I'm looking into updating a few things on my reloading bench, and I want to start with my polishing method first. I'm currently using a fairly old Lyman vibratory tumbler with good, old-fashioned corn cob media. It works OK, but it takes a long time to do really dirty brass. After doing some research, I'm seriously considering trying the rock polisher from Harbor Freight. I've never done wet polishing before, so I'd like to know - whats the best procedure?
School me on wet tumbling
- Thread starter cjclemens
- Start date
I went with the Franklin Arsenal kit. Works great havent used corn cob method since, probably never will again. Would recommend their maginet for the pins and Lymans sifting tray assembly. Also bought a mesh skillet at Lowes for grilling veggies. It has a removable handle and is great for drying brass in the oven.
So, whats the recipe? From what I've read, you just put in 1# of stainless steel pins, a few drops of Dawn dish soap, a dash of Lemi Shine or Barkeepers friend, and enough water to cover the brass. Does that sound about right?
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
LARUEminati
New member
Go with the franklin arsenal. I've ran it full with 223's and 308's and i've had no problems with it. Big batches, had to be 300-500 brass. Comes out looking better than new and they're all range pickups full of mud.
You pretty much nailed the recipe, I just use a small dab of dawn and a pinch of lemi-shine. I run all the brass though a universal decapper first so it cleans the primer pockets at the same time. Once it's done I just flush it with the hose real good.
I've yet to use a dryer or the oven, ideally I will get a food dehydrator in the future. I've been using an air compressor to blow out each piece and then laid them out on a towel in the sun and that's been working perfect. I still give them a few days of just sitting around to completely dry out. I really don't have anything bad to say about the unit or the results.
You pretty much nailed the recipe, I just use a small dab of dawn and a pinch of lemi-shine. I run all the brass though a universal decapper first so it cleans the primer pockets at the same time. Once it's done I just flush it with the hose real good.
I've yet to use a dryer or the oven, ideally I will get a food dehydrator in the future. I've been using an air compressor to blow out each piece and then laid them out on a towel in the sun and that's been working perfect. I still give them a few days of just sitting around to completely dry out. I really don't have anything bad to say about the unit or the results.
LARUEminati
New member
Here’s a batch of 308’s from the franklin, these went in as range pickup caroded brass that was full of mud and rocks.
wilydawg
New member
Originally Posted By: cjclemensSo, whats the recipe? From what I've read, you just put in 1# of stainless steel pins, a few drops of Dawn dish soap, a dash of Lemi Shine or Barkeepers friend, and enough water to cover the brass. Does that sound about right?
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
Your recipe is close enough. I use Dawn & Lemishine. I bought a cheap food dehydrator to expedite the dry. If you don't do that I recommend at least putting them on a towel, fold it over and rub it around to absorb the water on the outside. Otherwise you can get spotting. No point in trying to get "pretty" brass and then letting it spot
But it's definitely the bomb going wet. Did dry for many years, and it works fine but takes a lot longer and it's a pain getting the cob out of flash holes...
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
Your recipe is close enough. I use Dawn & Lemishine. I bought a cheap food dehydrator to expedite the dry. If you don't do that I recommend at least putting them on a towel, fold it over and rub it around to absorb the water on the outside. Otherwise you can get spotting. No point in trying to get "pretty" brass and then letting it spot
But it's definitely the bomb going wet. Did dry for many years, and it works fine but takes a lot longer and it's a pain getting the cob out of flash holes...
WyoBull
New member
I started using the Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler a couple of years ago and really like it. It takes more time and the process is more involved than when using a media tumbler but I don't have a problem with that. I definitely don't use it unless I have a good quantity of brass to clean because of the more involved process but my brass comes out looking brand new. I also use the Dawn liquid detergent and Lemishine combination and also use hot water at the start of tumbling my brass.
I don't have a dehydrator, when finished I just lay all the brass on a bath towel on my work bench rolling it around to get it mostly dry. Then, I use my heat gun on low and go over all the brass like using a hair dryer to get it really dry.
I don't have a dehydrator, when finished I just lay all the brass on a bath towel on my work bench rolling it around to get it mostly dry. Then, I use my heat gun on low and go over all the brass like using a hair dryer to get it really dry.
Plant.One
Well-known member
make sure you use enough dawn so that when you're done with your tumbling process you still have bubbles. its what keeps the crud emusified and from depositing back on your brass. if you dont use enough your brass will come out a dirty grey color. no harm done - just do another cycle with more dawn next time. I just give a generous squirt - approx 1 tablespoon or so, however my tumbler only holds 2 quarts of water.
with the lemi-shine - LESS IS MORE! if you use too much you WILL get spots. i'm currently using about 1/10th of a tsp (0.5cc lee powder scoop) per 5lb batch of brass. Start with 1/4 TSP, and reduce by half every batch until you dont get satisfactory results, then go up one quantity. A bottle of Lemi-Shine should last most of us YEARS.
since yard sale season is upon us - go hunting for a old food dehydrator. i paid $5 for mine.
(pic from the web)
Once i'm done rinsing, i pour my brass onto a towel and roll it around to get the big drops off, then into the dehydrator for 2 hours.
Total processing time for a batch of brass for me is a little over 3 hours. 1 hour in the tumbler, ~10 mins of rinsing and sepertaing from the pins, and 2 hours in the dehydrator.
i have yet to find a dry tumbling process that will yield the kind of results wet tumbling will give you in this amount of time.
the bling is he thing
as an added bonus - as long as you deprime BEFORE You wet tumble - no more primer pockets to scrape! winning!
with the lemi-shine - LESS IS MORE! if you use too much you WILL get spots. i'm currently using about 1/10th of a tsp (0.5cc lee powder scoop) per 5lb batch of brass. Start with 1/4 TSP, and reduce by half every batch until you dont get satisfactory results, then go up one quantity. A bottle of Lemi-Shine should last most of us YEARS.
since yard sale season is upon us - go hunting for a old food dehydrator. i paid $5 for mine.
(pic from the web)
Once i'm done rinsing, i pour my brass onto a towel and roll it around to get the big drops off, then into the dehydrator for 2 hours.
Total processing time for a batch of brass for me is a little over 3 hours. 1 hour in the tumbler, ~10 mins of rinsing and sepertaing from the pins, and 2 hours in the dehydrator.
i have yet to find a dry tumbling process that will yield the kind of results wet tumbling will give you in this amount of time.
the bling is he thing
as an added bonus - as long as you deprime BEFORE You wet tumble - no more primer pockets to scrape! winning!
As was already mentioned, it's far better to have to little Lemi Shine than it is to much. Also, I always use distilled water for both the cleaning/tumbling stage as well as the rinse stage. Maybe it's just our water but I don't get any water spots when I use distilled water versus tap water and distilled water is cheap so it's no biggie to use it.
DannoBoone
Active member
Originally Posted By: cjclemensSo, whats the recipe? From what I've read, you just put in 1# of stainless steel pins, a few drops of Dawn dish soap, a dash of Lemi Shine or Barkeepers friend, and enough water to cover the brass. Does that sound about right?
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
I started out with the dual drum rock polisher from HB. It
works just as well as the larger models like Frankfort Arsenal.
It's perfect for smaller batches. It comes with no instructions
and the lid removal was a trick to figure out for someone who
had never used a rock polisher in the past.
Your recipe is just what I use with great success.
For drying as well as separating the pins, I got the RCBS media
separator. Give it a few spins, then open it up and let air
dry. Close it again for a few more spins to get the rest of
the pins out....they don't stick to the inside of the cases
once they are dry.
Also be sure to rinse the brass prior to drying.
Also, is it 100% necessary to use an oven to dry the brass? My reloading room is always kept at a fairly low humidity. Would it be OK to just lay it out and let it dry on the bench?
I started out with the dual drum rock polisher from HB. It
works just as well as the larger models like Frankfort Arsenal.
It's perfect for smaller batches. It comes with no instructions
and the lid removal was a trick to figure out for someone who
had never used a rock polisher in the past.
Your recipe is just what I use with great success.
For drying as well as separating the pins, I got the RCBS media
separator. Give it a few spins, then open it up and let air
dry. Close it again for a few more spins to get the rest of
the pins out....they don't stick to the inside of the cases
once they are dry.
Also be sure to rinse the brass prior to drying.
Thanks for all the info! I was really hesitant to make the switch to wet tumbling, but now that I know more, I feel a lot more comfortable diving in headfirst. I reload for a few family members, and a lot of that brass comes back to me in bad shape. I think, in the long run, a universal decapping die and wet tumbling will save me a lot of wear and tear on my resizing dies.
rudymontana
New member
Triple check for pins that might be left in the brass. I use a head lamp and check before I dry and after. Just the way I like to do it. I have the Franklin also, I really love the way it works. I dry mine with and older hair dryer. It really puts out the heat and air volume. Rudy
I read all the steps it takes using the wet stainless system. No thanks, I'll keep using my media. Put it in today take it out tomorrow and its ready to go. No water, no soap, no lemi shine,no magnets, no oven. Sorry, sounds like a PITA to me. I got lots of brass and the old way seems just as fast and good. I use the Lyman media with rouge and a spoon full of Mothers wheel polish and my brass shines like a new penny. JMO.
Plant.One
Well-known member
if you're doing any kind of volume of brass - the stainless is doubly the ticket. even with the limited volume of my tumbler (5 lbs of brass) compared to the Frankford Aresenal unit, i can cover ~2500 pcs of 223 in an afternoon. and most of that is me fiddling with something else while the tumbler does its thing.
i use a rotary separator to ensure that no pins are in the brass, and by wet rinsing in a bowl of water i ensure that there's no strays left in the cases - when the cases are fully wet theres' no surface tension to break like there is on an empty case with a pin stuck to a drop.
i pour from the tumbler into a large mixing bowl, run under cold water and turn them like you're making a tossed salad. this not only gets the sludge out, but after a couple mins like that the pins are all in the bottom of the bowl out of the brass. then into the rotary separator for a vigorous tumble, and then into the dehydrator for drying.
by the time the 3rd batch is coming out of the tumbler, i pull the 1st batch out of the dryer and load the 3rd in to replace it and just keep rotating.
i'm kicking out roughly speaking 5 lbs every 1h 15m at that point. if i were to thin down my pin weight i could possibly up that number to closer to 8-9lbs in the same timeline.
i will agree it SEEMS like a lot more work, but i honestly feel like i get a ton more accomplished for a fraction of the increase of hands-on time invested.
i use a rotary separator to ensure that no pins are in the brass, and by wet rinsing in a bowl of water i ensure that there's no strays left in the cases - when the cases are fully wet theres' no surface tension to break like there is on an empty case with a pin stuck to a drop.
i pour from the tumbler into a large mixing bowl, run under cold water and turn them like you're making a tossed salad. this not only gets the sludge out, but after a couple mins like that the pins are all in the bottom of the bowl out of the brass. then into the rotary separator for a vigorous tumble, and then into the dehydrator for drying.
by the time the 3rd batch is coming out of the tumbler, i pull the 1st batch out of the dryer and load the 3rd in to replace it and just keep rotating.
i'm kicking out roughly speaking 5 lbs every 1h 15m at that point. if i were to thin down my pin weight i could possibly up that number to closer to 8-9lbs in the same timeline.
i will agree it SEEMS like a lot more work, but i honestly feel like i get a ton more accomplished for a fraction of the increase of hands-on time invested.
LARUEminati
New member
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI use the Lyman media with rouge and a spoon full of Mothers wheel polish and my brass shines like a new penny. JMO.
The outside does...how about the inside and primer pocket? Just playing devils advocate, not trying to be a jerk. That being said, nothing wrong with the regular media tumblers, worked for generations and still working today. I'll never get rid of mine.
The real reason I made the switch to wet is because I was getting brass stuck in my full length sizer which was due to the brass not getting clean enough in the media tumbler. I'm talking VERY dirty brass to start with that the dry media just could not clean up. I switched to the wet and it's like night and day, everything way cleaner and runs alot smoother through the progressive press. I will say I never had any problems with the dry media until I got a bulkload of some ugly range pickups.
The outside does...how about the inside and primer pocket? Just playing devils advocate, not trying to be a jerk. That being said, nothing wrong with the regular media tumblers, worked for generations and still working today. I'll never get rid of mine.
The real reason I made the switch to wet is because I was getting brass stuck in my full length sizer which was due to the brass not getting clean enough in the media tumbler. I'm talking VERY dirty brass to start with that the dry media just could not clean up. I switched to the wet and it's like night and day, everything way cleaner and runs alot smoother through the progressive press. I will say I never had any problems with the dry media until I got a bulkload of some ugly range pickups.
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI don't even own 2500 pieces of brass. I have several calibers and a couple hundred pieces for each. I'm not a high volume shooter so I get by with my old methods.
Nothing wrong with your “old methods”.
I run all my brass exactly like you do for 3 firings.
Then I do the wet tumble every third or fourth firing to get the inside of the cases and the primer pockets clean, and then I anneal it.
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Nothing wrong with your “old methods”.
I run all my brass exactly like you do for 3 firings.
Then I do the wet tumble every third or fourth firing to get the inside of the cases and the primer pockets clean, and then I anneal it.
*