Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

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Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Bergie on Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:40 pm

Thanks everyone on the Reloading bench ideas. Here's another crawl before I walk question- I have a Thumlers Tumbler B, Lemi,shine, stainless pins, and thousands of rounds of empty brass (5.56). So after I deprime some rounds,
A- How many rounds is a good amount for the tumbler? 100? 200? xxx?
B- About a teaspoon of Lemishine right?
C- How much water? Cold? Hot? Doesn't matter?
D- Use all five pounds of pins?
E- Tumble for how long?
F- And the best for last- How best to empty this toxic soup residue from the tumbler without losing pins? Do the pins have to be spread out to dry?
(I'm thinking the best brass drying method then to be putting each one upside down on a bed of nails...seriously.)
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby MJY65 on Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:51 pm

Bergie wrote:Thanks everyone on the Reloading bench ideas. Here's another crawl before I walk question- I have a Thumlers Tumbler B, Lemi,shine, stainless pins, and thousands of rounds of empty brass (5.56). So after I deprime some rounds,
A- How many rounds is a good amount for the tumbler? 100? 200? xxx?
You can do about 200 5.56 at a time
B- About a teaspoon of Lemishine right?
I use a little less than that. Maybe 1/2tsp plus a squirt of Dawn dish soap
C- How much water? Cold? Hot? Doesn't matter?
After the brass and pins are in, fill to about 1" from the top. Temp doesn't matter.
D- Use all five pounds of pins?
Yes
E- Tumble for how long?
They will be pretty clean after an hour. Beautiful after 2
F- And the best for last- How best to empty this toxic soup residue from the tumbler without losing pins? Do the pins have to be spread out to dry?
I use a Dillon brass separator. The water and pins go through to the tub and the brass stays in the basket. No need to ever dry the pins, just pour off the water and put them back in the tumbler.
(I'm thinking the best brass drying method then to be putting each one upside down on a bed of nails...seriously.)
A food dehydrator works very well
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby BigDog58 on Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:18 pm

MJY65 wrote:
Bergie wrote:Thanks everyone on the Reloading bench ideas. Here's another crawl before I walk question- I have a Thumlers Tumbler B, Lemi,shine, stainless pins, and thousands of rounds of empty brass (5.56). So after I deprime some rounds,
A- How many rounds is a good amount for the tumbler? 100? 200? xxx?
You can do about 200 5.56 at a time
B- About a teaspoon of Lemishine right?
I use a little less than that. Maybe 1/2tsp plus a squirt of Dawn dish soap
C- How much water? Cold? Hot? Doesn't matter?
After the brass and pins are in, fill to about 1" from the top. Temp doesn't matter.
D- Use all five pounds of pins?
Yes
E- Tumble for how long?
They will be pretty clean after an hour. Beautiful after 2
F- And the best for last- How best to empty this toxic soup residue from the tumbler without losing pins? Do the pins have to be spread out to dry?
I use a Dillon brass separator. The water and pins go through to the tub and the brass stays in the basket. No need to ever dry the pins, just pour off the water and put them back in the tumbler.
(I'm thinking the best brass drying method then to be putting each one upside down on a bed of nails...seriously.)
A food dehydrator works very well



MJY65 covered it quite well. Don't forget the Dawn Dish Soap (Dawn has worked best for me). I make a circle as I squirt it, and that seems to do well. I let my brass tumble about 2.5-3 hrs and have dound it does great, even with the primer pockets.

I have a sink right next to my tumblers, and I pour off most of the dirty water, refill with clean (1 or 2 times) and slowly pour that out. I then use an RCBS Media Separator (same one as is used for dry tumbled) to separate the pins from the brass. I then rinse the brass one more time while it's in the separator bin (ball with slots).
I then place a towel on my table and dump the clean brass on it, and make it like a hammock and roll the load of brass from side to side to get the majority of water off the outside. The brass then goes into my Frankford Arsenal Brass Drier (Dehydrators work just as well) set at 135° for about 2 hrs (I have it on a timer). I only use Hot Water when I tumble after resizing, to get the homemade spray lube off the cases (1 to 1.5 hrs). I then rinse in cold water.

Once you see how clean the brass is, and how it helps adequately inspect your brass, you'll love it.

Note: I do suggest you run your new pins by themselves with water and some Dawn, to get the manufacturing oils off, before tumbling your brass. I run new pins for about 30 minutes, then dump the water.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby OldmanFCSA on Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:44 am

Bergie wrote:Thanks everyone on the Reloading bench ideas. Here's another crawl before I walk question- I have a Thumlers Tumbler B, Lemi,shine, stainless pins, and thousands of rounds of empty brass (5.56). So after I deprime some rounds,
A- How many rounds is a good amount for the tumbler? 100? 200? xxx?
B- About a teaspoon of Lemishine right?
C- How much water? Cold? Hot? Doesn't matter?
D- Use all five pounds of pins?
E- Tumble for how long?
F- And the best for last- How best to empty this toxic soup residue from the tumbler without losing pins? Do the pins have to be spread out to dry?
(I'm thinking the best brass drying method then to be putting each one upside down on a bed of nails...seriously.)


A. I have dumped about 750 223 casings into a Model B barrel and tumbled about 8 hours (overnight) = came out clean. I only tumble de-primed brass.
B. Depends on hardness of water - I use a tablespoon or more sometimes
C. Cold is all I got in shop - fill to 1/2" of top edge
D. I use 7.5 pounds initially = lost some
E. Anywhere from 3 hours to 12 hours (forgot it was running)
F. As Jim described - RCBS separater
I use a turbo fan 1/2HP to dry in minutes.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Erud on Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:47 am

Are you fully committed to this idea? If not, you can make your life a lot easier by using a regular old vibratory tumbler and white rice. Your brass will be slightly less shiny, but you will reduce your prep time by hours and multiple steps. You won’t need to worry about peened case mouths, disposing of the slurry, making sure that cases are completely dry and free of pins, or lubing necks to replace the perfectly good carbon lubricant that you just removed with the pins. You won’t see any difference on target either. Just my opinion, but unless you are needing to clean up brass that has been lying in the gravel at the range for 15 years, there is really no advantage to wet tumbling.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Holland&Holland on Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:57 am

Erud wrote:Are you fully committed to this idea? If not, you can make your life a lot easier by using a regular old vibratory tumbler and white rice. Your brass will be slightly less shiny, but you will reduce your prep time by hours and multiple steps. You won’t need to worry about peened case mouths, disposing of the slurry, making sure that cases are completely dry and free of pins, or lubing necks to replace the perfectly good carbon lubricant that you just removed with the pins. You won’t see any difference on target either. Just my opinion, but unless you are needing to clean up brass that has been lying in the gravel at the range for 15 years, there is really no advantage to wet tumbling.

What is your procedure with the rice?
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Erud on Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:03 pm

Just 90 minutes in my Dillon tumbler.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Holland&Holland on Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:20 pm

Erud wrote:Just 90 minutes in my Dillon tumbler.

Any other additives?
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Erud on Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:34 pm

Nope, just plain white rice. It cleans about like walnut shell, but without the dust. It’s surprisingly tough, it doesn’t seem to break down at all.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Holland&Holland on Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:49 pm

Good to know. I will try it. How long does it last?
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Erud on Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:01 pm

Well, it’s dirt cheap and readily available (except during the coronavirus apocalypse), so I don’t push it too far. I generally process batches of 1000 .308 cases at a time, so I’ll just clean 1000 cases (3 or 4 tumbler loads) and then dump it. It doesn’t really seem to work any worse as it gets dirty though, so if it remains hard to get I’ll start using it for longer. I’ve really been pleased with it. I wet tumbled with pins from around 2011-2018 and eventually realized that it just didn’t offer any benefit for all of the extra work it required. From April through October I am loading ammo pretty constantly to keep up with the match schedule, and it’s a drag. Two years ago I made a conscious effort to eliminate any part of the process that didn’t result in any improvements on target. I got the process pretty lean, and it makes life easier.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Bergie on Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:12 pm

Rice in a vibrator, that's one I hadn't heard of. I might actually try it and see what it does. (I could have two going simultaneously!)
But I assume you deprime the rounds first, right?
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby Erud on Mon Jun 08, 2020 5:03 am

I do deprime first. The rice cleans the pockets up a bit, but not shiny like wet tumbling. I don’t worry about that, as shiny primer pockets are one of the things that I found make no difference on target. Clean or dirty, my ammo shoots the same.
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby MJY65 on Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:49 am

Erud,

Is there an advantage to rice over corncob other than price?
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Re: Step 1, clean brass in tumbler (How?)

Postby grimbeaver on Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:06 am

I just use walnut from the pet store. A little dusty but it works. This rice thing has me interested.

I thin NuFinish with oderless mineral spirits and add some of that to each batch. ~2 hours and my brass is shiny. Thinning the NuFinish with mineral spirits was key. Doing that it cut my tumbling time in half or more and made my brass come out better.
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