Wet Tumbling suggestions

[jimmy milnes]

I'm toying with the idea of going from the usual vibration tumbler to a wet an pin media type.

What are people using ?

Are they the dogs bits like they look on the videos I've watched ?

Are people putting a cleaner solution in the water ?

Any other advice or help would be greatly appreciated cheers
Jimmy.

 

[palmer_mike]

They are great. I use one for black powder cases and it gets them sparkly clean inside and out.
I just use a squirt of fairy liquid.
They are expensive and if I only shot normal nitro cartridges I’d probable still just use a vibratory bowl.

 

[Malxwal]

Jimmy, I've just gone down this road, with a Frankford Lite unit, using their own brand stainless pins. I put a splash of Fairy, a good squirt of lemon juice, and pinch of bicarbonate of soda in, using hot water. Very happy with the results, cases back to new outside, pretty clean inside, and primer pockets clean. It's laborious getting all the pins out,and some do get stuck, but you can buy bigger pins (I think some folk run two sizes mixed ?).
Overall happy I've gone this way.

 

[DesG]

Jimmy, I've just gone down this road, with a Frankford Lite unit, using their own brand stainless pins. I put a splash of Fairy, a good squirt of lemon juice, and pinch of bicarbonate of soda in, using hot water. Very happy with the results, cases back to new outside, pretty clean inside, and primer pockets clean. It's laborious getting all the pins out,and some do get stuck, but you can buy bigger pins (I think some folk run two sizes mixed ?).
Overall happy I've gone this way.

Just a thought, but bicarb is an alkaline and lemon juice is an acid so they cancel each other out.

 

[Tubby10]

Any cheap tumbler will work including the vevor ones off Amazon, however you have to invest in decent pins from someone like Frankford or Lyman, and as other have said just a squirt of fairy,warm water and they're honestly like new. The mark up on the rotary tumblers is hilarious.

 

[JTO]

As I have posted elsewhere, the Frankford pins are magnetic, but some that are available are non-magnetic.
The magnets are a fairly simple way to retrieve the magnetic pins.

 

[Malxwal]

Just a thought, but bicarb is an alkaline and lemon juice is an acid so they cancel each other out.

Hmm, fair point, although chemistry was never my forte. Trial and error, but when I used just lime juice and Fairy, the cases went a different colour, a bit darker. Next time I'll maybe try just Fairy and lemon.

 

[EssBee]

Just make sure your cases are bone dry inside and out. I've seen the results of partially burnt powder left in cases - bullets stuck in barrels!!

 

[Moose67]

I'm using a Frankford wet tumbler with a couple of teaspoons of Fairy Liquid and half a teaspoon of citric acid powder
Just swapped from pins to "Stainless Steel Diagonal Tumbling Media" from Amazon and use a Lyman case sifter to separate cases from the media - quicker for me than pins and magnets
I dry my cases in an 'old' food dehydrator (cough)

​

 

[paulbshooting]

Have the lyman wet tumbler. Works well. Use hot water, washing up liquid and teaspoon of either nitric or citric acid (not at home to check!)

 

[JockStalk]

Any wet tumbler with pins larger length than neck diameter will do. I went with el cheapo off eBay for £50.
Have faffed about with mixes but settled on a half dishwasher tab. Works perfect.

 

[JamesH]

EBay special for me. It came with stainless balls and I bought pins. Both seem to work well, pins better for primer pockets. I’m not after super shiny but cleaning batches by hand just to remove neck carbon and lube after sizing was slow and gave me achy hands (soft office worker these days). Washing up liquid and lemon dishwasher rinse aid with hot water is good for me.

 

[angusb1]

Any wet tumbler with pins larger length than neck diameter will do. I went with el cheapo off eBay for £50.
Have faffed about with mixes but settled on a half dishwasher tab. Works perfect.

Spot on. With pins longer than neck diameter the pins can't get jammed in the neck.

 

[75]

I don't do many cases, probably a couple of hundred a year, but I've had a cheapy off Amazon since 2018 and still going strong. Loads advertised as jewelery polishers or rock polishers. 3kg version is good for batches of 25-30 cases but I'd go bigger if you want 50-100 at a time.
1/4 tsp citric acid, dap of washing up liquid and warm water.

 

[mealiejimmy]

Hmm, fair point, although chemistry was never my forte. Trial and error, but when I used just lime juice and Fairy, the cases went a different colour, a bit darker. Next time I'll maybe try just Fairy and lemon.

Buy some citric acid crystals from EBay and put half a teaspoonful of them in with a few drops of fairy liquid
The end result completely satisfies my need for shiny brass

Cheers

Bruce

 

[JTO]

So do people tumble before they resize, or after to clean off the lube, or both?

 

[Rake Aboot]

Hmm
I don’t reload or ever intend to but I’ve a question about the tumblers
Are they the same as ones used to polish rocks ?

 

[angusb1]

Hmm
I don’t reload or ever intend to but I’ve a question about the tumblers
Are they the same as ones used to polish rocks ?

The ebay ones are yes

 

[mealiejimmy]

So do people tumble before they resize, or after to clean off the lube, or both?

In my experience, If you use water based case lube (like RCBS) you can wet tumble before or after re-sizing
If you use oil/grease based case lube, it's better to tumble before re-sizing
I tumbled some brass that had been re-sized using Redding Imperial die wax and the cases came out sticky, greasy and not much cleaner

Cheers

Bruce

 

[Malxwal]

I do all the cleaning before any resizing. Using Redding Imperial wax for sizing, happy to just wipe off. But I'll add I'm not putting any lube in necks, as I use bushing dies and mandrels.