Anyone wet tumble ?!?
- Thread starter treetop
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Rotwild
Well-Known Member
Interesting, do you have first hand experience with this and where can you get stainless media and clearbrite from, cheers.
Monkey Spanker
Well-Known Member
Normal tumbling media with a good splash of brasso works very well!
MS
MS
The question is, how shiny/clean does your brass really need to be ? I doubt that there is any detectable functional difference between uncleaned brass (with a wipe over to remove external grot, scrape or brush primer pockets, brush inside neck with old bore brush) and tumbled, ultrasonic, ceramic media, or SS pin wet tumbled. If you are already set up with a traditional dry tumbler its hard to see what advantage there is to be gained, for the cost, unless you just like very very shiny things. As with ultrasonic you also need some way of drying the wet cases, which obviously needs to be 100% certain.
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limulus
Well-Known Member
Yes. Bought the lot from the attached link and it came with clearbrite (or whatever they call it) and several sachets of polishing media for stones as well as the stainless media.
I bought the 3lb tumbler and a starter kit for a total of £90.
I use SS media for my brass. Is it worth it? Depends. If you like brass that looks brand new, yes. If you hate cleaning primer pockets, yes. If you use once fired military brass that may be a cruddy as a 1yr old's diaper, yes.
If your brass is already clean or you keep it clean by dry tumbling, and then clean up the primer pockets...then you may not need it.
Muir does fine with out SS media, but when the brass he gets is exceptionally cruddy (and I have seen some of it)...well, SS media is kind of hard to beat...saves a lot of effort and cursing...
If you are starting to get a touch of arthritis in the hands, SS media is a no-brainer.
JMTCW...
If your brass is already clean or you keep it clean by dry tumbling, and then clean up the primer pockets...then you may not need it.
Muir does fine with out SS media, but when the brass he gets is exceptionally cruddy (and I have seen some of it)...well, SS media is kind of hard to beat...saves a lot of effort and cursing...
If you are starting to get a touch of arthritis in the hands, SS media is a no-brainer.
JMTCW...
j0e_bl0ggs
Well-Known Member
Stainless pins are the way to go for clean brass. A dishwasher tablet or spoon of washing detergent is all that is needed, citric acid will stop water stain but is not necessary.
Reality is that you do not need the super clean brass but at the end of the day it always looks nice and is not a particular chore.
Clean brass does help when you anneal cases as you can see the colour change easily and there is no 'crud' to burn orange on the neck which interferes with looking for that change.
I bought my kit direct from the states which was a considerable saving on the prices quoted here.
Reality is that you do not need the super clean brass but at the end of the day it always looks nice and is not a particular chore.
Clean brass does help when you anneal cases as you can see the colour change easily and there is no 'crud' to burn orange on the neck which interferes with looking for that change.
I bought my kit direct from the states which was a considerable saving on the prices quoted here.
+1 but remember to put the cases in DRY media first until full then add a few glugs of Brasso. If you get wet media inside the cases its a complete PAIN to remove!
I also leave the tumbler OUTDOORS both when tumbling and removing cases due to the odour.
K
If you are already tumbling with e.g. walnut shell you should easily be able to get the outside of the cases looking better than new. E.g. as others suggest with added brasso, or I use a teaspoon of jewellers rouge, which is I think what the commercial preparations use (the ones that are red/brown in colour).
One teaspoon lasts the life of the media, thousands of cases, is odourless and no potential for the ammonia to damage the brass.
If you over-do it there can be a trace of red dust left, which wipes off.
Some also add a splash of liquid carnauba car wax for extra shine, and possibly tarnish prevention.
I deprime before tumbling and the stuff I use (walnut shell reptile bedding) gets most of the gunge out of the primer pocket, certainly well enough to need no extra cleaning.
Primer pockets don't need to be surgically clean, as long as they are clean enough for the primer to seat properly thats good enough. Flash holes need no special care, the depriming pin ensures they are clear.
I think the SS tumbling method is definitely the best, but I can't justify the expense.
I'd dry media tumble BEFORE de=capping. That way when you do de-cap it gets rid of any media in your flash hole.
jonny.c
Well-Known Member
+1 but love the odour
defo put the brasso in first turn on for few moments then add brass
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