Formula for wet brass cleaning

[HesedTech]

On 8/22/2021 at 5:36 AM, jejb said:

But I have a question for the guys that don't use pins. Why not?

I wet tumble without pins because sorting the pins out, even with a magnet, is a major pain in the rear. 

I wet tumble my brass because I can do large numbers at once and the brass is far cleaner, in and out, than media. When I am only doing a small amount of brass I will use my Frankford vibrating tumbler with crushed shells and some polish.

[Steve Moneypenny]

Dawn is pretty much all i used, occasionally I'll use lemishine if i want to get rid of all of the tarnish, but very sparingly, Plan to go to SS media in the very near future. 

 

[jejb]

20 hours ago, SGT_Schultz said:

Wet tumbling without pins cleans the outside of the cases a million times better than any dry media ever could, regardless of what you add to the dry media.

 

All I need to do is look at my fingertips after processing couple hundred cases.  They'll be black with dry tumbled brass no matter how or how much they were tumbled.

 

Wet tumbling without pins adds one step over dry tumbling: case drying.  It takes 30 min at 240 degrees in a small toaster oven to dry 300-500 cases.  30 min while I do something else productive.

 

I couldn't care less about the inside of the cases.

My experience is different than yours. I cleaned with dry media for a lot of years. The outside looks the same as wet tumbling (with pins, of course). And I'd hit my dry media shells with compressed air for a few seconds as a final step, so no dust, etc on the shells. 

 

I've found drying wet tumbled shells in even a low temp oven/dehydrator will tarnish them a bit, so I just let them dry under a fan now. But that's not the only added hassle. There's also the rinsing the shells and cleaning/drying all the components used. 

[SGT_Schultz]

6 hours ago, jejb said:

My experience is different than yours. I cleaned with dry media for a lot of years. The outside looks the same as wet tumbling (with pins, of course). And I'd hit my dry media shells with compressed air for a few seconds as a final step, so no dust, etc on the shells. 

 

I've found drying wet tumbled shells in even a low temp oven/dehydrator will tarnish them a bit, so I just let them dry under a fan now. But that's not the only added hassle. There's also the rinsing the shells and cleaning/drying all the components used. 

To each his own.  I threw my media tumbler in the trash.

[jejb]

On 8/30/2021 at 1:48 PM, HesedTech said:

I wet tumble without pins because sorting the pins out, even with a magnet, is a major pain in the rear. 

The system I've some up with does not require a magnet to separate the pins from the shells (I only do straight wall pistol).

First, I put a slotted cap on one end of my Franklin wet tumbler, once done tumbling. I tip that over into a 5 gallon bucket slotted end down, unscrew the other end and rinse the shells for a bit. I then put the non-slotted cap back on, being careful not to get any pins between the gasket and tumbler mouth. Flip the tumbler so the slotted end is up and remove that cap. Dump the water out of the bucket as needed. Done slowly, you will not loose any pins. 

 

Then I put a sifter pan, like this:

https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/0004487075/case-cleaner-media-sifter

 

over the 5 gallon bucket and pour a couple hundred shells in. Rinse again and then start sifting them with the pan. Does not take long and ALL the pins fall through into the bucket. Plus it removes most of the water, so decreases dry time. 

 

I tried to use my RCBS rotary media separator, but it didn't work as well. Pins got stuck in a lot of places. I know Franklin sells one and it is probably better than the RCBS. But the sifting pan works very well, I'm not looking to buy anything else to do the job. 

 

I do use a small magnet to pick up any pins that may have fallen out onto the driveway, but I usually only find 10 or so. Remember to rinse those pins before drying them too.