308 stuck in them, between three runs the first few times I used the tumbler. A little slow on the uptake, there!)

I had a few range pick up pieces of brass that took a good while, but I just got used to tossing the stuff in the tumbler as I was headed to bed for the night. It sat on a noise damping mat out in the storage room, on a concrete slab floor.
Roughly 8 hours on a long run would take the tarnish and grime off of just about any brass I tried it on, and often ended up shinier than the factory new stuff.

 

[qajaq59]

I usually tumble them for 2-3 hours in walnut and a bit of car polish. I just want them clean so they don't mess up my dies. Don't care how shiny they are.

 

[Drail]

I think the key thing here is figuring out exactly how much medium to use and how much brass you can run in a batch. Going over on either will really reduce how good a job the tumbler will do and how long it will take. I also believe that running it all night will simply wear down the medium faster and doesn't improve the level of polish enough to justify doing it. When starting with a new batch of medium or adding polish it does help to let it run for 10 to 15 minutes to evenly distribute the polish before you add your brass. Sometimes I have to take a spoon to break up the clumps before the brass goes in.

 

[LiveLife]

They clumped even after running several minutes.

That's normal. Instead of just dumping the capful of polish, it helps to distribute the polish in thin threads around the tumble media with the tumbler on. I run the tumbler until I do not see any clumps - on brand new media, like 10-15 minutes.

You may not have enough tumble media in the bowl. I normally fill the bowl to 2/3 full and add up to 400 - 700 cases depending on the caliber (45ACP vs 9mm) and size of the bowl. I add one capful of polish every other batch of brass or every 3-4 batches depending on how well the cases come out.

The web of the casings have dark spots. Is this normal?

That's from too much polish that has not evenly distributed in the tumbling media. The small clumps of polish stick to cases and do not allow the polishing by the moving media and will show different color/spots. Spots may also have sticky residue/dirt picked up from the media.

From a health perspective, how concerned should I be with this dust?

I don't tumble inside the house. I tumble in the garage with good ventilation (open door and window). The polish helps keep the dust down.

The insides looked like dull nickel ... The insides are dusty. How do you clean that dust, or is it ok to deprime and size?

That's normal. Your typical walnut/corn tumbling media will pack the inside of the case and won't move around to polish the inside of the case. If you want the inside cleaned as well, you need to use different media and size like small ceramic balls that will move around in the case or use wet tumbling method.

I pick up indoor range brass which are once fired and fairly clean as they do not get tarnished like outdoor range brass. I usually tumble for 20-30 minutes in walnut with polish to get them clean. I don't go for ultra shiny cases, just clean. If I want shiny cases, I tumble for 1-2 hours.

Check out this thread if you want really clean and shiny cases inside and out (start at post #5) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=528675

 

[Smokey Joe]

Awww, not again!!

Friendly--Don't Fire--You said:

(a drop of oil into the flash hole should kill the primer)

This has been done to death on this and other fora. It has been established (discussed ad nauseum, and tested thoroughly) that neither oil nor water nor any other household chemical will reliably kill 100% of primers to which it is applied.

Primers are set off by heat or percussion, and setting them off is the only way to kill 100% of them. If you're aiming for safe disposal, then 100% is the only acceptable kill level.

Primers could be destroyed effectively by any number of nasty non-household chemicals (fuming nitric acid comes to mind) but this level of chemical activity brings with it a whole new boatload of toxic disposal problems. Don't go there.

If you want to kill just a few primers set into cases that are to be scrapped, load each one--empty except for the primer--into an appropriate firearm and snap the trigger. BTW, do this with eye & ear protection, and point the muzzle in a safe direction. That'll do it 100%. The gun will want cleaning afterwards.

Live primers can also be--carefully--removed from the cases by depriming just like spent primers. Many, myself included, have had to try this and it works if you go slow and careful. Use eye & ear protection of course. The removed primers can be put on a rock one by one and hit with a hammer, which again kills them 100%. They make a surprisingly large flash and bang. Use eye & ear protection, AND gloves!

Anyhow, let's have no further myths about how oil SHOULD kill primers. A great many things in this world, which should happen, don't.

 

[Tilos]

OH BOY another tumbling thread

 

[Walkalong]

Found out the hard way that when you tumble different calibers they get stuck in one another and won't get clean.

Put the .45 in first, then the .40, then the 9MM, etc, and it will alleviate 99% of that.

Like bds posted, don't dump capfuls in, use a top where you can stream some in in small lines around the media. Then let it tumble 2 or 3 minutes before putting the brass in.

I sprinkle in a little water as well any time the media gets real dry. In my shed out back with no A/C, when the temps are in the high 90's as they have been lately, it dries out fast.

Tumble an hour or two, or until they blind you, your choice.

 

[rcmodel]

Put the .45 in first, then the .40, then the 9MM, etc, and it will alleviate 99% of that.

+1
Once the bigger cases fill with media the smaller ones can't get in and get stuck.

rc

 

[junkyarddog]

Thanks for all the suggestions. As long as they're clean, I'm happy. The shine is an added bonus. I spread the polish in but it clumped up anyway. After several minutes, I broke them up with my hand. I'll definitely put the larger diameter brass in first next time.

The tumbler is on the floor near the garage door. I have the back window open and the garage door up slightly, but the wind blows in from the front. I want to keep it indoors becaue I live in a somewhat densely populated liberal area. Not trying to slander anyone, but just don't want to be in the public eye. I'll spray some water in and will run it several minutes before removing them. After tumbling 4 hours yesterday, i just unplugged and left them in the bowl. I can picture a lot of dust being stirred up.

I have access to a progressive but will start off reloading .38s and .45s on a single stage. I have more .38 casings than I realized. It helps when the gun doesn't throw them some 15 feet away.

 

[rcmodel]

Forget the freaking dust! It won't hurt you any worse the the fumes you breath in your car on the way to work every morning and night.
I've been tumbling in the basement for about 40 years now without any problems.
(Scuse me, I just drooled on the keyboard again when my head fell over sideways.)

Anyway, I would suggest you dump the polished cases and separate the media as soon as possible after you finish tumbling.

We just had a post last week about tarnished cases from leaving them in damp media after they were polished.

rc

 

[deadeye dick]

When I tumble my cases at night and want to go to bed I get a light timer rom Wallmart and set it for however long i want and go to bed. It will shutoff at the predetermined time. This way you don't have that noise while you are going other things.

 

[qajaq59]

(Scuse me, I just drooled on the keyboard again when my head fell over sideways.)

RC, if nothing else you certainly do keep me amused. LOL

And I wouldn't worry too much about how long to run them. Just take a look once in a while and when they look good take them out. I got home from the range about an hour ago and tossed my 30-30s in the tumbler. When the wife calls me for supper I'll get them out. They'll be clean enough not to scratch a die by then. It really isn't all that critical.