Updated wet process R&D...

[liber]

I have been wet tumbling without any stainless pins. Gets the cases clean enough for me and easy to rinse. I rinse in a strainer, then put the strainer in a container filed with water and agitate by hand. I try to shake them by hand, about 10 at a time to get as much water out and towel dry them and let them dry in the sun.

Using no media makes it easier.

I do about 150 x 308 cases, or 250 x 223 cases. 1 x 45ACP of Lemi-Shine and 7 or 8 drops of dish soap. I think I'm going to try using straight citric acid rather than the Lemi-Shine next time, I have a container I've been use for cleaning other steel. I've used kool-aid in a pinch, it's high in citric acid also.

[Lead Waster]

When you say decap, do you mean size and decap? If you do not size and decap and need to again size, you are really adding a lot more unnecesary work. I do not understand why folks would do this.

Anyhow, I agree that shorter pins would be better as they won't be as bad about getting one stuck or lost inside your case.

If you wet SS guys keep at it and get a reasonable process down, maybe, just maybe I'll get a wet tumbler just so I can get pins from my buddy stilly.

I just tried this actually, with several hundred cases. I put a toolhead into my (case fed) 550b with just a sizer/decapper and ran them through (easy-ish with a case feeder). But empty cases don't "eject" out of the 550b well so shells would gang up on the exit chute. A lot of work. Then I wet tumbled them.

My thoughts..

OK, the primer holes were clean, so what.
I think they dried a lot faster without the spent primer plugging up that flash hole.
The part that was "worth it" was that the pre-sized cases fed like butter when actually reloading them.
I put washed, but not tumbled (ie I filled the dirty brass bucket with water and soap and swished it around) into my casefeeder, making it filthy and gritty.


From now on ... no-pre-depriming. Too much work vs the gain of the easy reloading. I mean, reloading was easier, but if you include the extra effort, it wasn't worth it to me.

Maybe a 650 with auto-indexer and GOOD casefeeder would make more sense to just cram a bunch of cases through the decapper/sizer, but for the 550 and it's after-thought case feeder ... not so much.

[Michael in California]

What's wrong with the kit you get from stainlesstumblingmedia.com?

Nothing but the price. I have about $25 in my set-up. However, that is a fairly decent price.



Honestly, it's not that difficult.

No, its not. I find it simple.

- Michael

[Lead Waster]

I no longer use lemishine in the tumble. I tend to not get back to the tumbler for a day or more, so the brass soaks. If I lemi-shine it, it turns dark.

I think the better way is wet tumble, then rinse, place in bucket with water and lemi-shine/citric to soak,then rinse and dry. But by that point ... why not just skip the lemi-shine part?

I'm starting to think that clean is fine, shiny is pointless.

[Lead Waster]

The Franklin Arsenal (Midway) wet tumbler looks like a good deal. Cheaper than a Thumlers + steel pins. AND the FA COMES with 5lb of steel pins. Much better deal. AND from what I see, it has just a large lid to spin off, with the Thumlers (I have the model B), you ahve to UNSCREW 6 wingnuts! What a pain!

If I were to do it again, I'd get the FA kit.

[reckoner]

Maybe a 650 with auto-indexer and GOOD casefeeder would make more sense to just cram a bunch of cases through the decapper/sizer, but for the 550 and it's after-thought case feeder ... not so much.

I decapped on my 650 for a while, but it made my press absolutely filthy. And lately I'm shooting 4k rounds a month, so decapping is still a lot of extra work, even with the 650 helping.

[reckoner]

The Franklin Arsenal (Midway) wet tumbler looks like a good deal. Cheaper than a Thumlers + steel pins. AND the FA COMES with 5lb of steel pins. Much better deal. AND from what I see, it has just a large lid to spin off, with the Thumlers (I have the model B), you ahve to UNSCREW 6 wingnuts! What a pain!

If I were to do it again, I'd get the FA kit.

I started off with two of those Harbor Freight dual drum tumblers, but I sold them and got the FA. I'm really happy with it. The price is great, it holds 5x the amount of brass than the Thumblers, and it rotates super fast. I've gone as low as 15 minutes with the FA and I was still happy with the results.

['ol shooter]

[QUOTE=stilly;16654490]high praise high praise I thank thee...

Decapping IS redundant work for wet process. Granted with a universal decapper from Lee it goes kinda of quickly, but it is still decapping and NOT resizing. Maybe some people will decap/resize and maybe I should do that too.

I can decap about 3 times or more faster and in various places when I decap with the universal decapper though. I have not tried the 9mm decapper/resizer on the hand press yet.


I use a Harvey decapping tool instead of a press, so it's not such a chore. I can watch Oprah and get my 2nd Amendment on at the same time. Yeah, yeah, I know you don't like the Harvey, Stilly, but it's doin' it for me.

[Lead Waster]

Have you tried less water? Like a front loading washing machine is not filled with water, it doesn't have to be.mso less water would give more "velocity" to the pins and brass PLUS more bubbles. More bubbles = more cleaning action.

Once the crap is washed off its just slushing around with the water but when you rinse, it should all come out.

Just a thought. I usually leave two inches of air.mand I put the water in first and hen the soap so it is t filled with suds before it starts up.

I am working on a screen-over-cement-tub contraption so I can just pout the rinsed pins/brass on the screen and when it air/sun dried the pins should just fall through into the tub. I hate drying the brass and separating the pins so I'm hoping this will work. I'm using 1/4" hardware cloth as the screen. This should let errant .22 cases fall through as well. I'll post my results.

[J-cat]

Less water means the brass will be exposed to air and will be more likely to tarnish.

[stilly]

To each his own and if you like the harvey, then by all means use it.

Yeah, I had thought of putting in less water, I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I had often thought of it myself because the water will cushion the fall of things if they are totally submerged. But I will tend to run more water if I know that there is a good chance that it will have to sit for a few hours before I pick it off the roller. I will cut back by half the water next time and see if it changes anything. I might just have to decap more anyways though based on this damn loadmaster and this POS Dillon die...

[Lead Waster]

My last two tumbles with recapped brass ended up with dull and somewhat greasy-ish brass.

I used Palmolive dish soap, I'll try dawn next time... I think it might make a difference. I didn't use any acid, but it might help with the greasiness (like how they advertise detergent with lemon power or whatever)

[Lead Waster]

I read on another forum that dish detergent actually breaks down the rubber in the thumlers tumbler lining and its that dissolved black rubber that is costing the brass... ??

Do the FA tumblers have a rubber liner or seal?

[stilly]

FA has a liner as well.

[stilly]

Stilly, didn't you get the Dillon sizing die for 9mm, or was that for 45 ACP? The Dillon sizing pistol die is good for size + decap; otherwise, you sort of defeat the purpose of that spring loaded decapping pin with the little clip on top.

And, yes, Ford got it right; that's the process. Actually for bolt rifle, usually, l like to neck only + decap, then no lube or tumbling is even needed. It seems that people have preferences based on the type of shooting they do. It seems that the AR folks may prefer wet since those rifles foul the heck out of the brass.

Stilly, I have a Lee UD somewhere. I can understand how old habits are hard to break. I suppose there's no harm in using it if it works for you. I just found that it wasn't universal as it doesn't work on large rifles. Then, you can always use a large rifle die to universally decap anything smaller so long as it doesn't have a BMG type decapper.

Tonight the Dillon failed to decap a 9mm +P shell. It got stuck inside the shell flash hole and had the primer sticking on the end of it, the actual shell was STUCK inside the carbide die... WTFE. I guess Dillon don't do high pressure.

My Dillon dies are too old I think, there is no snapping to the pin. They are all threads.