..........

[geedavell]

I believe you need heat to work harden a material.
I wouldn't think there's too much heat inside a wet tumbler?

[h.charlie]

Ever try the powdered dishwasher soap? And the tumbler without media looks as clean as when i do pre-wash in lime juice, vinegar, dish soap and hot weater

[J-cat]

I believe you need heat to work harden a material.

No you don't.

[J-cat]

Tumbling brass in walnut, corn cob, or stainless won't work harden brass. Neither will tumbling brass on brass. The time it would take to work harden it by tumbling would be more than anyone here would want to spend doing it. Might wear out your tumbler first.

And to the Soul_Cal good job , as long as your happy that's what counts.

Now back to my job as an Engineer, mechanical by the way.( I know how to work harden metal)

I hope whatever you're designing isn't made from brass.

[stilly]

I'm always open to good advice. I appreciate everyone's comments.

The brass I cleaned this weekend is all storage brass so they won't be loaded anytime soon. I've got containers of brass that I went OCD on with my Ultrasonic cleaner, dry tumbler, flitz, pocket primer cleaned, etc.

BTW, if you need ss pins contact Stilly. He may also do weddings and bar mitzvahs if you need a good photographer.

Ahhh, high praise high praise...

I charge $900 a shoot though. :\

But I give photography advice for free...

But to elaborate a little more on the seriousness, you should be careful where you cut corners. And I do not mean that yall better buy pins and stuff, I mean that you simply need to watch where you cut corners and especially in reloading. Who knows, I mean, damn, no decapping before cleaning and if you are gonna wet process, you best do it to get them CLEAN cause that is a lot of trouble to go through to only cut corners and gyp yourself. Then you have the primers coming out, now even longer wait times to dry. If you dry them for a little bit then think you are good to go and decap/prime when you resize, you could be setting yourself up for a few fails.

[45R]

I switched from dawn to laundry detergent and found the cases get just as clean in about a fourth of the time.

I tried what w/o the pins today. It worked really well.

[tiller]

I've tried to tell people for a while now that you don't need pins to wet tumble...

I turn out better looking brass with out pins than. Some people do with pins... You just need to find the right combo......

And to the people that say its not good that it doesn't clean the inside... Your mistaken... It clean the inside it just doesn't etch off the carbon staining...

Primer pockets are so so... People have there own thoughts on that... But one thing that is a MUST is decapping first!


Also I don't know why people use dawn... It is a grease and grime remover.... Why does your brass have grease, grime, oil etc.. On it?
Dawn is not need and is a waste of money to put in with your brass...

Do another test without dawn and find out for yourself...

[45R]

Brass on the left was tumbled with pins. Brass on the right was just kirkland laundry soap and lemi shine. It ran for about 2 hours. The 357/38 shells came out better than I expected. I'd be happy tumbling with or without pins. The little pins from STM are the pain in the butt but I been fortunate enough to have never had them get stuck in the primer holes of either .223, 308, 9mm, 357 or 38 brass.



No pins

[Soul_Cal]

Looks good,45R! Next couple batches I'll try some of the formulas you guys recommended. I noticed you have them in bags .... I need to grab some seal-able bags to sort them out and keep them from oxidizing too.

Overall, I'm really impressed with wet tumblers. Faster, quieter, and not as messy as dry tumblers.

[stilly]

I've tried to tell people for a while now that you don't need pins to wet tumble...

I turn out better looking brass with out pins than. Some people do with pins... You just need to find the right combo......

And to the people that say its not good that it doesn't clean the inside... Your mistaken... It clean the inside it just doesn't etch off the carbon staining...

Primer pockets are so so... People have there own thoughts on that... But one thing that is a MUST is decapping first!

Also I don't know why people use dawn... It is a grease and grime remover.... Why does your brass have grease, grime, oil etc.. On it?
Dawn is not need and is a waste of money to put in with your brass...

Do another test without dawn and find out for yourself...

Even though I can see the different paths, I DO agree with you on that BOLD statement. DECAPPING IS A MUST for WET tumble in order to do it RIGHT.

I use pins and I do not use pins. Pins are a catalyst for me. If I tumble without pins using only Citric Acid and water bath then I get great results and cheaper then dawn. But when I use pins, the results are better. So they DO serve a function. The problem also arises when folks have the SLOWER speed motor with a thumler. For EVERYONE with a thumler, if you do NOT have a 3100 or faster RPM motor and you are using a 1550 RPM motor, then you are WASTING TIME. THAT spins too damn slow and is MEANT for rocks. You MUST contact Thumler and get a new motor or else you are already doing it WRONG.

As for Dawn, well, I disagree a bit. Dawn is Soap = Alkaline correct? Alkaline and Acids are opposites and they both attack organics correct? The way that dishsoap works is to eat a thin layer of your skin and make it slippery so that the dirt SLIDES off. Anyone remember the movie Fight Club? Acid and Alkalines do the same basic thing, they EAT organics, Carbon IS ORGANIC therefore just about any alkaline or acid SHOULD eat it. Dawn is just better and REALLY good for your drains...

That is how I see the world and I do not care to argue chemistry down to a molecule, but my basic principles should be on the mark.

Pins? They only help to break up the softened dirt and carbon fouling. Without the pins it may take another 59 revolutions or so to break the carbon out of a brass case... But with pins, maybe only 2-7 revs...

So anyways...

[Bumslie]

I'll try the no media approach.

I'll admit, for pistol tumbling, I don't even bother decapping anymore.

I still will for rifle, even though those are mainly plinking rounds as well.

[sjb269]

Just tried a batch with oxy clean…no go, don't bother, too aggressive. Tarnished the brass and turned the water blue. Going back to standard laundry detergent. I use about 1 tablespoon BTW.

[DS94901]

I've been wet tumbling without media for really dirty brass as a quicky before decapping/resizing. Same results as you. It's nice to be able to cram a lot more shells in those little tumblers. I still use ss pins for a final tumble but like you said, you can get some really nice results without media.

[Burbur]

I've been wet tumbling without media for really dirty brass as a quicky before decapping/resizing. Same results as you. It's nice to be able to cram a lot more shells in those little tumblers. I still use ss pins for a final tumble but like you said, you can get some really nice results without media.

+1

If the range pickup is so dirty, that I am afraid to run my brass process, I give it a quick wash in the mixer w/o pins.