Wet tumbler resolutions

[FROGO207]

Yeah well for a lot of years all I did was wipe them down with a rag and they shot fine. Then I realized that if they were clean and sparkly they were easier to find and ID as mine. Now I feel out of sorts if they do not look "factory new". New and improved just means lots more work. LOL.

 

[243winxb]

nu finish car wax, about half a bottle.

From the sds- Combustible liquid.View attachment 1027670

pistol cases

When the decapping pin first makes contact with the primer, has an effect on the effort needed to size & eject the old primer from the case.
Later is better when the lever is near the end of the stroke. Move the decap rod up in the die. Works with RCBS.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

The answer

or

 

[Akula69]

I was using Hornady one shot but switched to 91% isopropyl, a pea sized amount of mink oil, and a teaspoon of Hornady case lube in a two quart spray bottle (You have to shake it vigorously to get the mix). I spritz the cases *before* cleaning because I decap, size (and trim/swage primer pocket if it's a rifle case) before the wet tumble with pins with Dawn and Lemishine to clean, and force dry in a 200 degree oven.

I have never had a case stick in any caliber die after this process.

Now... I do clean the dies frequently, and I do use a case gauge to do random checking. However, when I was cleaning before sizing I did get cases stuck occasionally.

Edit: the two quart mix is good for about 4K bottleneck cases, or more if straight-walled pistol.

 

[GBExpat]

For several decades I would soak & agitate my dirty brass cases in a large jar with hot water & a bit'o'Dawn.

Then I discovered citric acid (in the '90s, IIRC) ... so I always added a bit of that to make the brass shiny. Experimented with phosphoric acid but stuck with citric.

Then I bought a VCC (vibratory case cleaner) that I used on the cases after they had dried from the precleaning.

Then I bought the F.A.R.T. ... and since then I only rarely use my two VCCs to quick-clean a small handful of cases, agitate a few small jars of "sight paint" or clean filthy loaded ammunition (usually old milsurp ammo, most recently several hundreds of rounds of Mk7/7z).

 

[MaxLoad]

Don't know if anybody has tried this, but you know if you have small quantities of mixed brass, 9, 40, 45, 38 etc.... and you wet tumble, bad things happen if you tumble them all together. The 9's get stuck in the 40's and the 40's get stuck in the 45's
and it's just a mess. But, I frequently have small quantities of everything, so rather than do seperate tumble cycles, I picked up a bunch of aquarium filter bags that are used for chunky filter media. They hold probably 75 or so 9's. I just fill em, drop the bags inside the tumbler, fill the tumbler with water, Dawn and Lemi-shine and tumble the whole thing. Now, because the cases are somewhat constricted in movement by the bag, they don't get beat up at all, and they seem to come out cleaner, because they are in contact with each other more closely, and scrub each other. The bags are like $4.00 a piece. Worthwhile experiment and makes tumbling small quantities fast and easy.

 

[Varminterror]

How dare our cleaning method actually get brass clean....

 

[RashQuestion]

+1 on Armor All Wash & Wax.

My only difference is after 90 min tumble with Dawn and Lemi Shine. I remove all the dirty water then I add AA with hot water no Lemi Shine for an additional 20 min. The water from the added wash comes out a lot cleaner. Then after rinsing the whole batch it's super clean with a wax coating left on the brass. I believe that helps me and my press when resizing. Runs smooth!

Try it you may find it works well. It does for me anyway!!!

 

[W/Vickers1938]

I have been doing it all wrong. I wash fired cases to remove loose contaminants. Dry, than I lube and size, decap, expand. Then I place sized, decapped and expanded cases in the FART for a trip to the cleaners. My cases are bright and shiny, inside and out. Ready to seat primers, drop powder, seat a bullet. I always seat and crimp as a separate function. Works for me, let the flaming begin.
Have a nice day.

 

[Pottimus]

Either way I would assume that a media separator is a must. I don't know why poking corn cob through a flash hole bothers the snot out of me. For that reason alone I haven't touched it since wet tumbling. I too use Soap/Wax....case lube...I am not understanding... it seems as if your method no longer requires any case lube?

 

[Dane R. Marley]

How much of Armor All Wash & Wax do you put in your wet tumbler? I am planning to purchase a Frankford Arsenal Large Wet Tumbler and I will use SS Chips.

 

[Rule3]

I have been doing it all wrong. I wash fired cases to remove loose contaminants. Dry, than I lube and size, decap, expand. Then I place sized, decapped and expanded cases in the FART for a trip to the cleaners. My cases are bright and shiny, inside and out. Ready to seat primers, drop powder, seat a bullet. I always seat and crimp as a separate function. Works for me, let the flaming begin.
Have a nice day.

I send all my brass out to the Dry Cleaners !

 

[Pottimus]

I like Maguire's...It has a squirt spout, one good squeeze, sprinkle a tad of Lemishine, and hot tap water...pins and water would probably work just fine. but I like the wax smell...Only concern I have is them being wet. but, I don't use for weeks anyway...I see there is no wrong way to do it, not cleaning can be okay...A magnet and media separator is a must have...

 

[Blue68f100]

If you don't use enough soap your pins will come out dirty. You did not have enough to suspend all the dirt. It's better to go over than be short.

 

[Dudedog]

How much of Armor All Wash & Wax do you put in your wet tumbler?

I don't even measure I just put in a dollop, call it a couple oz. (maybe 1/4 cup measure wise).
Unlike the citric acid to much wash and wax won't hurt. (unless maybe you dumped in say a hole bottle)

 

[DanK3Pos]

That is a problem with wet tumbling. I'm actually thinking about buying another dry tumbler, just to toss them back into for about 15 minutes lol. Wet tumbled cases really hang up on my dillon 550 expanders. Makes the whole thing pretty rough, but I do like those nice, clean primer pockets when wet tumbling.

Do yourself a favor. Dump your pistol brass into a large ziploc, hose it down with Hornady One Shot, tumble it around for a minute or so, then go to loading. The goal isn't to get them lubed like rifle brass, just that your dies are routinely getting a little dose of dry lube as you progress. Fixes the problem with the expander die and makes resizing so much easier. My Dillon runs like a well oiled machine (which it is).

 

[JKP]

I didn't think the Armor All Wash & Wax was much better then the Dawn. I lightly sprayed One Shot on before sizings, primming and expanding. After this I dry tumble for 1 hour to remove the lube. When i get a thousand I add powder and bullets. After One Shot tripled in price I switched to lanolin/alcohol lube.

 

[JD Fla1]

I use this laundry soap now, after I've had troubles with range brass and hard to seat bullets, that were cleaned with dawn, and house water.
1/2 of the bottles cup in a full batch of brass and of 5lbs. of pins and hot water, pinch of L.shine. rinse out good with soft water after 3 hours tumbling, I prefer saved up rain water. no spots, and the brass feels slickened.
I'm not crazy about adding a wax to my wet tumbler, I don't want residuals to linger in the tub, and build up.
and air drying on top of shop rags after rolling the wet brass around in a big towel.
the whole process involves 10 minutes of labor.

 

[dcloco]

Believe a person is supposed to use a little bit of lube on cases, even if using CARBIDE resizing dies.

10 hours tumbling? oooph

 

[Highland Lofts]

+1 on Armor All Wash & Wax.

My only difference is after 90 min tumble with Dawn and Lemi Shine. I remove all the dirty water then I add AA with hot water no Lemi Shine for an additional 20 min. The water from the added wash comes out a lot cleaner.
Try it you may find it works well. It does for me anyway!!!

I will have to try the 20 minute run with just ArmorAll after the wash tumble. Makes a lot of sense that the wax would stay on the brass. The dawn would remove it.

---------------------------

How much of Armor All Wash & Wax do you put in your wet tumbler? I am planning to purchase a Frankford Arsenal Large Wet Tumbler and I will use SS Chips.

I have the larger FART.
I use a cap full of ArmorAll,
1/2 teaspoon of Lemi Shine Booster, find that at Walmart in the dish soap isle
A small squirt of Dawn dish soap.

I also tumble with hot tap water.

I made drying racks that 100% drains the water out.
It is a little extra work, but it gives my a step to look for bad brass.






A dry tumbler will never get all this crud off of your cases.

 

[Dudedog]

A dry tumbler will never get all this crud off of your cases

Not that it needs to be spotless clean but it makes me smile.
I surprised how nasty the water off my first batch looked!

 

[Highland Lofts]

Wet tumbling really takes all of the crud from the cases, a dry tumbler never will.

 

[DynoDan1]

I made the resolutions to quit wet tumbling due to stickey brass in carbide dies and bullets refusing to seat and not be deformed from pressure.

I took my wet tumbler and made a dry tumbler with it. I filled it to the brim with new walnut and nu finish car wax, about half a bottle and tumbled for 4 hours. With the media settled I add 1000 38special cases first then fill up with my media and run for 4 hours. My cases are clean around the 2 hour mark yet I just go for 4 hours.

They are shinny enough to load as is but I have been letting the 1000 piece lots tumble in a vibratory tumbler with ni finish treated corn cob for around 8 hours while I sleep.

Since I made this resolution I no longer experience sticky cases in my dies, deformed bullets, any issues.

I've been wet tumbling from the start of my reloading/shooting hobby 2.5 years ago.
My method gives me outstanding results every time. From start to finish is an hour or less even with the dirtiest range brass I pick up.
Dirt cheap too, no need for fancy equipment or solutions.
And haven't had any issues with "sticky" dies.
My buddy dry tumbled but complained about the dust so I showed him my brass and now he wet tumbles.

 

[Rule3]

In my 1953 edition of the Complete Guide to Handloading by Philip Sharpe, I could only find one vague reference to cleaning brass and it was using Dreft laundry detergent. There was certainly no mention of tumblers. I'm assuming all they used back then were rags to wipe the dirt off.

 

[Demi-human]

My method gives me outstanding results every time.

I’ll see your clean cases, and raise you a triple case load and a better lighted frame.

Your draw.