removing case lube, wet or dry tumble?

S

Shadow9mm

New member
Hey,
So I was using the Hornady 1 shot case lube. I was doing a 15min dry tumble in walnut after sizing and trimming. to make sure it was squeaky clean before loading. I know it was supposedly fine to leave it on the casings but I did not like to do it.

I recently found out that the 1 shot is not particularly healthy and am working on transitioning to a lanolin type case lube. I also transitioned to wet tumbling to get away from the walnut dust and dust residue on the casings. It is so much better even if drying the cases it a bit of a pain.

This causes a bit of an issue for me as I will need to remove the lanolin case lube, and my primary option would be wet tumbling.

Will doing a short wet tumble after sizing mess up the casings? I was thinking 15min to 1hr, depending on what I needed. The other option is to go back to the walnut that I was hoping to phase out.
 
The instructions with my F.A.R.T. say to wet tumble to remove the dirt then size and wet tumble again to remove the case lube and cleamn the primers pockets.
 
I saw that in the instructions, however, it seems a lot more aggressive than the dry tumbling and I was slightly concerned about dinging my case mouths up.
 
I clean my brass in a rock tumbler with dawn soap before resizing to get some of the gunk off. Then after all lubing and case prep is done I tumble again with dawn soap and lemi-shine to get the cases clean and shiny. The case mouths are fine. I haven’t had any issues doing this.
 
The routine varies with the brass for me. Brass that hits the ground such as brass from a pistol or range brass gets two cleanings. One before sizing and one after. Brass from my bolt rifles gets caught on eject and on my AR's I use case cathers so it never hits the ground. That brass just gets wiped off before sizing.

I think the case mouth dinging is another old wives tale. I wet clean with pins and have never split a rifle case mouth so far and most of my brass is in double digits as far as number of times fired and for a couple of years I stopped annealing altogether
 
I wet tumble with SS pins, dishwashing soap, and lemishine before and after resizing. Gets the brass nice and clean, including primer pockets. Never had an issue with dinging case mouths.
 
I use pure Lanolin as a lubricant and after sizing just wipe the brass with paper towels. It is somewhat tedious but still much quicker than tumbling and drying.
My understanding is that Lanolin, even if not completely removed, should not interfere with powder and primers.
My only concern would be if I left too much of lubricant on the cases, it could crystalize in freezing conditions and theoretically cause feeding/extraction issues. But since it's unlikely, I would tumble or sonic clean it only for carry and long-term/strategic ammo.
 
I just toss mine in the tumbler filled with crushed walnut shells, strips cut from used dryer sheets, and a good shake of Barkeepers Friend. The Barkeepers Friend loosens up the media so it sort of turbo cleans and most of the lube is cleaned off with the dryer sheets.
 
Sako2 said:
The instructions with my F.A.R.T. say to wet tumble to remove the dirt then size and wet tumble again to remove the case lube and clean the primers pockets.
Click to expand...

That makes a basic assumption about the process, which is that you decap during sizing. I use a Lee universal decapping die permanently set up on an old press with a modified primer catcher to keep the dust contained. The fired cases get the one wet tumble. After resizing, plain corncob in my old Lyman vibratory tumbler takes the lube off.
 
I recently found out that the 1 shot is not particularly healthy
Click to expand...

Could you expand on this? I use One Shot.

I guess we all do things different.

With straight-walled pistol cartridges . . .

I first vibra-tumble in corn cob to get the cases clean for the dies.

After the cases are sized/flaired, I do a wet tumble in SS pins - to get them bright n shiny (because that's important to me :p) with clean primer pockets.

And since I know I'm going to tumble in ss pins, I go ahead and give them a spray of One Shot before resizing. Does that make sense? So I only lube because I know they're going to be wet tumbled and that'll clean off the lube. If I didn't wet tumble, I wouldn't lube. I'm glad I do lube however; because press lever effort is greatly reduced and that has to be a good thing.
 
Nick_C_S said:
Could you expand on this? I use One Shot.

I guess we all do things different.

With straight-walled pistol cartridges . . .

I first vibra-tumble in corn cob to get the cases clean for the dies.

After the cases are sized/flaired, I do a wet tumble in SS pins - to get them bright n shiny (because that's important to me :p) with clean primer pockets.

And since I know I'm going to tumble in ss pins, I go ahead and give them a spray of One Shot before resizing. Does that make sense? So I only lube because I know they're going to be wet tumbled and that'll clean off the lube. If I didn't wet tumble, I wouldn't lube. I'm glad I do lube however; because press lever effort is greatly reduced and that has to be a good thing.
Click to expand...

I only lube my rifle casings. for pistol I use carbide dies.

For pistol I wet tumble, they they are ready to size and load.

For rifle. I wet tumble and size size, then remove lube, trim, deburr, and then do primer crimp removal.

using the aerosol spray lube, but the others are not much better...

states "PRECAUTIONARY STATEMENTS (P):
P210- Keep away from heat/sparks/flames/hot surfaces-no smoking. P261- Avoid breathing fume/gas/mist/vapors/spray. P273- Avoid release to the environment. P281-Use personal protective equipment as required. P301+310- If SWALLOWED- immediately call a POISON CENTER or doctor/physician. P331- DO NOT induce vomiting. P501-
Dispose of contents and container in accordance with local and national regulations." in the MSDS sheets here

Also "HAZARD CLASSIFCATION:
Extremely Flammable Aerosol Category 1.
Aspiration Hazard Category 1.
STOT Hazard Category 2.
Toxic to Reproduction Category 2.
Skin Irritant Category 2.
Hazardous to Aquatic Environment- Long Term Hazard Category 2. "


Here is the MDSD sheet from Hornady with all the good info
https://press.hornady.com/assets/pcthumbs/tmp/1410992898-MSDS-One-Shot-Case-Lube-Aerosol1533232027.pdf

attachment.php
 
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I also transitioned to wet tumbling to get away from the walnut dust and dust residue on the casings. It is so much better even if drying the cases it a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...

I keep hearing about dust but my vibratory unit has none. Maybe the case lube acts like oil on a dirt road?

For my setup dry works better than wet as I can't work outdoors in winter and into and out of the kitchen is an issue.

Dry takes the lube off fine.

My brother went wet and like it a lot but he has got garage drains, water to do it (he gets cleaner inside cases). He feels it gets a better anneal off the Annie and I suspect he is right but I clunk along ok.

I am happy with dry, have to remember to get the bigger grit stuff to keep the primer holes cleaner (I do poke them with my useless Lyman trimmer tool as its got the perfecta tip to do that!)

There is no right or wrong on dry vs wet, just what works for you.

I too have moved from Hornady one shot (the original bulk was good) but erratic lube quality from latter cans.

Lyman has good lanolin type that works fine.
 
My procedure is as follows:
Decap the brass using a Universal Decapping Die.
Wet Tumble.
Spray on my home made lanolin/isopropol lube.
Size brass.
Run brass in dry tumbler with a "shot" of mineral spirits for 20 minutes.

That's pretty much it.

Don
 
RC20 said:
I keep hearing about dust but my vibratory unit has none. Maybe the case lube acts like oil on a dirt road?
Click to expand...

I've seen rouge-coated walnut dust, I think it is just because walnut is hard enough that the abrasive doesn't hang onto it as well as corncob. In any event, the dust you worry about is from primer residue, not tumbling media. My Lyman vibratory tumbler has a drain chute on it to separate the media from the brass by letting the media run out, and in a beam of sunlight, you can see a good bit of dust come up from that. This assumes you are cleaning cases directly from the range in it.

If you want to see if you are getting dust, run the unit sitting on top of a sheet of white paper for a while. If you are getting any, it will tend to settle in the largest quantity near the unit.
 
Removing case lube after resizing...

Old "T" shirt; I have a single stage press and it gives me a other chance to ckeck for cracks/damage.
 
Rifle: I tumble with corn cob and added polish. I don't like pre-polish media as the red dust is too visible for my comfort (even though I may be unaware of the corn cob dust).

I then resize using Hornady 0ne-shot, followed by a return to corn cob but with Nu-Finish car wax added.

Handguns: tumble in corncob before resizing; resize and return to the above Nu-Finish formula if they are not shining enough to suit me.

When I first started I used a RCBS lube on a pad and cleaned every case with carbuerator cleaner as I watched TV. Gave that up when I came across the above scenario.

As I understand it, lube left on the case adds a degree of resistance to case expansion, and the same thing may apply to wax from Nu-Finish but I suspect the heat generated on ignition melts the wax and it goes away when you clean your guns.

PS: the use of one of those static reducing dryer sheets placed in your dry tumbler collects the corn cob dust.
 
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