Lead exposure from case cleaner

[GTOne]

Anyone who has been reading up, been around reloading and paying attention does not have the dry tumbler anywhere near their living area and makes sure their indoor range has ventilation that is up to snuff.
Those are the 2 top ways to get high levels of lead. Lead styphnate is particularly nasty.

Spelling and grammar does count, so does science.

 

[totaldla]

One way to deal with vibratory cleaner dust is to add a few tablespoons or more of denatured alcohol to the media when tumbling. The alcohol will collect the dust to the sides of the bowl and greatly cut down the dust when separating.

 

[libiglou]

well now that you guys have me all paranoid about dry tumbling, something that I have been doing for 30 years I'm starting to think about switching to wet tumbling. Quick question: Can you wet tumble without removing the primers first? My setup is in the basement and when I separate my media from the brass there is no dust. I do use a additive and change my media once a year. I've also switched to coated bullets and also use plated and shoot primarily outdoors. Everyone that I met who had an issue was shooting at indoor ranges 4 or more times a week. I'm going to consider this move.

 

[David R]

I never deprime before wet tumbling. I do dry in a dehydrator. I tried the towel thing and had a couple squibs. Never again.

I had to use a wax after cleaning because the cases were squeaky clean. I drain the brass, do a quick rinse that is not necessary and tumble with a liquid car wax for a minute. They work much better in the Dillon.

I use the stainless pins. Cases look like they came new in the box.
David

 

[Unclenick]

If you don't deprime before wet tumbling, you miss out on chelating a lot of the leaded residue in the primer pockets and add the need for heated drying. In the past when I played with wet cleaning I found water in an un-decapped case can stay wet in the primer pocket for several days at room temperature, necessitating the heated drying. My choice has been to deprime first on a small Lee single-stage press that I leave the Lee universal decapping die set up on.

 

[labnoti]

I wet tumble, decap, then wet tumble again. It might sound excessive, but I do a few things that make it so it isn't.

If the cases have grit from falling in dirt, wet sand or mud, they can be rinsed first or wet tumbled for ten minutes and towel-dried. Even a quick wet-tumble should remove most of the residue except that in the primer pockets. Then they're ready to decap. I also use a Lee Universal De-capping die, but another option is the Frankford hand decapper. The reason I like the universal die is that I can use it with a press with a case feeder.

Here's why wet tumbling twice is not as much of a hassle as it might seem. After I've tumbled them a short time, rinsed and dried them (just a quick towel dry), I spray them with case lube, let it dry, and load them into a shell feeder on a progressive press. Now they're ready to decap, body resize, neck resize, and expand. Yeah, I use carbide dies, but case lube still helps significantly and the fact that I'm using a case feeder and accomplishing four die operations means I'm definitely not wasting time. Now the cases are fully formed, and the only thing missing is they need the case lube cleaned off and the primer pockets cleaned out.

This is when they go back into the wet tumbler. When they come out, they're completely ready to prime, charge, seat bullets, and crimp. All the resizing and mouth expansion is already done. This is also a good condition in which to store the cases since they are completely worked up to the point where the powder and bullet choice will be made.

If I only wet-tumbled them first, I would still have to decap them (load them onto the press or hand tool) and that operation is much less efficient since it must be done one case at a time, whereas tumbling can be done 1000 at a time. I also would have a dilemma about using case lube.

If I only wet-tumbled them afterward, I would be fouling my dies with grit and residue.

That's why I wet-tumble twice. I would rather repeat whole batch operations like tumbling than repeat individual case operations.