Wet Tumble Recipes

[malmick]

Would you pop the old Primers out before hand? I did not. Thanks!

Yes

 

[25 Sharps]

Hi all, jumping on this, I’m very new to reloading.

I’ve read this thread and hand tumbled some brass, I have a container and put in hot water, washing up liquid and citric acid as stated.

Left them out to dry, my question may seem silly but how do I know they are “clean enough” is there an unwritten standard


Would you pop the old Primers out before hand? I did not. Thanks!

Don’t tell anyone but brass doesn’t need to be clean enough, as long as there’s not loads of powder residue on the outside and the primer pockets haven’t got enough burnt primer to stop the next primer seating you’re good to go.

But shiny brass is the way forward, just because!!

Can I ask, how did you hand tumble?

 

[C h r i s]

Can I ask, how did you hand tumble?

One of these?

 

[slock1993]

Don’t tell anyone but brass doesn’t need to be clean enough, as long as there’s not loads of powder residue on the outside and the primer pockets haven’t got enough burnt primer to stop the next primer seating you’re good to go.

But shiny brass is the way forward, just because!!

Can I ask, how did you hand tumble?

Genuinely by hand! At work I have access to 5ltr containers, so the brass went in with water just covering the brass, washing up liquid and citric acid, for around an hour, I manually “tumbled” the container every 15 mins for 4-5 minutes.

I’m now looking at a solution to shining them up, I’ve purchased Lee’s shell holder drill attachment for my cordless but yet to decide on what to use, I’ve seen a few 0000 steel wool comments.

 

[slock1993]

One of these?

View attachment 436201

See my reply to 25

 

[25 Sharps]

Genuinely by hand! At work I have access to 5ltr containers, so the brass went in with water just covering the brass, washing up liquid and citric acid, for around an hour, I manually “tumbled” the container every 15 mins for 4-5 minutes.

I’m now looking at a solution to shining them up, I’ve purchased Lee’s shell holder drill attachment for my cordless but yet to decide on what to use, I’ve seen a few 0000 steel wool comments.

I admire your enthusiasm but that’s not going to achieve anything I’m afraid. A shop bought tumbler will be constantly tumbling the brass, turning hundreds of times an hour. They also often have internal fins to tumble the contents more effectively and the brass is combined with stainless steel pins to clean the brass.

The 0000 steel wool works great if only doing small quantities. But only cleans the external wall, you can buy primer pockets cleaning tools to manually clean those.

 

[slock1993]

I admire your enthusiasm but that’s not going to achieve anything I’m afraid. A shop bought tumbler will be constantly tumbling the brass, turning hundreds of times an hour. They also often have internal fins to tumble the contents more effectively and the brass is combined with stainless steel pins to clean the brass.

The 0000 steel wool works great if only doing small quantities. But only cleans the external wall, you can buy primer pockets cleaning tools to manually clean those.

This is how they turned out, I don’t know how much you can see from the photo?

 

[25 Sharps]

This is how they turned out, I don’t know how much you can see from the photo?

Are they much cleaner than when they started? They do look clean to be fair

 

[slock1993]

Are they much cleaner than when they started? They do look clean to be fair

I mean cleaner yes, only once fired so they were not awful, I’m experimenting really.

 

[hairlesshunter]

I mean cleaner yes, only once fired so they were not awful, I’m experimenting really.

I use 1mm ss shot balls and re size and deprime before cleaning and it cleans the primer hole as well

 

[C h r i s]

This is how they turned out, I don’t know how much you can see from the photo?

Best to deprime first