Wet Tumbling

[sschultz]

I use the Frankford Arsenal media separater that use a 5 gallon bucket. I dump the brass in the open separater in a rubber maid container rinse it good then put on the bucket and spin it.

[SonOfSpartans]

I see comments about picking up this media with a magnet if needed. Stainless steel is not magnetic......right?

[peterthefish]

I see comments about picking up this media with a magnet if needed. Stainless steel is not magnetic......right?

Higher quality stainless is magnetic. My stainless media is.

[ano]

you dont need a magnet, you just pour the pins back from the tray under separator. much much faster.

stainless tumbleing IS the future, albeit a bit old in reality, I just cannot understand why people do it the old fashioned way...

I processs 20lbs an hour!

[AJE]

you dont need a magnet, you just pour the pins back from the tray under separator. much much faster.

I use the magnet for spilled pins, not to move them around.

[Kaskillo]

SS media is magnetic and I always find pins on the floor. Magnet take care of it 100%.

[Clipper]

I use magnets out of old hard drives. Powerful magnets, and have lots of uses. One holds a Sig P220 under a night stand by my bed, it is strong enough to hold my Blackhawk if I wanted to use it for home protection. Keep the magnet in a plastic bag, makes separation of the pins easier.

[DuplexAlpha]

I dump the cleaned brass, pins and dirty water into those I think 5 gallon pails you get at home reno places for a few bucks with one of the Frankford media separators on top of the pail. Looks like this:

http://media.midwayusa.com/productimages/880x660/Primary/731/731116.jpg

All the brass stays in, but the dirty water and some pins fall through the separator. But what I did was drill 2 1" holes in the side walls near the bottom on opposite sides, and glued metal screens over them with some epoxy. Something like this, aluminum mesh for screen doors:

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/black-aluminum-screen-36-inch-x-84-inch/981589

So the water flows right through the Frankford separator on top of the bucket, and the screens in the bottom of the bucket. The brass gets caught in the separator over the bucket. Since I only reload pistol (straight wall cases), it doesn't take much at all to get all the pins out of the brass. Just a little shaking of the separator top. Might take some more shaking with necked cases. I do this in a large washing basin with a hose attachment on the faucet to rinse everything out. With the screens, all the water just keep running through, and after literally 2-3 minutes of work at most, the pins are in the bucket and cleaned, the cases are in the separator and cleaned. I spread out the cases for drying and I run a magnet in a ziplock over everything. At most I might find a pin or two every load that didn't fall out from the separator. And this is also a good time for me to screen for any suspect cases, or cases with bent lips I might want to ream out first before running through my sizer, or any other case that might need a little case prep like the primer pocket, etc. I spend more time on the spreading out, magnet, and inspection of cases than I do on separating the dirty water from the pins and cases.

Edited November 30, 2014 by DuplexAlpha

[ardo]

I use an RCBS rotary media separator, just over $30 on Midway:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/176956/rcbs-rotary-case-and-media-separator

I put a large round sieve at the bottom, dump cases & media into the separator, and give the handle a dozen or so turns. Then, shake the separator cage to get rid of most water, dump cases into a towel and shake some more.

I dry my cases on a towel for a couple of days with no additional heat. I always have plenty of dry cases, so no biggie waiting for a batch to dry up.

One more thing: I don't use pins, I have about 5Lb of round SS media used for blasting, 0.025in diameter. I was skeptical at first, but tried it anyway and found that round media cleans very well, and rarely gets stuck inside a case, since I don't de-prime before tumbling.

[Kaskillo]

I use the large size Dillon medial separator along with a hand held magnet wilt release lever.....this to recoup the pins that like to fly away when separating.

And YES use water to aid SS media separation.

[jmorris]

I do the same, except I fill the tub with fresh water so it's a rinse too.