Drying brass

joe k · Feb 17, 2016

I would use a food dehydrator, but I am not doing it frequently and I haven't got around to buying one. My interim solutions is to roll them in a towel, then put them in a colander and balance it on top of my boot dryer. I put a plastic grocery bag or a towel or the top of the colander to hold in the warm air, and let it go for a day or so; I'm not in a hurry. Works fine.

Member 5605 · Feb 17, 2016

UserNameInUse said:
Before I learned of food dehydrators I was thinking I needed air to flow through the cases and this is what I ended up with. The goal was to get even air flow which it seems to have.

I was going to make a wood box with maybe a PC fan, but I had this boot dryer which I really only use when I ride in the rain. PVC or ABS fittings slip on perfectly.

I rarely tumble more than 100 cases at a time since I am using the smaller Harbor Freight rock tumbler but I have stacked another layer of 9mm with good results.

I've since raised the lower platform because it was slightly blocking the intake side of the fan and the upper platform was warmer.

A dehydrator is probably a better, and cheaper solution, but I this is really more a reflection of how much I enjoy this hobby.

Mark

View attachment 278032 View attachment 278033 View attachment 278034

Genius...

BAMCIS · Feb 19, 2016

I subscribe to the KISS principle.

Step 1: Pop the primers.

Step 2: Into the tumbler with water at whatever temperature happens to be coming out of the faucet, a few good squirts of Dawn and about a 45 case full of Lemishine.

Step 3: Tumble. At least 4 hours, sometimes longer (like if I forget and it ends up running for two days

).

Step 4: Separate the brass from the SS pins, rinse until the water is clear.

Step 5: Tumble in the Dillon media separator to get the rest of the pins out and as much water as possible.

Step 6: Lay on a towel in the spare bedroom and I put the brass in the appropriate bucket when I get around to it. Usually a week or so.

I have no problem with you guys who want to hurry things along with various dryers. More power to you. But I've never seen the need for it because I have literally buckets of brass in various states or stages or "readiness" to run through the reloader.