Wet case tumbling - case lube removal

gonzo

Well-Known Member
I've built a wet case tumbler, to have a play with.
I am using hot water and a touch of washing up liquid and a splash of diswasher shining agent.
It works great on pistol cases, which are dry resized, before the tumble. But for FL sized rifle brass, I am left with quite a coating of case lube, even after a couple of water changes.
The lube I use is the clear gel type (RCBS I think), which I'd assumed was water based, But this is probably not so. As the only way I've found to remove this lube, is to re-tumble with paraffin. Which I need to dry off afterwards.

Any suggestions?
Different lubes, cleaning solution ideas?
 
I use the same lube, but have no problems with any remaining residue after wet tumbling. I use Ecover washing up liquid and rinse aid plus a cap full of Sea Clean 2.

Out of interest, how much lube are you putting onto the cases? It should only be a very thin application.
 
I will admit I do tend to be a bit heavy on the lube. But the application method is using fingers, which is not ideal, as my lube pad is solid with Lee dry wax lube.
But I hoped that the tubmling would still remove it all.

Yes, I use stainless steel pins as the media.
 
I tend to do quite big batches in the tumbler. So I've used paraffin to get the lube off, as it's cheap enough by the gallon.

I am going to try an alternative lube. Lanolin with IPA as the carrier. See if this helps by leaving a finer coaating on the brass. As I proabbly am going overboard on the lube.
 
I tend to do quite big batches in the tumbler. So I've used paraffin to get the lube off, as it's cheap enough by the gallon.

I am going to try an alternative lube. Lanolin with IPA as the carrier. See if this helps by leaving a finer coaating on the brass. As I proabbly am going overboard on the lube.

India Pale Ale? Not my favourite tipple by any means, but it's not bad enough to be relegated to case lube.
 
People often comment on how nice my rounds smell when they go off.
Usually this is the rice crispy filler I use.
Now I can impress them with 'eau d'beer' reloads!
 
I wet tumble with stainless media, I use imperial or Hornady one-shot lube - I also use washing-up liquid (or "dish soap" as I must now learn to call it) with a 1/4 tsp of "lemishine" - so basically the same mix as you. No lube survives, but I run the tumbler for the three hours maximum it allows, and also have tended to do fairly small batches. Perhaps if you just gave it longer it would break down the residual lube? Got be worth a try if the alternative is tumbling again in a secondary mixture?
 
I use Lanolin with IPA to resize then to clean it off a good dash of fairy liquid in a saucepan of boiling water let simmer for half a hour then rinse off with clean water.
 
Recent tries.....
The lanolin and IPA size lube works well. And I have tumbled for a couple of hours, with a change of water between. But using water as hot as I can get, ie boiling, as it goes into the drum (the drum is a modified gas bottle, so that does take a fair amount of heat out of it.) And the wasking up liquid and shining agent as usual.
Oddly, I now nolonger get the gallons of froth I use to get. Wonder if that is the lanolin? The water comes out brown and flat. A bit like beer in London!
But it seems to result in clean cases free of lube.

But my tumbler rig now has serious issues and needs some rework. So back to the vibratory cleaner and tine batches again.
 
are u sure the cases are definitely tumbling not just lying in the bottom of the tumbler as it rotates - i use the rebel - all lube removed & cases clean enough after 20 mins i dont tumble rifle brass more than 1/2 hr as i found the mouth of the cases were peened needing an aggressive vld champer to remove.
 
Half a tea spoon of citric granules, half a tea spoon of car wash and wax 1/2 litre of water 100-200 cases can see your face in the cases after
 
My tumbler is a gas bottle, modified so that the top can be removed. And a set of steel paddles welded on the inside. So basically running like a small washing machine. And this runs on a home made roller system, a bit like the thing that paint shops load tins onto to keep the paint from settling out.
I can get a few thousand cases in at a time. But then I only run it every couple of months.
They definitly tumble, as the noise is like a cement mixer. So much so, I had to build a wooden box to put over it to quieten it down. But it doesn't run at anywhere near the speed of the little commercial tumblers, sold for reloading. So I do have to run it for a few hours.

The media sparator is a plastic drum with a gauze/mesh unner section. Which just gets part filled with water and goes back on the rollers for a few minutes. The cases tumble in the backet and the pins get washed out and slide along the bottom of the plastic drum.

The lanolin lube works very well and I am putting nowhere near as much of it on the cases. As I probably was overdoing it by manual application. Not enough to cause any hydraulic case distorsion, but still leaving a mess.
And the hot water idea certainly works with that lube.

I may try and put my tumbling bottle on a gas ring, to get the water temp up. As at the mo I am boiling kettles. And it takes a few boils to get enough water to cover the cases and pins. And it's a bit of a battle against time to boil water, before the steel bottle cools it down.
 
I have an 8kg stainless steal media tumbler and use ecover washing up liquid, dishwasher rinse aid and two teaspoons of citric acid and they come out sparkling no matter how much lube I use
 
I tend to do quite big batches in the tumbler. So I've used paraffin to get the lube off, as it's cheap enough by the gallon.

I am going to try an alternative lube. Lanolin with IPA as the carrier. See if this helps by leaving a finer coaating on the brass. As I proabbly am going overboard on the lube.

I use lanolin but have to remove it before i wet tumble, as it makes a mess of the cases.
 
I use lanolin but have to remove it before i wet tumble, as it makes a mess of the cases.
I use lanolin too but my process is
1. Universal de-capper
2. Clean
3. Lube and full length re size
4.clean again

I find that tumbling them after de capping removes most of the muck so when I tumble after the lube the muck is not preasent to foul the cases again. But I do need to clean the media and tumbler every 6 months.

How are you removing the lanolin?
 
I use lanolin too but my process is
1. Universal de-capper
2. Clean
3. Lube and full length re size
4.clean again

I find that tumbling them after de capping removes most of the muck so when I tumble after the lube the muck is not preasent to foul the cases again. But I do need to clean the media and tumbler every 6 months.

How are you removing the lanolin?
Elbow grease and a bit of wd40 then wet tumble, seems to work.
 
I tumble first to clean the cases using stainless steel pins and some drops of morning fresh detergent. Then I use imperial wax on a lube board. After depriming I put them all back in the tumbler with clean warm water and more drops of morning fresh. This then removes the carbon from the primer pocket and the imperial wax. The necks are clean and don't need graphite lube for seating projectiles. Consider trying imperial wax.
 
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