How do you dry your brass

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jbradley

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Leaving the brass out after taking it out of the rotary tumbler and rinsing it off, the get water spots really bad.
Rolling them on paper towels works ok, bt not the inside.
How do you dry your brass if you use a wet method of tumbling/cleaning?

John Bradley
Sanger, TX
 
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Very simple. Go to Walmart, buy one large fluffy towel. After you shake out the brass in a media sorter as dry as you can, dump the brass on one end of the towel. Fold over enough towel to cover the brass and rub back and forth a bit, rolling the cases. Then pick up that end of the towel and let the whole pile of brass go to the completely dry end of the towel. Then repeat the fold and roll action, and then leave to dry.

I have had spotless brass (well, maybe a minor discoloration inside a primer pocket but oh well) with this method. I could make a video and post it next time I dry a batch...
 
Why not put them in a mesh bag or pillowcase,and run them in the clothes dryer for a while with a couple old towels?Just wait till the little woman goes to the store.
 
I use an old cookie sheet and either put 'em in the oven or on the gas grill, on very low temp. Just enough heat to evaporate the water. Cookie sheet in the sun works too. If I'm feeling particularly anal that day, I'll stand 'em all up first. Air compressor works good too, blow 'em out first then apply a little heat to finish dry. I've even set the cookie sheet on top of a kerosene heater for a few minutes, that works good too.
 
I spread the cases out on a thick towel. I turn them once or twice during the drying process so that any water gets drained out.
 
i put them in a mesh dryer bag like my old lady uses to wash her bras and stuff. then i sandwich the corner of the bag with the zipper in the top of the clothes dryer door. run it on the delicate cycle (lower temps) for about 30 mins.

no banging around, no overnight waiting, and no water spots.
 
I don't tumble, I just wash my brass in Cascade, rinse, and soak in vinegar. After a good rinse, I drain as well as I can and put in stainless steel bowl. I heat oven to 350 degrees. I use a paper towel to remove any water remaining in the bowl.
Then I turn the oven off and remove the knob. The bowl of brass goes on the rack after the oven has a little time to even out. In the morning, it is nice and dry. The brass is not polished, but clean. My brother in law once put his plastic framed glasses in the oven to set epoxy he was using for a repair. He just had the light on. His wife turned up the oven to about 350 degrees to preheat it for dinner without looking, with predictable results!

rat
 
After I take mine out of the tumbler { walnut grit }, I dump it into the tumbler again with corn cob to remove any walnut dust, works every time. I know some will say that its double duty to corn cob afterward, but this is done a couple of days before I sit down to reload, I never get in a hurry at reloading time!
 
If i want something dry RFN out of the US cleaner, I use compressed air. I don't have one of those OSHA 30 psi nozzles so as long as the tank is staying above 80 or so, a quick blast at each end has it dry. Might be a tiny bit of moisture left, but by the time I get everything ready to start putting in primers its all bone dry.

Would that work for removing the dust without getting them wet after tumbling - just blast them with air?
 
I reckin' so. After the corn cob tumble, 5 min. longest, I take them out and they're ready, I don't quibble about a gnats sized piece of grit. If there is a tiny piece, I just blow it off and go on.
 
my brass comes out of the tumbler looking better than new, why would one want to get it wet?
 
I'm old fashioned I dry tumble mine in corn cob with polish in it, about 2 hours and they are shiney, 4 hours and they look like new. No water or stains to deal with. I just bought a 25lb bag of 20/40 for $27 delivered so I'm good for a few years.
 
I use, and like, wet tumbling with stainless pins but agree it is labor and time intensive.

Most of the time, I dry tumble, the outsides of the cases look bright and shiny.

But when the interior of the cases get real dirty, I wet tumble them and get all of the crud out of them. The cases look like new again.

Since my cases are very dirty when they get wet tumbled, it is probably why I find they need to be tumbled 4 to 6 hours. Cases cleaner to start from would clean faster.
 
Use either deionized water or distilled water. The spotting you are seeing is minerals dissolved in the water, and when the water evaporates the salts are left behind. Distilled or deionized water contains no such minerals and should dry leaving no spots. You can also put the wet brass, after shaking out most of the water, back into dry clean media and tumble for a few minutes. Cob will absorb any water. Then spread the cob out in a pan to dry in the sun.
 
I don't ever expose my brass to water. I've been known to rinse them with acetone or denatured alcohol, but never water or water based solutions. If you are that bothered by the media dust, and acetone isn't an option for you, use a Q tip to remove most of the inside media dust.
 
jb, 1/17/12

I'm with many of the other posters who don't get their brass wet in the first place. There are many dry ways to clean brass.

However, I have lately been using the Stainless steel media-wet cleaning method which gives clean brass and primer pockets. I dry my brass in the oven, mouth upwards, on an old cookie sheet with 300-500 cases at a time. Since brass anneals at over 600 degrees most low temp settings are OK as long as it is not too close to the oven elements. I have used settings of 200 and 300 degrees. I checked the cases every ten minutes to determine the drying time needed. Turned out to be 50 minutes for 200 degrees and 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Good luck.

best wishes- oldandslow
 
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