Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Cleaning brass

Finally bought a wet tumbling system and not getting the results I wanted. Give me some tips. Looking for clean primer pockets and shiny brass. I'm using the pins that came with the tumbler and Dawn dish soap. Do I need smaller pins? I've heard about adding lemon juice to the water, does that help with shine? Does less water produce a better shine?

Add a half teaspoon of Lemishine, that will make a big difference. Available at Wally World.

I like to use warm water a squirt of dawn and like javman said half a teaspoon of lemishing and I let it run for about 4hrs. Brass always comes out clean and looks like new.

Lemi Shine not lemon juice.

Also, when wet tumbling watch for battering of the case mouths if you are not going to trim and make sure to get all the pins out of the brass. If any pins are left in a case they will chew up the bore when fired.

I eliminated the pins long ago as they were a PITA to get out of the cases and also lodged crosswise in the Primer pockets. I use hot water, Dawn & Lemi-shine, three hours tumble and dump out rinse and let air dry. Shiney brass, clean primer pockets and no hassling with the damn pins.

OK, Lemi-shine is on the grocery list. I walnut tumble first, then size deprime, trim and deburr, then wet tumble. Cases usually sit for several weeks before I prime and throw powder. Should be plenty of time for them to dry and a stuck pin to fall out (but I'll give them a shake to make sure).

Too much trouble.

Yep just a touch of the secret ingredient and they will be like new.

I did about 1100 pieces of 7.62 brass and when testing i found that about an hour was good enough.

This stuff had been setting outdoors for a while and had some type of gun lube on some of it.

When it came time to get the clean brass out i just picked up 2 pieces and tapped them on the side of the drum neck down and the pins came out.

There were a few in the wash tub i used but not more than 20 or so.

Do I get the powder or liquid??

I use the Frankford Arsenal tumbler with the 5 lbs of stainless pins that come with it. I use 1 tablespoon of Armor All Ultra Shine Wash & Wax and 1/4 teaspoon of powder Lemi-Shine. The picture below is some .223 brass I tumbled for 1-1/2 hours on Monday. The second picture is from a couple years ago when I was learning and it was tumbled with 1 tablespoon of Dawn and 1 tablespoon of Lemi-Shine. I recommend treading lightly with the Lemi-Shine. I made some "pink'ish" 280 brass a few years back with too much Lemi-Shine.

As a side note I did re-tumble the brass in the second picture last week and they cleaned up awesome.

I am going to tumble without pins next time per gunwizards experience. The pins are a PITA!

I used the powdered stuff.

That brass looks great. I like my brass clean as well. I get it that way tumbling in media mixed with Lyma tuff nut that has rouge in it.. Brass comes out very polished, like yours in your picture. I have no complaints.. I don't think I could do pins though, as I've received brass from guys that has been tumbled with pins and the brass still has stainless pins in it.. I can't imaging the damage that would do, if you sent one through your barrel.. Probably fu ck up a good shooting rifle that way..

Yeah check this out.

I use crushed walnut shells

Same here, with no abrasives or additives.

If you are wet tumbling and not getting the results you want, how much brass at a time are you tumbling? I’ve been reading reviews of people wet tumbling under 50 cases, most times less than 30 and it’s not fairing well, even when lemishine. When they up the capacity, they get great results. My next purchase for reloading is a wet tumbler, and I will have to get out of my habit of doing small batches of brass like I do when I dry tumble with corn cob.

Get the powdered one won't need much. As sisko mentioned some oh his turning pinkish that is due to using too much Lemi Shine, too much citric acid.

I use dish soap, Lemi-shine, tumble about four hours. Beautiful shine!

My vibratory died recently and I got a wet tumbler. You are right, it works better with larger batches and it is a bit more of a PITA because instead of just dumping some cases in, waiting a few hours and fishing them out, you need to rinse and dry and dump the liquid so it lends itself to doing larger batches. Results are good though.
I also started out with the SS pins but my last batch just did Dawn and Lemi-shine and the results were good.

I use the STM tumbling kit with their SS pins. I never had an issue with the pins and they seem to all easily fall free of the cases. However, for the guys who may have experienced an issue with pins there is a substitute product that is more like tiny SS stars. The little SS stars may do an even better job inside of small primer pockets and shouldn't get stuck in any cases.

Just a thought