Wet tumbling VS vibratory brass cleaning?

[Tom S.]

I've tried many different methods of wet tumbling. Everytime they turn colors. Ive tried more lemishine, less lemishine,more soap less soap. Cant seem to find a good fix. The best i get is no pins at all, even then it still turns darker.

How long are you tumbling? Are you using tap water?

It varies. Pistol seems to come out ok after about 2 hrs. Rifle is the one that seems to be the most trouble. It will look good, then whatever is floating in the water seems to attach itself to the brass and leaves a darker film on it, after the water cools show. You can pick it out of the mixer and it'll wipe off with your hand. Its weird.

Just make sure we're on the same page:

Wet tumbling with pins and a small amount of Dawn dish soap and very small amount of Lemshine.

Tumble time: 1 hour.

Immediately after 1 hour, drain and thoroughly rinse.

After thorough rinse, dry, either manually, in the oven at low temp or in a dehydrator.

Brass should look like new. If yours still has a film on it, you are either doing something different, you have water issues, or the brass isn't brass but coated steel instead.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Tom S.

[Foxbat]

I don't like the idea and the complications of pins, so I am willing to accept a small reduction in polish for the sake of much cleaner process.

I have slightly hard water, so I add a small amount of Cascade Rinse Aid, and the finish is about 90% of the best wry tumbling I used to get.

[anachronism]

BTW, these are the pins I use. They don't get stuck in the flash holes.

http://www.bullseye-reloading.com/Pellet-Pins-Tumbling-Media.html

Edited January 23, 2016 by anachronism

[Steve RA]

I use the XL size and they work very well and are easier to keep track of.

[Garmil]

Did a batch today with no pins. Just water dish soap and lemishine. Came out almost as clean (still better than Vibratory) with a lot less hassle.

[CrashDodson]

Just ran my first batch today of .40. Deprimed first and they look brand new. I know many say cleaning primer pocket of pistol is a waste of time. Might just go that far for match loads. So much better then the vibe cleaner and no dust which is a big deal.

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[slavex]

watching the video on that SS media supplier site is painful. But the pins are something I think I might order. the XL ones I think?

[wyliearms]

I have recently been doing mine in 2 parts. I ultrasonic clean them then I dry tumble. They turn out pretty good.

[Zeps]

So i'm wet tumbling, but have not loaded rifle yet.

I do a general wash, then lube the cases and deprime/resize/trim, then wet tumble with pins.

Do I need to lube the cases again before loading? if so, then do you dry tumble to clean them?

[Tom S.]

Yes, no and maybe.

Since they are already resized, no they don't need to be lubed again. But if you are reloading on a Dillon with the Dillon powder measure, then a little lube on the mouths of a few of the cases will make that stage operate smoother.

[dannyd]

switched to wet cleaning after 27 years and 100,00 rounds. I like it very clean brass and no grit.

[Zeps]

But do you oil your rifle brass again before loading, after deprime/resize/trim?

[Tom S.]

But do you oil your rifle brass again before loading, after deprime/resize/trim?

Did I miss something in my reply? Since you have already sized them, there is no reason for lubing them again, unless you use a Dillon powder measure. The Dillon measure bells the mouth of the brass to make inserting the bullet easier. Without lube, it can stick and cause problems. So while you don't need to lube every case, it can help tremendously to lube a few case mouths to help the process along. If you're not using a Dillon powder measure then none of this applies.

[RPatton]

I have used both. Both work. Wet is more work. No dust using dry if done right. Been reloading since 1967 and I have never de-primed pistol brass.

223 gets de-primed first only to separate the once fired, crimped brass from the un-crimped brass so I can use the once fired military for match brass.

If it isn't 223 it doesn't get de-primed before polishing.

Primer pockets have never been a problem.

If I was a benchrest shooter I would probably have a different opinion about primer pockets because I would be anal about everything involved in benchrest. LOL.

[Zeps]

I was replying to Dannyd Tom, I'm still fuzzy on quoting.

Thx, hoping I don't need a dry tumbler too to get oil off post load. Don't want to gunk up the gun.

[Futuristic]

I've switched to almost all wet tumbling. I prefer the 'pretty, pretty shine' and the quicker time. Bonus is no droning tumbler going for hours in the garage.

I typically deprime handgun brass and use steel pins the first time through for any newly sourced brass. This gets the primer pockets nice and clean, and then I'll run them all once over a K&M primer pocket uniformer or a Dillon Swager if they were crimped. Doing that gets me very consistent results for the rest of the life of that brass.

Once they have been loaded and marked as mine (DyKem and Sharpie) then for future processing I wet tumble without depriming first, using Dawn and Lemishine but no pins. If you aren't trying to get the primer pockets clean, I've found almost no difference in pins vs. no pins for handgun brass.

Oh, and I ALWAYS spritz them down good with homemade Case Lube before loading. Just makes the 650 run that little bit easier...

Good Luck!

Futuristic

[Steve RA]

As far as the outside of the cases, them rubbing together is what does most of the cleaning/polishing. The pins are primarily for the interior of the case and the primer pockets and, I guess, the extractor groove.

[Dpickl01]

I try vib my brass in ss

[Steve RA]

That won't work very well.

[dannyd]

I don't shoot rifles just pistols.

[Slipperhead]

I just tumbled with no pins as Steve described in post #92. Brass looks great! Inside mostly clean too. No need to separate pins. EXCELLENT!!! I will go pin less from now on!

(ss pins and magnet for sale...)

Thanks for the tip!

[Dark Horse]

I've be using the wet method for almost a year. The lack of dust sold me on it. I've also stopped using dawn soap, and have swapped over to car wash n wax. Just as clean, but the brass is easier to size. It doesn't feel as grabby on the dies as it did with dawn.

[Beastly]

I just got a bottle of wash n wax, will try it on my next load in the harbor freight cement mixer.

[dannyd]

I used two tablespoons of wash and wax. quarter teaspoon of lemishine. Brass looks like new and rises faster. Still holding it shine after a week.

[Steve RA]

How far does it rise ???