Wet Tumbling

[Buckshot Bear]

I've been a convert to Wet Tumbling now for some years and its the best thing since the proverbial line about sliced bread.

They come out brilliantly clean inside and out, cleaner than new brass - dazzling!
I really like how that black water (and oh boy is it BLACK) goes down the sink and I'm not breathing in lead dust or primer dust and its not contaminating EVERYTHING in my reloading room.

Only thing is now and again, say 1 - 20 loads the shells come out black and gunky (100% no nickel cases in there) and I do the SAME thing every time.
 

I always scratch my head why it happens and haven't worked it out yet. 

Yes I use pins (a double lot of pins in my Lyman tumbler) yes, they can be a pain in the backside, but with a turn handle separator.....less so. 

[Bingo Montana]

That is a mystery for sure.  I have been wet tumbling brass for a long time with SS pins, precisely measured  couple of drops of Dawn dishwasher detergent, and a 380 case of Lemi Shine, never had a load come out all gunky.  I do de-prime before I wet tumble the brass, just because it's the way I prefer to do it.  Do you think that double load of pins is jamming up the load and it's not actually mixing and tumbling when running?  My standard run is a gallon bucket of 38 brass, pins, water, Dawn/Lemi Shine, tumble for 3 hrs.

 

Let us know what you discover. 

[Kid Rich]

I use about 1/2 the recommended amount of pins, one teaspoon or less of Dawn and 1/8 teaspoon of lemi shine. I've gotten to the point of giving the shells a quick rinse in hot water with a couple tablespoons of vinegar and a couple drops of Dawn before tumblin. I think sometimes a BP shell or a bunch gets mixed in and causes the batch to come out less than satisfactory. I don't separate my BP cases from the smokiless any longer. My cases come out clean, shiny etc. I do not separate the nickle cases as they have never given me a problem.

 

 

 

 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

My small experience has been to rinse it immediately when the tumbler stops. Sitting in the black water doesn't seem to keep them shiny!

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Go ceramic 😉

[Hoss]

I’ve been wet tumbling, no pins. Just water and some brass cleaning solution. (Gonna try simple green). I tumble a couple of hours, rinse, put in dehydrator and they come out shining like a diamond in a goats behind. 

[TN Mongo, SASS #61450]

Do you remove the spent primers from your brass before tumbling? I found that if I didn't remove the spent primers, the Lemi Shine in my "wet formula" was reacting to silver-colored primers and was making my brass look gray.

 

Now I remove my primers first, only use Dawn, Strat-O-Sheen and water.  On the advice of Yul Loose, I don't use steel pins anymore.  True, the inside of the cases are not as shiny as before, but the outside of the cases are just as shiny.  I just got tired of messing with the steel pins. I found them all over the house.

 

I also dry my cases in a food dehydrator like Hoss. I like going to estate sales and I am constantly finding food dehydrators dirt cheap. I have purchased several for fellow shooters at my clubs.

Edited May 27 by TN Mongo, SASS #61450

[Badlands Bob #61228]

I wait until I get about 500 38 spl. cases.  I deprime them and wet tumble them with pins and a 2 second squirt of Dawn and a 9mm case of Lemonshine.  Tumble them for 90 minutes.  I separate the pins using water and a media separator.  Works great but I always get a little wet.  Then I lay the brass out on a towel in the basement for a couple of days to let it dry.  The pins are left to dry in the media separator tub.  

[Brazos Bottom Bill Miller]

What are these "pins" that you speak of?

[Uriah, SASS # 53822]

2 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Go ceramic 😉

I used the car wax soap and lemon shine and no ceramic or pins. BP loads. The outside of the cases looks fine, but, the inside just begs for a case separation. Had to do it again with ceramic.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

Use the media separator in a bucket of hot water.  When the cases are submerged inside the cage, the pins fall out 100% reliably, much easier than when dry or damp.  The only time I got "gunk" was when I accidentally used too much Armor-All Wash & Wax.  I use a capful of that plus 1/8 tsp of citric acid and everything looks great every time.

[CC Jack]

I’ve only had cases not coming out perfectly clean when I tried to clean multiple caliber cases in the same batch.  The smaller cases get stuck in the larger ones.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

40 minutes ago, CC Jack said:

I’ve only had cases not coming out perfectly clean when I tried to clean multiple caliber cases in the same batch.  The smaller cases get stuck in the larger ones.

Made that mistake only once, learned the lesson.

[Sedalia Dave]

Something I have recently discovered is that if any of the cases are have dirt in them the dirt will leave all the cases dull.

 

Last match I picked up a few cases that had been on the range for a while. The range brass had been there through a couple rain storms and the had some mud/debris inside the cases. Didn't think anything about it as I figured the water would just wash it out. Well it did but the action of tumbling with pins pulverized the dirt and the dirty, soapy water left a stain on everything it touches. So far I have rinsed and tumbled 3 times (2 to 3 hours per session) and the brass is still dull.

 

Inspection of the pins shows that they are also dull and stained.

 

GRRRRR!!!!!

[T-Square]

What are the results if you boost the amount of Lemi-shine?   And what about boosting the strat-o -shin powder?

Will any of that reduce the tumbler time, or make them brighter shine ?  I run my batches for 4 hours - works great, just looking to improve.

..............only real GOEX here - you bunch of smokeless heathen gunfighters and gamblers. (joke)

Edited May 27 by T-Square
humor

[Eyesa Horg]

I've been running for 3 hours using Armor All with wax car wash, LemiShine & Strato-Sheen. They are Spic & Span clean, but not nearly as shiny as dry tumbling in corn cob with polish for an hour and half. But after the over $200 investment to go wet, I'll stick with it for now! I do deprime now as loading goes smoother with no old primers pulling back into the brass. When I dry tumbled, I used to soak/agitate the brass in a 50/50 Simple green mix first and dried in an old dehydrated for an hour so, then into the corn cob. 

[Sedalia Dave]

19 minutes ago, T-Square said:

What are the results if you boost the amount of Lemi-shine?   And what about boosting the strat-o -shin powder?

Will any of that reduce the tumbler time, or make them brighter shine ?  I run my batches for 4 hours - works great, just looking to improve.

..............only real GOEX here - you bunch of smokeless heathen gunfighters and gamblers. (joke)

 

Too much Lemi-Shine will make the brass dull.

[Eyesa Horg]

5 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

Too much Lemi-Shine will make the brass dull.

I've been using a 9mm case full, is that too much? With about half a drum of 45 colt .

[Wasatch Lawman]

I started using pins.  I changed to this media. I was having issues of pins getting stuck in my rifle cases.

[Sedalia Dave]

17 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

I've been using a 9mm case full, is that too much? With about half a drum of 45 colt .

 

If your brass is shiny then you are not using too much.

[Texas Maverick]

8 hours ago, Kid Rich said:

I use about 1/2 the recommended amount of pins, one teaspoon or less of Dawn and 1/8 teaspoon of lemi shine. I've gotten to the point of giving the shells a quick rinse in hot water with a couple tablespoons of vinegar and a couple drops of Dawn before tumblin. I think sometimes a BP shell or a bunch gets mixed in and causes the batch to come out less than satisfactory. I don't separate my BP cases from the smokiless any longer. My cases come out clean, shiny etc. I do not separate the nickle cases as they have never given me a problem.

 

 

 

 

 

I have started to separate my nickel brass from the regular brass shells. When I do reload them I put them in their own box and only use them in my revolver. I have had too many split cases with the nickel and don't want to miss one and shove it in the rifle where it could cause a stovepipe. Shooting them in the revolvers it doesn't cause any issues. They will still go bang.

 

TM

[Texas Maverick]

7 hours ago, Hoss said:

I’ve been wet tumbling, no pins. Just water and some brass cleaning solution. (Gonna try simple green). I tumble a couple of hours, rinse, put in dehydrator and they come out shining like a diamond in a goats behind. 

I want to know how you know what a diamond in a goats behind looks like. Been hanging around Totes too long. LOL

 

TM

[Todd Hayseed]

7 hours ago, Hoss said:

I’ve been wet tumbling, no pins. Just water and some brass cleaning solution. (Gonna try simple green). I tumble a couple of hours, rinse, put in dehydrator and they come out shining like a diamond in a goats behind. 

I actually just put my brass on the same ball mill I make powder in.  Different drum as its wet instead of dry.  Change the water once, no pins.  Dry them outdoors on an old cookie pan.

I actually did buy the full size Frankfurt tumbler, the pins and even the magnet i separator.  I started using the small rock tumbler drum as I never had enough cases to set the big one up, and it still in the box.

 

Lately I have been using black powder or Black MZ so I have to clean them as soon as I get home, never accumulate enough to need the bigger setup. 

[Shawnee Hills]

Been wet tumbling for years in an almost-too-full Rebel of deprimed brass with pins, 1/4 teaspoon of Lemi Shine, 2 tablespoons of Dawn, and water to about an inch of the top.  Let run for 4 hours and then separate the pins in a rotary drum submerged 1/2 way in hot water that is changed twice before dumping cases onto a towel.  Cases get rubbed around in the towel 'bag' to get most of the water off and then dumped into a colander that gets placed under a hair dryer for 20 minutes.  Mix the brass several times during the drying and they come out dry and looking like new from the factory.  I've done this with nasty to really nasty pistol and rifle brass and the results are always the same.  

 

Some don't like the pins but I've never had a problem with them.  They clean great and haven't had one stick in a primer pocket yet.  The fact that they're magnetic makes it easy to pick up any that I happen to spill.

[Eyesa Horg]

5 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

If your brass is shiny then you are not using too much.

Well that's my issue posted above. Really clean, but no where near as shiny as corn cob and polish. And at least twice the time to do! 

[Buffalo gus]

I’ve found that the batches that don’t come out as shiny correlate with having to much brass loaded or not pre cleaning my black powder cartridges. But when I load an appropriate amount of cases that have been pre cleaned to get the majority of the black powder fouling out, then a 45 colt case of dawn and about 1/2 to 2/3 colt case with lemishine with or without pins, thumbing for about 90 minutes. I get clean shiny brass. The biggest difference I’ve seen with the pins is the primer pocket being cleaner with the pins. Cleaning and prepping the brass is my least favorite part of reloading, so sometimes they don’t come out the prettiest but are always clean enough to reload. 

[Tracker Jack Daniels,58780]

On 5/27/2025 at 12:19 PM, Wasatch Lawman said:

I started using pins.  I changed to this media. I was having issues of pins getting stuck in my rifle cases.

What is this media, and where can I find it?

[SHOOTIN FOX]

A nickel case will ruin the finish on the other brass. Use one tablespoon of Hornady brass cleaner with pins. Comes out like new brass.

[Cemetery]

On 5/27/2025 at 2:34 AM, Buckshot Bear said:

Only thing is now and again, say 1 - 20 loads the shells come out black and gunky (100% no nickel cases in there) and I do the SAME thing every time.
 

 

This has happened to me a few times.

 

I use a Thumblers Tumbler with the rubber liner, and I was thinking it was the rubber liner slowly rotting away or something.

 

I have since switched up my routine.  I tumble for 90 minutes with a cap full of Scrubbing Bubbles, and a palm of Lemi-Shine, dump the water and rinse, refill, and for another 90 minutes I use a cap full of car wash soap with wax, and another palm of Lemi-Shine, and I haven't gotten a dull tumble in a few years now.  I tumble brass that have both tasted smokeless, and real black, all at once.

[Sam Sackett]

11 hours ago, Tracker Jack Daniels,58780 said:

What is this media, and where can I find it?

Try here. Or fun an internet search for “stainless steel chis for rotary tumbler”. You will get other options. 
 

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Tumbling-Jewelers-Tumbler-Finishing/dp/B0187PJ59G?th=1
 

Sam Sackett 

[Eyesa Horg]

6 minutes ago, Sam Sackett said:

Try here. Or fun an internet search for “stainless steel chis for rotary tumbler”. You will get other options. 
 

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Tumbling-Jewelers-Tumbler-Finishing/dp/B0187PJ59G?th=1
 

Sam Sackett 

How much to you use??

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

Just found this from Brownells.

 

 

[Cemetery]

5 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

How much to you use??

 

I use 1 pound.

[Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L]

Anybody try the wet tumbling method using a vibratory case cleaner designed for dry media?

[Buckshot Dobbs]

One thing I have found helpful every 10 uses or so I run the pins by themselves with dawn for an hour, they get covered with gunk and affect shiney- ness 🙂