Then I saw her face..........

[Ironbar]

.......NOW I'M A BELIEVER!



OK, I admit it. I poh-poh'd wet tumblers for so long. I wanted to believe that my dry tumbler was just as good even if it didn't get the cases as clean as a wet tumbler. I was wrong.

I knew from all the range brass I picked up back on 11/15 that I'd need something more to clean the stuff up than my Thumler. So I bit the bullet and got a Rebel 17 wet tumbler.


I did a short wash on the steel pins that came with it first, then loaded it up with hundreds of range pickup and other once fired .40 cal brass. Did Dawn and Lemi-Shine, and 'll be damned if this stuff doesn't look like BRAND NEW brass!

All I can say is that I'm impressed, amazed, and now sold on wet tumbling. I can't wait to get down to the range and pick up some more nasty-azz brass and watch it come out clean as a whistle!

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[DizzyJ]

.......NOW I'M A BELIEVER!

View attachment 786706

OK, I admit it. I poh-poh'd wet tumblers for so long. I wanted to believe that my dry tumbler was just as good even if it didn't get the cases as clean as a wet tumbler. I was wrong.

I knew from all the range brass I picked up back on 11/15 that I'd need something more to clean the stuff up than my Thumler. So I bit the bullet and got a Rebel 17 wet tumbler.

View attachment 786707
I did a short wash on the steel pins that came with it first, then loaded it up with hundreds of range pickup and other once fired .40 cal brass. Did Dawn and Lemi-Shine, I'll be damned if this stuff doesn't look like BRAND NEW brass!

All I can say is that I'm impressed, amazed, and now sold on wet tumbling. I can't wait to get down to the range and pick up some more nasty-azz brass and watch it come out clean as a whistle!

Welcome to the club!

 

[titsonritz]

 

[DLS]

Yep, I'll never go back to the noisy, dusty dirty less efficient dry tumbling method.

 

[RVTECH]

Yep, I'll never go back to the noisy, dusty dirty less efficient dry tumbling method.

Brings back bad memories!

 

[Ironbar]

The great thing is, I'll still have use for the vibratory tumbler. I found yesterday that when I tried to de-cap/resize all that dirty .40 cal brass that for some reason I had to run up the case twice on half that brass in order to get the primer to pop. This is unlike the pre-tumbled brass I de-capped about a week ago where every primer popped with one pull, and I had such a rhythm going.

As I type this post, I have several hundred rounds of 9mm dry tumbling. Once they're done I'll run them through the de-capping/resizing die and see how they go compared to doing it dirty.

 

[Member 5605]

Welcome to the dark side.
Change your Dawn to a Carnuba wax car soap and rinse in cool water. The wax acts as a lubricant down the road and helps keep the brass slick for loading, chambering and taper crimping.

 

[FortRock]

Dry v. wet: I like to dry tumble my brass before I run it into my dies. Dust it off, re-size/de-prime; measure, trim, camfer.... all the activities that require hand contact to the brass, or lube. Then wet tumble with Dawn and Lemi-Shine. Like loading new brass all trimmed to spec. I get the best result for feeding and ejecting in semi-auto with really clean brass.

 

[Ironbar]

Welcome to the dark side.
Change your Dawn to a Carnuba wax car soap and rinse in cool water. The wax acts as a lubricant down the road and helps keep the brass slick for loading, chambering and taper crimping.

Interesting! I assume it's as good Dawn for getting rid of the greasy gunk and dirt?

Dry v. wet: I like to dry tumble my brass before I run it into my dies. Dust it off, re-size/de-prime; measure, trim, camfer.... all the activities that require hand contact to the brass, or lube. Then wet tumble with Dawn and Lemi-Shine. Like loading new brass all trimmed to spec. I get the best result for feeding and ejecting in semi-auto with really clean brass.

This is exactly what I was thinking too. I've quickly discovered that processing brass is a hobby unto itself, and I'm actually really enjoying the whole procedure of going from start to finish, especially with that really dirty, nasty brass.

 

[Member 5605]

Interesting! I assume it's as good Dawn for getting rid of the greasy gunk and dirt?

Dawn is cheaper, I'll admit that at the start.
I have not had any issues with the dirtiest of brass cleaning up to sparkling new appearance with Armorall soap.

Completely filthy brass sometimes gets a brass only with soap run before I deprime and do a final clean. I've grabbed some of the nastiest and filthiest brass i could find and it all came out new bag worthy.

 

[RVTECH]

Once they're done I'll run them through the de-capping/resizing die and see how they go compared to doing it dirty.

Start saving all your spent primers and eventually ditch the dry pre-sizing tumbling and start pre-sizing wet with the primers.

An hour in the drink with primers, a couple drops of Dawn and a splash of lemon juice and they are , smooth, clean and sizer ready!

Heck if the primer primer pockets are not bad you might just load them as is. I do sometimes.

 

[FortRock]

Interesting! I assume it's as good Dawn for getting rid of the greasy gunk and dirt?



This is exactly what I was thinking too. I've quickly discovered that processing brass is a hobby unto itself, and I'm actually really enjoying the whole procedure of going from start to finish, especially with that really dirty, nasty brass.

I agree with this. By the time I have finished priming brass, I put it away in plastic containers with a little bag of silicone desicant (spelling?). I have shelves of primed and prepped brass. When I want an interesting load, I am all set to go. But then I am retired so I have the time. CLEAN brass makes life much simpler.

 

[DLS]

I actually "double wash" my brass. It only adds a couple of minutes to the total processing time.

The first wash is with Dawn and Lemi-shine, time dependent on how dirty the brass is, running between one and two hours. Then a rinse for a minute or so under running water followed by a second run with a wax bearing car wash (using Maguire's right now but any will do) and another pinch of surfactant.

I found I can cut way down on the wax bearing car wash and I feel wax better adheres to the cases. This assessment is pretty subjective, but hey, in my mind at least it does! I run this second cycle for a half-hour to an hour.

In my oh so unscientific experimentation, the brass that is double washed seems to stay brighter, longer, when left out in open pails in my garage. So, based on this I'm attributing this to better wax adhesion. It seems to me just starting out with the wax bearing car wash you end up coating a lot of dirt particle with wax, necessitating more to be used to get the same result.

I also used to use the towel and air dry method. My wife didn't really like the countertops covered in brass during the wintertime (garage too damp to thoroughly dry brass in a reasonable time) so I purchased a Lyman case dryer. This thing works great ... better than the garage sale food dehydrator I tried before. Its timer maxes out at three hours, so that is what I run every time. Since my brass tumbling takes three hours it works out great. A dry batch is dumped into containers making room for the wet batch just coming out from the wash.

The three hour setting has totally dried all brass without water spotting, even when the garage is in the low teens and the humidity is hovering around 70% or more.

I also agree that waxed rounds resize better, the microscopic layer of wax give friction just a tiny kick in the butt, enough that you can feel the smoothness on the press handle.

 

[Ironbar]

I actually "double wash" my brass. It only adds a couple of minutes to the total processing time.

The first wash is with Dawn and Lemi-shine, time dependent on how dirty the brass is, running between one and two hours. Then a rinse for a minute or so under running water followed by a second run with a wax bearing car wash (using Maguire's right now but any will do) and another pinch of surfactant.

I found I can cut way down on the wax bearing car wash and I feel wax better adheres to the cases. This assessment is pretty subjective, but hey, in my mind at least it does! I run this second cycle for a half-hour to an hour.

In my oh so unscientific experimentation, the brass that is double washed seems to stay brighter, longer, when left out in open pails in my garage. So, based on this I'm attributing this to better wax adhesion. It seems to me just starting out with the wax bearing car wash you end up coating a lot of dirt particle with wax, necessitating more to be used to get the same result.

I also used to use the towel and air dry method. My wife didn't really like the countertops covered in brass during the wintertime (garage too damp to thoroughly dry brass in a reasonable time) so I purchased a Lyman case dryer. This thing works great ... better than the garage sale food dehydrator I tried before. Its timer maxes out at three hours, so that is what I run every time. Since my brass tumbling takes three hours it works out great. A dry batch is dumped into containers making room for the wet batch just coming out from the wash.

The three hour setting has totally dried all brass without water spotting, even when the garage is in the low teens and the humidity is hovering around 70% or more.

I also agree that waxed rounds resize better, the microscopic layer of wax give friction just a tiny kick in the butt, enough that you can feel the smoothness on the press handle.

I dry tumble with a bit of NuFinish and mineral spirits.

 

[Helocat]

Welcome to the club!

Wet cleaned brass is SO clean you may experience it stick a bit in the belling process. Especially if you use a Bullet feeder on a progressive press. If you do get it sticking a bit, I solved this for pistol brass by putting the beautiful brass in a bin, shaking it a bit so most go mouth up, then hit it with a few light shots of case lube, then shake the whole thing.

 

[DLS]

I found the sticking during belling ended when I started using wax based detergent as a rinse.

 

[Catfishmoon]

I was already in possession of a large ultra-sonic tank when I started reloading so that is the method I use. Currently I am doing some once-fired Lake City military 5.56. I remove the primers using a dedicated decapper on the dirty cases and then wash the brass. I wash the cases a second time after they are resized to remove the lube.

 

[Helocat]

I found the sticking during belling ended when I started using wax based detergent as a rinse.

Hmm I use Car wash (a detergent) with wax as my soap.

That's outstanding your getting it not to stick with this! I Rinse with water, to well rinse. When are you adding another detergent with wax for a rinse to get it to provide enough non stick, are you still getting the detergent removed in the rinse process? Seams like detergent would still be present.

W/o the added case lube mine sticks even running at 1500 CPH that I am running at mostly these days.

 

[DLS]

I'm not running an automated press, that might make a difference. I run a Dillon 550, nothing special.

Post #13 details the gist of what I do. I don't do much rinsing the second time around. The first wash with Dawn and Lemi-Shine comes out super dirty, as you can imagine. I rinse this pretty well, spending two to three minutes under a running tap. I use the fine micro mesh end caps you can purchase as an option for the Franklin Tumbler. I shake and roll the cannister the whole time and swap ends at least once to upend the cases that otherwise would settle heavy side down trapping dirty water.

The second washing with the car wash does not get much more grime off the cases as the vast majority has already been removed with the first round. The waste water is slightly off-colored but still pretty much clear. This I quickly rinse until no suds appear, probably 30 seconds or so is all.

Then it's into a Lyman case dryer.

All in all it only adds about four or five minutes to the overall process and I feel the results are better. I certainly use less car wash than when I just did the car wash from the get go.

In the Franklin tumbler I use a pump dispenser for the detergents, it probably dispenses about 2 tablespoon per pump. I'll measure it for sure, as now I'm curious. I settled on this after a lot of experimentation as to how much or little would work. For really dirty brass I'll do a pump and a half for the first washing. I add a little less than 1/4 teaspoon of surfactant each time.

I hope this helps!

 

[Helocat]

I'm not running an automated press, that might make a difference. I run a Dillon 550, nothing special.

Post #13 details the gist of what I do. I don't do much rinsing the second time around. The first wash with Dawn and Lemi-Shine comes out super dirty, as you can imagine. I rinse this pretty well, spending two to three minutes under a running tap. I use the fine micro mesh end caps you can purchase as an option for the Franklin Tumbler. I shake and roll the cannister the whole time and swap ends at least once to upend the cases that otherwise would settle heavy side down trapping dirty water.

The second washing with the car wash does not get much more grime off the cases as the vast majority has already been removed with the first round. The waste water is slightly off-colored but still pretty much clear. This I quickly rinse until no suds appear, probably 30 seconds or so is all.

Then it's into a Lyman case dryer.

All in all it only adds about four or five minutes to the overall process and I feel the results are better. I certainly use less car wash than when I just did the car wash from the get go.

In the Franklin tumbler I use a pump dispenser for the detergents, it probably dispenses about 2 tablespoon per pump. I'll measure it for sure, as now I'm curious. I settled on this after a lot of experimentation as to how much or little would work. For really dirty brass I'll do a pump and a half for the first washing. I add a little less than 1/4 teaspoon of surfactant each time.

I hope this helps!

Nice. Yes when running on my 550 I never experienced "stick" from the belling opp as with manual processing it's easier to modulate the pressure you put on a sticking case. I use my 550 for all my large rifle and large pistols 50AE etc.

I do a non chip wash first for rang pick ups. Just car wash only. Sort then process my brass with case lube. Roll size, deprime, undersize. Then its in with the chips, car wash with wax and citric acid (what Lime-Shine is). I rinse with fresh water uncle no suds, then seperate the chips and brass with fresh water on a shaker table.

Its too clean when done and just has to have that shot of lube to have no issues, for me anyway.