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frankford arsenal wet tumbler?


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NEVER use hot water.. use COLD

1000 pieces of 45 brass is about the limit of what the tumbler will get perfect in 3 hours, which is about 1300-1400 .40S&W and a ton of 9.

I've used hot water for at least 100 drums of brass and it works better than cold for me. YMMV.

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Arm and Hammer is laundry detergent. I will definitely try Dawn too!

Ok. Use 1 tbsp of laundry detergent and 1/2 tsp of Lemishine and the rest as I already noted and let us know how it works.

I agree with Steve that it does better with the pins (I typically use pins), but they are best suited for getting the inside of the cases and the primer pockets clean. If you are only concerned with the outside of the cases, you don't need to use pins.

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Tried that with Dawn last night, and still got darker than ideal brass. No comparison to the normally tumbled one, which is super-shiny.

About 1000pcs of .45.

Will try smaller load tonight.

Anything else I should try?

Is it even possible to achive bright shine without pins? Pins seem like a PITA to me, with more items to buy and use.

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Tried that with Dawn last night, and still got darker than ideal brass. No comparison to the normally tumbled one, which is super-shiny.

About 1000pcs of .45.

Will try smaller load tonight.

Anything else I should try?

Is it even possible to achive bright shine without pins? Pins seem like a PITA to me, with more items to buy and use.

Not sure what else to tell you, I get amazing results with the methods I noted. Maybe your water is making the difference.

20940822896_dbf7ee8d1f_b.jpg

Edited by RDA
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Tried that with Dawn last night, and still got darker than ideal brass. No comparison to the normally tumbled one, which is super-shiny.

About 1000pcs of .45.

Will try smaller load tonight.

Anything else I should try?

Is it even possible to achive bright shine without pins? Pins seem like a PITA to me, with more items to buy and use.

Not sure what else to tell you, I get amazing results with the methods I noted. Maybe your water is making the difference.

These were done with no pins? Interesting point about water, ours is on hard side. I might try distilled one just for grins.

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Tried that with Dawn last night, and still got darker than ideal brass. No comparison to the normally tumbled one, which is super-shiny.

About 1000pcs of .45.

Will try smaller load tonight.

Anything else I should try?

Is it even possible to achive bright shine without pins? Pins seem like a PITA to me, with more items to buy and use.

Not sure what else to tell you, I get amazing results with the methods I noted. Maybe your water is making the difference.

These were done with no pins? Interesting point about water, ours is on hard side. I might try distilled one just for grins.

Those were done with pins. But, I get the same results on the outside of the cases with or without pins.

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I have my third batch in the FART right now. Used a tablespoon of Dawn, a teaspoon of Lemishine crystals, about 15 handfuls of .45 ACP brass, and filled it up almost the rest of the way with hot water.

I might go to wally world soon, and see if they have Armor All's wash and wax. I have heard that helps the brass stay shinier for a longer amount of time.

I plan on air drying the batch that is tumbling right now.

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Whoops!

I was all set to head out the door to go to ChinaMart, but had to make one last stop to the bathroom. I just happen to have the FART in the bathroom with all the associated paraphenalia. I just happen to look in one of the 5 gallon buckets. Hmmnn...that's interesting...there are pins in the bottom of the bucket.

Homer-Simpson-doh.gif

So I emptied the water and started over, this time being sure to add the pins.

From what I could see, the outsides looked really nice. The insides were still grungy.

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No, that is what it looks like. Same weight of brass and pins and vinegar with Dawn. Must rinse well and I just dump out of separator into bathtowel and shake well for a minute or so. Then you just pour the pins out of the separator back into the tumbling device, that way you don't need a magnet. Be sure and use an enclosed one !!! with the enclosed one you can spin the pins and brass up pretty rapidly and that removes a lot of the water from the brass.

s7_214213_999_01_zps5f2e3784.jpg

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I dumped out a batch of the oven dried brass onto the towel with the air dried/fan dried brass. It is real obvious which is which. The air dried brass, at the top in this pic, looks better:

I noticed the same, oven darkened the brass, even though I set it at low temp.

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I use the hottest water I can get from my tank, no more than an hour with the same mixture as RDA. Without pins the outside is super shiny inside is dirty. With pins outside is super shiny and so is inside. I also rinse with hot water and then dry in an oven

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I used a tablespoon of Armor All wash and wax on this batch of 9mm, instead of the Dawn I still used a teaspoon of Lemishine granules.

I have to say this is the best looking, blingy-est batch yet:

20151113_135356_zpsx6cavmaf.jpg

Edited by Chills1994
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