Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wet Tumbling Brass Cases

Anyone doing this? What kind of setup do you have if you are.
Thanks
Jim

You mean with Stainless pins…. It makes brass look like new - good stuff.

Here you go:

https://googlethatforyou.com/?q=wet%20tumbling%20brass%20case

I tried it

Hated the mess and the drying

Went back to corn cob and squirt wax

Yes and it makes old brass look like new.

I'd rather hear from the guys here, thanks.

Not sure. It's sort of new to me.

I wet tumble my 1000 yard cases in stainless steel pins.
Typically run 60 to 80 cases at a time.
Hot water and Dawn liquid soap.
About a table spoon of Lemshine
In a thumbler tumbler.
Takes about 45 minutes.
Cleans everything including the primer pockets.
Works very well and will slightly peen your case mouth.
I chamfer every time so it no big deal for me,

dave

I get my supplies from MTM.
Have the separator that you crank by hand to get the pins out of the cases,
Rinse them off good and blow them out with an air gun.
Then anneal.
Drying is not an issue this way.
Pretty much run all my cases this way.
Dave

I read about using pins a while ago but got into it when i got a lot of 7.62 brass.

I de-primed then took the crimp out then cleaned up about 100 +- at a time in a buddies tumbler.

Out here it is dry and the wind blows so drying them is no big deal.

Had to change the water after 3 or 4 loads because it seemed to turn into mud.

After they are dry,i even used my air compressor to dry the first runs, i put them in my vibratory tumbler with some car polish for about 30 minutes or so.

Makes them look like new for sure and i have done pistol as well as other rifle cases.

Don't do it all the time but save up enough crappy brass to make 2 or 3 loads.

And the pins i got from Midway don't stick or clog up the primer hole,pockets are clean.

No it’s not necessary.

Same process for me, in my old RCBS Sidewinder.

I used to use a rock tumbler I bought from Harbor Freight using water with pins and Ivory Liquid. That only held about a hundred cases at a time, though, so a few weeks ago I switched to the Frankford Arsenal Unit. Works great. Lots of capacity.

This is one batch fresh from it.

I've gone exclusively to wet tumbling. I have both a Thumler's Tumbler and the Frankfort Arsenal model. I have parked the TT, because I find the Frankford easier to sort out the pins with the included strainer and a lot easier to close up compared to the wing nuts on the Thumler model. I use the typical recipe of warm water, 5 pounds of pins, about a tablespoon of original Dawn and maybe a teaspoon of Lemishine. Don't overdue the citric acid as it can tarnish the brass.

After a couple hours of tumbling, I rinse the brass out a couple times and shaking out the pins into a 3 gallon pail. I pour the brass into a large bath towel and use a large magnet (I think it's also a Frankfort Arsenal brand) to pick up any missed pins. I gather the towel at both ends and shift the brass left and right a number of times to dry off. Sometimes I use a second towel and do the routine again or pour them directly onto another towel and sit overnight to air dry. I usually shift the brass around a couple times to help drying.

Cleaner brass is a nice bonus, but I went to wet tumbling more to control airborne contaminates.

If you want your brass absolutely clean, wet/stainless stumbling will sure do it. Brass comes out looking brand new.

Same here, very easy

Exactly. Threw my sonic cleaner in the trash.
Frankford Arsenal tumbler. I also have the magnet which is a must buy…
I use tap water that I let sit out a few days. Chlorine evaporates out so it won’t stain the brass. Of course rainwater or well water works great as well. Use some Walmart brand super green cleaner with a teaspoon of Lemishine. Go find the nastiest black/brown brass you can locate. It’ll come out looking spank brand new.

I bought one of the Frankford Arsenal packages after seeing a lot of good recommendations on the SS pin tumbling. Just tried it out last weekend. I loaded in about 500 pieces of 223 range pickup brass. I had deprimed them and rinsed them earlier. There was a sample package of solution with the tumbler so I used that instead of the lemishine. I had a little trouble getting the end caps sealed on the ends of the drum, but cleaning the gaskets and tightening them a bit extra took care of that. I let it run for 2 hrs because some of the brass was tarnished.

The water got really dark and the brass came out looking like new. Separating the brass from the pins was a bit of a pain. I dumped the whole mess into a 5 gallon bucket and rinsed it a couple times, then picked out the brass and poured off almost all the water. I dumped the wet pins into an aluminum pan and set it on the wood stove at a low heat. The pins are very small and will stick to anything when wet just like sand. A couple hours later the pins were dry and could be poured into a container. The brass was dried the same way.

Not sure if I will use this method for brass that is pretty clean, but it sure works for range brass. Probably not worth the effort for a small batch. I will use cob or walnut shell for that.

Jerry

Same here

FART (Frankfort Arsenal Rotary Tumbler) Dawn or Palmolive, with vinegar or citric acid. Pins or no pins. Small batches put brass in a mesh laundry bag.
S.