quick drying brass

[_shawn_]

has anybody tried drying brass in the oven at 100 to 150 degrees? i've found this is the easiest/quickest way to dry out a phone when you drown 1 and was wondering how it would work with brass. figure it doesn't hurt the plastic in the phone so it shouldn't hurt brass right?

anyways figured i'd get ya'lls opinions on this

 

[John L]

Re: quick drying brass

Shawn,
It will work fine just keep the temps low. Better yet get a gallon of Denatured Alcohol, pour some in a bucket/can and drop your wet brass in. The alcohol will absorb the water and it drys in about ten minutes after you take them out of the can.

 

[High Binder]

Re: quick drying brass

+1 on the alcohol trick but an oven will work too

 

[_shawn_]

Re: quick drying brass

thanks for the info i'll pick some up tomorrow

 

[Teggy1]

Re: quick drying brass

Yup, oven will work, I just don't like the water spots left on my brass.

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

My method is to use a rotary separator, dump onto towel and shake them around, then dump into my drying box, which is lined with extra-shiny duct tape, and houses a 100W light bulb.

This will get a full load of brass bone dry in 45 minutes.

 

[Suasponte]

Re: quick drying brass

Ditto with the Ammo can! Been going strong now for close to 3-4 years.

Terry

 

[bachelorjack]

Re: quick drying brass

The best way to dry a phone or other electronic item is to put it into a sealed container of white rice. You're only lucky the oven hasn't destroyed your phone before. The heat moves the moisture to other parts that don't dry as easily. The rice absorbs the moisture. Sucks it up like a fat kid and bowl of Halloween candy.

 

[_shawn_]

Re: quick drying brass

nice box setup

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: suasponte</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ditto with the Ammo can! Been going strong now for close to 3-4 years.

Terry </div></div>

Terry, I got the idea from you! A little engineering insight...

1. Consider buying a roll of the ridiculously shiny ducting tape, and lining the inside of your can with it. The outside walls of my can BARELY get warm even after the light has been on for nearly an hour. Before the tape, the walls would get WARM! The reflective tape has very low emissivity, and reflects the radiant heat back, rather than the dull green paint absorbing the radiant heat. Thus, more heat is put into the brass, making it more energy efficient, and faster working.

2. Notice how I positioned my fan. I have 1/2" holes cut in the bottom corners of my can to allow cool, dry air in, and my fan is really an exhaust fan, which blows hot, moist air out the top. Hot air rises, so airflow going from bottom to top makes natural sense. Also, fans like these (we have the same fan because I borrowed your shopping list) work much more efficiently as pullers, not pushers. That is why a car's radiator fan sucks air through the radiator, rather than pushing it.

3. Stock up on 100W incandescent light bulbs. The Feudal lords in Congress have decided us Serfs are "better off" without incandescent light bulbs, and 100 watters are banned as of 01/01/2012. 75W are banned a year later.

Hope you don't think I'm criticizing... Your drying box idea is the ONLY reason I was able to stick with the stainless tumbling media. As nice a job it does, the process was just too much when I factored in the drying situation!

 

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Re: quick drying brass

Just about every major appliance manufacturer sells a rack that hangs on the inside of your clothes dryer door and forms a shelf for drying items you don't want tumbled, like tennis shoes. Just put a cookie sheet on the shelf and dump your brass on it.

 

[plh]

Re: quick drying brass

After a run thru the ultrasonic, used my autoclave on dry cycle; 8 years of post-grad surgery training finally paying off!

 

[Suasponte]

Re: quick drying brass

Turbo54:

I don't think your busting my balls. I actually made one with a top mounted fan for a friend, and he says that within a hour they are dry.

I let mine run over night and they a dry in the morning. It works, and I have another one that is in the works for a guy at my club. I will more than likely make it a top mount exhaust.

Terry

 

[EWP]

Re: quick drying brass

I use a hair dryer with the brass in a large plastic bowl after toweling off the excess water, up to 100-150 pieces of brass are dried inside and out ready to primer and drop powder in less than 5 min's.

This may not be a very good method if you prep large batches of brass since getting good air flow in and around all the brass is very important and not hard with smaller batches in a plastic bowl.

Since I only load and shoot 50-100 rounds at a time of any one load and keep my brass for each load separated prepping them in small batches is the only option and the hair dryer is by far the best and fastest way to dry brass.

 

[bbradford71]

Re: quick drying brass

Not to sound stupid but why is your brass wet?

 

[gathert]

Re: quick drying brass

Some people use sonic cleaners which uses a high frequency broadcast through water to clean brass. And anything else you want to throw in there. Its pretty quick.

 

[jagged77]

Re: quick drying brass

I will get around to making an ammo box drier like Suasponte but until then I make do with toweling the brass dry then using a hair dryer on them for 5 mins or so. I then leave them overnight in the airing cupboard next to the water heater. The hair dryer method works well and can be used on its own providing you shake the brass around to dislodge water from the bottom of the case.

 

[SPAK]

Re: quick drying brass

I just anneal mine

 

[Big Cal]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: High Binder</div><div class="ubbcode-body">+1 on the alcohol trick but an oven will work too </div></div>
Alcohol works well oven works well together they are very bad stating the obvious but better to say it then have someone try it

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Frogman77</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I just anneal mine

</div></div>

I anneal every 3-4 loadings, but clean between each, so that method isn't 100%. However, if I'm going to anneal, I don't bother drying first.

Good point.

 

[SONIC SAAMI]

Re: quick drying brass

Been using the dishwasher's dish drying mode.

Just leave the brass in the separator and set the washer on dry.

It helps to put the brass out on a towel to get the excess water off,then into the dish washer

 

[coues7]

Re: quick drying brass

Nice Build Turbo.

 

[Ring]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My method is to use a rotary separator, dump onto towel and shake them around, then dump into my drying box, which is lined with extra-shiny duct tape, and houses a 100W light bulb.

This will get a full load of brass bone dry in 45 minutes.

</div></div>

tactical easy bake oven?

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: coues7</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nice Build Turbo. </div></div>

Thanks!

There have been a lot of methods mentioned here, and perhaps I'm biased, but I like mine best.

Alcohol is expensive, and is diluted each time you use it, so needs to be replaced often - or redistilled.

The oven and Laundry Drier use a lot of energy. There is a LOT of wasted volume in those, and therefore, consume thousands of watts. Most ovens are not convection ovens, and become less and less efficient as the air inside gets more and more humid, as the water evaporates...this can be improved by opening the door and using a fan to circulate fresh dry air into the oven.

The hair drier is 1500W, but only takes 5 minutes. 15 times the energy consumption of mine, but only 9 times faster - and thats for only ~100 pieces at a time.

Perhaps most importantly, mine is self contained and lives in the reloading "area". Men are reasonable and logical, and know using the oven for generic "heating purposes" is totally legit - but my lovely significant other is NOT OK with the oven being used to do anything but warm/cook food. The drier is for drying clothes etc etc etc.

Unfortunately, that same principle does not apply to guns, for example:

This 22 is for training only, the 223 is for medium range/medium game, the 308 is for FTR only, the 284 is for FTO and tactical matches only. Etc etc etc

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bbradford71</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not to sound stupid but why is your brass wet? </div></div>


Also, many of us use stainless steel tumbling media, which is about 5lb of little pins about .025" in diameter, and .200" long. You use them in a rotary-style tumbler. Work GREAT, but it's a wet process.

 

[Playerz1337]

Re: quick drying brass

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: suasponte</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ditto with the Ammo can! Been going strong now for close to 3-4 years.

Terry </div></div>

Terry, I got the idea from you! A little engineering insight...

1. Consider buying a roll of the ridiculously shiny ducting tape, and lining the inside of your can with it. The outside walls of my can BARELY get warm even after the light has been on for nearly an hour. Before the tape, the walls would get WARM! The reflective tape has very low emissivity, and reflects the radiant heat back, rather than the dull green paint absorbing the radiant heat. Thus, more heat is put into the brass, making it more energy efficient, and faster working.

2. Notice how I positioned my fan. I have 1/2" holes cut in the bottom corners of my can to allow cool, dry air in, and my fan is really an exhaust fan, which blows hot, moist air out the top. Hot air rises, so airflow going from bottom to top makes natural sense. Also, fans like these (we have the same fan because I borrowed your shopping list) work much more efficiently as pullers, not pushers. That is why a car's radiator fan sucks air through the radiator, rather than pushing it.

3. Stock up on 100W incandescent light bulbs. The Feudal lords in Congress have decided us Serfs are "better off" without incandescent light bulbs, and 100 watters are banned as of 01/01/2012. 75W are banned a year later.

Hope you don't think I'm criticizing... Your drying box idea is the ONLY reason I was able to stick with the stainless tumbling media. As nice a job it does, the process was just too much when I factored in the drying situation!</div></div>

I wonder how well the "chrome" paint would reflect the heat, just spray the inside til shiny.

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

Come to think of it, the *best* thing to do is to actually use mirrors inside there.

The shiny duct tape is quite good, but wrinkles in it will hurt increase its emissivity (not good).

In a class, I had to derive some stuff concerning this.

Fact is, a simple coat of white paint will help tremendously!

 

[mdmp5]

Re: quick drying brass

Mirrors?? Christ, you guys have too much time on your hands

 

[LARMIKE]

Re: quick drying brass

Black towel and a fan. takes a little longer but it is cheap and it works. No chemicals either.

 

[memilanuk]

Re: quick drying brass

Been doing the oven bit... the house we bought came with a nice one that has a 'Pure Convection' method. Normally I set it for 140-150F and put 'em in for an hour or two. Getting the cases themselves dry isn't so much an issue as drying out the residual moisture in the MTM case trays, even with 1/8" holes drilled in the bottom of each cavity for drainage/circulation. So, I'm looking for a better way. These ammo-can case-dryers sound like they might be just the ticket.

Looks like we're talkin' a .30 cal ammo can - the kind you find at the run of the mill gun store or local hardware store, etc. labeled for anything from .223 to .308 to 9mm to detonators, etc. Anyone make a bigger one using a .50 cal can?

Since I missed it earlier, and finding anything in those monster SS tumbling media threads

is kind of hit or miss if you don't know *exactly* who said what in the first place... could one of you guys who have one post a parts list? Kind of curious what you're using for power... those look like dc fans from a computer... so I'm assuming you have some sort of computer power supply rigged up also?

Thanks,

Monte

 

[turbo54]

Re: quick drying brass

Mine is a 50cal ammo can. The fan I'm using is literally *the* fan they had at Radio Shack. It's a simple AC fan, so you just need to hit it with 110V.

I'll grab the part number for you...I'm sure it can be had much cheaper online. I think I gave $25 for mine.

 

[memilanuk]

Re: quick drying brass

Ah. We have a Rat Shack here, so I'll see what they have available next time I'm off work. If its straight AC and no PS involved, that makes life simpler.