Walnut and Stainless tumbling

[ottsm]

I've always used crushed walnut shells to put in my Thumler's tumbler to clean my brass. First I deprime only with no sizing to avoid getting my dies dirty, next I tumble, then I resize, then tumble again to remove any of the sizing grease. Only issue is, I still need to clean the primer pocket as the walnut shells do not clean the pocket (don't really care what the inside of the case looks like). I've thought about switching to stainless media but I hate the idea of a wet/drying process. Also the walnut media does a nice job to remove the resizing grease but I only have one tumbler and switching back and forth from wet to dry would not be ideal.

So my question is, has anyone mixed the stainless and walnut together to see what happens? I tried searching the internet high and low and didn't find anyone that had tried both. I'm sure someone has tried it, probably didn't work out.

 

[Bula]

My guess is the SS pins would not tumble like the crushed nut or cob material. It may just settle and add no value.

Edit to add, I have never deprimed pistol brass prior to tumbling. My best guess would be close to 50 thousand rounds. No issues.

 

[Swampman]

I doubt the two methods would work well together.
My understanding is that the stainless pins require liquid to work properly.

If I put much more than a tablespoon of mineral spirits in my Dillon vibratory tumbler, the walnut media starts moving really slowly and takes forever to clean the brass.

Couldn't you just get another drum for your Thumler and use one for stainless and one for walnut depending upon your needs at the time?

 

[mongoose33]

I've used both methods; SS media will clean both the outside and the inside.

I like the SS method better because there's no dust. It will also, as you note, clean the primer pockets if that's desirable. I've never tried them together, can't imagine that they would work together. Of course, what do you have to lose if you try?

One caveat: the SS media *can* jam into the flash hole. I found this to be common for .223 brass using .040 SS media. The solution is to get the .047 diameter SS media.

 

[Rule3]

Use a water based lube and you would not have to remove it. As to primer pockets I don't clean them any way,

 

[Gummi Bear]

I'm 100% sold on the stainless media wet tumbling.

I get perfect clean cases, and I use a food dehydrator to dry with (30 minutes and good to go)

I have no interest in messing with walnut/corncob/etc media again.

 

[Clark]

I tried vibrating with corn, walnut, car polish, anti static sheets, paper towels.
I tried ultra sound with all kinds of liquid.
I tried those for up to 3 day and nights.

But what works in one hour inside rifle necks and primer pockets is stainless steel media, a spoon full of Dawn liquid detergent, a spoon full of Lemishine, and the rest of the high speed thumlers tumbler with hot water.

Rinse, dry.

This is how the make the brass clean when it is new, you can tell.

 

[ku4hx]

I have somewhere on my downstairs work/loading bench a 40 oz. plastic peanut butter jar about 2/3 filled with stainless steel shot. I got this stuff sometime around 1990 with the idea of using it to enhance cleaning in my rather cheap Midway brand vibratory tumbler. I bought them from the salvage department where I worked at the time so cost was inconsequential.

What I discovered was my tumbler worked best with no more than a certain weight of material in the bowl and that too much weight just bogged it down. And those little steel balls added a fair amount of weight to the mix. The more of them I added, the fewer cases I could add. And more often that not, they got really bright and shiny but my actual case cleaning count was rather skimpy on a per session basis.

I finally just went back to Zilla reptile bedding and the current polish compound of choice.

I have no doubt stainless steel media works well. But, my tumbler wasn't up to the task and cheap old Zilla bedding worked just fine. Before I got my first tumbler, I was all into heated cleaning in some soapy concoction followed by rinsing and drying in the oven. Dry walnut media cleaning easily does all I need, so that's all I've done since my stainless steel shot phase ended.

 

[Conservidave]

i just run my cases over a pocket brush and move on. It only takes two seconds to do after depriming/resizing and you're good to go.

 

[Captaingyro]

It is amazing that the most common concern people express when contemplating wet tumbling is the drying process. Why would it even occur to anyone to dry brass? It's like all the other metal in your life...your car, your mailbox, your kids' swing set, your downspouts, the fire plug down the street, your wedding rings...it gets wet, it dries. All by itself. Why does drying continue to be cited by folks as a deterrent to wet tumbling? I can assure you that none of use who have experience with wet tumbling give it a second thought.

To review, when you wet tumble here's the post-tumbling process:

• Pour off the dirty water and rinse a couple of times.
• Dump everything in the same rotary separator you use for corncob or walnut and spin. 99.99% of the pins and about 98% of the water is now gone.
• Dump the (now nearly dry) brass on a big towel, gather up the four corners and toss the brass around a little. The exterior of the brass is now completely dry.
• Open up the towel, spread out the brass on it, and walk away. In a few hours, it's bone-dry inside and out.

The handful of times I've been anxious to get to work on brass right after tumbling, I've just spread it on a cookie sheet, put it in a 225 degree oven (water boils at 212...right?) for about ten minutes, and then immediately started reloading. Coming out of a 225 degree oven the brass is no hotter than when you pick it up off the ground immediately after shooting it.

 

[dh1633pm]

Drying is important because even stainless can rust. Drying also leaves spots on the brass. And sometimes you might want to load right after cleaning. Who wants to wait when you want to load.

 

[mongoose33]

It is amazing that the most common concern people express when contemplating wet tumbling is the drying process. Why would it even occur to anyone to dry brass? It's like all the other metal in your life...your car, your mailbox, your kids' swing set, your downspouts, the fire plug down the street, your wedding rings...it gets wet, it dries. All by itself. Why does drying continue to be cited by folks as a deterrent to wet tumbling? I can assure you that none of use who have experience with wet tumbling give it a second thought.

To review, when you wet tumble here's the post-tumbling process:

• Pour off the dirty water and rinse a couple of times.
• Dump everything in the same rotary separator you use for corncob or walnut and spin. 99.99% of the pins and about 98% of the water is now gone.
• Dump the (now nearly dry) brass on a big towel, gather up the four corners and toss the brass around a little. The exterior of the brass is now completely dry.
• Open up the towel, spread out the brass on it, and walk away. In a few hours, it's bone-dry inside and out.

The handful of times I've been anxious to get to work on brass right after tumbling, I've just spread it on a cookie sheet, put it in a 225 degree oven (water boils at 212...right?) for about ten minutes, and then immediately started reloading. Coming out of a 225 degree oven the brass is no hotter than when you pick it up off the ground immediately after shooting it.

I was with you up until the "In a few hours it's bone-dry inside and out."

I wet tumble; if the primer isn't removed before tumbling, it can be 2-3 days before it dries out. Maybe more. All you need to do is take a few cases in one hand, smack them mouth down against the other palm, and you'll see water come out. When I can't get the water to come out I'll know they're dry.

In the summer, I'll spread the brass on a cookie sheet and place them in the sun; it warms them enough to dry them out, spent primer and all.

In the winter, I'll put them in a shallow cardboard box (2-3 inches high on the sides), place the box on top of the hot air duct next to the furnace, come back in a couple days, and they're dried out.

*************

I use the Frankford Arsenal media separator to get pins and brass separated. I fill a shallow bucket full of water and swish the brass inside the separator through the water. Twenty or thirty or so turns and the stainless pins have fallen through the water to the bottom of the bucket. I pour them back into the tumbler.

I then rinse the brass in softened water. I don't want water spots on my brass because they are, in part, minerals and I do not want that wearing out my sizing die.

But even softened water isn't the same as distilled water, so I will dry off the outsides of the cases with an old bath towel. Then lay the brass on a tray to put in the sun or a shallow cardboard box on top of the furnace hot air duct.

Brass will dry out a lot faster if the primer is removed but for my handgun brass I rarely do that. All I need be is patient and it will dry out.

 

[Paddy]

Do you guys leave the pins wet all the time?

 

[Clark]

If I put a long string of paper towels under the wet media and down to a lower level, it will wick up and siphon and dry in a day or two.

Otherwise, the media will stay wet for months, growing who knows what.

 

[mongoose33]

Do you guys leave the pins wet all the time?

Depends. If I expect to do more brass cleaning w/in the near future, say in a month or so, I'll just leave 'em in the tumbler, wet.

If I think it'll be months before I break it out again, I'll pull out the pins and let them dry and store them that way.

I've had the pins be wet for extended periods of time and haven't seen even a speck of rust. I think they're just fine storing wet.

 

[salpal48]

I don't find Drying a problem. Spin the cases in theseperator and wait.
I now only use a dish detergent or Car wash cleaner. I found excessive Pin use. Peens the brass and put Micro dent in the brass . . It give them an Orange Peel effect. Upon firing The dent Pop out and leaves a rough finish on the Brass sinilar to a Burnish .
so I no longer pin them.
since I no longer use Vibratore I don't Know that reaction. I only use Commercial Rotary's
Sal

 

[Captaingyro]

I was with you up until the "In a few hours it's bone-dry inside and out."

I wet tumble; if the primer isn't removed before tumbling, it can be 2-3 days before it dries out.

I should have specified: I do deprime prior to wet tumbling.

 

[Captaingyro]

Drying is important because even stainless can rust. Drying also leaves spots on the brass. And sometimes you might want to load right after cleaning. Who wants to wait when you want to load.

Read the last paragraph of the post. Also, the stainless pins used in tumbling don't rust. I've been using the same pins for about four years now, and not a single one has shown the faintest sign of rust.

If you only have a handful of cases and need to reload them immediately after cleaning, then wet tumbling probably isn't for you. I have thousands of cases, and always keep some in each stage of prep; when I need to reload, I just grab some from the "fully prepped" bin and go to town.

 

[cfullgraf]

Read the last paragraph of the post. Also, the stainless pins used in tumbling don't rust.

It is called "stainless steel" not "stain proof steel".

Stainless steel can and will corrode. It may take a while and it depends on what chemicals it comes in contact with.

Also, different grades of stainless steel corrode at different rates and are resistant to different chemicals.

FYI, 300 series stainless steel is not magnetic, 400 series stainless steel is magnetic.

Immersed in plain water, it will take the pins along time to corrode but if you are not planning to use them for a while, best to dry them out for storage. Who knows what your water plant puts in your drinking water.

 

[fotheringill]

I have just started to reioad and have the following observations on the three products I have tried, for what they are worth;

Corn cob is the weakest cleaner.
Lizard walnut media better.
Best (especially on .223 case necks) is the Lyman Tuf-Nut. The drawbacks are that Lyman uses, for whatever reason, a rust colored rouge on the media which translates to a fine powder on the inside of the necks and obviously further down into the inside of the case. Lyman's web site says this is not a problem and does not need to be cleaned out and will not affect powder.

I have about 50 pounds total of the three above so I will not be changing to steel soon.

 

[cfullgraf]

Drying the cases is not an issue with me as I have plenty of cases on hand and do not run hand to mouth. I can wait for cases to dry.

But, drying the cases after wet tumbling is a time consumer. One either works with some method to accelerate drying or spreads the cases out and lets ambient conditions do their thing. Both require more attention than separating cases from dry media.

 

[DivideByZero]

...

 

[Gummi Bear]

If you want brass dry after wet tumbling, this is what I use : http://mobile.nesco.com/products/De...-Dehydrator-Clear-Cover/session_aa5910245d1d/

Get a 30 minute timer, and you're ready to load.

 

[Swampman]

Originally posted by: fotheringill
Lyman's web site says this is not a problem and does not need to be cleaned out and will not affect powder.

I wouldn't worry about it affecting my powder.
My BARREL is another thing entirely.

I can't help but think that blowing abrasives down my barrel under 50,000+ psi and then ironing them into the bore with the following shots is likely to accelerate wear.

 

[fotheringill]

Swampman-

THAT is a very good point.