Frankford Wet Media Separator Review

[Tom S.]

Last year, I purchased a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler.  There’s no disputing the results of the wet tumbling process for cleaning brass, so long as you use proper soap, Lemi Shine and pins. Others have their pet formulas, but the ones I’ve listed are tried and true.  How you proceed after the cleaning process is a bit more muddled.  I tried several different methods of rinsing and collecting the pins, and decided that wet tumbling was pain in the butt.  Not the tumbling process itself, after all, all you do is throw everything in the drum and let the machine whorl for a few hours.  After that though, was a messy operation.

 

Fast forward to this year.  One of the things I got for Christmas was Frankford’s wet media separator.  Short of having someone else do this task for you, this is the easiest way to perform the steps needed after the wet tumbling stops.  The separator was well thought out.  The basket should hold a full tumbler worth of brass.  I didn’t have enough to fill my tumbler more than halfway, but it looked like there would be room for the entire tumbler had I mine been full.  The basket would have been full, no doubt, but there should be enough room.  The media separator body has a distinct top and bottom.  The bottom has two sets of cut outs for the basket, one set that locks the basket in place for loading, and one for rotating the basket.  After completing the wet tumbling, I made a deviation from Frankford’s directions: using one of the wet tumbler’s strainer end caps, I poured the dirty (filthy and disgusting is more applicable) water through a paint strainer into a 5 gallon pail. Back with Frankford’s directions: before transferring the tumbler’s contents to the basket, I filled the bottom of the media separator a little over half full of clean water.  Then, using the cut outs for locking the basket, I dumped the brass, pins and remaining water into the basket.  I put the top half of the separator in place and begin to spin.  This is where you want to be a bit careful as spinning with too much gusto will cause water to slop out of the separator.  A half dozen turns each way seemed to have cleaned all the pins out of the basket.  Removing the top of the separator, I took it and the basket into my shower.  The top has a screen in the middle, and turning the top upside down let me run more fresh water from my shower into the basket to better rinse off the brass.  The screen in the top is to catch any run away pins, though I found none.   With rinsing done, I emptied the basket onto a towel, rolled the brass around a bit and laid the towel in front of a heater to dry.  Since it was -9 here this morning, the heater’s been running a lot, so drying the brass was quick too.  I poured the rinse water I had put in the separator’s bottom half through the paint strainer, knocking out all the pins as well, then lifted the paint strainer out of the bucket and dumped the pins back into the wet tumbler.  A few pins were left clinging to the strainer, but a few pins out the 5 pounds of them is insignificant.  The pail was then dumped into the toilet.  Did I mention it was nasty?  Anyway, I rinsed out the pail, and that’s it, I was done.

 

Here are my thoughts on the separator:  Frankford did a really great job designing it, and it is priced very affordably.  It is a bit on the flimsy side, but as long as you don’t try playing field hockey with it, it should last for several years.  Would I pay more for one of stouter construction?  Probably, but that’s just the way I am.  After all, I chose Dillon products over Lee, even though they both get the job done.  Regardless, if you are looking to get into wet tumbling or are already there and are looking for a better process to separate and rinse the brass, I highly recommend the product.   

Edited December 28, 2017 by Tom S.

[michael.flitcraft]

I’m a big fan of mine as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SterlingSomeone]

I was looking at these since Santa brought me the wet tumbler for Christmas.  Do you use any magnets throughout the process?

[Tom S.]

4 hours ago, SterlingSomeone said:

I was looking at these since Santa brought me the wet tumbler for Christmas.  Do you use any magnets throughout the process?

Here's my review on the tumbler:

 

Since I recently wrote a review on the Frankford wet/dry case separator, I thought I should probably write on for their wet tumbler as well.  I bought one of their tumblers two years ago and have learned some things that should come in handy for anyone just starting out, or considering going the wet tumbler route.  When I got my tumbler, the first thing I found was the sample of washing solution they had included has leaked out inside the packing box.  So much for using that!  I read a lot of posts on various homemade formulas and came up with the following which has worked well for me: good squirt of Dawn dish soap, teaspoon of Lemi-Shine, a good squirt of Armor All Wash and Wax.  Why two soaps?  I’ve found that Dawn does a superior job of cleaning, while the Armor All leaves a coating on the cases that make resizing easier, especially without lube.  Lemi-Shine is a citric based acid that aids in giving the brass that “like-new” shine.  I also get the best results using distilled water, even though our water is triple filtered.  Distilled water is cheap anyway.  Using the above solution, I fill the tumbler with cases, add the solution along with the 5 pounds of stainless steel pins and tumble for 2 hours.  I’ve seen people post they only tumble for an hour, and others who say 3.  Your mileage may vary, just saying what has worked for me.  Here’s a bit of an odd note: the first time I used the tumbler, it leaked.  Not a lot, but I was concerned.  I used a plastic hammer to tighten the end caps a tad more and the leak stopped.  It hasn’t leaked since, so perhaps there was debris from manufacturing or the seal wasn’t seated, who knows? 

 

Before I go on with the rest of the process, I’ll take a minute to rate the tumbler itself.  Like other products Frankford makes, this was well engineered.  Unlike some of their other products though, this was also very well made.  The drum is lined with rubber to quiet down the process, though you’ll still want to run this in another room if you’re trying to concentrate on something else.  Not that the tumbler is that noisy, but combine its noise with that of the motor that spins it, you’ll most likely want to be elsewhere.  Frankford includes two sets of end caps, one clear plastic set (so you can watch the brass like a washing machine window, though I’m not sure why you would want to) and a pair of strainers.  More on the strainers when I get into my tumbling process.  You can get a cheaper set up via Harbor Freight, but I’m not sure it’s worth it as I’ve not used the one they sell.  The Frankford model should last a lifetime however, so in that respect I’m not sure it’s worth the few bucks you might save.

 

Like the tumbling formula, you will see a lot of posts on how people tumble their brass.  I tried a lot of different methods and this is what has worked best for me.  As I stated, I add everything to the tumbler and let it run for 2 hours.  After removing the tumbler from the base unit that spins it, I replace one of the end caps with one of the strainer caps and dump the water into a 5 gallon pail that had a paint strainer stretched over the opening.  The strainer catches whatever pins get dumped out.  Both the pail and strainer came from Lowes, though Home Depot or Menards can hook you up as well.  Then it’s off to the Frankford wet/dry media separator.  As I noted in my review of the separator, I fill it partially with clean water to help rinse the cases.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether this water is distilled or tap, but of course that will depend on the state of your tap water.  After rotating the drum several times (do NOT do this without putting the cover on), I pour that water and pins through the same paint strainer.  Put the drum back in the separator without any rinse water and rotate it vigorously in both directions to remove the last of the pins.  Then I take the drum out of the separator and head to the shower, where I put the drum inside the top half of the separator, which contains a large wire screen, open the drum and give the brass a thorough rinse, mixing the brass by hand to make sure each case gets rinsed and the last stubborn pins get washed away.  Failure to properly rinse will result in case discoloration from the soap and Lemi-Shine residue.  Like the rest of the process, you can read about a thousand ways of drying the brass afterward.  During the winter, which is when I do most of my reloading, I simply leave the brass on a towel in front of the heater in my den. In the summer, I do basically the same, only using a portable fan instead of the heater.  If you are in a hurry, you can use other methods.  One is to use an food dehydrator, which circulates air (some also have heaters).  I tried one and it was a PITA.   Some put the brass in an oven, set on warm for a half hour or so.  I’m not warm (pun intended) and fuzzy about this method.  Ovens aren’t great at regulating low heat, and I’ve seen lots of posts about discolored brass, though this may have been caused by improper rinsing.  Plus I’m not sure if doing this repeatedly will have any effect on the longevity of the brass.

 

Here’s what I’ve found in using the various methods to clean brass:

 

Dry Tumbling:  The easiest method of cleaning, short of giving the brass to someone else and having them do it for you.  That’s the good part.  The not so good part is the contaminates, including lead if you are using lead bullets or older primers, stays in the dust that covers the shells, and can get in the air if you tumble without the lid.  Nor will this process clean out the inside of the shell or the primer pocket.  Another more sinister problem is people using this process have reported elevated levels of lead in their blood.  I have no idea how many cases you would have to clean for this to become an issue, and perhaps it only effects those reloaders who process tons of brass.  Still, I’ll err on the side of caution. 

 

Ultrasonic: The second easiest and by far the fastest method of cleaning brass.  You make up your mixture (even store bought cleaner is a concentrate and requires mixing) pour it and the brass in the machine and let it run.  Typical time is between 15 and 30 minutes.  It does a good job cleaning inside and outside the case, including primer pockets if the primers have been removed ahead of time.  Although ultrasound does clean well, it doesn’t polish well.  Nor will it leave any coating on your cases to aid in resizing, but spray lube will take care of that problem.  Ultrasonic cleaning will only do smaller batches of brass, unless you buy the Hornady behemoth at around $400.  One plus for this process over the others is you can also use the cleaner to clean other things, such as gun parts and jewelry (helps sell the wife on the need to buy one).

 

Wet Tumbling:  This is the best method to get brass that looks as good as new.  Period.  That being said, it’s also the longest and most labor intensive.  Add that it takes pretty much as long to do 200 cases as it does 2,000, and doing small batches will probably best be done ultrasonically, followed up by a quick run through a media tumbler with a bit of polish added to make the cases shine and help with resizing.  But if you want super clean brass that takes little to no lubing to resize, wet tumbling is the best way to go.  The actual time start to finish (minus the drying part) is probably under 2.5 hours, and for 2 of those, you can go do something else.

 

Because of the added effort and time, wet tumbling isn’t for everyone, but then again, what is?  Some guys claim to get equally good results wet tumbling without the stainless pins.  I’m not sure I believe that, and certainly don’t believe it cleans out the primer pockets or case innards as well. I figure if you’re already doing the wet method, leaving out the pins is kind of dumb and defeats the purpose.  In that case, I’d probably go the ultrasonic route instead.  I’ve also read about people claiming to get pins stuck in the flash hole of the brass.  So far, I’ve not had this happen, though I understand you can buy larger pins to mitigate this problem.  I’ve seen several people state that wet tumbling cases with the primers left in can cause problems later on.  One theory is if you let the cases set, the primers have a chance to corrode, making them more difficult to extract.  Maybe this can be thwarted by fast drying and then reloading, I don’t know.  For myself, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to deprime first, but again, that’s me.  But the purpose for this write up was to review the Frankford wet tumbler and I can say without reservation, that I would recommend to anyone who doesn’t shoot 5,000 rounds a week.  For those guys, use a Harbor Freight cement mixer (seriously!). 

 

One last note: Frankfort also sells a magnet for picking up runaway pins or transferring pins from the separator back to the tumbler.  Yes, the stainless pins are magnetic and yes, you will have runaway pins.  Take my word for it, the magnet is a must.  Besides, it’s cheap in the grand scale of things, running well under $20.       

[DRock]

I like the media separator too. I had my doubts, but after several uses I've really grown to like it.

 

I am picking up Frankford's Media Release Magnet just to see if it will make dealing with the pins quicker. Walmart has them in my area for 14.99.

 

Dave

[slavex]

just to internet argue (kidding)(sortof), I used to run my FART with pins, and no matter what I did they'd fly all over. I use the RCBS enclosed sorter to rinse the cases and separate the pins, and even still, pins would get everywhere. Now, they did clean the inside of the cases amazing, and did 100% cleaning of the primer pockets, if decapped ahead of time. But I did have numerous broken decapping setups due to pins getting stuck in flasholes. That sucks, a lot. So, I quit using pins, the inside of the cases aren't as clean, and the primer pockets aren't 100% cleaned, but more than good enough, with most being totally clean. The outside of the case however looks exactly the same as with pins. Super bright and shiny, no darkening after drying either, unless I set the temp too high on my oven. I run my brass through my case separator trays to get the dirt and dust off and get rid of debris, then into my MkVII 1050, with case lube, to decap, then size (two sizing dies actually). Then I wash. waaay easier for me, and quicker than with dry tumbling ever was with much better results. Like you said, it's what works for me. I know if I don't add that 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine, the cases are not as shiny. I also use laundry detergent as I find it doesn't foam as much and is quicker and easier to rinse off. I also use hot water for both washing (1hr usually) and rinsing. 

[DRock]

I figured I'd try without pins in the future, but this is relatively new for me so I haven't gotten there yet.

 

TONY BARONE, in this thread also does not use the pins. Tumbles for 3 hours. I'm only going 1 hour with pins.

Dave

 

 

[slavex]

my brass washed the other day. the flash kind of ruins how shiny the are, but even factory new brass isn't this shiny.