Poor Results after Tumbling

[five.five-six]

Dry tumbling has no such chemistry problems.

I like vibratory case cleaning.

[tonyjr]

five.five-six
Me too . While I have 2 sonics and 2 rotaries , it is apia to have to dry .
Of course tumbling means I have to clean primer pockets again . Since I decap 1st , I just use the decapping pin to clean and resize .
I use a cat crap scoop - too much dust using the separators .
I use sonics and rotaries mainly for smaller cases - I E 25 and 32 ACP's -just to old to grab smaller / shorter cases

[steelholder]

I like vibratory case cleaning.

which do you use?

[Michael in California]

No range pick ups here. These are all 1x fired lapua cases.

I ran a load with a lot of soap. Good results. Thank you all.

Fantastic. What is a lot of soap to you? I just use a somewhat long squirt of Palmolive. What soap do you use, anyway? Palmolive and Dawn seem to get lots of recommendations. I once used an off brand and it didn't work as well. Sufficient to not re-clean, but not as well.

[bazineta]

Lately I've started using Armor-All wash and wax instead of Dawn and I'm very pleased with the results. They sell a 64oz container at our local Home Depot, price was decent. I use quite a bit, probably 5 to to 6 oz or so, but that's for a full batch of about 700 5.56 LC cases that are ridiculously filthy; second firing, I'd use much less soap.

[slixx1320]

Yup, same brass. No LS this batch. Just a TON on soap.

I already thought I was using a lot of soap.

That's awesome! I had some pistol cases that came out like that. I re-ran it and same results, ugly tarnished looking. Got tried of trying to find a solution so I just gave up, loaded them and shot them

[five.five-six]

which do you use?

They all work about the same, It's just a tub attacked to a motor with an off center weight. Makes it vibrate.

I have been using the HF crushed walnut, I have tried Nu-finish but really, who cares how super shiny the brass is?... just need it clean enough to not foul my dies, inspect for flaws and operate correctly in my firearm.

[ar15barrels]

which do you use?

I have two of the big Dillon tumblers.
I have found none better.

[rmi63]

Hi All,

I just wanted to see if anyone has run across this issue.

I am SS tumbling my brass and have had great results until the last batch.

I normally use distilled water, 9mm cap of LS and small squirt of dawn and 1-1.5 hours of tumbling.

The last batch came out really poor. It is like there is a thin film of dirt/grime on the brass. So i cleaned everything, the pins, tumbler, etc.

I ran the brass again and same results. So I ran the brass with some Meguairs and let them tumble for 3 hours. Same thing.

Has anyone seen this?


1. The shiny brass was tumbled a few weeks ago. The darker brass is fresh out of 3 hours of tumbling:


2. After wiping down the brass:



3. Water post 3 hour tumble:


Any suggestions a greatly appreciated!

I've had the same results that I could never figure out. First batch was fine and the second batch looked like yours. Another tumble with just dish soap cleaned off that brass. I was wondering if it was the turtle wax building up. The next time I'm going to just use dishwashing soap.

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[Andy9161]

I've had the same results that I could never figure out. First batch was fine and the second batch looked like yours. Another tumble with just dish soap cleaned off that brass. I was wondering if it was the turtle wax building up. The next time I'm going to just use dishwashing soap.

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I ended up using ice wash and watch on the load. maybe 3 or 4 big gulps of the bottle.

i really do think I was not using enough soap.

[TexasJackKin]

When I've used more soap (ArmorAll) it comes out looking like shaving cream, making separating the pins a bit more challenging. I've got the Franklin Arsenal Rotary Tumbler, or F.A.R.T. and have only done 10 or 12 loads. I'm using the small pins that came with it, and should probably buy some of Stilly's "super pins" but haven't done that yet.

It's odd, sometime they come out looking like gold, and other times looking like your bad batch, ah, the joys of chemistry, I can see Randall's point.

[Nacinator]

Too much Lanlonin in your home made lube. I did a 4oz bottle of Lanlonin to 3 8oz bottles of HEET red in 30oz ZEP spray bottle. Had to switch to 2oz Lanlonin to 3 bottles of HEET. 30 oz of spray lube for $20.00 beats $8.00 for a 8oz bottle

[steelholder]

I have two of the big Dillon tumblers.
I have found none better.

Is that the cv 500? Have you found that cleans better than the frankford? Or does it hold more brass?

[ar15barrels]

Is that the cv 500? Have you found that cleans better than the frankford? Or does it hold more brass?

The 500 is the small Dillon.
I have the 2001's.
They hold something like 750 pieces of 223 brass or 1500 9mm's.
The bowl is super thick and it has a huge USA made motor.
Due to the thicker bowl and all the extra weight it is FAR quieter than any of the little cheap tumblers.

[buruli]

I'm a chemist and wet tumble brass all the time. I've had this same issue and solved it -- so think I can shed some light on the chemistry of what is actually going on and why we see variability from batch to batch.. The problem we sometimes see is our cases are physically "clean" from the soap and the mechanical abrasion, of the pins, but don't have the shine. This is because your citric acid has been neutralized by contaminants during your initial cleaning. The pH is now too high to give you a bright shine in a wet tumbler. The brass is clean but not shiny. If you were to check the pH of the solution you poured off your dark colored batch of brass, you would see it has increased. Here is what to do if you see they aren't looking like gold after the first tumble--- Pour off the water. Add fresh warm water and more lemi shine or other pH lowering agent. I use two .45 cases full to a Franklin tumbler load. No need to add more soap . . .no surfactant is needed since the brass is physically clean, but not shiny. Retumble - it won't take very long. Brass will come out like gold. The reason we see variability from batch to batch is that the pH buffering capacity of each lot off brass is different. i.e. sometimes the citric acid gets neutralized on the first tumble, sometimes it doesn't depending on the size of the load, how dirty the brass is, and other variables.