jayhkr Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Ok, so I've been asked to make a video of my wet tumbling process to hopefully help some people! This is my first "how to" video and to be honest it's very mono-toned. Hopefully though it'll help some of you who wish to try wet tumbling get an ideal of what it takes to get your brass looking "like new". I did mine on the cheap, I'd say for the price of a vibratory tumbler you can have a wet tumbler setup. One thing I will add is getting a good magnet will help in separating the SS media pins from the brass but it is NOT necessary. I just happen to have one but if you can't find a fairly cheap one then there really is no real added benefit to having one. So without further ado here's my video: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 In my opinion, you should use a proper case lube that is known to not contaminate primers and/or powder rather than a gun cleaner / dry lube. You don't need the cleaning effect for your brass and the dry lube may allow for easier resizing, but who knows what impact it might have on your powder or primers and that dry lube probably doesn't allow for your case to properly grip the chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 I'd certainly suggest a case separator with a lid. Best price I've seen is Grafs for about $30.00. It's made by Berrys - as all of them are that I've seen with a lid - just different colors for different customers. http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/27279 With the lid you can spin it up and it'll get most of the water out of the cases - along with the pins, of course - and you don't risk slinging pins all over creation. After that, just dump on an old bath towel and shake briskly for a few moments. That gets the water off the exterior of the cases so they don't get any water spots on drying. Also, if you will make a container out of 4" diameter plastic sewer pipe - about half the thickness of water pipe thus lighter - you can use 4lbs of pins and 4lbs of brass per load. If anyone wishes I'll send them a pic of one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhkr Posted April 12, 2014 Author Share Posted April 12, 2014 Thanks Steve! I will definitely consider getting one! I thought they were much more than $30 so I appreciate the tip! Sure would be nice just to tumble them out rather than use a magnet each time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhkr Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 Huh, only 2 comments and at last check no one gave it a thumbs up or down. Guess this is why I don't do video's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJE Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 (edited) I saw the post a few nights ago but I didn't have time to sit down and watch it until now. I bought the same tumbler as you back in December, so I have a few months of experience under my belt. How I do it is a bit different... 1. I have a scale but I don't load the drums on the scale anymore. When I first started I loaded it on there but once I got used to it, I just started filling it by memory... ie. a red "solo" cup filled up to the first ridge is approximately 1lb of brass. So I approximate one pound by that, pour it in the drum. 1lb of pins is already in the drum. A six to seven count of tap water from the faucet, one pump out of the dish soap and 1/2 to 3/4 of a .380 case of Lemi-shine. 2. Set it and forget it... for two-four hours. 3. I use a colander but my process is a lot different from yours (and faster). My colander is sort of like this one, where it will fit in a solid bowl. I can't find a good picture of one like it but it's sort of like this one, only with a flat bottom: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71rT3fNiDjL._SX425_.jpg (only posted the link to the image since it's not really important) A media separator would work pretty much the same way except the pins are left over in a bowl just a bit bigger than the colander and not in the bottom of a big bucket. A bonus, my wife never used it so it was essentially free because I just nabbed it from her to start with. I had planned on buying a separator but it worked well enough I didn't figure it was worth spending the money. Anyway, I turn the tap water on hot and pour a drum into the colander. As I'm rinsing the brass, the pins are falling into the bowl underneath as I agitate it, so I'm separating the pins from the brass and giving a good rinse of clean water at the same time. I tip the whole thing over enough to pour most of the water out a couple of times to get the water as clean as possible. So, I lift the colander part out, I have clean, and now hot brass in the colander, and rinsed, separated pins in the bottom bowl. I dump the brass on a towel next to the sink and shake them around, then carry them over to another towel and dump them out and spread them around. Since the water used to rinse them was hot, it doesn't take them long to dry out. A couple of hours later they are almost all totally dry. (speaking of decapped brass anyway) As for the pins, I pour the water out of the bowl that remained in the sink. I just pour the pins right back into the drum. They are still wet, but they are stainless and they won't rust, so I see no reason to worry about drying them off. A couple of variations.... I started off decapping everything. I experimented for awhile leaving the primers in to save a step, but found that I didn't like that the primer pockets would have water accumulated inside of them so I added a step at the end to heat them to speed up drying. (drying 2lbs of brass is a hell of a lot faster than decapping anyway). I don't have a little oven like yours but I have used the oven in my kitchen, my fireplace, and I put them on top of the grill as we were grilling out last week. I don't think it matters as long as they get heated up for a few minutes. I then put them on the same towel to cool off for awhile and they have always been dry when I checked the primers later on. If you're experimenting with the heating, you can always decap them during the process to see how much they have dried. I don't bother heating decapped brass, although if I wanted to get them loaded ASAP that would be ok. What I have sort of been doing is decapping the cases that I think will sit around for awhile and not worrying about the primers that I'll load before too long. Since December, I've done 66lbs of 9mm brass (not counting what I have already loaded) and 44 pounds of .45ACP, as well as a handful of other calibers in much smaller quantities. I don't consider myself an expert on it, just a guy with the same equipment that might be able to save you some time I would consider making a video only the colander and the gloves I use to do this are both purple, and I don't want people to laugh at me. Edited April 14, 2014 by AJE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhkr Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 I would consider making a video only the colander and the gloves I use to do this are both purple, and I don't want people to laugh at me. I hear ya on that, but I figured if people were laughing, rolling their eyes, swearing or just saying "this guy is an idiot" I wouldn't care as I'll never meet any of them and if I do I'll be able to give it right back to them! Thanks for the reply and great suggestions. I was thinking of making a trip to the dollar store to find something that would make separating the pins a bit easier. If I can't I'll just break down and head to Cabela's to buy a media separator. They're about $30 there. But $30 is about 1k worth of primers for me so I'd rather spend that there instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJE Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Here it is. I got some gift cards for Christmas that I was going to use for a seperator but this thing works well enough that I haven't bothered. The gloves are nice to keep the nasty water off my hands and allows me to swish around the brass while under the hot water so the pins all fall through. Obviously by the discoloration on them they provide a secondary purpose of keeping that crap off of my hands as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhkr Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 I might just see if the Dollar Tree has anything similar that I can use. If not I know Bed Bath and Beyond will, but they are kind of pricey. Thanks for the picture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJE Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 The Dollar Tree is the perfect place to shop for this kind of stuff. Other than the tumbler, I think I have stolen more things from my wife to use than I actually purchased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Graf's is the one with the good price on the separator, Cabelas is higher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhkr Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 I agree Steve, but right now Cabela's has them on sale for $30 and I have the Cabela's cash to boot! Still going to check out the dollar tree first! Colander would be smaller and easier to store too! I too have taken my fair share of things from my wife AJE. I tell her it must be our dishwasher eating things like our dryer eats our socks! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Sounds good, you'll like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassaholic13 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 I use the Grafs separator, and this colander. http://www.amazon.com/Polder-6631-75-Stainless-Steel-Extending-Rubber-Grip/dp/B00006NWBG/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1397664138&sr=8-17&keywords=stainless+colander Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Where did you get the colander ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Where did you get the colander ??? I am thinking Amazon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassaholic13 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Where did you get the colander ??? I am thinking Amazon... Did the link give it away? Dammit I was trying to be stealthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Where did you get the colander ??? I am thinking Amazon... Did the link give it away? Dammit I was trying to be stealthy. Possibly....you were apparently too stealthy for Steve... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Happens to all of us. My boo-boo this time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtp Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Has anyone found a stainless colander that will fit snugly/securely in the top of a 5 gallon bucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassaholic13 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Happens to all of us. My boo-boo this time! It's all good. Had to rib you a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Not a problem ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Undrpsi Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 What about this? On Amazon for $8...fits mine fine...it isn't a steel collander..but... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4F09O/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Jay Has anyone found a stainless colander that will fit snugly/securely in the top of a 5 gallon bucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tires2burn Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gng4life Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Has anyone found a stainless colander that will fit snugly/securely in the top of a 5 gallon bucket?I went to a large local Asian store and found one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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