Cleaning brass questions

[G0nefishin]

I'm going to pick something up to clean brass & it's between a harbor freight rock tumbler with stainless steel media or a ultrasonic cleaner off amazon both about the same price. I can't make up my mind. Any input will be appreciated.

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[Camelfilter]

I like tumbling with steel media. A little lemi shine (Walmart / Freddie's), & a touch of Dawn liquid. An hour or so. Rinse and tumble with just tap water, rinse/tumble once or twice for a few minutes, depending how nasty the brass was originally.

Use a harbor freight rock tumbler, tumbler barrel is a cut down and glued plastic pipe (plenty of online how to's on making a bigger roller for HF rock tumblers). Glue in a few internal baffles the length of the pipe, if you go the home made pipe route is key. Else the brass and media will not be tumbling and doing there work.

An ultrasonic really will not get the primer pockets clean, least ways I wouldn't think. Not in the same time you could tumble several hundred more anyways.

Stainless media can be bought pretty cheap (compared to in stores), via Southern shine tumblers - face book.

Various ways to seperate / save the media from your brass. Easiest are the big hand crank separators. About all the reloading companies have a version. Maybe $50, pop up on here on occasion for much less. A few turns back and forth and about all the media comes out of the brass & can be reused.

I dry the brass in the oven on low heat. About an hour. Then bag them up the next day, spray a little lube* in the bag and give a shake. Good until I need them.

*lube is just liquid lanolin ("Now" brand amazon 4oz, $10), and "iso heet" brand gasoline additive in the red plastic ($1-$2 Walmart / Freddie's). A little of the lanolin goes a long ways. Maybe an oz per iso heet, mixed in an empty isopropyl alcohol spray bottle (properly labeled).

 

[MikeInOr]

In my experience a good decently powered ultrasonic cleaner with a built in heater does a marvelous job on brass... and hand guns... and hand tools... and eye glasses... and etc.

A cheap low powered ultrasonic cleaner really doesn't clean anything all that well and most have timers with only a few minutes to keep the electronics from overheating which is too sort to actually get anything clean.

The cheap HF rotary tumbler with stainless steel pins is pretty fool proof as long as it doesn't leak.


I have this ultrasonic cleaner and it does a pretty good job. It is about as small as I would recommend.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HGNYO0U/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It does seem to have the claimed 180 watts of ultrasonic power. Many cheap ultrasonic cleaners will take the power of the ultra sonic emitters add to that the power of the heater and use that as their claimed power... which is completely bogus!

If you load up an ultrasonic cleaner with brass it helps to stir the brass around a couple of times to clean all sides of all the brass well. If you don't stir the brass a bit it will eventually still all get clean... it just takes longer. If your brass is decapped the primer pockets will be cleaned.

 

[G0nefishin]

Hey thanks a bunch guy's. I think I'll go the hf rock tumbler method I can get the warranty from them so if anything goes wrong I'll be covered for a few extra dollars. use a magnet to separate the pins & oven to dry them. Again I appreciate the input fella's.

 

[DizzyJ]

Yep. Wet tumbler. I personally went with the Frankfort Arsenal one, but sounds like there are less expensive alternatives.

 

[Camelfilter]

Yep. Wet tumbler. I personally went with the Frankfort Arsenal one, but sounds like there are less expensive alternatives.

That Frankfort tumbler seems pretty nice!

The only way the HF tumbler works well (IMO anyways), is with a homemade bigger drum. The drums it comes with are too small & cheesy.

 

[RVTECH]

The cheap HF rotary tumbler with stainless steel pins is pretty fool proof as long as it doesn't leak.

Been using exactly this for a couple years now with no problems or leaks. Capacity has been a small issue at times but never inhibited my loading volume as I pre-prep cases ahead of time.
For separating get a plastic kitchen colander with a stainless bowl it will fit in. Pour the finished cases into the colander, shake well and the pins fall into the bowl. Lift the colander and shake a bit under running water to ensure the last of the pins fall out. Line a cooking pan with a small towel and pour the cases into it, pick up the corners of the towel & 'roll' cases to get surface water off & set in the sun to dry. Run water in the SS pins In the bowl till it runs clear. Pour remaining water out and place a paper coffee filter into a cereal bowl. Pour pins into it and set out to dry - total time for all this from start to finish (after tumbling) about 10 minutes.

 

[mcfoto]

I scored a HF tumbler on the classifieds here from someone who had upgraded to the bigger Frankford Arsenal one. It does a great job but I use it strictly for handgun ammo. Get about 100 pieces of .38 sp each in the little tumblers. After separating in a colander, I use the magnet method to retrieve the pins:

 

[mcfoto]

For drying afterward, I scored a food dehydrator for $20 at Goodwill.

 

[Bones2586]

Two thumbs up for the wet tumbler method. Lemi shine, dish soap as stated, fresh water rinse a couple times following, dry with some heat, and good to go! Stainless steel pins work like magic, cleanest insides of pistol cases ever!

Had a buddy who made a good sized one using a Gatorade bucket, old dryer motor and pulley/roller system in a stand, worked like a champ!

 

[PenTurner]

I built my own tumbler from parts I had (a couple of 1/2" steel rods covered with water hose and a variable lathe motor). It can hold two large Ragu jars for my tumbling. The Ragu jars work great for me, with no leakage. The only one that failed was one I dropped and cracked the side.

For fathers day, my boys bought me a lyman's case dryer and a Frankford media separator.

The tumbling works great, it cleans the shells much better then vibratory ones. You want to use a lube so that the shells don't get stuck in the dies. Don't ask me how I know

The last batch of SS pins I bought were off of Amazon. Guntap was the brand. The Guntap pins seem to work better than the brand I bought from Cabelas.

Ron

 

[DizzyJ]

For drying afterward, I scored a food dehydrator for $20 at Goodwill.

I did that the first time.

After that, I went to using cookie sheets in the oven for 20 minutes @ 200 degrees. Seems a quicker and better method for me at least.

 

[mcfoto]

I did that the first time.

After that, I went to using cookie sheets in the oven for 20 minutes @ 200 degrees. Seems a quicker and better method for me at least.

I guess if you need the brass right away, I'll keep this in mind. My MO is to clean brass after work in the evening. Usually the brass goes into the dryer a couple hours before bedtime. On the way to the sack, I unplug and take the top off to let cool overnight. Next day, the brass is ready for bagging.

 

[techiej]

I have an US and am happy with the results - not as shiny as stainless tumbling but I can clean the brass enough for me in about 30 minutes (it's a Hornday dual emitter + heater). I clean before depriming + resizing and I like to clean afterwards to get any lube off and get the primer pockets reasonably clean. That way my clean brass is completely ready for reloading. and the press stays clean during depriming + resizing.

After it's done with cleaning I rinse a few times in hot water and use a salad spinner to get most of the water off. Then it just dries on a bench.

 

[thorborg]

I started with crushed Walnut shells and rouge in Tupperware mounted on my lath using a bowl plate. later acquired a vibratory unit. blinding bright which I like, but does nothing for primer pockets or the inside. Also I would only get four or five uses of the walnuts and rouge mix before I would have to make fresh.
I now have about a gallon and a half size tumbling unit run off my same variable speed wood lathe using Lemishine with a tiny bit of soap and S/S pins, definitely the way to go.
I still like mine beyond bright so also use walnut shells and rouge to make them spiffy. Though I still use the vibratory for the polish (because I have it) you can do it in the tumbler also. The walnut and rouge mix last nearly forever now that the shells are cleaned with the pins before they get polished.

 

[benchmark]

Steel pins and a teaspoon of citric acid does the trick.

 

[Tully Mars]

Range picked brass or brass bought in bulk from the .gov go into a plastic drummed cement mixer from Lowe's that I converted into a wet tumbler. From then on I still use corn cob media,polish and a Dillon Tumbler.

 

[G0nefishin]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the input I appreciate it.

 

[Member 5605]

The rock tumbler won't let you down.

 

[Goosebrown]

I'm going to pick something up to clean brass & it's between a harbor freight rock tumbler with stainless steel media or a ultrasonic cleaner off amazon both about the same price. I can't make up my mind. Any input will be appreciated.

Go stainless every time.