Don't like taking carbon out of my necks so I've stopped with the pins. Walnut and some mineral spirits...nice clean brass.
Wet Tumbling vs Dry media
- Thread starter Loudcherokee
- Start date
If you're unsure of commiting to wet tumbling, you can start out cheap by getting the Harbor Freight rock tumbler but don't forget the 20% off coupon. It'll hold about 30 or so .223 cases. Use the Sleeping Giant SS chips instead of pins, they don't get stuck in necks or flash holes. RCBS has a concentrated liquid tumbling soap that cleans well, puts a good shine on the brass and resists tarnishing. You can be up and running for well under a hundred.
I do exactly as you do and it doesn't take long for my heat gun to get them nice and dry (taking them longer for them to cool off
). When I wet tumble, my brass is clean and shinny like the picture you posted. I only wet tumble for preping to FL sizing. Otherwise, I dry tumble with rice.
Maybe I'm old school, but after trying wet tumbling, I went right back to dry media.
No problems if you buy corncob and walnut sieved small, so that it doesn't foul flash holes.
Pins make shiny brass, that's for sure. With large lots of brass or range brass, I can see an advantage, maybe. I spent more time, from start to finish, with the pins, than dry media.
Tumbling will remove most carbon inside case body, no thick buildup, just thin layer.
I like the carbon in the necks although annealing seems to change crystal size. In and out with bore brush remedies that. Also, the remaining neck carbon adheres better to Q-tip applied dry Imperial. I get very low ES with this method.
P.S. I didn't get smaller groups, using pins.
No problems if you buy corncob and walnut sieved small, so that it doesn't foul flash holes.
Pins make shiny brass, that's for sure. With large lots of brass or range brass, I can see an advantage, maybe. I spent more time, from start to finish, with the pins, than dry media.
Tumbling will remove most carbon inside case body, no thick buildup, just thin layer.
I like the carbon in the necks although annealing seems to change crystal size. In and out with bore brush remedies that. Also, the remaining neck carbon adheres better to Q-tip applied dry Imperial. I get very low ES with this method.
P.S. I didn't get smaller groups, using pins.
B23
Gold $$ Contributor
Yes, that's the stuff I use but I don't use it for sizing cases, I use it after I've sized them to coat the inside of the necks so the bullet releases evenly every time.
Ya just gotta add Plastic Roof Cement to your list. Just looking at an open container will get it all over you.
Wet/Stainless pin tumbling - Where was this option 20 years ago?
Deprime rifle brass, fill Frankford Arsenal tumbler 2/3 full with brass, add HOT water, a TEASPOON of lemi shine (or a touch less), a small dash of Dawn, tumble for one hour.
Dump dirty water, fill with HOT water, shake by hand a couple times, dump water. I dump the contents into a homemade strainer (roaster pan - lid has 150 holes in the lid. Invert the lid on the pan, dump contents of tumbler into lid, rinse with hot water while separating pins and brass).
Advantages of wet/pin tumbling?
EVERYTHING stays cleaner. Dies, press, everything. Once you go down this voodoo path, you will become a lover of stainless!!
Brass resizing is EASIER.
I do not experience carbon in necks.
Purchased the Frankford Arsenal dryer as well. Did not want to give up my jerky dryer.
Deprime rifle brass, fill Frankford Arsenal tumbler 2/3 full with brass, add HOT water, a TEASPOON of lemi shine (or a touch less), a small dash of Dawn, tumble for one hour.
Dump dirty water, fill with HOT water, shake by hand a couple times, dump water. I dump the contents into a homemade strainer (roaster pan - lid has 150 holes in the lid. Invert the lid on the pan, dump contents of tumbler into lid, rinse with hot water while separating pins and brass).
Advantages of wet/pin tumbling?
EVERYTHING stays cleaner. Dies, press, everything. Once you go down this voodoo path, you will become a lover of stainless!!
Brass resizing is EASIER.
I do not experience carbon in necks.
Purchased the Frankford Arsenal dryer as well. Did not want to give up my jerky dryer.
B23
Gold $$ Contributor
This may be dependent on what your tap water is like, but I had the best luck using distilled water to clean and rinse with. My tap water had a tendency to leave hard water spots. Using distilled water eliminated all my water spots problem.
Also, when using lemi shine, less works better than more so if your brass comes out kinda dull, back off on the lemi shine because using more actually makes it worse.
Also, when using lemi shine, less works better than more so if your brass comes out kinda dull, back off on the lemi shine because using more actually makes it worse.
Thanks for all the replies guys. I will probably go with the Frankford Arsenal tumbler, the platinum one. Along with their wet/dry media separator. I like the idea it has a strainer built into the lid for straining the water off the pins when done. They also offer a dryer tray system, which I'll likely get as well.
I'll probably experiment a couple different ways. Pins, no pins, chips, pins and chips, etc. I'll see what works best for me.
LC
I'll probably experiment a couple different ways. Pins, no pins, chips, pins and chips, etc. I'll see what works best for me.
LC
divingin
Gold $$ Contributor
I wet tumble pistol brass; have moved back to either not cleaning bolt rifle brass (just steel wool the neck exterior), or giving it a quick dry tumble (every 5 to 10 firings.)
If I full length size rifle brass, I''ll give it 20 minutes in a dry tumbler to get the lube off.
Wet tumbling takes quite a bit of time - I tumble for at least a couple of hours, separate brass from pins, and dry; all told at least 3 hrs.
A quick dry tumble is about 5 minutes over run time (run time is as long as you want to make it: 20 minutes for lube removal, an hour or two to shine stuff up.)
I'd keep both, as the results are different for each.
I switched to wet tumbling +10 years ago. It is very effective/efficient and can clean 5x-10x amount of brass in same amount of time. However, to achieve this type of volume it is a production run that is continuous as one batch is being tumbled you are prepping or processing other batches.
The reason I decided to switch was that I was shooting high volume (several thousand rounds per month) and also shooting suppressed. If you are shooting high volume, dirty guns (AR15), suppressed, or picking up range brass. I don't bother turning on the tumbler until I have at least a tub (large shoe box size) of dirty cases, which is equivalent of 1K of dirty rifle cartridges or +2K of pistol brass. Most pistol brass and rifle brass is clean within 25 minutes, and suppressed brass (black with soot) takes another 30-40 minutes. After rinsing thoroughly (water is clear) I use one of the spinning separators (clam shell type) to spin out the steel pins and also throw off some of the water. Dump the clean brass on a beach towel and roll it around for 30 seconds to remove excess water on exterior of case. Either place outside on sunny day or on floor under a ceiling fan for a day or two. Presto!
There is no reason to switch from vibrating to wet tumbling if you are shooting low volume, especially through a bolt gun where the spent cases are still extremely clean. If you are shooting precision bench rest then there some concern that the steel pins ding the lip of case mouth. If you aren't neck turning, case weighing, and hand polishing cases (OCD level of Case Pep) then this potential issue is a non-event for you... 95% of reloaders won't even notice or be concerned.
The reason I decided to switch was that I was shooting high volume (several thousand rounds per month) and also shooting suppressed. If you are shooting high volume, dirty guns (AR15), suppressed, or picking up range brass. I don't bother turning on the tumbler until I have at least a tub (large shoe box size) of dirty cases, which is equivalent of 1K of dirty rifle cartridges or +2K of pistol brass. Most pistol brass and rifle brass is clean within 25 minutes, and suppressed brass (black with soot) takes another 30-40 minutes. After rinsing thoroughly (water is clear) I use one of the spinning separators (clam shell type) to spin out the steel pins and also throw off some of the water. Dump the clean brass on a beach towel and roll it around for 30 seconds to remove excess water on exterior of case. Either place outside on sunny day or on floor under a ceiling fan for a day or two. Presto!
There is no reason to switch from vibrating to wet tumbling if you are shooting low volume, especially through a bolt gun where the spent cases are still extremely clean. If you are shooting precision bench rest then there some concern that the steel pins ding the lip of case mouth. If you aren't neck turning, case weighing, and hand polishing cases (OCD level of Case Pep) then this potential issue is a non-event for you... 95% of reloaders won't even notice or be concerned.
Experience carbon? You don't experience carbon, you leave it on or take it off. Maybe just the wrong word but there are those that want the neck carbon for seating bullets or they lube the case necks. I don't went to fall into the rabbit hole of seating force and squeaky necks yada yada but shiny jewelry brass doesn't add points. My across the course match rifles will shoot sub moa and others more versed can speak more to seating force, bullet pull, etc and I don't think bug hole shooters shoot with squeaky necks. People are different, you like wet I like dry. I like mashed potato sandwiches my kids think I'm crazy.
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There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding this method. I have done it this way since 2014 and have not used my dry vibratory set up since. The biggest issue is what happens to your rifle barrel if you don't get all the pins out.
If you are the type of person that don't mind taking the time to do some extra quality control checks I'd say give it a try. I do a visual inspection of every case for pins. This is a pain, but I haven't ruined a barrel yet.
I definitely don't believe there is any shooting related advantage to having spotless brass. It's pretty, but it wont help your groups. You can sometimes see cracks or bad spots that could lead to trouble later. If you buy new cases and are careful you probably don't need this method.
I have read a lot of stuff about it dimensionally changing brass. I have not been able to get mine to do this. I also cant get my set up to peen the case mouth to the point it is damaged...or even visibly changed at all. Same with loosening primer pockets. Some folks might have this problem, but I haven't in 6 years.
So, why do I do it??? Well, I get 223, 9mm, 40S&W and 45acp but the 5 gallon buckets from a military shooting range. I sell what I don't use, which is 95 percent of it and pretty sells.
If you are the type of person that don't mind taking the time to do some extra quality control checks I'd say give it a try. I do a visual inspection of every case for pins. This is a pain, but I haven't ruined a barrel yet.
I definitely don't believe there is any shooting related advantage to having spotless brass. It's pretty, but it wont help your groups. You can sometimes see cracks or bad spots that could lead to trouble later. If you buy new cases and are careful you probably don't need this method.
I have read a lot of stuff about it dimensionally changing brass. I have not been able to get mine to do this. I also cant get my set up to peen the case mouth to the point it is damaged...or even visibly changed at all. Same with loosening primer pockets. Some folks might have this problem, but I haven't in 6 years.
So, why do I do it??? Well, I get 223, 9mm, 40S&W and 45acp but the 5 gallon buckets from a military shooting range. I sell what I don't use, which is 95 percent of it and pretty sells.
I blow all my cases out with compressed air
I have to say that this is probably not good enough and you are eventually, unless you're very lucky and your luck holds out, going to loose a barrel. I guess it somewhat will depend on the size of the pins you are using and the cases you are cleaning. Pins can get stuck crossways in a case and air wont move them, plus there is always the ones that get stuck in the flash hole.
There is no substitute for a visual inspection, inside and out of every case and this is, to me, the biggest drawback of this cleaning method.
A lot of guys complain about drying cases...I solved that one with denatured alcohol.
The real kick in the ass is that the barrel you loose will not be a Savage or Ruger American, it will be the custom tack driving hummer you waited 6 months to get and another two months to have chambered.
I know you probably wont change the way you do this, so I will just say, "good luck".....you're gonna need it!!!!
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They don't need to be that clean, but to compare methods lets see some close ups of the primer pocket and the interior of the case......
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