POLL: Wet tumbler VS traditional dry tumbler

[deadidarren]

WET

 

[jdh47]

Dry

 

[rtpnc]

Wet (as in stainless pins, not ultrasonics, the latter being IMO a waste of time for no better a job vs dry media) does a better job cleaning, both inside and out, along with primer pockets, but takes extra time:

• decapping before first cleaning, which means a universal decapping die, don't want to run uncleaned range brass through ha sizing die..
• Waiting for brass to dry before being usable, and the extra time involved - whether by oven, toaster, food dehydrator, baby blankets, ...
• Most reasonably priced kits tumbler less cases at a time than a decent dry tumbler, so - more time, or (significantly) more $ to go larger.
• More than a few have stated their experience on wet tumbling being 'too clean,' in other words, removing all carbon inside the neck/mouth causing issues

Besides the sheer 'bling' factor, I'm not convinced there is any actual and measurable benefit to wet tumbling, while it is a fact that it does take longer.

Sticking to dry tumbling myself, but the Frankford Arsenal wet kit is probably the most appealing bang for buck wet kit I've seen...

 

[22DASHER]

Dry for me until I have some brass that I acquire second hand or range pickups that look horrible, then I will put them in my buddies SS tumbler

 

[jcampbellsmith]

Wet tumble with stainless steel pins after de-priming.

Ultrasonic clean at the end of the process before drying and putting the brass away.

Regards

JCS

 

[people]

Wet.

 

[Joe Salt]

Dry with Corn cob, Wet if they start to look bad inside! ;D

Joe Salt

 

[Duster_360]

Dry....but I just bought a wet setup. Intent is to wet tumble pistol brass and leave the rifle brass to dry tumbling.


I use two rotary tumblers - one for brass back from the range and removing case lube from rifle brass. My other rotary is for polishing NOS bullets before they get wet moly coated.

 

[gary0529]

Wet.
Have dry and ultrasonic but prefer STM.
Hate the dust from the dry and possible risks from lead styphanate from primers and ultrasonic - at least the consumer oriented lower end varieties are just too slow and limited capacity.

Gary

 

[nfngun]

Wet tumble SS ... Only takes an hour and cases are clean enough for me ... left over night to dry.

If i decide to bump shoulders I'll toss them in the vibratory for a final polish to remove the Imperial wax ...

Sonic cleaner is reserved for very small batches and cleaning parts.

 

[Jeff A]

Wet

 

[Gabe22BR]

Dry tumble in walnut media.

No need to wash and cook the brass, it gets enough of that..

 

[243Mendoza]

Have done both. Wet cleans better but peens the case mouth so I prefer dry tumbling.

 

[amlevin]

Have done both. Wet cleans better but peens the case mouth so I prefer dry tumbling.

Only peens if you have too many pieces of brass in too little media.

I anneal and trim AFTER cleaning so even the peening doesn't matter.

 

[Tempest]

Wet and I only tumble 30 min in hot water.

 

[Easyrider]

Wet with SS pins

 

[sparky123321]

Wet, unless I'm in a rush or just looking to quickly remove lube.