Cleaning brass with the cover off!

[Grandpa Shooter]

I have my vibratory cleaner set up on a timer so I don't go off and leave it running forever. (yeah I have been known to do that.) Went in to check it and saw that the brass was looking good enough for me. Doesn't need a super shine cause I don't want to see this old gray wrinkled face anymore that I have to. Got distracted and left it sitting.

The thing about timers is that they don't know I was going to come back and separate the brass and media. So sure enough, the next day it ran again. Only I was gone when it did. Came home to discover it had run for 2 hours without a cover on it. Picked the unit up to dump it into the separator and guess what I discovered?

Yup, a ring the diameter of the base of the cleaner of brownish, grayish sediment, or dust if you prefer. That thing put out enough crud to make a ring 3-4" wide all the way around the base of the bowl. Luckily it was in my reloading room and not in the middle room or living room. I'd be taking my meals out with the canines.

Warning! Danger! If you are old and forgetful, either unplug the cleaner, or turn off the timer, or at the very least put the cover back on the durned thing! Bad as my lungs are, I don't need that crud floating in the air.

 

[rcmodel]

String the extension cord across the door frame about 6" high.

That's bound to remind you to unplug it, and if it don't, it will unplug itself when you trip over it!


rcmodel

 

[W.E.G.]

Just be glad you weren't using moly-kote on the contents of the tumbler.

Back in the day when I thought molykoting bullets was da shizziz, I discovered that the moly dust will work its way out of the tumbler no matter how hard you try to keep it in.

I only discovered this after I had moly-koted the TV, the VCR, all the books on the bookshelves, the baby, and the laundry room.

The wife was NOT pleased.

 

[MMCSRET]

I have never used moly, but, I run mine without the covers all the time. The covers are a PITA and so they have been discarded. Can't say that I mind the mess as the cleaners have their own area.

 

[rcmodel]

My Dillon throws all the media out on the floor without the cover.

rcmodel

 

[Griz44]

Run a mineral spirits soaked shredded paper towel through that thing every once in a while and it will gather up all the loose dust. Inside of the tumbler stays nice and pretty.

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

Plastic cover

Many years ago I switched to a see-thru plastic cover on my Dillon cleaner so that I could just glance at it without shutting the press off. Works really well AS LONG AS I REMEMBER TO UNPLUG OR SHUT OFF THE CLEANER!

The commercial grade carpet in my reloading room is dark anyway so I didn't ruin anything, just makes me feel old to do stuff like that

 

[FlyinBryan]

lol @ fat fingers.

i run mine quite a bit with the cover off because i cant keep my hands out of the stuff.

its really dusty at first, but then once its mostly collected on my little dryer sheet squares, it settles down a bit.

i can get pretty hypnotized by just watching all the shiny cases swirling around. i love tumbling. ive got seperate formulas that i run the brass through.

first it goes through the grainger corncob that has polish in it. then it goes through some walnut to knock the polish off.

the grainger corncob is really fine and i hate the smell of the polish so i keep it covered for that, but i leave it opened all the time for the walnut.

 

[evan price]

Yeah, I had a load of .45 cases running, I added ground nuts and started it. I had just loaded a batch, so I wanted to go out and shoot a mag of test rounds in my yard, then drop the fresh fired casings in the tumbler and put the lid on.

As luck would have it, I shoot my mag full, gather the brass, my neighbor drives past and we jaw-jack a bit, then I notice a branch is broken on a tree so I saw that off, then while the chain saw is out anyway I figure might as well cut up those other branches by the woodpile, which means I need to mix more two cycle gas, which means I need to go get the gas cans filled, which means a trip into town...do some shopping...

Long story short, my dining room table looked like a dust bowl when I finally remembered.

My clear lid just gets dusty and hard t osee through. But I loved watching the brass swirl, it is hypnotic.

 

[Idano]

Grandpa,

Oh how I hate those senior moments:banghead:. I went to this Intermatic timer here that is a count down timer from 8, 6, 4, or 2 hours and won't reset until you cycle power. You can't cure the senior moments but sometimes you can lessen the impact.

 

[tasco 74]

does the used dryer sheet dust collection thing work?? i've been tumbling some 30-06 cases that i've been preping for a friend and the media is getting really dusty.....

 

[Idano]

tasco,

Absolutely! I change out the dryer sheet after every batch and over time they do get less and less dirty between batches.

 

[BigBlack]

I toss in a new dryer sheet everytime I tumble. I cut the sheet into squares about 1.5" by 1.5". I have no dust in mine when done.

 

[ranger335v]

"...does the used dryer sheet dust collection thing work??"

Yeah. And so will paper towel squares, bits of flannel or tee-shirt, etc. Any loose, open weave type material will trap the finer particles so you can toss it all out. And a spoon full of mineral spirits helps keep the dust down until the fabric can trap it.

I put an inexpensive in-line power switch on my tumbler's cord, makes it easy to turn off.