Frankford Arsenal rotary tumbler

[brutus51]

Decided to try wet tumbling with the steel pins which has proven to do a good job but what a hassle to use. Biggest complaint is no matter how tight I make the caps the darn thing still leaks water all over the place, am I alone in this?
Forgot to mention that the darn pins go all over the place as well.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Decided to try wet tumbling with the steel pins which has proven to do a good job but what a hassle to use. Biggest complaint is no matter how tight I make the caps the darn thing still leaks water all over the place, am I alone in this?
Forgot to mention that the darn pins go all over the place as well.

I have one. Make sure you get both sides of gasket wet before you tighten.

 

[brutus51]

Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a try.

 

[bullseye308]

Just a tiny bit of soap on the wet gaskets let’s you get them tight with minimal effort and no leaks. Plus if your hand strength isn’t what it used to be, it helps get it tight without a tool.

 

[Mike44]

Besides soaping the gasket make certain that there are no pins on the gasket or the sealing surfaces.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Yeah soap is a good idea.

 

[Skgreen]

My caps will leak a little if the seals are dry. I just wet them with water.

A good media separator and a magnet sure helped me

Having a nice place to do my tumbling and drying makes the task less burdensome.

(My Wife allows me full use of the kitchen. )

 

[Goofball84]

I like the results of the wet tumbling. But those pins can be a pain. They seem to jump off the magnet or bounce out of the separator and fly half way across the room.

 

[Paul R Zartman]

This was my first attempt using stainless steel pins..

If you have any OCD tendencies and have half decent eye sight, DO NOT USE STAINLESS STEEL PIN MEDIA!!!
Oh my...they are everywhere in my shop.
I found them on the counter...
...in the chair
...on the couch
...in my cigar ashtray
...in 5 different drawers
...on top the gun cabinet
...in my humidor
...in the expansion crack in the cement
...in my Goldschlager bottle
...in the toilet
...in my armpit hair
...I blew my nose & 1 showed up
...23 in the sink drain trap...i'm OCD...don't ask
THESE DARN THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE... HELP

 

[Herman B]

Biggest complaint is no matter how tight I make the caps the darn thing still leaks water all over the place

Much like an oil filter wrench that grows tighter as more force is applied, try using a strap or webbing girth hitched around the cap and a wrap around your hand. Simple, very effective. When doing a tumbling session, I leave one cap 'welded' (no leak) and the other tightened 'just enough' (small leak, if any) so I don't have to wrestle with it every fill/empty cycle.

Forgot to mention that the darn pins go all over the place as well.

The less the pins are handled out of water, the better. Separating pins from brass underwater is efficient (easily breaks the surface tension, leaving no pins in brass), keeps pins from jumping during separation and are easy to coral with a magnet after draining the water.

 

[merlynski]

I use petroleum jelly on the gaskets and threads of my National Metallic drum, and a couple of strap wrenches to loosen the lid (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011E4QU4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Loose pins are easy to deal with if you have a good strong magnet, but they do end up all over the place.

 

[RashQuestion]

I use petroleum jelly on the gaskets and threads

I also use petroleum jelly as merlynski does and I make sure both sides of the gaskets are clean before and after each use. I also marked the drum so only one end is used for loading and unloading. The second opening of the drum never gets used and never leaks. I do use a strap wrench if a slight leak starts but I am very careful not to over tighten it.

Pins go everywhere so I use multiple magnets in the final rinse bucket. Works well for me and the brass looks like new!!!

 

[Archie]

I have the same problem. I'll try the soap thing.
In the meantime I use smaller payloads and don't add so much water so the water doesn't hit the cap so much. Just for information, mine is a Lyman. And a magnet doo-dad to scrounge up pins is a must.

 

[jebova2301]

Something else to consider, if you aren't concerned about the primer pockets, tumble them without pins. You'll be surprised at the results. I only use pins every 3rd firing.

 

[Flycaster1977]

A few things i found when using my fart. If i use hot water, i tighten the cap, let it sit a few min, then re tighten.
In additon, if your soap is fizzy in any way, leave the cap off until the soap dissolves, then tighten.

i also have the add on screen to pour out the water to keep the pins in. I also use a wire kitchen strainer to rinse everything.

 

[markr6754]

I applied a light coating of silicon grease (used for waterproof seals in watches) 3 years ago. Now it takes very little pressure to tighten the lid, and no leaks, and I haven't had to reapply the grease (though I still have a fll jar).
I was advised to avoid using a strapping wrench, which was my original method as it could warp the barrel over time. I decided not to test that theory, and the silicon works like a charm.

 

[merlynski]

I use the strap wrench only to open the drum, I can get it tight enough to not leak by hand tightening.
I have an old coffee percolator I use to heat a pot full of water to add to the tumble mix. I rinse with hot water as well. The hot rinse seems to get the acid and Simple Green off the brass better than cold rinse water, so the brass stays shiny better. I save the rinse water to add back to the tumble mix, since I use distilled water, that saves it for reuse. For the cleaning tumble pins go in first, then brass, then recycled rinse water, then hot water, then about a tablespoon of citric acid powder, plus three squirts of Simple Green concentrate. Tumble for 2 hours. I found that 1 hour is not quite enough to get the primer pockets well cleaned on once fired purchased range brass. My National Metallic kit came with two media separator baskets, one catches the brass, one below that catches the pins and lets the wash water pass through. Some pins are still mixed with the brass so I run it through an RCBS rotary media separator to shake out most of the rest, then into the rinse. Then the hot brass is spread out to dry. After drying it gets one more run through the rotary media separator to remove the last (very few usually) pins.

 

[RashQuestion]

+1 to merlynski on hot water in both wash and rinse cycles. I use Dawn instead of Simple Green, I half teaspoon Lemi Shine and wash for 90 minutes with a hot water rinse for 20 min. I do use Armor All car wash soap (2 oz) in the rinse cycle with no Lemi Shine. Then re rinse in a 5 gal bucket with cool water through a strainer just to remove the suds before putting a portion of the batch into a salad spinner to separate the pins. Loose magnets in the final rinse bucket to grab pins wt the bottom. I only clean 1 caliber of brass at a time to prevent smaller cases from getting stuck in larger ones.

You have to try out a few different approaches to find what works for you. Trial & error produced what I included above. Good Luck on your system!!!

 

[koni]

A little soap water on both sides on the gasket before tightening the lid on goes a long way. I made a box with hardwire and screen to dump the water and pins out in before using a separator. So far I think maybe 2-3 pins might make it out of the box

 

[Cheesemaker]

Good advice given already - only add is get one of these: https://www.frankfordarsenal.com/ca...dia/media-transfer-magnet/909271.html#start=1
It makes quick work of picking up pins.

 

[Airborne Falcon]

I have one of those media transfer magnets ... i caulked it up real pretty to keep the water out of it and it works great. Used white silicon caulk but then used a black perma el marko to make the white go away.

I do the soap on the gaskets thing too. I think I even leave the strainer in sometimes too ... keeps the pins from rolling into the recessed observation window.

 

[merlynski]

What I like about Simple Green is it does not foam up, but it still cleans well, and breaks down the surface tension so the wet pins don't stick the the brass as much.

 

[Hondo 60]

Pins do go all over, but that's what the magnet is for.

Plus a hundred or so to using a touch of soap to seal the gaskets.
It only took me 1-2 tries? to figure it out, so I'm sure other's will get it faster

 

[Dewey 68]

Not sure what the gaskets are made of, but petroleum jelly can dissolve rubber and neoprene. If you have access to a 3D printer you can print a "wrench" that will give you more leverage. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4908772

 

[Airborne Falcon]

+1 to merlynski on hot water in both wash and rinse cycles. I use Dawn instead of Simple Green, I half teaspoon Lemi Shine and wash for 90 minutes with a hot water rinse for 20 min. I do use Armor All car wash soap (2 oz) in the rinse cycle with no Lemi Shine. Then re rinse in a 5 gal bucket with cool water through a strainer just to remove the suds before putting a portion of the batch into a salad spinner to separate the pins. Loose magnets in the final rinse bucket to grab pins wt the bottom. I only clean 1 caliber of brass at a time to prevent smaller cases from getting stuck in larger ones.

You have to try out a few different approaches to find what works for you. Trial & error produced what I included above. Good Luck on your system!!!

That's an all-out process right there. I rarely go that far but I do some of that with my 300 PRC, 6.5 Creedmoor and 45-70 brass strictly for long term gussied-up purposes and bragging rights.

Try flipping your brass in a big stainless steel salad bowl with some rare earth magnets on the bottom outside of the bowl .... like tossing a brass salad. It'll catch a lot of those pins the big transfer magnet doesn't get. Then I toss a polishing rag in the bowel with NuFinish on it and toss again to coat the brass and polish it and protect it even more.

Now, all of this is done AFTER I have already decapped and resized. I generally vibrate with pecan or walnut to get the brass in good enough shape for me to begin working it, lubing-it for the decap and resize, etc. Then I make it real purdy, real purrrrrdy, before loading all the white once it comes out of the wet tumbler and is dry I neber touch it again, with bare fingers, until it is being loaded into something. I always use rubber gloves.

Another step I'll sometimes take if the brass is really nasty and dirty is to run a decrease cycle with a little bit of purple Zep. BTW that'll also decrease your pins but go easy on the Zep least it leeches the zinc our of the brass and leaves it with a bit of an orangey copper color.

Back to the subject at hand.

I used to do it the old way and not worry about case lube left-on, or any of that, but some of my 35 year old, even 25 and even 15 year old reloads look rough these days. My kids might be hesitant to shoot it. Case lube leaves some ugly stains over time.

Every since I started wet tumbling brass and storing with descendants my ammo stays oh so purdy. It's like a precious metal. Makes your eyes water when you pop open a can.