Presto food dehydrator for drying wet brass, awesome !

R

Road_Clam

New member
Up here in NH it's tough cleaning brass in winter. During the summer I run my FA wet tumbler out in my shed (it's very loud) and just set the wet brass out in the hot sun. In winter, I will tumble brass if I can get a mild day. Drying the brass is a challenge. I was previously using my oven, but the only issue is the fact my oven has a min temp of 175F , and last time I used it I forgot about the brass in the oven (forgot to set the timer) and left came back a few hrs later and my brass was really discolored. Been reading about the FD method, and bought a Presto from Walmart for $59. Used it last night for 45acp and 45-70 brass and dam this method works awesome, and is fool proof. My setting last night were 135F for 1 hr, and the brass was perfectly dry. I was able to load about 500 pcs of 45acp and 60 pcs of 45-70 and still had another shelf tier available that I didn't need. Highly recommend a FD if your in the same situation as me !

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Presto-Dehydro-Digital-Electric-Food-Dehydrator/20924339
 
Not a bad idea. I wet tumble and then separate brass in my Lyman media separator. I turn my hair dryer on and blow dry the brass in the basket and mix around. After a few minutes I spread out on a towel and let it dry over night. That works too.


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GeorgeandSugar said:
Not a bad idea. I wet tumble and then separate brass in my Lyman media separator. I turn my hair dryer on and blow dry the brass in the basket and mix around. After a few minutes I spread out on a towel and let it dry over night. That works too.


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I have the same issue here in Midwest with drying brass the winter and the FD works awesome!

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Road_Clam Mentions:
Used it last night for 45acp and 45-70 brass and dam this method works awesome, and is fool proof.
Click to expand...

During my working years when my department head would ask me for a new design to do something he would always include:
"Ron, this needs to be foolproof"
To which I would reply:
"Mike, that is impossible as fools are very ingenious people". :)

Seriously, glad that method worked out for you. Likely much more efficient than using an oven and should suck the moisture out pretty quick and get it all. Thanks for sharing that.

Ron
 
I have been using a home made one for years and works great. The wife was not thrilled about the oven or clothes dyer with the tied in a towel idea
 
Road Clam wrote:
Presto food dehydrator for drying wet brass, awesome !
Click to expand...

Congratulations!

You got a great way to dry brass and you didn't have to pay a premium to have the "Hornady" or "Lyman" name stenciled on the top.

Great decision!
 
Road Clam wrote:
...I was previously using my oven, but the only issue is the fact my oven has a min temp of 175F , and last time I used it I forgot about the brass in the oven (forgot to set the timer) and left came back a few hrs later and my brass was really discolored.
Click to expand...

Brass left for several hours in a 175 degree oven will discolor, but it will not be damaged. It is still perfectly safe to shoot. Of course, the fact it discolored does sort of defect the reason for tumbling it in the first place.
 
Brass discolors pretty easily. I left some .260 in a jar of Costco dish detergent and water for three days before tumbling and it came out looking like a calico cat. The .223 I tumbled it with looks fine. A little Nevr Dull took it right off so I know it was just a surface thing. Ther eis another thread on here about how brass will corrode galvanized metal if they come in contact. It just leaves a surface stain on the brass but turns the zinc to dust
 
Was not too worried about my discolored batch of brass, just a shame to go from spotless shiny brass coming out of the wet tumbler to a post dry tarnished brown :(
 
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