wet tumbling without pins?

[TrxR]

Anyone here wet tumble without the pins? Im not talking filthy brass im talking bench rest brass that stays relatively clean. Im thinking of ways to clean after necking up and turning as well as after shooting .

 

[chkunz]

I wet tumble without the pins. I use one part Simple Green to seven parts water. I tumble for two hours and they are clean inside and out. I tried going longer once and got some discoloration that I did not like but no need to go past two hours. I tried the pins once just to see and I did not see any advantage to the pins.

 

[TrxR]

For me its just going to be small batches of maybe 50 at a time. i was thinking i could put together a cheap tumbler as i already have a couple of electric motors kicking around.

 

[jepp2]

Im thinking of ways to clean after necking up and turning as well as after shooting .

I haven't tried without pins. One thing I would want to check, when I run a small batch of brass (1/4 of my tumbler capacity) the case mouths get dinged up much worse. Don't know if the pins help - by cushioning, or hurt by making the brass heavier with the weight of the pins.

For my important brass, I just dry tumble in fine (20-40 sieve size) corn cob media with some car polish. I keep the carbon in the case neck, but the outside of the case gets cleaned.

 

[MislMan]

I wet tumble without pins. I shoot from the bench and catch the ejected brass in a Caldwell brass catcher (standing net set-up). The brass stay pretty clean. I first just size using Unique sizing wax, then tumble brass to remove the sizing wax/lube. I use Dawn dish washing liquid and water only and tumble for 1/2 hour minimum (more if I’m doing other things). Drain water/soap, add clean water and swoosh around to remove remaining soap. Pour brass out into a lettuce spinner and “spin dry” brass to remove most water. Then pour brass onto an old towel to final dry (place in sunlight as preferred). Only do rifle brass in 50-100 pieces at a sitting.

 

[1shot]

I've got a post floating around here about this subject. A couple tablespoons of Dawn and a 1/2 teaspoon of lemi shine, a couple of hours in a rotary tumbles and they will look like new.

Lloyd

 

[dantiff2]

Wet tumbling without the pins works great on the outside of the case. Not so much with the primer pockets and inside the body though which really is the whole benefit of wet tumbling to start with. I've noticed that you will get dinged up case mouths if the drum is not totally full of water. Regardless of how many brass I do at a time, my drum needs to be topped off.

 

[TrxR]

I'm mainly looking for a way to clean out the lube and cutting oil from inside the case after expanding and turning the neck

 

[jpx2rk]

Sometimes I use an old plastic coffee tub, some dawn soap and hot water, swish 'em around, let 'em soak, swish some more, then rinse good. Sometimes I add lemishine, but most of the time I don't. Use a dehydrator to dry 'em, especially in the winter time. During the summer time, I use a SS tumbler and lay 'em out on the driveway.

 

[TrxR]

How long do you dry in the dehydrator?

 

[jpx2rk]

Usually 2-3 hrs but my dehydrator has variable temp setting. It's actually a food dehydrator from wally world, got it on sale a couple yrs ago. I've read some guys use dehydrators for 30 min or so, but I prefer to "over" dry 'em at low heat, doesn't hurt the brass and they are dry.