Brass tumbling

P

pathdoc

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Not a how-to question, just gathering a range of opinions.

How long do you tumble your brass for?

How do you modify this process depending on its condition? (e.g. straight from your own chamber back into the cartridge box vs. picked up off the ground after ejection vs. other people's brass scrounged from range bucket)

(You can add the stage at which you tumble if you like, but I prefer to tumble then resize/deprime then clean the primer pocket as a separate step rather than needing to worry about digging media out of the flash hole. I can well imagine some people tumbling the lube off their cases once resized, but I'm not obsessive enough to take that step; I wipe it off during the trim-chamfer-deburr-pocket cleaning stage.)
 
With straight crushed walnut from HF depending on how fresh the media is and how dirty the brass is 1-1 1/2 hours is more than sufficient, I add strips of 3/4” wide used dryer sheets to pick up the crud and help the media stay cleaner. For real shiny brass and for that shine to last a long time I add a capful of Nufinish to the media and tumble it until the lumps are gone before adding brass. I do deprime before tumbling to keep primer residue out of the media as much as I can, and with this media I’ve never ever had any stuck in the flash hole after tens of thousands rifle and pistol cases cleaned.
 
For stainless pin tumbling, cleaning primer pockets is one of the pluses for the process, so decapping always comes first. Same with ultrasonic cleaning. For dry tumbling, stuck media is an issue if the media granules are too big. You can buy different sieve grades and using something small enough will avoid most of that issue.
 
My fired brass goes into a repurposed Crown Royal bag. Back at home, I will wet tumble for about 30-45 minutes, then resize when dry. I usually wet tumble again for about an hour to remove sizing lube and clean primer pockets.
Range brass, usually dirtier and possibly tarnished, gets wet tumbled for about an hour before resizing, then an hour or two after.
 
Wet tumble, 1hr with steel pins. Dry tumble, 4hrs with walnut. That is my hand loads and range pickup. Very dirty bass, say swept up from an indoor range, may need a second cleaning.
 
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I shoot every Saturday & put all the brass I gather on the range into my dry tumbler when I get home around noon. Every Sunday when I get up I sift & sort the brass-so about 17-18 hours using a blend of corncob & walnut media with Nu-Finish added every now & then.
 
My rifle brass stays pretty clean. I remove the ejector on my bolt guns and use a brass catcher on my gas rifles. I just wipe the carbon off before sizing and wet clean with pins and a dishwasher tablet for a hour after sizing to shine it up and get the primer pockets cleaned

Pistol brass gets two hours. I have not collected range brass in years. About ten years ago I collected two five gallon buckets of 9MM and 45 Brass by volunteering to RO several matches one summer and that has lasted me. It was all cleaned and stored in ziplock bags that winter. I don't shoot pistol much anymore and still have most of it ready to be loaded
 
If I had the setup I would do the wet system.

I do tumble and I let it run 4 hours and then assess if its polished off. If I am going to bed I let it run all night or if I get up sometime during the night turn it off.

I do the tumbling as the final step as it gets the lube off and yes I have to pick the primer holes with a pin but I just use that as part of the primer pocket clean step (I am not anal about it but I use the RCBS tool to do a quick clean.
 
Maybe not related to the original topic, but I do both dry and wet tumbling, I have change the dry media a few times, but I was wondering, do the steel pins in wet tumbling ever need replacing? and if so, when and how do you know?
 
lugerstew said:
Maybe not related to the original topic, but I do both dry and wet tumbling, I have change the dry media a few times, but I was wondering, do the steel pins in wet tumbling ever need replacing? and if so, when and how do you know?
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yes they do need replaced eventually, but not very often. As far as I can tell, when you run your normal tumbling time and the brass is not getting clean. I have several thousand rounds through mine and they are still working fine. Also you do lose pins over time. Even if your very careful you lose few every batch.
 
I will dry tumble dirty brass before it see's the inside of my sizing dies until they are nice and shiny.
After I size they go in until lube is cleaned off, usually an hour maybe 2.
 
I dry tumble before depriming with corn cob media and brass polish added when the media starts to look dirty. I replace it when it's real dirty. Then lube, resize/deprime. Measure for overall length and trim those needed. Return to same tumbler but use corn cob mixed with Nu-Finish.

I've tried walnut but found the cases may be clean, but dull. Never tried walnut with polish and/or Nu-Finish - has anyone?
 
cdoc42 said:
I dry tumble before depriming with corn cob media and brass polish added when the media starts to look dirty. I replace it when it's real dirty. Then lube, resize/deprime. Measure for overall length and trim those needed. Return to same tumbler but use corn cob mixed with Nu-Finish.

I've tried walnut but found the cases may be clean, but dull. Never tried walnut with polish and/or Nu-Finish - has anyone?
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Walnut from HF and Nufinish gives long lasting shiny bright brass.
 
That is what I have gone to with my brass.

An initial tumble to clean it. Filter it out then tumble again with clean media and some car wax. Stays shiny for a long time.
 
Dry tumble / vibrate untill it's shiny . The grungier the brass the longer it takes to look nice ... no set time limit .
I try to place my brass into box or bag before it hits the floor , bending over is hard now and brass that hits concrete usually ding mouth.
I am a brass scrounger from the 60's , if it's left and the range is OK with it I'll keep and use any / all range brass .
The best dry media is Treated Walnut Shell sold by Midway , it is the right size (important) and treated with the correct polish (vey important)...Midway polishing media is the one thing I insist on buying because the lizard and snake bedding is the wrong size and no polishing agents in it ...car polish don't work very well ... I have tried it all .
I don't like wet polishing because of the water mess and the required drying ... damp primer pockets or insides of case ...you got problems .
Gary
 
I use a vibratory "tumbler" and corn cob media. Fired brass gets a run to remove dirt & grit. Not looking for shiny, just smooth and clean.

Resized brass goes into the tumbler for a while to remove case lube and clean abit more.

After that run is when I inspect my brass, its clean enough, deprimed, and ready to be sorted. I use an old horseshoe nail, its the perfect little prickpunch to poke media out of the flashhole if there is some stuck there, takes only a second and is done, if needed when I'm sorting the brass by headstamp for storage and future loading.

One little trick I learned years ago is that there's no need for any fancy gadget/cranked cage to separate media from brass. I use a plastic colander (for draining pasta) available for a couple bucks at nearly any grocery store, and a couple gallon size plastic pail (another couple bucks). Colander sits on the mouth of the bucket, pour brass in from tumbler, stir. Stir a bit more, media goes in bucket, brass stays in colander. Easy peezy and total cost is way cheaper than buying a "media separator" from one of the reloading equipment makers. Lasts about forever, too. Just keep it out of the kitchen so the wife doesn't think you're "stealing" her cooking stuff.:D
 
Brass I pickup at the range I sort it out & wet tumble it to get the dirt & bugs out of it then I let it dry & pack it away to be used later. If I need brass I pull out the amount I need deprime/size & wet tumble with SS pins to clean the primer pockets in Dawn & Lemi Shine booster, then I rinse until I don't get bubbles from the water hitting on the surface. Then I dry it on old bath towels in the garage.
If it's shot through my guns & just a small amount I wipe them off, size/deprime, trim, champher inside & out, then hand clean primer pockets & polish with 0000 steel wool by spinning in a Lee case holder in my hand drill.
 
At my house, tumbling is the first step in the reloading process. All of my fired brass and range pick ups are thrown into plastic tubs until there are enough to tumble for a cleaning session. That's usually about 500 cases or so, depending on case size. I use a vibratory tumbler and crushed walnut media.

At first, I only tumbled about 2 hours. I found that that wasn't sufficient in a lot of cases to get quite a few of the cases as clean as they needed to be. Over the years, I've extended my case tumbling sessions to 5 hours. Before starting, I'll also drop some Dillon or Iosso case polish on top of the walnut media. Now, the cases come out clean and glossy.

Resizing, primer pocket cleaning, trimming (revolver cases only) and all that other jazz come after tumbling.
 
First tumble is when I get home from the range. Brass is done when I'm through cleaning the gun(s). Sometimes I only tale one rifle when doing a serious test regime. Then I check flash holes for stuck media and use a universal decapping die to remove stuck walnut shell. The media I use came in very small chunks so don't get too many stuck in the flash holes. The the brass is resized and checked for length and defects. Brass is trimmed if necessary. Brass is then retumbled, generally overnight. I remove it from the tumbler, check flash hole and load or box as needed.
BTW, clearing media from the flash holes is a lot faster with a decapping die than using some form of pick. I also use it to decap the brass before tumbling.
Paul B.
 
Mixture of walnut and corn cob, with a squirt of Nu-Finish.
All brass gets dumped in, when I get home from range.
Normally run 2-3 hours. I have forgot or had a bunch of dirty, scrounged, range brass and let it run all night

Dump, sort and store vibratory, until next time.
 
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