Products for wet tumbling

[Kjrobbins24]

Just getting into reloading for 9mm/9major. Decided wet tumbling is the way to go. As of right now I’m using ordinary dawn dish soap and seeing decent results. I’ve heard so many products being used and I’m unsure on what to upgrade to at this time.
 

Hit me with your recommendations!

[George16]

Add a capful of Lemishine to the dawn soap and you’re good to go. No need to buy those fancy concoctions sold by manufacturers such as Lyman etc.

[Farmer]

Pretty much what George16 does. Only other thing I add is either Turtle wax wash and shine or the Armorall wash and wax. It leaves a protective wax coating that makes them slick and easier to size plus they stay shiny longer. I tried the Brass Juice and felt it didn’t do anything better than my own concoction. With any of them make sure you rinse really well. In a full tumbler I use a tsp of Lemishine or citric acid, a Tbs of wash-n-wax and around 1-2 tsp of Dawn. The pins are a PITA but they will scrub the grungiest brass to look like new inside and out. If your brass isn’t that bad you don’t really need them. 

[ReconNav]

What works for me. 

1. Dishsoap and Lemishine for 15 mins.

2. Rinse

3. Wash & Wax and Lemishine 30-40 mins.

4. Rinse

4. Dry in a food dehydrator, which is all the reloading specific dryers are anyway.

 

I use a Frankford Arsenal Lite tumbler. 600-700 rounds of 9mm per load.  If you're really high volume then get the full size. I don't use pins.

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by ReconNav

[Kjrobbins24]

14 hours ago, ReconNav said:

What works for me. 

1. Dishsoap and Lemishine for 15 mins.

2. Rinse

3. Wash & Wax and Lemishine 30-40 mins.

4. Rinse

4. Dry in a food dehydrator, which is all the reloading specific dryers are anyway.

 

I use a Frankford Arsenal Lite tumbler. 600-700 rounds of 9mm per load.  If you're really high volume then get the full size. I don't use pins.

 

 

I use the same tumbler with 3lbs of stainless pins and a cheap beacon dehydrator. I’ve been told to do 2 steps. First, as you said, a 10-15 min wash with just water to get the initial dirt off. Then drain. Then use the soap and run it for 3ish hrs

[Kjrobbins24]

22 hours ago, Farmer said:

Pretty much what George16 does. Only other thing I add is either Turtle wax wash and shine or the Armorall wash and wax. It leaves a protective wax coating that makes them slick and easier to size plus they stay shiny longer. I tried the Brass Juice and felt it didn’t do anything better than my own concoction. With any of them make sure you rinse really well. In a full tumbler I use a tsp of Lemishine or citric acid, a Tbs of wash-n-wax and around 1-2 tsp of Dawn. The pins are a PITA but they will scrub the grungiest brass to look like new inside and out. If your brass isn’t that bad you don’t really need them. 

 

On 12/27/2022 at 1:54 PM, George16 said:

Add a capful of Lemishine to the dawn soap and you’re good to go. No need to buy those fancy concoctions sold by manufacturers such as Lyman etc.

I guess I’ll have to test out some Lemishine then. I’ve seen people use the vehicle Wash & Wax too. I’ll test it out. 
 

thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[anachronism]

Armor All Wash and LemiShine have worked best for me, and my brass never tarnishes with this combo. Honestly, I just run them a few hours and don't change cleaners or anything.

 

Too much hassle

[Johnny_Chimpo]

I keep it as simple as possible

• Hot water
• Whatever dish soap we have on hand
• A pinch of lemishine
• Tumble for at least 1 hr (no pins, ever)
• Rinse in cold water
• Dry at 240F for 35 min in an old toaster oven

 

[Part_time_redneck]

Cold wash / gentle cycle only. I used hot water once and some of my 9mm brass shrunk down to .380's. 

 

Don't overthink it. Lots of Dawn and a pinch of LemiShine. Cheap cement mixer from HF. Let it run until neighbors can't handle the noise anymore. Then another 90 minutes. Rinse well and spread on beach towels in the shop for a week. Ready to go.  

[Kjrobbins24]

10 hours ago, Part_time_redneck said:

Cold wash / gentle cycle only. I used hot water once and some of my 9mm brass shrunk down to .380's. 

 

Don't overthink it. Lots of Dawn and a pinch of LemiShine. Cheap cement mixer from HF. Let it run until neighbors can't handle the noise anymore. Then another 90 minutes. Rinse well and spread on beach towels in the shop for a week. Ready to go.  

lol I’ve been seeing lots of people using cement mixers for large batches. I’m sure the neighbors will LOVE me!

[Kjrobbins24]

Does anyone de-prime cases before washing them? Or is it okay to tumble them with the spent primers still in the cases?

[rishii]

I deprime after wet tumbling, I have a dedicated tool head with an old 9mm sizing die that I use to resize and decap

the most important part is to make sure the primer pocket is bone dry before you reload

[mmc45414]

23 hours ago, Kjrobbins24 said:

Does anyone de-prime cases before washing them? Or is it okay to tumble them with the spent primers still in the cases?

 

I have, and if you are going to you might as well size them in the process, and if you are going to wash them you might as well hit them with the lanolin lube to make it easy.  Before I got the 1100 I was depriming and swaging on a couple of Lee APPs, and did this, it make loading the sized cases VERY easy and smooth.  Even with the 1100 I may go back to doing this, I had a friend make some additional flats for the setscrew on the handle so I can shorten the stroke.  I may preprocess brass like this when I am caught up on loading. 

[Kjrobbins24]

35 minutes ago, mmc45414 said:

 

I have, and if you are going to you might as well size them in the process, and if you are going to wash them you might as well hit them with the lanolin lube to make it easy.  Before I got the 1100 I was depriming and swaging on a couple of Lee APPs, and did this, it make loading the sized cases VERY easy and smooth.  Even with the 1100 I may go back to doing this, I had a friend make some additional flats for the setscrew on the handle so I can shorten the stroke.  I may preprocess brass like this when I am caught up on loading. 

I’m using a Hornady LNL at the moment which has the resizing die, figured I’d just have it done when it goes to the press. Any reason why it would be better to do it before cleaning?

[Johnny_Chimpo]

7 hours ago, Kjrobbins24 said:

I’m using a Hornady LNL at the moment which has the resizing die, figured I’d just have it done when it goes to the press. Any reason why it would be better to do it before cleaning?

 

I don't put dirty ass brass through my sizer/decapper and I don't have time to add one more operation (decapping separately)

 

I wash the brass before decapping and sizing.  It hurts nothing.  Primers seat just fine.

[Farmer]

I run them through my APP with a sizing de-capping die before washing. My reasoning is they dry fully, faster and everything is clean. I also feel you get the solutions rinsed out better. Once they are dried I’m done and they can be put away until I need them. I once washed some with the primers in, dried them for several hrs in a dryer.  I didn’t get back to load those for a month and the primer pockets were corroded. Not really bad but we’re kinda cruddy with a white powder. You’ll get multiple ways how to do it but you’ll have to decide which way is best for your situation and time frame. 

[Kjrobbins24]

10 hours ago, Farmer said:

I run them through my APP with a sizing de-capping die before washing. My reasoning is they dry fully, faster and everything is clean. I also feel you get the solutions rinsed out better. Once they are dried I’m done and they can be put away until I need them. I once washed some with the primers in, dried them for several hrs in a dryer.  I didn’t get back to load those for a month and the primer pockets were corroded. Not really bad but we’re kinda cruddy with a white powder. You’ll get multiple ways how to do it but you’ll have to decide which way is best for your situation and time frame. 

good info. I’ll have to look into getting a deprimer and see what works

[Ben53]

I run them through the APP to deprime only, no need to resize.  then wash & dry as above.  I use Southern Shine media in a F.A.R.T..  When putting the brass into the progressive press, I use a light Lanolin spray to add just a touch of lube, and they run through the press easily.  Removing the primers keeps the primer residue from gunking up the press and I can go a bit longer without lubing & cleaning.  

[Speedwagon]

I use a FW Arms universal decapping die in a Lee APP press to decap all my cases before wet tumbling. You'd be surprised to see all the junk that comes out with the primers that would normally be washed out in the tumbling process. Personally, I'd rather not run the dirty cases through my press and dies so I do that first by itself.

 

I'm retired so I have enough time and take the longer route to reload.

First dry tumble for and hour to get most of the range dirt out.

Then decap and then wet tumble in the Franklin Arsenal tumbler with the Franklin brass cleaner and spread out on a towel with a fan over it to dry overnight about 1000 cases at a time (9mm). Then rollsize.

Then a quick spray of lanolin and alcohol mixture in a zip lock bag and drop in about 200 cases and mix around before sizing and size and prime about 1000 at a time and put on a shelf for when I'm ready to load. I usually load about 500 at a sitting.

Maybe no need to do it all in that order but that's what I like to do.

[HesedTech]

On 1/2/2023 at 1:26 PM, Kjrobbins24 said:

Does anyone de-prime cases before washing them? Or is it okay to tumble them with the spent primers still in the cases?

If you don't de-prime the possibility of corrosion between the primer and pocket is high. 

 

Also I tried all the above recipes and honestly "Brass Juice" is without a doubt the best and produces the shiniest clean brass. But, if you don't need the shiniest brass then just use one of the above mentioned recipes.

 

https://www.thereloadingstation.com/products/brass-juice-case-wash

[Kjrobbins24]

I did several test batches where I left the spent primer in, and de-primed prior to wet tumbling. I did notice a drastic difference in the amount of gunk left over in the pocket where the primer was left in

[TONY BARONE]

I spray the brass with Hornady one shot deprime and resize with a EGW U- die on a 550 with case feeder then use Frankford Arsenal Brass Cleaning Solution and wet tumble. Keeps my Star press clean with no primer debris on the shell plate.

Edited January 10, 2023 by TONY BARONE
Clarification

[mmc45414]

On 1/3/2023 at 3:13 PM, Kjrobbins24 said:

I’m using a Hornady LNL at the moment which has the resizing die, figured I’d just have it done when it goes to the press. Any reason why it would be better to do it before cleaning?

When I started doing it, it was because I wanted to swage primer pockets on a Lee APP.  So I figured that running them through a sizer die (on the Lee APP) made more sense than a decap die, and since I was going to wash them again (I always gave range brass a quick rinse, they didn't need to be completely dry to continue) there was no harm in lubing them up, and that made sizing as easy as decap.  And then as mentioned it made them dry super-fast, most often I wouldn't use a dryer, just lay them on their sides on top of a towel.

 

But when I started loading them it was really effortless since they were already sized, and it made it easy to be really smooth, just like the guys that rollsize.  Since I have transitioned to the RL1100 that is swaging for me I am not sure what I will do in the future (I have done some both ways with the RL1100.  If I empty the bullet feeder and pull the powder measure off (to avoid flaring) I should be able to prep cases without any adjustment to the press, something I can do from time to time while my wife might be watching something on TV I do not care about.  A friend with a mill modified my handle for me so I can position it to be even shorter for less motion, and lubricated or pre-sized cases take very little effort.

 

But this is just all optional for me now, I may do it or I may get tired of doing it.  I did it before because my buckets of brass were polluted with crimped cases, but after I did it for a while there were a couple of side benefits that may attract me to continue doing it. 

[21 shooter]

I’ve been trying out a formula I found on another forum using Woolite dark detergent and lemishine.  It’s supposed to be easier on the brass.  So far results have been really good.  

[echotango]

I have tried several solutions.  Brass juice with a little Milliard Citric Acid has been the best so far for me.  I use it in a cement mixer.