Wet tumbled brass

[y-not]

My first time cleaning brass so I have a question. About how long should I tumble about 1000 rounds of .40 S&W in a large Franklin wet tumbler with the stainless pins ?

[Eljay]

What are your goals? If you just want to get the grit off, 20 minutes. If you want to remove every last trace of them ever having been shot including from the interiors, 3 hours.

[oeasm]

I don't tumble that much quantity of brass but for the amount I work with I normally leave it for 2 hours.


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[y-not]

I will check everything at 2 hrs. The outside of the casings were clean to me the inside was not that bad. I just want to set my benchmark. I have about 20000 that I want cleaned. Then it's off to trying my had at reloading. I will only load 10 rounds at a time then test them untill I get a consistant results.

[Big Data]

I just bought that same tumbler and about to try it soon. There was a long thread here about how 90% of the cleaning can be accomplished with just wet tumbling with detergent WITHOUT the ss pins. I found that interesting and I'll try to get the link.

Here it is: http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...stainless+pins

[llazyjs]

I use the same tumbler. I just set the timer to the max, three hours and go do something else. I do 3 hours every load no matter how many casings. On the weekends I'll put a load in before I call it a night and rinse em in the morning. I usually limet my casings to 300-500 per load. Works for me.

[gbarbo001]

I use the same tumbler. I just set the timer to the max, three hours and go do something else. I do 3 hours every load no matter how many casings. On the weekends I'll put a load in before I call it a night and rinse em in the morning. I usually limet my casings to 300-500 per load. Works for me.

Ditto! And here's what you get:

['ol shooter]

That's a beautiful bouquet.

[stranded1980]

My procedures continue to evolve, and I've found the quickest way to clean is to run the tumbler with stainless steel pins, soap, & lemishine for 30 minutes, dump the water, and then run it another 30 min with fresh water, soap & lemishine. Then separate the pins and brass.

It seems to me (and I'm not a chemist, so I could be wrong) that after the first 30 minutes, all of the soap has already combined with the all of the grime from the cases, and is not able to absorb as much or do as much good. Kind of like the soapy water for my dishes reaches a point where it's no longer soapy and is instead oily, requiring me to drain it, and refill the sink for the remaining dishes.

Anyway, by dumping the dirty water after 30 minutes, and call it good after another 30 min, I seem to be getting the same results when I used to run it for 2 or 3 hours straight. Thus, when I go on a brass cleaning binge, I'm able to get twice as much cleaned in the same evening. It only takes a jiffy to dump just the dirty water, and then refill with fresh water and soap.

Is it slighly more work? Yes. But on those evenings when I get both the time and gumption to clean brass, I like to maximize my output.

And because I'm so OCD, the next day, after everything has air dried, I run it through a vibratory tumbler with corn cob, Nufinish, and mineral spirits. Keeps everything pretty until I shoot it.

[llazyjs]

I'm just as OCD cause after I remove my brass from the wet tumbler I dry it in the dehydrator and while it's still hot I drop it in the dry tumbler with corn cob and NuFinish for two more hours. Got that tumbler on a lamp timer. Brass comes out like new shiny with the wax finish. Doesn't tarnish and probably has a slight lube effect in the carbide dies.

[Big Data]

So it sounds like a dry tumbler is a good addition to have besides the wet tumbler? I just decapped 1k rounds of 45acp and 50 30-06 to try a wet tumble tomorrow. And I need to hit the grocery store for Lemishine, hope they have it.

[stranded1980]

So it sounds like a dry tumbler is a good addition to have besides the wet tumbler? I just decapped 1k rounds of 45acp and 50 30-06 to try a wet tumble tomorrow. And I need to hit the grocery store for Lemishine, hope they have it.

It's not necessary, but I like having and using both (especially since I already paid for them). Cleaning with stainless steel media strips the brass of any protective coatings or residual powder. Those coatings and residual powders actually give your brass a form of lubricant, which aids in belling for pistol brass.

Tumbling in corn cob with Nufinish helps restore a protective coating to prevent tarnishing, and adds a little lubricant-esque coating to the inside for the belling.

[jetman624]

2-3 hours of wet tumbling seems excessive to me. I never tumble for more than hour. I can't see my face in it, but it doesn't erode the brass too badly either. I found that when I tumbled in the 2-3 hour range I was getting A LOT of brass shavings-- more that I was comfortable with seeing.

I mostly do .223 and will tumble for 30 mins (brass already deprimed), take it out, let it dry, resize, trim, and chamfer, then tumble another 30 mins. Brass has worked flawlessly for me.

[___M|9||___]

4 hours max

[damndave]

I generally do all of my customers pistol brass for 2-3 hours depending on how dirty it is. Rifle brass gets 4 hours.