I have started tumbling rifle and pistol brass using a thumblers model B with stainless. My question is that my rifle brass (223) comes out full of water even after shaking them over a bucket with a strainer. How can I get this water out so it dries faster. Would de-priming the brass before tumbling eliminate this? Thanks for the help.
SS tumbled brass help
- Thread starter mzvarner
- Start date
Deprime your brass.
Here's my method.
Deprime
Fill SS media.
Put X amount of shells
Couple squirts of darn blue dish soap
Bout a teaspoon or lemi shine +/- you decide.
Fill with water.
Tumble for x amount of time you decide I usually go about 2-3 hours.
I don't have a strainer so I pick up case by case and make sure I turn the brass upside down to not lose any media and tap it.
Throw it in a towel and shake a good amount. Then role the cases in the towel.
Either cook or let air dry. (Sometimes I use compressed air to each case before I let dry depends on mood)
Then clean out media and go again. Methods been good to me so far.
Here's my method.
Deprime
Fill SS media.
Put X amount of shells
Couple squirts of darn blue dish soap
Bout a teaspoon or lemi shine +/- you decide.
Fill with water.
Tumble for x amount of time you decide I usually go about 2-3 hours.
I don't have a strainer so I pick up case by case and make sure I turn the brass upside down to not lose any media and tap it.
Throw it in a towel and shake a good amount. Then role the cases in the towel.
Either cook or let air dry. (Sometimes I use compressed air to each case before I let dry depends on mood)
Then clean out media and go again. Methods been good to me so far.
I have seen this and forgot about this. I have read it a few times. I dont yet have a press. My tumbler was given to me so I was trying to get a head start on brass. Do you guys have two presses or do you run dirty brass through your dies, or have a dedicated universal de primer die?
I deprime 1st than throw them in the tumbler with a little bit of dishwasher detergent and lemishine for 2 hours and they come out looking better than new.
To answer your question I'd deprime 1st, once done put them on a towl to dry them off and let them air dry or bake on the oven at low heat if you want them dry faster.
To answer your question I'd deprime 1st, once done put them on a towl to dry them off and let them air dry or bake on the oven at low heat if you want them dry faster.
I run my brass in the tumbler for a couple hours to clean it before I do anything. I will only run clean brass through my dies.
I have a shallow plastic tub I dump them after a quick dry in a towel. I put the tubs of damp brass on the floor of my spare room and run the ceiling fan in that room overnight and next day they are dry enough to de-prime and process. Then when I am done with the processing, I need to get the lube off so back in the tumbler for 3 hours. When they come out of that second tumble they are absolutely spotless, primer pockets and all. When I am ready to reload them I touch them with a chamfer /deburr tool. In the end I get ammo better than any factory....
Patience is a virtue and if you are in a hurry to process your brass then you do not have enough ammo sitting on the shelf to get you by during the few days processing brass and reloading them takes.
I have a shallow plastic tub I dump them after a quick dry in a towel. I put the tubs of damp brass on the floor of my spare room and run the ceiling fan in that room overnight and next day they are dry enough to de-prime and process. Then when I am done with the processing, I need to get the lube off so back in the tumbler for 3 hours. When they come out of that second tumble they are absolutely spotless, primer pockets and all. When I am ready to reload them I touch them with a chamfer /deburr tool. In the end I get ammo better than any factory....
Patience is a virtue and if you are in a hurry to process your brass then you do not have enough ammo sitting on the shelf to get you by during the few days processing brass and reloading them takes.
Deprime with a decapping die, then tumble for two hours in tumbler. Flip it in a seperater form Cabelas, lay it out on a towel in the sun to dry. Dries them nice inside and out. I never put dirty brass in my resizing die and the Hornady decapping die is around 15-20 bucks I believe. As also mentioned it lets the primer pockets get cleaned out as well.
Same here, I run them for 1-2 hours before they go into the dies then after trimming and everything else I spin them for another 3-4 hours. they come out super clean nice and shiny.
The primer creates a vacuum and the water is more difficult to drain. Get a universal depriming die and life will be easier. The stainless media will also clean the primer pocket. Lightman
This is what I have settled on doing as well except on my blasting ammo. Dump in the brass primer and all in the tumbler then run it through the separator, blow off with compressed air and let it dry for a day or two. The universal decapping die is the way to go if you want the primer pockets clean.
You don't have to deprime at all, shake in a towel for a few minutes. Then throw in a bucket of white rice over night, next day just run through the media tumbler.
No need to de-prime 1st unless you want clean primer pockets. It does not create a vacuum.
Here's what you do. Get a Dillon media separator with bin. All it is is a rotating squirrel cage.
Fill the bin with water to the top, or enough to cover the section of basket in the bin. Dump your brass, media, and dirty water into the Dillon media separator (with bin full of water). Rotate for about 30 seconds to 1 minute if it makes you feel better. Remove the Dillon basket, shake it over the bin, and then dump the brass on an old blanket. Leave the brass over night and throw it in the dry media tumbler the next day. Ensure you add some NU-Finish to the dry media to keep your brass from tarnishing.
I've done all my brass this way using a Bigg Dawg tumbler, Dillon media separators (large ones), an old comforter, and a cement mixer full of 40 lbs of corncob treated with Nu-Finish car polish.
I hope that helps. If you have any questions shoot me a PM.
Here's what you do. Get a Dillon media separator with bin. All it is is a rotating squirrel cage.
Fill the bin with water to the top, or enough to cover the section of basket in the bin. Dump your brass, media, and dirty water into the Dillon media separator (with bin full of water). Rotate for about 30 seconds to 1 minute if it makes you feel better. Remove the Dillon basket, shake it over the bin, and then dump the brass on an old blanket. Leave the brass over night and throw it in the dry media tumbler the next day. Ensure you add some NU-Finish to the dry media to keep your brass from tarnishing.
I've done all my brass this way using a Bigg Dawg tumbler, Dillon media separators (large ones), an old comforter, and a cement mixer full of 40 lbs of corncob treated with Nu-Finish car polish.
I hope that helps. If you have any questions shoot me a PM.
I use a $15 lee decapping die. Decap all my brass and SS table for 3.5 hours, oven dry, lube and size then SS tumble for 30-60 mins. Trim, prime and load. Brass looks like new and I have zero prep issues or anything not wanting to get out of the case.
Great info guys, thanks for all the responses. Think I will get a decapper die and my life will be much easier from here on out. Currently I have about a years worth of brass that I have been saving and just started tumbling. It's pain stacking now but soon I will reap the rewards.
To get my primer pockets clean it is still taking 3+ hrs. I tried different brass to water ratios and haven't been able to cut that time down.
I'd just do a quick primer pocket cleaning with this before I toss it in the tumbler. It usually takes me about 2.5 hrs to get the pockets really clean..
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/725938/redding-case-preparation-kit?cm_vc=wishList
The size of the pin matters. A year or so back a smaller diameter pin was used by most SS tumbling set ups/dealers. These pins would sometimes doubleup and get stuck in flash holes. These pins cleaned pockets much better.
Now a larger diameter pin is used which eliminates any stuck pins in flash holes, but it takes much longer to get clean primer pockets. The brass will be super clean within 2 hours, but the pockets won't be. It usually takes 3-4 hours to get 100% clean pockets with the larger pins.
Back on media separation-Using my method I have only lost less than 1/2 pound of media over the last 8 months, and I have cleaned more brass in the last year than most people will ever clean in a lifetime.
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I tumble twice, once with just soap and water to clean the cases from the range for 1 hour then into a big pan in a 250 degree oven for an hour.
Then after I process the brass I tumble for 2 hours with soap and lemi shine. These cases after getting the media separated out of them and rinsed I toss back in a large dillon media separator to spin out as much water as possible then I lay the cases out on towels with a fan to dry them overnight. I tried cooking these cases in the oven, but I got lots of tarnishing. Simply laying them out on a towel overnight with a fan was a way better way and no tarnishing.
Then after I process the brass I tumble for 2 hours with soap and lemi shine. These cases after getting the media separated out of them and rinsed I toss back in a large dillon media separator to spin out as much water as possible then I lay the cases out on towels with a fan to dry them overnight. I tried cooking these cases in the oven, but I got lots of tarnishing. Simply laying them out on a towel overnight with a fan was a way better way and no tarnishing.
If you tumble them in corn cob treated with NU-Finish car polish you will experience no tarnishing. I have brass that has been out in the open in my un-insulated garage for about 2 months and still looks as shiny as the day I cleaned it.
I just bought a ss media cleaning kit, and got the small pins, because I get two stuck in primer pockets all the time... Okay like maybe 4 / 100 tumbled.
Also a food dehydrator is perfect to dry, and drying it right away makes it not tarnish.
I do see the occasional double pin sticking in primer pocket of 300blk/223 brass but only one or two per tumble. The smaller pins, I have not used the larger pins, work great on all primer pockets that I have tumbled (45ACP, 300blk/223, .308).
Deprime (Lee Universal Die)
SS tumble w/ dish soap and lemi-shine for about 2.5 hrs
roll around on towel to remove major moisture
lay on food dehydrator for 1hr (or anneal the case if ready which also dries them out)
resize w/ imperial and one-shot in the necks
tumble in clean corn media to remove all resizing lube
trim/chamfer/debur
Got that routine from a good friend and it works great
SS tumble w/ dish soap and lemi-shine for about 2.5 hrs
roll around on towel to remove major moisture
lay on food dehydrator for 1hr (or anneal the case if ready which also dries them out)
resize w/ imperial and one-shot in the necks
tumble in clean corn media to remove all resizing lube
trim/chamfer/debur
Got that routine from a good friend and it works great
OP, it doesn't hurt anything if you size the cases twice, might even decrease some more runout as the case position will be different the 2cnd sizing.
One thing to be aware of with SS cleaning is the case mouth gets peened. No biggy for plinker ammo and pistol but not ideal for precision rifle. So I trim .001" off and deburr inside and out or at least debur. I've been going two firings before I clean with SS because I'm lazy and don't want to hassle with trimming every time, plus I don't want my brass getting shorter and shorter. One other thing...I apply NECO dry case neck lube inside the necks with a Qtip right before I seat the bullet because the cases are so clean there is a lot more drag compared to a fired uncleaned cases.
If you happen to have a Ultrasonic cleaner you can run the cases first for 5 minutes to loosen up the carbon, then it only takes 45 min to finish cleaning the SS way. I got lazy and quit doing that too, LOL.
Oh, since I have my brass weight sorted into 50 round bins I only clean 50 at a time. So I grab 3 cases, swish them in the dirty water to get the pins out, then rinse at the sink which I'm standing in front of, deposit in a bowl lined with a towel, blow dry with wife's hair dryer and let sit overnight.
One thing to be aware of with SS cleaning is the case mouth gets peened. No biggy for plinker ammo and pistol but not ideal for precision rifle. So I trim .001" off and deburr inside and out or at least debur. I've been going two firings before I clean with SS because I'm lazy and don't want to hassle with trimming every time, plus I don't want my brass getting shorter and shorter. One other thing...I apply NECO dry case neck lube inside the necks with a Qtip right before I seat the bullet because the cases are so clean there is a lot more drag compared to a fired uncleaned cases.
If you happen to have a Ultrasonic cleaner you can run the cases first for 5 minutes to loosen up the carbon, then it only takes 45 min to finish cleaning the SS way. I got lazy and quit doing that too, LOL.
Oh, since I have my brass weight sorted into 50 round bins I only clean 50 at a time. So I grab 3 cases, swish them in the dirty water to get the pins out, then rinse at the sink which I'm standing in front of, deposit in a bowl lined with a towel, blow dry with wife's hair dryer and let sit overnight.
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