Brass drying rack for wet tumbling solution

[aandabooks]

New to wet tumbling as I just got a Lyman tumbler for Christmas.  It is the bigger unit.  I wanted to try it out and decapped a bunch of .45 and .357 from the days shooting.  Ran them with the stainless steel pins and Dawn dish soap.  The brass cam out really nice but then it came time to dry the brass in the garage.  Laid down a towel and spread the brass out.  After a day I still had wet brass and agitated them around.  In the meantime, I did a load of .40 with the primers still in but no pins.  Laid them out to dry and of course got the same result.  Wife said absolutely no to turning the oven into a brass drying station.

 

So here is my solution:

 

 

 

 

This is 3 batches of brass.  Bottom of the unit is 1/2" square galvanized fencing.  Decided to do a section with the Lyman screen tub under it so in case I do run with pins I can use the garden hose to rinse the pins out and catch them in the basket.  Just had to sacrifice a $5 Wal-Mart cookie sheet.  

 

[George16]

Matt, just a suggestion. You can go to Home Depot and buy the nylon coated fencing and use that instead of the galvanized fencing to prevent staining of the brass while you’re drying them. There’s a tendency of the galvanized fencing to react and have a galvanic corrosion with the brass due to the dissimilar metals.

 

Also, if you have a gas grill, you can use it instead of an oven. Put the brass in aluminum pans and placed them on the other end of the grill. Then fire up one or two of the burners and maintain a temp of around 200*. Since you’re in Illinois and it’s cold, drape the wet towel you use in drying the brass initially over the grill cover to help maintain the grill temp.

[NETim]

I use one of those big white plastic tubs that is meant to fit under washing machines to catch oil leaks etc.  

 

Just place it in the driveway in the sun on a sunny day and the brass is dry within 2 hours on a warm day.  

Edited December 29, 2019 by NETim
typo

[aandabooks]

29 minutes ago, George16 said:

Matt, just a suggestion. You can go to Home Depot and buy the nylon coated fencing and use that instead of the galvanized fencing to prevent staining of the brass while you’re drying them. There’s a tendency of the galvanized fencing to react and have a galvanic corrosion with the brass due to the dissimilar metals.

 

Also, if you have a gas grill, you can use it instead of an oven. Put the brass in aluminum pans and placed them on the other end of the grill. Then fire up one or two of the burners and maintain a temp of around 200*. Since you’re in Illinois and it’s cold, drape the wet towel you use in drying the brass initially over the grill cover to help maintain the grill temp.

The fencing I got is coated.  

[George16]

3 minutes ago, aandabooks said:

The fencing I got is coated.  

That’s all good then.

[iflyskyhigh]

I roll them in a large towel to get the bulk of the water off them, then use a cheap dehydrator from harbor freight to finishing drying them. I usually have to tumble them in clean corn cob to shine them up and get water spots off.


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[aandabooks]

33 minutes ago, iflyskyhigh said:

I roll them in a large towel to get the bulk of the water off them, then use a cheap dehydrator from harbor freight to finishing drying them. I usually have to tumble them in clean corn cob to shine them up and get water spots off.


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I have a dehydrator that I could use but also use it to make beef jerky on a regular basis.  The batches that are in the unit now I have just been shaking it about once an hour to move the brass around.  I'm in no hurry since I am several 5 gallon buckets of brass ahead of the game.  I believe in stockpiling supplies so I likely won't even need this brass until some time this summer.  Just not wanting to have towels worth of brass laying out in the garage for hours.

 

Forgot to mention that the side benefit of this setup will be that I will use this as a separator at the range for brass of the ground.  Scoop it up in the sandy soil with a shovel and pour it in the screen.  Shake and recover the brass.  Probably use it for berm sifting every couple year.  

[TeedOff]

I use the brass dryer from Frankfort arsenal. Mine is rigged to a timer to turn off after an hour. I can dry several thousand 9mm in one session of an hour.

 

 

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[Shep]

5 hours ago, iflyskyhigh said:

I roll them in a large towel to get the bulk of the water off them, then use a cheap dehydrator from harbor freight to finishing drying them. I usually have to tumble them in clean corn cob to shine them up and get water spots off.


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No way I'm picking corn cob out of my spotless primer pockets after wet tumbling. I shake em in a towel and put them on the dehydrator racks for 90 minutes. I use an el cheapo amazon timer for the dehydrator.

[Intheshaw1]

I 'tumble' mine in a dry towel for a couple of minutes by grabbing each end of the towel and rolling the brass. I then transfer to a new dry towel to do it again before placing on a final dry towel in front of a fan. I leave the fan on for about a day or so.

[iflyskyhigh]

No way I'm picking corn cob out of my spotless primer pockets after wet tumbling. I shake em in a towel and put them on the dehydrator racks for 90 minutes. I use an el cheapo amazon timer for the dehydrator.

 

Sorry. Should have specified. I tumble them after they are dry. Not while the are still wet.

 

Never once had an issue with corn cob stuck in primer pockets.

 

Wet tumbling will leave brass dull and spotted after drying in a dehydrator.

 

They of course will shoot fine, but look nicer when tumbled for a couple minutes.

 

 

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[m700]

Everyone has their own way for doing this

-But I pick up brass at range

-seperate with sorting trays attached to tumbler and 5 gallon bucket. You can sort a 5 gallon bucket in 10-15 minutes like this. plus it pulls all sand and stuff out

-Tumble 2000 9mm with pins usually and dawn/lemishine. Just tried first couple of batches of just brass juice with good results

-Rinse/seperate with dillon media seperator under water

-Rinse again in a strainer than shake and toss the strainer to get as much water out as possible

- throw in dehydrator 2 hours

[CHA-LEE]

Set an Oven on Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes makes 1K of brass bone dry without discoloring the brass. You could probably achieve the same results using a smaller toaster oven in smaller batches.

[Sprig]

I made something similar. In the winter i leave it under a heater in the back room at work , in the summer set in the sun. Both work well. Never have water spot issues, possibly because of the type soap used ? 

[MikeyScuba]

are u talking about cleaning brass with or without primers?

 

after the final clean with pins and brass juice I put the brass on a towel, rub and shake and place on a new dry towel overnight.  Everything is dry the next day.  This is for deprimed brass.

[KyleJ]

I use the SS pins and the Frankfort wet tumbler. I give them a good shake and roll in a towel then run them in a dehydrator I got from Goodwill for a couple bucks. Works great! 

[anachronism]

I throw pistol brass into the dry tumbler while its still wet and tumble it for an hour or so. For background, I use an RCBS media separator filled with water to remove the pins, then after dumping the water out of the separator I give the cases another spin to remove the water. This always works for me, but I always deprime the cases before wet tumbling so the cater can escape. Some guys don't. I use fine walnut media in the dry tumbler and never, ever have a problem with media sticking in the cases.

[CPD7119]

On 12/30/2019 at 3:48 PM, Sprig said:

I made something similar. In the winter i leave it under a heater in the back room at work , in the summer set in the sun. Both work well. Never have water spot issues, possibly because of the type soap used ? 

I did the same thing but built it into a cart with casters to move it around. Works great.

[TimHawkins]

Being from the Midwest and the cold weather you can use your oven and when you're done open the oven door and heat the house while the oven cools down,

 Makes the kitchen real cozy.

 Tim

[vince]

 

When i prep my brass before washing, i resize, deprime, clean out  the primer pockets.

I dont even use the stainless pins anymore, and my brass is perfectly clean and shiny.

 

I wet tumble in Turtle Wax "ICE" and LEMME SHINE couple hours.

Frankfort tumbler and Frankfort dryer. Absolutely NO water spots.

 

I stopped using the steel pins after seeing alot of brass particles in the cloth screen that i used to catch the pins.

Since then, i`ve not seen much of any brass particles after washing.

[m700]

30 minutes ago, vince said:

 

When i prep my brass before washing, i resize, deprime, clean out  the primer pockets.

I dont even use the stainless pins anymore, and my brass is perfectly clean and shiny.

 

I wet tumble in Turtle Wax "ICE" and LEMME SHINE couple hours.

Frankfort tumbler and Frankfort dryer. Absolutely NO water spots.

 

I stopped using the steel pins after seeing alot of brass particles in the cloth screen that i used to catch the pins.

Since then, i`ve not seen much of any brass particles after washing.

Those may be from the primer. Primer is mostly brass. If you are now tumbling after brushing pocket that may be why you don't see them. If you're getting good results than you dont need them but I bet if you stopped the brushing before tumbling you'd get them again..

[vince]

10 hours ago, m700 said:

Those may be from the primer. Primer is mostly brass. If you are now tumbling after brushing pocket that may be why you don't see them. If you're getting good results than you dont need them but I bet if you stopped the brushing before tumbling you'd get them again..

I thought the same thing too, and i`ve tried it both ways a few times already. The stainless pins are definitely removing some brass from the cases without a doubt.

I`m just going to continue removing the primer and cleaning the primer pockets. I dont really care to use the pins. Its a pain in the butt dealing with them.

Plus it gives me something to do by depriming and cleaning primer pockets. I`m retired... always looking for things to do with my time...lol.

[Jeremyc_1999]

I use a frankford arsenal dryer (basically a food dehydrator).  I bought a timer to plug it in. 

 

[DIYguy]

Sort brass for calibur first as 9mm and 40 love to "sex" while tumbling. Sorting bins and a 5g bucket do the trick.

 

I've wet tumbled with the Frankford tumbler for years using the pins but got tired of busting recapping pins, finding pins lodged in by 6.5 cases and having to inspect every case for the prodigal pin. With 9mm I found tha frequently a pin would lodge in the flash hole and my decapping pin would deflect and multiple time if I didn't stop in time, the end of the decapping spindle would bend. Stopped using pins now just use Dawn and one cap full of Frankford Brass Cleaner (or Lemi Shine)

 

For pistol brass after rinsing I tumble again for about ten to fifteen minutes using Armor-All Wash n Wax to coat the brass to help from tarnishing.

 

Very hot, soft water for tumbling.

 

Still use the Frankford media separater before drying to get as much water out of the cases as possible.

 

For years I've used a food dehydrator which is the same manufacturer as the Hornady, just less expensive. Does a great job but I found it baked water spot on my brass. Now I use the towel method. Roll around, pat, small fan to blow across cases over night. Looking at building my own tumbler with a blower to tumble the brass while drying.

 

Lots of methods, your mileage may vary.

[vince]

On 2/24/2020 at 4:50 PM, DIYguy said:

Sort brass for calibur first as 9mm and 40 love to "sex" while tumbling. Sorting bins and a 5g bucket do the trick.

 

I've wet tumbled with the Frankford tumbler for years using the pins but got tired of busting recapping pins, finding pins lodged in by 6.5 cases and having to inspect every case for the prodigal pin. With 9mm I found tha frequently a pin would lodge in the flash hole and my decapping pin would deflect and multiple time if I didn't stop in time, the end of the decapping spindle would bend. Stopped using pins now just use Dawn and one cap full of Frankford Brass Cleaner (or Lemi Shine)

 

For pistol brass after rinsing I tumble again for about ten to fifteen minutes using Armor-All Wash n Wax to coat the brass to help from tarnishing.

 

Very hot, soft water for tumbling.

 

Still use the Frankford media separater before drying to get as much water out of the cases as possible.

 

For years I've used a food dehydrator which is the same manufacturer as the Hornady, just less expensive. Does a great job but I found it baked water spot on my brass. Now I use the towel method. Roll around, pat, small fan to blow across cases over night. Looking at building my own tumbler with a blower to tumble the brass while drying.

 

Lots of methods, your mileage may vary.

Absolutely awesome! Pretty much where i`m at today. Pins were a pain in the ass. I dont use them anymore either.