Cut My Wet Tumbling in Half

[1KPerDay]

The only downside I've noticed is that seating a bullet is more difficult after wet tumbling since the brass is stripped to bare metal. I've been using a tiny amount of case sizing wax on the bullet to facilitate easier seating.

spray a bucket full of handgun cases with Hornady one shot and shake them around... they size and seat very nicely. That's the only thing I use one shot for.

 

[1KPerDay]

7. Finally, the brass must be dried quickly to remove all water from the surface of the brass so as to prevent the occurrence of water spotting.

How do you dry your brass? Or is that a secret?

 

[Bang!]

How do you dry your brass? Or is that a secret?

I use a food dehydrater from a yard sale. Five or six treys and works great.

In the summer time I lay'em on an old towel on the concrete driveway. This seems best.

 

[Bang!]

Bang -

To answer your question:
The results you see in those pics were achieved by:

1. Wet tumbling using .047" diameter SS pins at a ratio of one pound of pins to one pound of brass,

2. Thumlers model B high speed tumbler,

3. Cover the brass with cold tap water and over by an inch or so,

4. 1 ounce of Blue Coral auto wash and wax,

5. 1/4 TSP of Lemi-Shine,

6. Tumble times vary due to multiple factors, including but not limited to, the relative hardness of your water, the mineral content of your water, and the degree of the tarnish and/or carbon on the brass to begin with. You will simply have to experiment with tumbling times to see what works best for you. There's no substitute for personal trial and error. As you can see in this thread, tumbling times vary from 30 minutes to 4 hours depending who is speaking at any given time,

7. Finally, the brass must be dried quickly to remove all water from the surface of the brass so as to prevent the occurrence of water spotting.

From my own trials and experiments, it does appear, for me at least, that pre-soaking the cases reduces tumbling time needed to achieve the level of my own personal desired results.

Good Luck!
Bayou

This is how I do mine, too. Even used Blue Coral a couple of times. It's hit or miss whether I get bright shiny brass like in your pictures or dingy discolored brass. I'm thinking how dirty the brass is to begin with may be causing my inconsistencies. Think I'll try the overtime soak to remove most of dirt beforehand.

 

[Bayou52]

How do you dry your brass? Or is that a secret?

No secrets on my thread, 1K!

Here's my technique for drying brass quickly and without heaters, ovens or dryers, etc. I do, however, use my media separator.

After the pins are separated from the brass, water is dumped from the separator and the media placed back into the tumbler drum. With the wet brass still in the rotary squirrel cage, I throw in a dry towel and vigorously agitate back and forth for about 30 seconds. The moisture is thrown out of the cases and absorbed by the towel. Repeat with a second dry towel.

This will remove all moisture from inside and outside of the cases. No wet spotting will occur on the surface of the cases.

The primer pockets will still have a small moisture retainage. I leave the cases exposed to open air in a tray for about 1/2 hour or so, and that's it.

Good luck!

Bayou

 

[Toprudder]

I recently got some ArmorAll wash and wax that I'm going to try -- hopefully that will be enough to lubricate the brass. I'm unlikely to go back to the vibratory tumbler. In addition to the dust, I hated sifting through the brass and removing the corncob/walnut shells from the primer pockets and flash holes.

I never noticed a problem seating the bullets, but what I did notice was that I had problems with galling in the expander die (powder funnel on the Dillon). After a run of a few hundred, I could see small streaks of brass left on the expander. I had to scrape the streaks off and polish the expander. I also noticed occasional difficulty removing the cases from the expander. Once I switched from Dawn to Armorall Wash-n-Wax, I never had the problems again. I also think they resize a little easier.

 

[Rule3]

Not hard at all to obtain.

We all have our personal objectives in wet tumbling. Mine is brass having a "jewelry-like" appearance. Like these recent batches, for examples of typical results:









Now, we all know that the gun doesn't care what the brass looks like as long as it cycles well. But that's not the complete objective of my hobby. I get personal satisfaction from achieving this level of brilliance. It's achieving my personal expectations that makes this whole exercise one I want to repeat over and over. Each weekend, hopefully.

Obtaining clean brass, but rather dull looking brass, requires only soap, water and a bucket. Ask me how I know. But that's hardly what I'm after.

All the Best, Guys!

Bayou

You must be the envy of all the range shooters!

My brass is almost that purty with 2 hrs in a dry tumbler but I do not give a rodents rump about primer pockets,

But it is not surgically clean unless your dry it in a Autoclave and sterilize it!!

Only $2-4K at your local Medical supply store.

 

[Bayou52]

Thanks for the compliment, Rule3!

You sure are getting some enviable tumbling results yourself. From the responses on this thread, there appears to be quite a few of us tumblers out there who like shiny brass!

All the Best -

Bayou

 

[Shawn Dodson]

yeah, I don't really see the advantage other than saving pennies on the electric bill and less time with the sound, which isn't a problem if you stick it out on the porch

Less tumbling time translates into less peening of the case mouth. Peening increases bullet seating resistance and brass shavings in sizing or seating dies, depending on your handloading process.

 

[RussellC]

whoops, quoted wrong post!

 

[RussellC]

That seems excessive, but without a "before" picture of the brass it is a bit hard to say.

I've tumbled range picture that I had to check that they were brass, but I'm only tumbling 1.5 hours. The timer on the FAT doesn't even go to 3 hours. Granted I don't deprime before tumbling and I don't use stainless pins, but I'm not really that concerned about primer pockets in my 9mm or .38Spl cases.

I opened the thread thinking I was going to figure out how to cut my tumbling time down to less than 1 hour

My FAT's dial goes to 3 hours, yours doesn't?

 

[9mmepiphany]

I had to check yesterday when I did a load of 9mm. I was wrong, it does go to 3 hours, I've just never turned it pass 2 ( for a bit of a cushion)