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I think that I'm sold on wet tumbling!


La Sombra

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The pins are really no problem.  I dump the brass/pins dirty water into the media separator.  Rotate slowly, both directions, with water flowing over the separator basket.  Most of the pins fall into the bucket.  Gently set the separator down in a large bowl or over another bucket.  Pour the dirty water and pins into a fine strainer bag (see photo).  Rinse the bucket, pour again into the strainer bag.  Set it aside.  Fill bucket with enough clean water to submerge half of the media separator.  Rotate slowly again, both directions.  The last few pins will fall into the bucket.  Remove separator and run water through/over it, shaking.  The brass are now fully rinsed.  Empty the water from the bucket, the last of it into the strainer bag.  Now all the pins are in the strainer bag and are easily rinsed.  That's it.  It sounds like a lot and sounds complicated but it really isn't.  And I think there were maybe all of two or three pins that tried to escape.

strainer bag.jpg

41a-ymCTfNL._AC_US40_.jpg

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Okay, better, I used the same media separator I used for dry tumbling and it worked better.  Now if just weren't so dang cold outside!

On 11/24/2022 at 8:58 AM, Shooting Bull said:

Get rid of the pins and use Strat O Sheen instead.

I gotta admit, I love clean primer pockets!  Especially for my rifle brass.

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1 hour ago, Griff said:

Okay, better, I used the same media separator I used for dry tumbling and it worked better.  Now if just weren't so dang cold outside!

I gotta admit, I love clean primer pockets!  Especially for my rifle brass.

 

You should have been doing it yesterday when it was in the high 70s not this morning when it was in the low 40s. :P

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14 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

You should have been doing it yesterday when it was in the high 70s not this morning when it was in the low 40s. :P

I was at the range shooting some it yesterday!

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58 minutes ago, El Catorce said:

@La Sombra lookie what you made me do compadre :wacko:

image.jpg

Mine arrived too the other day and Strat o Sheen will be here tomorrow , but I have to wait til Christmas to get/have it.:(

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I used the pins for a long time, & then tried it without & got the same results. This pins are a perfect size to get stuck in the 38 case & break your decapping pin or your hand. And, you can never get all of them out before you're ready to use the cases.

 

KISS means no pins, a long squirt of DAWN, a touch of lemi-shine, & run in the Frankford Arsenal for 2 hours minimum. I usually run it for 3-4 hours as I'm usually cleaning guns or making ammo at the same time. You can get 1200 cases in the FA, & it doesn't make any difference that it's filled to the top. Dry them on a towel overnite with a fan blowing on them, & you're ready to rock. Use the time saved for something else.

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I don't know, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but slowly rotating the FA media separator back and forth, half submerged in bucket water, gets each and every last pin out of the brass, no problem.  I can understand how the outsides of the cases would come out just as clean and shiny without the pins, but I don't see how there is any mechanical cleaning of the insides without using the pins.

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On 11/23/2022 at 10:41 AM, Shooting Bull said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the soap formula you use really doesn't make that much difference.  Whether you shower with Ivory, Irish Spring, Life Boy or whatever you still get clean.  You do shower, right? 

 

How much?  I don't think that's an overly critical measurement but here's my theory.  I want suds.  I don't really know for sure but in my mind suds indicate I've got the right amount in there.  On that note, don't fill the tumbler all the way up with water.  Leave a half inch or so of air to allow the brass to tumble around more.  That gives a better cleaning action.  Again, that's just my theory, can't prove it. 

 

So here's my step by step process:

 

  1. Dump brass in tumbler
  2. Fill tumbler with water leaving 1/2" - 1" of air
  3. Add about a tablespoon or Strat O Sheen
  4. Add a healthy glob of soap (You want to add the Strat O Sheen and soap after filling with water)
  5. Tumble for 1-2 hours depending on how many cases and how dirty they are
  6. Rinse however many times it takes to get rid of the suds
  7. Dump onto a big beach towel
  8. Grab the ends of the towel and roll the brass back and forth to get most of the water out
  9. Dump onto a second beach towel and spread out as much as possible
  10. Turn ceiling fan on high
  11. Come back the next day to shiny dry brass
  12. I then run each and every case mouth against an old towel to check for cracks
  13. After they've been checked for cracks I repeat Steps 1-11
  14. After the second cleaning I dump a few handfuls of brass at a time into an old plastic pretzel jug, hit it with Hornady One Shot and shake it around for a few seconds then dump it into my "Ready to reload brass" container"

SB, hoping to verify the quantity of strat o Sheen. I see here you are using 1 tablespoon.

I came across an old thread from when you first started wet tumbling and you and Yul were using 1 teaspoon, which is a third the amount.

Have you found a tablespoon to be a better bet? And are you getting shiney without the pins.

Thanks in advance.

EH

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On 11/18/2022 at 3:34 PM, Krazy Kajun said:

You don't have to use the pins to get the brass clean.  I tried the pins the very first time I got my Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler and sure the brass came out all shiny and stuff but it took me forever to get those pins out of the brass.  I tumble with the fired primers in the brass.  I kept finding pins inside the brass when I tried to reload them, depriming pin found most of them for me.

 

Now I tumble using a little Dawn and a small amount of Lemishine and my brass look brand new when finished and there are no little pins scattered all over to deal with. You can use whatever soap and wax that you want.....choose what works for you.  But you do NOT need to use pins to get very shiny and clean brass.

 

Kajun

One of the things I learned is to not be stingy with the Dawn. I thought since dishes don't take much (my wife told me), the brass wouldn't either. It makes a big difference. I'll squirt the Dawn "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi", & that seems to work out GREAT! Doesn't take a lot of Lemi-shine. To be precise, use a Skosh, or maybe even a smidgion.

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53 minutes ago, Max Payne said:

One of the things I learned is to not be stingy with the Dawn. I thought since dishes don't take much (my wife told me), the brass wouldn't either. It makes a big difference. I'll squirt the Dawn "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi", & that seems to work out GREAT! Doesn't take a lot of Lemi-shine. To be precise, use a Skosh, or maybe even a smidgion.

Yep - those are about the same measurements I use.

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1 minute ago, Chief Rick said:

Yep - those are about the same measurements I use.

The exact science of wet tumbling! "We are cooking, not baking" school of measures.

 

La Sombra

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On 12/1/2022 at 12:42 PM, Eyesa Horg said:

SB, hoping to verify the quantity of strat o Sheen. I see here you are using 1 tablespoon.

I came across an old thread from when you first started wet tumbling and you and Yul were using 1 teaspoon, which is a third the amount.

Have you found a tablespoon to be a better bet? And are you getting shiney without the pins.

Thanks in advance.

EH

 

EH I believe the instructions say to use ⅓ cup / gallon of water.  If I have a full tumbler I use that much otherwise I guesstimate water/strat-o-sheen mix.  

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1 hour ago, Tequila Shooter said:

 

EH I believe the instructions say to use ⅓ cup / gallon of water.  If I have a full tumbler I use that much otherwise I guesstimate water/strat-o-sheen mix.  

Yer using way to much Strato sheen. Usually a tablespoon is plenty, for small batches I use less than that.

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12 hours ago, Yul Lose said:

Yer using way to much Strato sheen. Usually a tablespoon is plenty, for small batches I use less than that.

 

I always thought it was too much, now I know I’m not alone, thanks

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Everybody has their favorite brass cleaning technique.  I'm not saying mine is better than anyone else's.  It's just my way.

 

I decap first.   

Frankford Arsenal large rotary tumbler w/pins.

 

1 oz Brass Juice

1-2 teaspoons of Strat-O-Sheen

 

Media Separator 

Rinse

Frankford Arsenal Brass Dryer

 

 

 

 

IMG_20200904_183805515.jpg

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8 hours ago, McCandless said:

Everybody has their favorite brass cleaning technique.  I'm not saying mine is better than anyone else's.  It's just my way.

 

I decap first.   

Frankford Arsenal large rotary tumbler w/pins.

 

1 oz Brass Juice

1-2 teaspoons of Strat-O-Sheen

 

Media Separator 

Rinse

Frankford Arsenal Brass Dryer

 

 

 

 

IMG_20200904_183805515.jpg

How long are you spinning them?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/1/2022 at 10:42 AM, Eyesa Horg said:

SB, hoping to verify the quantity of strat o Sheen. I see here you are using 1 tablespoon.

I came across an old thread from when you first started wet tumbling and you and Yul were using 1 teaspoon, which is a third the amount.

Have you found a tablespoon to be a better bet? And are you getting shiney without the pins.

Thanks in advance.

EH

 

 

I'm 99.9% sure I misspoke when I said teaspoon.  In reality I don't use either, that was just a guesstimate.  I used to be heavily into bodybuilding.  I use an old scoop from a jug of protein powder.  The scoop says 90CC.  

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@La Sombra thanks for the thread on wet tumbling!… inwas on the fence for a while till this popped up on the wire. Today I tossed in my .45ACP and .45LC brass from Wild Bunch along with 45-70 from plainsman in the F.A. Wet Tumbler for its maiden voyage and was completely surprised! I figured the Wild Bunch brass would turn out nice but the 45-70 brass with plastic backrod as filler and triple 7 … sitting dry as spent cases for a week were the pits… but wow they turned out best of all! used pins and dawn… now to figure out a more efficient way to separate the brass from the media… heres a before and after shot plus a video of during the 3hr run. 29DD315A-93F7-4062-8357-6CCFF4610870.thumb.jpeg.0126a5783817db1e046397fcde441d00.jpeg991A6EE0-D1D2-4C3C-989C-752AC4B64AD2.thumb.jpeg.08377fa2bed12ad30f53c49e7dcbc10e.jpeg

 

 

 

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I tumble with 2-4 times as much brass as you did, so I only have to do this entire process 1/3 as often.

 

I am able to pour most of the media out of tumbler (into a plastic tub) while the brass is held inside while doing 1-3 rinses of the brass while still inside the tumbler. It is easy to pour the dirty icky water out of plastic tub with the heavy media staying on the bottom. I then transfer the media to a plastic pitcher for it to dry.

 

I then pour the remaining brass (and media) into the plastic tub and then pick up most of the remaining media with a magnet.

 

Then I pick up each brass (holding it upside down so any remaining media will fall out) and place each brass in a plastic ammo tray upside down so any remaining "hard water" will run out rather than leave a residue on the brass. I then typically wave a hair dryer over them to further assist in the drying process. I haven't tried to use an oven (or a hot sunny day) to dry them out.

 

I also haven't tried it yet with .223 but will soon. I will let you know if this technique works as well on cartridges with more of a bottle-necked design. I don't have .223 trays (with holes on the bottom for liquid to drain from) so might try a toaster oven to dry them.

 

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Last week was my first endeavor into wet tumbling. I used some great advice from this thread on using Dawn, Citristrip (similar to LemiShine), but went with Southern Shine stainless chip media instead of pins. Works great in about 2 hours.
 

I replaced most of the dirty water with clean water and a little Meguires auto wash/wax for the last half hour.  Using the FA premium media separator. Comes out beautifully shiny clean, after drying in an old Ronco dehydrator. 

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