I'm sold on stainless media tumbling and I'm done depriming on the bench

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I like to use my Harvey depriming tool ,www.harveydeprimer.com I dump my cases in a box and deprime the cases while I'm watching a movie or ball game on my computer. The cases go in the thumblers tumbler with SS pins and are wet tumbled for approx. 2 hours with Dawn & Lemishine, then rinsed and separated from the pins. I then lay out a thick towel and pour out the cleaned cases and then grab the ends of the towel and shake the cases back and forth until fairly dry. I then lay out the shells on several trays from my food dehydrator. Make sure you get one that has a heating element and a fan and it only takes about an hour of drying time and you are ready to reload. Cases look like shiny gold inside and out. Whenever I start to resize the cases I lube about every 4th case with Hornady case lube and everything works great.
 
I haven't had to lube any pistol cases after cleaning and don't notice them being "sticky" in the carbide dies.

I will have to check out that Harvey deprimer. Looks interesting.
 
The Harvey deprimer works well, but it can pinch skin on some tight primers - when the primer punches out it can close quickly if you are applying a decent amount of force.
 
You are doing a first-class job on your reloads. They look absolutely fantastic.

I have settled on a process that works very well. Like you, I deprime prior to wet tumbling, but I decided to save a step and do the sizing at the same time. Here's how:

When I get home from the range I rinse all the brass in a bucket with water and a drop or two of detergent. This gets off any grit that might harm the sizing die. When it comes time to size/deprime, I do it on the progressive with just the one die installed. I keep my brass-handling fingers coated with a thin film of Imperial sizing lube, and brass slips in and out of the die like a dream.

After the sizing/depriming step I do the wet tumbling with ArmorAll Wash & Wax and Lemishine. The tumbling removes the lube, and cleans and waxes the cases. After that they can be stored for weeks without fading, or just loaded up immediately.

When it comes time to load, station #1 is flaring, #2 is charging, #3 is powder checking, #4 is seating, and #5 is crimp. By doing the sizing before hand I essentially gain an extra station during the reloading process.
 
After the recommendation above, I tried the Armorall Wash & Wax. Left a greasy black coating on my brass and did not clean, even after running back through with detergent and Lemishine. I may have used too much, but the instructions indicated to use one ounce to a gallon of water, so that's what I did. I may have to throw that batch of brass away. You have been warned...
 
I bought a wet tumbler because I was tired of my press, Dillon 650, getting dirty from the left over debris left behind from the vibratory tumbler.

Anyways, what I do is wet tumble my brass for about 30 mins, dump it out, rinse and then shake on a towel and throw it in a container to dry over night. At that point I'll load the brass in the case feeder and de-prime the brass. Once all the brass is de-primed I throw it back in the wet tumbler for about 2hrs.

By tumbling for 30 min first I get the brass clean enough to run through my Dillon and not make a mess and not spend hours de-priming brass on a SS or hand held device. Also, when am doing the 30 min wash I reuse the same water/solution. I just dump it in a 2 gallon bucket, put in a fresh batch of dirty brass in the tumbler and pour in the water. I do make a new batch of water and solution for when the brass is de-primed through. Finished doing 6K worth of 223 brass this way before the dirty water solution started to loss its power to clean.
 
judgedelta said:
After the recommendation above, I tried the Armorall Wash & Wax. Left a greasy black coating on my brass and did not clean, even after running back through with detergent and Lemishine. I may have used too much, but the instructions indicated to use one ounce to a gallon of water, so that's what I did. I may have to throw that batch of brass away. You have been warned...
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to what happened. I've had nothing but great luck using AA WnW with Lemishine in my Frankfort rotary tumbler.
 
Toprudder said:
I'm curious as to what happened. I've had nothing but great luck using AA WnW with Lemishine in my Frankfort rotary tumbler.
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Same here. I have nothing but praise for ArmorAll cleaner. I can't imagine anything in Wash & Wax that would turn brass black. First and only time I have ever heard of such a thing.
 
Also a wet tumbler with pins fan. Mine is home made to the Big Dawg design.
Not sold on AA wash and Wax yet,tried a couple of times with mixed results. How much do you use per gal of water?

I deprime on my 650 with a universal deprimer, prior to any cleaning. I have replaced the spent primer catch container with a 1/2" flared tube from a compression fitting. Fits perfectly in the existing spent primer container frame without the container in place. Run a plastic tube down through my bench into a plastic container attached to the bottom side of the bench. No muss, no fuss, all spent primers and contaminants are completely contained.
 
Like others have stated, I switched to the Frankford Arsenal Rotary tumbler with ss pins and won't be going back. It is truley amazing how clean the brass looks. Even some of my really old 9mm brass that has been reloaded 10+ times looks like new.

One huge advantage for me is how clean and shiny the inside of the cases get. Even with my lock out die, I am almost OCD about peaking into each case for a powder charge. When it is dark and sooty, I have to crane my neck to see in there. I have a lot of neck problems that, eventually, are headed in the surgical direction but I would like to avoid that as long as possible. When they are mirror shiny, you can see the reflection of the powder off of the side of the case without straining your neck.
 
9mmepiphany said:
Me too.

I do wish the hose it came with was a bit longer...to reach into my catcher bottle...but that's just a druther. I did zip tie the hose to the bottom of the ram to keep it from slipping off
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9MM: Check with a medical supply store in your area for some clear hose/tubing such as that used for oxygenators or heavy I.V. lines. They should have whatever size you would need.

WILL.
 
I use maybe one ounce of WnW for a load in the Frankford tumbler. I include a small amount of Lemishine (maybe 1/2 teaspoon). I rinse with plenty of cold water. Air dry.
 
GT1 said:
Yeah, too clean. Folks are finding they will start galling their sizing dies or brass as there is nothing between the brass and the carbide/steel now. So, folks are starting to either lube brass or dry tumble with wax/polish after SS to avoid fouling the works.

Besides the large initial investment of a tumbler, pins, the mess of separating them out after.
That knock off of a thumlers in the pic is a nice one, but at $250....no.

Passing on SS tumbling. Too much hassle and cost.
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I built my tumbler from a HFT dual rock tumbler and a custom tumbling chamber for under $75. Including pins. So cost is an excuse. Results like this are so routine now it's boring. This is with lemishine water and a single drop of dawn. Ran for about an hour, dried them in a towel and toaster oven. Deprimed them and then tumbled in lemishine and water another hour. another hour in toaster oven and then cooled and primed ready to load. Easy peasy
uploadfromtaptalk1431974239021.jpg
 
My Frankford wet tumbler came yesterday. I've got a bunch of mixed brass ready to go tomorrow morning. Some 223, 308, and 9mm. They are all deprimed. The tumbler came with a sample of their cleaner, but if I want to use Dawn and Lemishine, how much of each do I use?
 
judgedelta said:
After the recommendation above, I tried the Armorall Wash & Wax. Left a greasy black coating on my brass and did not clean, even after running back through with detergent and Lemishine. I may have used too much, but the instructions indicated to use one ounce to a gallon of water, so that's what I did. I may have to throw that batch of brass away. You have been warned...
Click to expand...
I would guess too much soap or some other soap/solvent snuck in. I had the exact same thing happen to me when I ran Orange cleaner as soap. I made a post about it. Very nasty. I washed the brass separate in Simple Green and ran the brass with just pins, water and Lemishine. Then Dawn. Finally the brass was perfect again. No more experiments at that point.
 
GarySTL said:
My Frankford wet tumbler came yesterday. I've got a bunch of mixed brass ready to go tomorrow morning. Some 223, 308, and 9mm. They are all deprimed. The tumbler came with a sample of their cleaner, but if I want to use Dawn and Lemishine, how much of each do I use?
Click to expand...
1/4-1/2 teaspoon of Lemishine (empty 9mm casing) and 1-2 Tbs Dawn should clean the brass nicely. Fill the drum no more than 3/4 full with water. I have also read where many people are increasing the amount of pins from 5lbs up to 8lbs (I'm currently using 7lbs).
 
I just deprime/resize first. No mess. Then I SS tumble, dry in dehydrator, and put away so the brass is in "like new" condition when I am ready to reload. I don't store dirty brass and don't find there's any mess on the bench. All the spent primers and attendant dirt go down the tube into the garbage.
 
I haven't had to lube any pistol cases after cleaning and don't notice them being "sticky" in the carbide dies.
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with the sizing die. It can affect the expander, which in pistol dies is universally made of steel, not carbide.
If you have no issues, then don't worry!
 
I have also read where many people are increasing the amount of pins from 5lbs up to 8lbs (I'm currently using 7lbs).
Click to expand...

I started out using 8 lbs in the F.A.R.T., but since I am primarily doing rifle brass in which the volume of the drum is filled before you bump up against the weight constraint, I am now using 9 lbs. I also went back to Dawn after trying the Armour All.

Don
 
Na, thanks, but it's not for me.

I tumble in walnut in my Thumbler UV 10 for a few hours, then I separate and tumble for about 15 minutes in corn cob, no dust to speak of, and the brass looks great.

And I guess the thing for me, is I don't like to expose my brass to water, which means having to dry it, and then having to get my hands into all that contaminated water, I don't think I want to do that. Different strokes for different folks, no doubt each method has it's down side.

GS
 
USSR said:
I started out using 8 lbs in the F.A.R.T., but since I am primarily doing rifle brass in which the volume of the drum is filled before you bump up against the weight constraint, I am now using 9 lbs. I also went back to Dawn after trying the Armour All.

Don
Click to expand...
Don have you had any problems with water spots? I have been using AA wash & wax and have never had a single problem but last night I tried using Dawn instead of the AA and the brass was covered with water spots when I took them out of the dryer. Only thing I changed was the soap and this is the first time I have ever experienced this since I started wet tumbling.
 
Gravedigger56,

I'm not having a problem with water spots. You may have to rinse them more/better with water when they come out of the drum. How much Dawn per gallon are you using? Also, how are you drying them?

Don
 
About the water spots. I have had some batches of brass with water spots and some without (or very minor spots on a handful of cases).

Personally water spots don't bother me, but what I found was that when I rinsed with cold water and laid the brass out to dry, I got spots.

When I do my last couple rinses with hot water (to get the brass hot) and then after using the rotary media separator to separate out the pins, I open the separator "cage" and put in 3-4 paper towels. Then tumble slowly for a minute or so. This will grab most of the water in the paper towels. Then I lay it out to dry in a shallow bin. My garage is 70-120 degrees and low humidity so it dries quick, especially if the brass is hot.

Another alternative would be to put the wet brass in a bath towel. Grab both ends and move the brass from side to side soaking up the water in the towel.

I did that a lot before I had a media separator back when I was washing brass that had been vibratory tumbled with walnut media.
 
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