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Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler


Sgt. Hochbauer, SASS #64409

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10 minutes ago, Chief Rick said:

How, or do you, dry the brass after wet tumbling? 

 

Oven on low, jerky dehydrator, nothing? 

I have a lot of brass, so I just dump in on a towel on the floor of the barn,, if it's sunny out, I'll set it in the driveway,, and just let it dry on its' own

 

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I do my polishing in the garage and transfer media outside.  So whatever dust there is the wind takes away.  Been doing it for years and my lead blood test is just fine,  Hope you boys aren't snacking when depriming as I believe the primers are also a source of lead.  I also use run a dryer sheet in the pot while running the brass to help minimize the dust.

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12 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

How, or do you, dry the brass after wet tumbling? 

 

Oven on low, jerky dehydrator, nothing? 

For 100 or less.  Cake pan on top of the water softener with a towel in the pan.  Air dry in a day or two dependent of the basement humidity.

 

For more then 100 I made a 30" x 60" wood frame covered with nylon insect screen.  Support the frame between two chairs and fill with brass.  Air dry in a day or two dependent of the basement humidity.

 

I don't like paying the Electric Utility for what nature would do for free.

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1 hour ago, Dee Mak Jack, SASS #55905 said:

I do my polishing in the garage and transfer media outside.  So whatever dust there is the wind takes away.  Been doing it for years and my lead blood test is just fine,  Hope you boys aren't snacking when depriming as I believe the primers are also a source of lead.  I also use run a dryer sheet in the pot while running the brass to help minimize the dust.

 

Winter time is when I do most of my brass cleaning and reloading for the next SASS season.  Right now it is 27 degrees in my unheated garage.  My reloading area is in the house basement.

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15 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

How, or do you, dry the brass after wet tumbling? 

 

Oven on low, jerky dehydrator, nothing? 

I lay the brass out on a old bath towel with a small fan run'n.

Don't take long....

OLG

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I try and stay a few thousand rounds ahead at any given time so laying them out on a towel in the garage for a day or two in the garage and that seems to work fine.  Only once in my short reloading career that I was out of brass during a 1K run so I put a couple hundred on a cookie tray in the oven for a minute.  I keep 5 gallon buckets in my garage and as they start to fill with brass I wash a couple of loads then bag them up when they are dry.  Then I can go out and load a k or k and a half at a time.   Rinse and repeat as needed. 

 

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8 hours ago, Matthew Duncan said:

For 100 or less.  Cake pan on top of the water softener with a towel in the pan.  Air dry in a day or two dependent of the basement humidity.

 

For more then 100 I made a 30" x 60" wood frame covered with nylon insect screen.  Support the frame between two chairs and fill with brass.  Air dry in a day or two dependent of the basement humidity.

 

I don't like paying the Electric Utility for what nature would do for free.

If I dug a hole under my house for a basement I'd end up with a swimming pool. 

 

Humidity stays pretty high down here, too. 

 

Nothing is going to dry out down here without some (sometimes significant) assistance. 

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On 12/24/2018 at 6:14 AM, Dee Mak Jack, SASS #55905 said:

I do my polishing in the garage and transfer media outside.  So whatever dust there is the wind takes away.  Been doing it for years and my lead blood test is just fine,  Hope you boys aren't snacking when depriming as I believe the primers are also a source of lead.  I also use run a dryer sheet in the pot while running the brass to help minimize the dust.


Primer residue is the primary source of lead contamination for reloaders and shooters. It is lead azide and lead styphnate, both skin absorbable. Dry tumbler dust contaminates an area 5 feet out from the tumbler. Waste water from wet tumblers is also contaminated, wear disposable  gloves.

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If you want your shells to come out brighter than new from your Frankford wet tumbler, use slightly less than 1/4 cup (60ml) of Strato-Sheen burninshing compound (powder) into your tumbler that is about 3/4 full of water (after you put in the shells and stainless pins). Strato-Sheen is available from Rio Grande (www.riogrande.com). You don't need to add anything else. Comes is 5lb and 25lb boxes. Wear rubber gloves when pouring out the solution and rinsing shells. Amazing bright finish!

RR

Tumbled cases.jpg

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Blackface Charlie... Glad you have the Nitrile gloves. Yes, the Strato-Sheen compound by itself - i.e., dry - is not as hazardous for your skin as when it is in solution. Regardless, I wear Nitrile gloves when handling the powder just to be safe. Also recommend three or four good rinses before removing shells from the tumbler. For rinsing, I keep the Frankford screen-cap on the tumbler, and set the lid of Frankford's media separator - turned upside down - on top of a plastic bucket so that the stainless pins fall into the separator's lid (the lid has a fine screen in the center), and give it a good shaking as I'm rinsing (dumping out the solution in the plastic bucket every two or three rinses). Then when I dump the contents into the media separator there's only a few pins left to shake out. 

RR

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Mixing brass question..  I quit mixing brass in the vibrating cleaner because smaller cases would climb up in a larger case and I'd pull them apart and media would scatter and the inside of one and none of the other would likely be clean.

 

Right now I have 50 or so 45 Colt, 75 or so 44WCF and 50 38 Special that could use cleaning.  Do all in one run? Or not a good idea?

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1 hour ago, Warden Callaway said:

Mixing brass question..  I quit mixing brass in the vibrating cleaner because smaller cases would climb up in a larger case and I'd pull them apart and media would scatter and the inside of one and none of the other would likely be clean.

 

Right now I have 50 or so 45 Colt, 75 or so 44WCF and 50 38 Special that could use cleaning.  Do all in one run? Or not a good idea?

 

Never run cases together than can fit inside one another. You can run 45 Colt and 44WCF together as the slight bottle neck of the 44WCF is a non issue. However if you put 38 Special in with either of them you will have a mess on your hands.

 

I always cull my brass to ensure I don't have the odd case in it before I put them in the tumbler.

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5 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

Never run cases together than can fit inside one another. You can run 45 Colt and 44WCF together as the slight bottle neck of the 44WCF is a non issue. However if you put 38 Special in with either of them you will have a mess on your hands.

 

I always cull my brass to ensure I don't have the odd case in it before I put them in the tumbler.

 

No the 44wcf will get stuck in the 45's. Granted it's not real deep but the do stick and it's a pain when it's 40 out of 300 and all of them need to be separated and recleaned.

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I use a FA wet tumbler with water and dish liquid together with ceramic media - 3mm balls ....do not use smaller balls or they will stick in the flash hole ...can seperate over a bucket using the FA screens or a rotary seperator....Lay out on towel to dry....No problems,, no dust, no lead.....

 

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I ran a batch of 45Colt and some C45S through the Frankford Arsenal Platinum tumbler yesterday.  I didn't use the pins. Just the sample of soap that came with the tumbler.  I ran it for 2 hours.

 

708223897_FranklandArsenalfirsttestJan2019.jpg.8d1cb8046e6287ec029c3a98eaf23294.jpg

 

The cases were tarnished and cruddy but not really gross like range pickups.  A few had some green mold.  But all came out brilliant.   The insides are still stained as are the bottom of the pockets but by far better condition than cleaning in the vibration cleaner. 

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1 hour ago, Warden Callaway said:

I ran a batch of 45Colt and some C45S through the Frankford Arsenal Platinum tumbler yesterday.  I didn't use the pins. Just the sample of soap that came with the tumbler.  I ran it for 2 hours.

 

708223897_FranklandArsenalfirsttestJan2019.jpg.8d1cb8046e6287ec029c3a98eaf23294.jpg

 

The cases were tarnished and cruddy but not really gross like range pickups.  A few had some green mold.  But all came out brilliant.   The insides are still stained as are the bottom of the pockets but by far better condition than cleaning in the vibration cleaner. 

 

 

Why not use the pins?

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13 minutes ago, Tyrel Cody said:

 

 

Why not use the pins?

 

Two reasons,  1) I don't have a magnet or a spectator to sort them out. 2) I wanted to see what kind of a job it would do without pins. 

 

I'm impressed with the results.  While it left the stain on the inside and pockets, it did a much better job than what I was getting from the vibration cleaner.  

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18 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

 

Two reasons,  1) I don't have a magnet or a spectator to sort them out. 2) I wanted to see what kind of a job it would do without pins. 

 

I'm impressed with the results.  While it left the stain on the inside and pockets, it did a much better job than what I was getting from the vibration cleaner.  

just wait until you try it with the pins,,,   wow! 

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Warden Callaway...

You don't need a magnet. The Frankford tumbler come with screen-like caps that go over the ends of the tumbler (actually just need a screen-cap on one end of the tumbler) so you can pour out your solution and subsequent rinses, and at the same time allow the pins to fall out as you are shaking the tumbler. You can pour solution into any one of several screen devices - like large kitchen appliance ones - to catch the pins and allow the solution to go through. With three or four subsequent rinses and shakings you can pretty much separate all the pins from the shells.

RR

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4 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Warden-These were fired with BP, correct?

Did you do the vinegar and water soak before hand?

OLG

 

Some were and I did soak them in soap and Limi Shine before - mainly because it was weeks ago when they were fired.  We haven't had a match where I come back with a batch of just fired.

 

I'm thinking soaking or at least rinsing the black powder cases first would get a lot of crud off before tumbling. 

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I've cleaned green cases and they come out clean as can be using the pins with dawn and lemonshine,,,  and about a 2 hr run time  without soaking them first

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This morning I decapped and cleaned some old brass. Hose water, a little dish liquid and a 1/4tsp Lemi-Shine for an hour and a half. Brass was a gift from an old coworker who fired it the year it was manufactured at Camp Perry and it's been in an ammo can since then, it doesn't get much grungier than sitting 60 years. Cleaned brass and grungy brass in first pic. Second is the primer pocket, still some residue but it will get cleaned again after I match process it for cast bullet use (7 more steps). And lastly the inside of the neck with  light shined up the flash hole.

IMG_4920.JPG

IMG_4921.JPG

IMG_4927.JPG

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On 12/23/2018 at 7:46 PM, Chief Rick said:

How, or do you, dry the brass after wet tumbling? 

 

Oven on low, jerky dehydrator, nothing? 

I found a picture of my drying rack for large quantities.   It's a "green" method because I'm political correct (in this case cheap).

 

 

 

 

Dry Brass.JPG

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Does anyone have experience with the Franklin Arsenal deprimeing tool. It looks good and seems to not require shell holders change for different calibers.

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4 hours ago, Stony Lane said:

Does anyone have experience with the Franklin Arsenal deprimeing tool. It looks good and seems to not require shell holders change for different calibers.

 

Got one.  Don't care for it and here's why...

 

 

I did see it on sale at Grafs.

 

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/28223

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Warden. Thanks for the information. Always good to get input from someone who has really used the product of interest. Thanks again.

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10 hours ago, Warden Callaway said:

 

This works much faster...   I use this method on cases other than 44WCF,  or 45s.

Wow!  After watching the vid glad I use the Harvey deprimer.

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