Thanks for all the advice. Procured the Media Separator and the Transfer Magnet ... hoping this goes easier next time.
Newbie Lesson-Learned #1 ...
- Thread starter rustyinbend
- Start date
I wet tumble using a Frankfort for a number of reasons.
The insides get clean because a few of the ranges I shoot on are dusty or muddy. I don't want anything abrasive inside the cases to run through my bore. I found the red cleaning rouge in Lyman walnut may have contributed to barrel wear on an older Douglas National Match barrel.
Once tumbled I pour the brass into the big grey Dillon tumbler bucket and rinse out the smutz. Next step is to put the brass in the separator basket, fill the bucket with water, then turn the separator. The water helps break the capillary (?) action which makes the pins stick. Maybe a dozen turns, then drain the water. Turn a dozen more turns to shed most of the water. I have a cotton drop cloth which I spread the damp brass on (outside), and it dries in the sun in the spring, summer, and fall. In the winter I dry the cases on a beach towel in a corner inside the house.
The insides get clean because a few of the ranges I shoot on are dusty or muddy. I don't want anything abrasive inside the cases to run through my bore. I found the red cleaning rouge in Lyman walnut may have contributed to barrel wear on an older Douglas National Match barrel.
Once tumbled I pour the brass into the big grey Dillon tumbler bucket and rinse out the smutz. Next step is to put the brass in the separator basket, fill the bucket with water, then turn the separator. The water helps break the capillary (?) action which makes the pins stick. Maybe a dozen turns, then drain the water. Turn a dozen more turns to shed most of the water. I have a cotton drop cloth which I spread the damp brass on (outside), and it dries in the sun in the spring, summer, and fall. In the winter I dry the cases on a beach towel in a corner inside the house.
Sound like the same process I use. A little trick I learned to prevent media from making an escape don the drain is to pour the media and brass into a kitchen strainer like shown above, then set filled strainer into a bowl (I use an ice cream bucket) and run hot water over the media and brass until the water covers it. Then simply grab cases, turning them upside down under water and allow physics to do the work for me. Tap the case on the side of the bowl and repeat.
Food dehydrators work great and keeps the wife from complaining about using the oven.
I actually skipped the mess of wet-tumbling with steel media this time ... and just ran deprimed once-fired .338-LM brass through two 30-minute cycles in my Sonic-Cleaner. Interesting comparison ... as the casings are very clean inside and out, but not as "shiny". The primer pockets were spotless coming from the sonic-cleaning, unlike the tumbled pockets that still showed residual black scum ... that was odd. Bottom line ... I found myself asking why I'd tumble (longer and messier) vs. sonic-clean (shorter and cleaner). Does it really matter if the brass is "clean" but not "shiny"?
You want clean. Bling is extra credit.
All depends on how much brass you're processing and how much time you have.
All depends on how much brass you're processing and how much time you have.
My observation would be that the more you "polish" the brass to get that bling ... the faster you wear it down since every polishing would have to remove at least a tiny bit of the surface to achieve the end result. Asked differently ... does polishing with steel media decrease the life expectancy of the brass over and above just a good sonic cleaning? Anybody know ???
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