Wet tumbling on the cheap? Yes! It can be done!

[PapaGeno21]

Can't please everyone!

But I sure as hell am happy!

I think the weirdest thing is when you handle the brass after it was tumbled and dried. It just has NOTHING on it. No film from Nu-Finish, no dust from walnut, not a thing. They are just slippery clean!

Also, I just found some 40 S&W so I deprimed it. I am going to run that tonight and see how short of a run time I can get away with using normal once fired brass. And also, I am going to cut back to half a case of 9mm. Most people use a 45ACP case full for a gallon of water, so I will use half the 9mm for the bottle of water worth of it.

 

[GLOOB]

I don't care about them being harder to go through the resizer,

Not resizer. Flaring die. Like I said, give it 1000 rds before you comment.

 

[PapaGeno21]

Ah. Well, I usually only load 2-400 a week so I am not worried about it.

 

[JC98]

Does anyone throw the SS cleaned brass in corn cob and Nu-Finish? I think the Nu-Finish keeps the cases shiny longer but it may just be me. I know it's an extra step but I gotta have brass that looks brand new!

 

[oldandslow]

PG, 3/30/12

Excellent write up with photos and text.

As to the the question about difficulty with case mouth flaring- I've reloaded about 80,000 rounds over the last six years, mostly pistol (.45, 44sp, 38sp, 9mm, 357mag) and switched over to the SS media cleaning method about six months ago. I have noticed no difficulty in reloading any of my pistol cartridges (about 5,000) with the SS media as the cleaning agent (presses- Dillon SDB and 650). Using the SS media does add a lot of time to the reloading effort however.

best wishes- oldandslow

 

[jcwit]

Does anyone throw the SS cleaned brass in corn cob and Nu-Finish? I think the Nu-Finish keeps the cases shiny longer but it may just be me. I know it's an extra step but I gotta have brass that looks brand new!

Of course, if you tumble your cases, even for a short time in media with Nu-Finish or any other cleaner auto polish such as Mothers or Meguiar's or others they apply a thin layer of polymer to the casr which will retard tarnish thereby keeping the brass shinney.

Simple really!

 

[A-FIXER]

PG,
I enjoyed the write up as well very well done, I may also give this a shot, thanks for the hardwork.
NE

 

[PCCUSNRET]

One thing I've learned from someone posting here was to put the wet brass in one of those net style laundry bags and set them on the sweater rack in the dryer. It takes about 50 minutes on medium heat to dry a hundred or so .308 cases.

 

[FROGO207]

I found a used Thumlers for around $25 and got into it really cheap. I would never go back to just using a vibratory cleaner again. I did however find a use for my old tumbler------info for GLOOB--- I use it to quickly apply some NU-Finish car polish with some corn cob before sizing to keep the process easier and corrosion at bay till I use the brass. Then I use it to polish the finished rounds also.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

One thing I've learned from someone posting here was to put the wet brass in one of those net style laundry bags and set them on the sweater rack in the dryer. It takes about 50 minutes on medium heat to dry a hundred or so .308 cases.

and if you're like me and don't have one of the facy dryers with a sweater rack, you just sandwich the corner of the mesh bag in the dryer door

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

thanks for the info and fotos. impressive cleaning.

 

[PapaGeno21]

I toss them in a towel and do the bowling ball cleaning method to dry the outsides, then I lay them down and have a fan blowing on them. Within an hour or two they are bone dry.

 

[mdi]

I had one of Harbor Freight's single drum tumblers for several years (I was on a very tight budget and I think I paid $29.00 for it way back when). The small unit worked quite well for me as I only would reload about 100 max at a time. My tumbler worked up until I "improved" it; I attempted to modify it to take a larger drum, didn't work out...

 

[dwhite]

This might be an interesting addition to the mix:

http://www.rainx.com/Products/Washes/Wash_Wax.aspx

I'm heading to Harbor freight ASAP to pick-up a tumbler to give this system a try.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[PapaGeno21]

So I have been playing around with tumbling times. These are after a 2 hour and 15 min run time. They are not "bad" but I would say 80% are perfect and 20% are not completely cleaned out in the primer pocket area. I am doing the wet SS method, so I am seeking perfection. I will just stick with 4 hour run times, which don't bother me anyways. It's not like this is the only brass I own and need it done in 20 mins. I also backed the LemiShine off to only 1/2 a 9mm casing, and they are coming out exactly how I want them.

So, here is how they came out just to show ya. You can see how they are not all spotless, that's the difference between the 2 and 4 hour run times. I will stick with 4 from now on. Seems to be the magic number.

Here is how the 40 S&W was. It is just your typical once fired brass.


And here is how they came out.




And some 45's that were previously dry tumbled but I ran them in here anyways to get them spotless.

 

[blarby]

Papa : Some folks are using a much narrower pin type than you are using.

Its "pointy-ness" might help a lot with your primer cups. Those stubby pins can't really do much in a primer cup, unless the cup is cut perfectly flat and square....and so are the pins.

 

[2Bad4u]

To the OP - thanks for posting. I already have a 40 pound tumbler which can easily tumble over 2,000 cases of pistol brass. I just ordered one of these dual drum tumblers for those small batches which I occasionally would like to do.

Report back after you make your first 1000 pistol rounds, and tell us how you like having to neck lube your pistol cases!

I have not experienced any issues.

 

[cfullgraf]

Report back after you make your first 1000 pistol rounds, and tell us how you like having to neck lube your pistol cases!

He won't have any issues after 1000 or 100,000.

I have never lubricated handgun cases either directly or indirectly by using something like Nu-finish in my tumbler.

When I tumble handgun brass before reloading, I use only dry media. I polish after resizing and neck expanding.

But whatever floats your boat is the best method here.

 

[thump_rrr]

Just a little tip if your brass coms out looking orange.
Cover your brass with warm water and sprinkle a little bit of lemishine in the water.
Agitate for 30 seconds and voila the brass turns back to its normal color.

 

[BunnMan]

Thanks for the great lead and the outstanding write up! Just ordered the double from HF.

 

[PapaGeno21]

Apoligies for the pics being down. HERE is where you can see them. Basically I cannot edit the first posts to change the image links, so yeah.

Basically done doing all the brass, just took a while to catch up. From now on what I am doing is putting all my wet SS tumbled stuff into a big ziplock bag, and going to continue loading the stuff I tumbled with the corn cob. This way after a while I will be only using brass that has been wet SS tumbled. That removed the process of depriming everything I own, which I don't feel like doing!

BLING BLING! 1/2 of a 9mm case of lemishine and 4 hours tumble time works best.

 

[Twmaster]

Geno,

I do not recall seeing your pics without the SS pin media. How did that brass come out cleanliness wise?

 

[Twmaster]

Went to Harbor Freight this evening and bought the double can tumbler. Loaded one can with 22-250 cases that were reasonably clean. A shot of Joy dish soap was included.

Loaded the other container with 50 or so 45ACP cases that were not too nasty but were once fired and not cleaned.

Put 6 scoops of fine walnut shell and a squirt of Joy dish soap in the can.

Ran both for 2 hours. The 22-250 brass does not look any different other than wet.

The 45 brass was about 90% perfect looking. I've put the 45 brass back in to run for another 2 hours. I checked at hour three and it's looking even better. I poured out the VERY nasty water and refilled with water and a fresh squirt of soap.

I think I am going to be very pleased. I'll likely order the SS media once I get my next paycheck.

 

[PapaGeno21]

SS media is what makes this system work. Using just water, dawn, and lemi shine the 40S&W came out OK but nothing to write home about. When you use the SS pins though, its just amazing.

Here is a load of 223 and 308 I just took out and is drying.

 

[Samari Jack]

So I have been reading over and over about the Wet SS cleaning method. I always said I would never get involved because I hate the idea of decapping. Why get into another time consuming event when you can just dump your brass into a vibratory tumbler with corn cob, mineral spirits, nu-finish, and some dryer sheets for 4 hours and get amazing results. Well, I have been receiving brass from some of my customers who know I am into this hobby, and they have been giving me brass that has sat around for years, or was range pickups, etc. Basically, my tumbler could NOT get the cases to clean up the way I liked. I cannot load brass that is not almost new looking (just a pet peeve of mine), so I decided to dive into this side of brass prep.

The problem with me is I don't have the cash right now to go buy a Thumblers Tumbler, and building one like Bigdawgs is even more expensive. So, I was looking around at harbor freights website, and saw this. It was on sale for 50 bucks, and I had a 20% off coupon so after tax I was out the door for 43 bucks. I figured screw it. They even have a smaller 1 drum model. I took it home and started looking it over. I took some normal brass that I knew was going to be put into the scrap bin, and used some water, dawn dish soap, and a 9mm case of LemiShine and let it rip for an hour. They came out almost new. These were dirty but nothing crazy, maybe normal dirtiness from once fired type brass before I dumped them in. Either way, they came out nice considering I did not even have any SS Media in there.

I called Pellets LLC Monday morning and ordered 5lbs of media (SCW-41 X .255). Then I went to HF and picked up another tumbler while it was still on sale. If you really didn't have the money, you could get 1lbs of SS Media online for maybe 15 shipped from somewhere, and then the single drum tumbler for 40 bucks at HF. I spent 86 on the two tumblers out the door from HF, and then 40 shipped from Pellets LLC for the 5lbs of media. Still cheaper than just the Thumblers tumbler. Grabbed a small digital scale and started decapping some brass that I want to get done. I figured if I put 3lbs in each drum, that's 1lbs media, 1lbs water, and 1lbs brass. These tumblers from what I understand are designed to hold 2lbs in each drum, then the drum itself weighs 1lb. They are for rock polishing and are literally left on for 10+ Days at a time to polish rocks. I am going to load these to 3lbs inside each so it will be a little over weight, but running only 2 to 4 hours at a time vs days I think it should be OK. Only time will tell. Weighing each out I came up with the following.

In each drum, I can fit this many cases. Each amount comes out to 1lb on my scale.

45ACP = 85
38 Special = 100 (95 Nickle)
357 Mag = 90 (85 Nickle)
40 S&W = 100
9mm = 120

So for me, running 4 drums I can easily handle my weekly shooting. I love the idea of being able to separate the brass into the different drums so that I can run 45's at the same time as 40's etc. Normally I would have to do separate loads in my Hornady M-2 or they would all be having sex with each other when I put them through the media separator later on.

Mandatory pics:

The tumbler.



It is belt driven. They supply 6 extra belts. Some people have issues breaking belts, apparently they replace with vacuum cleaner

belts and dont have any more problems. I am waiting to see how mine hold up.






The containers are made of a hard rubber, but you can still manipulate it with your hands.


Here is a little scooper I made with a 9mm casing and some wire. I think I ripped this idea off of Dryflash3, but I may be mistaken. Either way, its a great cheap way to measure the LemiShine.



Now here is the way I do this:

Put the 1lbs of media into the container.


Then I put the 1lb of brass in. (This is about 1/2lb of brass. This disgusting brass is a test run)


Then I put in the water just to cover the brass. Then I add in a 1 second squirt of Dawn, and the 9mm case of LemiShine.


Seal it up, then put on the lid and tighten it down. The first part of the lid is metal with a rubber covering, that creates the air tight seal inside.

You have a good idea there. I noticed any purchases of these are now on back order. I'll have to start reading posts more often. Snooze and finish last.