Low Dust Dry Media

[Phlier]

I sell brass on the side. I run anywhere from a half to a full five gallon bucket at a time. I use cement mixers for tumblers. Doing the wet tumbling isn't the issue for me. It's the drying that I would have to conquer.

Jerry Miculek has a video on drying mass quantities of brass. Well, actually the video is on how his entire wet tumbling process, but it's the drying part that's of particular interest.

He made some large frames out of 2x4's, then mounted wire mesh in the frames. He then leaves the brass filled frames out in the sun. He has to deal with extremely high humidity there in Louisiana, but even so, he's able to get them dry no problem.

I did give the used dryer sheets a try, and yeah.. that's a huge help.

But the F.A.R.T., when used with their wet media separator, is a pleasure to use. I also use their case dryer. It's extremely dry where I live, so my cases are dry in an hour.

I'm so happy with my new wet tumbling setup that I'll never go back to dry tumbling.

 

[LiveLife]

So you went from dry tumbling with rice for 6-8 hours and became a wet tumbling convert?

For now, I will continue to dry tumble with fine grit walnut and NuFinish along with used dryer sheet pieces. With Berry's 1000 9mm capacity tumbler, 800 cases will take 30 minutes for clean and 1+ hour for mirror polish but when I do consider wet tumbling, I plan to go with Frankford Arsenal (BTW parent company Smith & Wesson).

Perhaps you can start a new thread on the FA wet tumbler as I do like many features of the FA wet tumbler.

 

[Phlier]

So you went from dry tumbling with rice for 6-8 hours and became a wet tumbling convert?

For now, I will continue to dry tumble with fine grit walnut and NuFinish along with used dryer sheet pieces. With Berry's 1000 9mm capacity tumbler, 800 cases will take 30 minutes for clean and 1+ hour for mirror polish but when I do consider wet tumbling, I plan to go with Frankford Arsenal (BTW parent company Smith & Wesson).

Perhaps you can start a new thread on the FA wet tumbler as I do like many features of the FA wet tumbler.

Yup, bds, I did.

It wasn't an easy decision to make, as I'd seen many youtube videos where guys really struggle with it.

FA makes a media separator made specifically to go along with the F.A.R.T., and it is the one thing that makes a difference between wet tumbling being a complete pain in the butt vs. a real pleasure.

The entire process takes four hours and five minutes. Three hours in the F.A.R.T., one hour in the dryer, and five minutes to get the FART running and then to get it in the dryer afterward.

That's if your brass actually needs the full three hours. Really grungy stuff will take that long. Brass that you just cleaned, loaded and shot will only take an hour in the tumbler, tops.

I've already processed the majority of my really nasty brass, but I might have a few assorted grungy cases that I can use to make a video of the process.

But I can't say it strongly enough, there is one piece of equipment that makes all the difference: the FA wet media separator.

 

[Rule3]

Jerry Miculek has a video on drying mass quantities of brass. Well, actually the video is on how his entire wet tumbling process, but it's the drying part that's of particular interest.

He made some large frames out of 2x4's, then mounted wire mesh in the frames. He then leaves the brass filled frames out in the sun. He has to deal with extremely high humidity there in Louisiana, but even so, he's able to get them dry no problem.

I did give the used dryer sheets a try, and yeah.. that's a huge help.

But the F.A.R.T., when used with their wet media separator, is a pleasure to use. I also use their case dryer. It's extremely dry where I live, so my cases are dry in an hour.

I'm so happy with my new wet tumbling setup that I'll never go back to dry tumbling.

Actually if you watch the video again, he dries the brass in a old cooking oven. The mesh screens he uses for washing the corn cob media (which is nuts) but hey he is Jerry and can do what he wants.

So he actually washes dries trims and then through polish cycle again.

To get dust out of media simply put a few drops on mineral oil in it, Yes mineral oil or Ballistol,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y_dsP3dsM


http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/faqs/tumblers_faq.php



Q: My media is getting quite dusty. How can I keep the dust down?
A: Add a few drops of baby oil to the media and run it to evenly distribute. Older media which is becoming dusty will indicate that the media is wearing out.