How much brass to load in the Frankford Arsenal LITE Tumbler?

[watermonger]

Is this too much .500 S&W brass for a frankford LITE tumbler? Is it too little? How much detergent should I put in there? How many pounds of pin media, and how much lemishine per load? Also can I use any dish soap or should I stay away from certain ones?

 

[rfwobbly]

With the container tipped over, I find that having the brass about half-full in the window initiates a good tumbling action. The liquid should be nearly to the top, say 7/8 full.

I highly suspect that people who complain about the Lite have grossly under-filled it.

 

[watermonger]

With the container tipped over, I find that having the brass about half-full in the window initiates a good tumbling action. The liquid should be nearly to the top, say 7/8 full.

I highly suspect that people who complain about the Lite have grossly under-filled it.

How much soap and pin media do you add per load?

 

[rfwobbly]

I use 1 tablespoon of LemiShine, 1/2 cup of liquid car wax (like ArmourAll), and fill the remainder with hot water. Tumble times run from 45 to 60 minutes for 99% clean. You can certainly go longer for "spotless" cleaning. Then I rinse 3-4 times in clean, cold water before drying.

The Wash&Wax has detergent in it, so I don't add extra soap.

Most people report tumbling too long (say over night) is counter-productive. The LemiShine can attack the brass and leave a black scum coating.

 

[watermonger]

And the pin media?

 

[Dudedog]

How much Citric acid/lemishine depends on your water PH. Higher PH water takes more.
I use car wash and wax and citric acid (citric acid is available in the canning section of most supermarkets)
With the smaller tumbler I would guess about a 9mm case of citric acid but like I mentioned it depends on your water.
To much acid is not good. In my tumbler I just give it a dollop of wash and wax. Within reason to much wash and wax doesn't hurt.
I would say 2-4 oz of wash and wax.
Hard to say on the pins you just need enough, say maybe a cup or two.

 

[donut1953]

I have the regular size FART and the instructions recommend a maximum weight of 30LBS. I use an old scale and keep the total weight under 25LBS. Not sure if the lite model shows a maximum weight .

 

[shamfrod]

Their website states it can hold approx 300 .223 cases. In their Q & A someone asked how many 9mm it will hold and the customer service representative mentioned approx 500 cases and "2 lb of media, we recommend a max capacity of 15lbs. of total weight in the drum. That includes the cases, pins and water."

 

[Highland Lofts]

I use 1 tablespoon of LemiShine, 1/2 cup of liquid car wax (like ArmourAll), and fill the remainder with hot water. Tumble times run from 45 to 60 minutes for 99% clean. You can certainly go longer for "spotless" cleaning. Then I rinse 3-4 times in clean, cold water before drying.

The Wash&Wax has detergent in it, so I don't add extra soap.

Most people report tumbling too long (say over night) is counter-productive. The LemiShine can attack the brass and leave a black scum coating.

Do you use a 1/2 cup.of Armor All or 1/2 a cap?

 

[watermonger]

So I did 1/8th teaspoon of finish booster since I don't have lemishine, 1.9 quartz of water, 2lbs of media, and filtered water, since we have hard water here. Gonna let it run for 1 hour 30 and see what it looks like after that.

 

[Highland Lofts]

With hard water if you use it you might have to reduce the lemi shine (citus)

 

[watermonger]

With hard water if you use it you might have to reduce the lemi shine (citus)

I'm not using tap water.

 

[Metal God]

Those type of tumblers are based on total weight allowed and not quantity . My FART came with a chart showing what weight it holds , how much a gal of water weighs and what the pins weigh . Add pins and water weight . Subtract that from total allowable weight and the answer is the amount of brass by weight you can add . FWIW I tumble 250-308 cases In the standard Tumblr no problem and could probably do 300 easy . Unfortunately I have no idea the size of the what I assume is the smaller light configuration For comparison

 

[Dudedog]

Do you use a 1/2 cup.of Armor All or 1/2 a cap?

In my Lyman Cyclone is use a dollop of wash and wax, say 2-4 oz. (never measure it exactly)

Edit - Be generous with the Wash and Wax(it's cheap), I suppose you could put in to much but you would really have to try to do it.

 

[watermonger]

what is the volume of the tumblers you guys are using for your recipes?

 

[call1911]

My impression was that I need to fill the drum more than half full. Otherwise the cases are just lying on the bottom and are not turned over.
It's quite similar in a regular washing machine.
So when I fill out with dirty brass to about 60% then start the machine and watch through the window.
Is the cases are turned over I let it run for about 2 hours in warm water.
If the cases are lying at the bottom I put some more in the drum.

 

[rfwobbly]

Do you use a 1/2 cup of Armor All or 1/2 a cap?

Half cup. I'm a generous guy.

 

[rfwobbly]

And the pin media?

I worried about the pins at first, but then my kid pointed out that they are, after all, stainless.

After going through the multiple rinses in the FART Lite container, I then separate the pins from the case in a Graf rotary separator (probably made by Berry). The pins simply lay in the bottom of the separator until needed again. I don't dry them or take any other special steps. In fact, I pretty much abuse them, and they take it in stride.

 

[rfwobbly]

what is the volume of the tumblers you guys are using for your recipes?

The OP has a FART Lite, which as an internal volume of roughly 1 US gal. You'd almost need to be shooting professionally to need anything bigger.

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