WHAT CLEANER FOR LYMAN TUMBLER?

[terdog]

I'm headed into this dark world that we call reloading.
I have most of the gear. Lee Loadmaster press and a Lyman tumbler w ss pins.
Since my goal in reloading is to save $$$ / shoot more, I'm looking for a cost effective cleaning solution for the tumbler.

What do you use?

Thanks.

Terry

Read More

 

[Camelfilter]

A little Dawn dish detergent & little lemishine.

Tumble, rinse, tumble rinse, ad a little car wash with wax to this rinse. Tumble. Done.

 

[terdog]

I've heard people refer to the LEMONSHINE. Is that the liquid soap? There seems to be a few different things.

3 tumbles? Is that normal? Seems like more time and effort than I thought.

 

[Papercidal]

I have used the lemishine powder and dish soap in the past but have had better results with the frankford arsenal liquid solution which is very economical and works great.

 

[Camelfilter]

Lemishine is a powder. Like citric acid. Pretty inexpensive, usually found in with the dish detergents & such in stores.

Some folks certainly may do less tumbles, and omit things. You'll find what works best for you.

 

[Lesliet]

I really love the "Turbosonic" liquid they sell for ultrasonic cleaners. In my Lyman tumbler, 2 capfuls works great, or 3 if it's a bit overloaded. I run it for an hour, or for three if the brass is super bad, like " dug up out of the dirt, not sure if steel or brass" bad... and it comes out looking brand new. I do like to deprime, first, so the pockets get clean.
I got a media separator from DAA that gets the pins out in about a minute, and the CED brass dryer, another hour, and the brass is dry. At a rough guess, I'd say one load in the tumbler, which fills the dryer, also, is a little over a thousand cases of 9mm Luger? ( I shoot Speed Steel, and working on USPSA, so I go through a lot of 9mm.)

 

[Helocat]

I'm headed into this dark world that we call reloading.
I have most of the gear. Lee Loadmaster press and a Lyman tumbler w ss pins.
Since my goal in reloading is to save $$$ / shoot more, I'm looking for a cost effective cleaning solution for the tumbler.

What do you use?

Thanks.

Terry

Terry where are you located? If in the PNW we have relatively soft water, this is what determines how much citric acid to use.

Limishine = Citric Acid its the same stuff. (As Camelilter indicated)

If your in the PNW Bi-mart has Limishine. Me I just ordered 5 lbs of commercial citric acid used for canning. I give baggies of it away to local reloaders as I will never go though all of it.

Soap: Guys use basic Dawn dish soap. I moved to Amorall carwash with wax.

2/3 full of cases max in cleaner w/the pins
Fill almost to the top with water
Really small light squirt of soap.
9mm case of citric acid. (45 case too much, .40 too much, 9mm just right)

Let it run for 1.5hrs.
Last 15 min, dump the water and flush with fresh.*

*this is where you learn "really small light squirt of soap" as your brass keeps foaming back up when you rinse 2x = you put too much soap in.

I dry by dumping the seperate brass on to a towel, roll it up like a Swiss log, then dump into food dehydrator trays dry them in 2hrs. Best brass ever.

 

[Helocat]

I've heard people refer to the LEMONSHINE. Is that the liquid soap? There seems to be a few different things.

3 tumbles? Is that normal? Seems like more time and effort than I thought.

Lowest effort brass Cleanning:
The largest effort part of wet cleaning is separating the SS pins. Omit them for a batch and see what you get. Usually very clean brass. You can go right to loading with. Crazy easy.

Drying brass in Summer = on a towel outside in the sun.
Drying brass in Winter = $40 food dehydrators

 

[terdog]

Thanks all for your help.

I should mention that I have the LYMAN PRO 1200 & LYMAN MEDIA SEPARATOR.

You are being redirected...

You are being redirected...

In addition to the ROTARY TUMBLER.

You are being redirected...

My thoughts, and please share yours, is to use the dry PRO TUMBLER for the really dirty stuff. I'll rince those ss pins as needed.
Mainly, I'll use the wet ROTARY.

 

[terdog]

Drying brass in Summer = on a towel outside in the sun.
Drying brass in Winter = $40 food dehydrators

Yesterday I did a load in the sun. Worked well.
The day before I turned on the oven, let it get up to about 300, turned it off and stuck the used cookie sheet in with a batch of cases. Went back out to the shop and got them in a few hrs.

 

[terdog]

Terry where are you located? If in the PNW we have relatively soft water, this is what determines how much citric acid to use.

I live in Rathdrum , near Coeur dAlene

 

[terdog]

And to be clear, I'm not looking for my brass to be as shiny as new. I just want simple, cheap and effective.

 

[Helocat]

And to be clear, I'm not looking for my brass to be as shiny as new. I just want simple, cheap and effective.

My old Turbo 1200 ran thousands of hours in my early days of reloading. It was replaced by a big Dillon years ago and just last yr I sold the 1200 to a local getting into reloading, still running great for him. I went wet bass Cleanning a few yrs ago and have not looked back. I still keep the large Dillon vibratory cleaner with corn cob media for cleaning up post loaded brass to get all the case lube off them.

For quick and done, go wet no pins. For your area you will have to play with adding acid to balance for your water.

Too much = ruff dull looking brass or pink brass

Most pepole go too much thinking its like making a drink and you want to add a little more to make it better. Does not work that way.

 

[terdog]

Soap: Guys use basic Dawn dish soap. I moved to Amorall carwash with wax.

I'd heard of such, so yesterday I tried a batch. It was the Mothers stuff as I recall. The results were less than spectacular, but probably effective.

 

[ageingstudent]

I'd heard of such, so yesterday I tried a batch. It was the Mothers stuff as I recall. The results were less than spectacular, but probably effective.

Try 4-6oz of this with your water. It smells exactly like ultrasonic cleaner because it is the same thing minus the proprietary company color. You can get it at Albertsons or Safeway. I used to use lemishine and dish soap but this works just as well or better and it rinses very well. It's just citric acid and surfactant. It's all you need to clean. It even works well just soaking in a bucket and swirling a few times without pins. With pins and a machine you won't be able to tell it's even been fired once.

 

[ageingstudent]

These were just swished in hot water and that stuff in a bucket for an hour FYI...

Never mind the beer in the upper right-hand corner--I'm not reloading right now I just hammered a big fat NY steak on the other side of the table.

 

[kenboy]

Old school.......pet bedding shells from pet store. Same as walnut media but much cheaper.