Cleaning Brass today.

35 Whelen · Mar 11, 2017

I recently decided to try wet tumbling after years of dry tumbling. I had about 400 old tarnished pieces to do.
After reading a bit about tumbling brass with SS media,
I decided to try it. For about a $100 bucks a Harbor Freight rotary tumbler and 2lbs of media. Some of the brass has been laying around for many years and was very dark and tarnished. Here some to show how bad they
Actually were.

Here are the same ones 2hrs later from the new tumbler.

What do you think bout that???

DrMike · Mar 11, 2017

For sure, the stainless steel media does a great job cleaning up brass. I use it for all my own brass anymore.

TackDriver284 · Mar 11, 2017

That looks good. I have the vibratory tumblers to clean my brass with walnut or corn. It tends to get messy, will a vibratory tumbler work with SS media? I assumed it won't since SS media is heavier and tends to stay on the bottom unlike the rotary one.

35 Whelen · Mar 11, 2017

TD,
No this is actually a "wet" process. And you really cant compare the two processes as it would have taken forever
With brand new walnut to ever clean these even close to this..........waaaaaaay faster. I also did some very old bullets
That were black on the jacket and lead tips heavily oxidized
That looked horrible! They all came out as shiny as this brass! This thing is amazing, very pleased with the results.

Dr. Vette · Mar 11, 2017

I used the Harbor Freight one like you for a while, and it still works for small batches. I got the Extreme Rebel 17 for Christmas then and it works a LOT better.
http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/
Faster, more consistent results, and media seems to get jammed in the cases less frequently. In addition, using a media separator is a lot faster than emptying each case by hand, which is what I was doing initially.

SJB358 · Mar 11, 2017

Wow... that's pretty amazing stuff.

How do you dry them out?

Dr. Vette · Mar 11, 2017

I have a fan going in my garage all the time to keep condensation from developing under the cars. Long story.

I set the damp brass on a towel in front of the fan, and pick it up the next morning. If in a hurry, you can use compressed air (5hp compressor) to dry each, then set it in front of the fan for a while. I rarely am in need of any brass immediately, so it works for me.

Alderman · Mar 11, 2017

I've been using a food dehydrator.

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SJB358 · Mar 12, 2017

Never used the wet method but man that stuff looks great.

Thanks for the tips fellas.

truck driver · Mar 12, 2017

I've thought about it but I don't mass load ammo anymore so it would be a waste of money for me since I already have a good Dillon vibrating cleaner and only need to clean a handful of brass at a time. I have been known to fill up the Dillon and let it run all night filled with .45 acp or .38 spl brass.
Sometimes I just put a dab of flitz on the rifle brass to clean the soot and polish the brass by hand if I'm only doing a few.
The Dillon is suppose to be a wet or dry case cleaner and I could use it but then I'm only cleaning 20 cases at a time anymore and it would be a pain to dump it filled with water, pins and brass.

mike06 · Mar 12, 2017

Just started using the wet cleaning myself but I went with the Harbor Freight Ultrasonic Cleaner and found a recipe on accurateshooter.com seems to be working good. Some of my 308 cases had been reloaded 10 times and in inside powder build up was heavy. The 50/50 vinegar and water dissolved the powder on the inside real well.

kraky1 · Mar 12, 2017

A little lemi shine dish powder really boosted my ultrasonic cleaner and I've heard that people sprinkle a little bit of it into their wet solution for the stainless pin cleaning also....it's got some citric acid in it. And, if you don't like it it works darn good in your dishwasher too....lol!

rodell · Mar 12, 2017

I switched to all wet tumbling a couple of years ago. The extra "work" is worth it to me as I obsess about neck tension and like to start "clean".

I use the Frankford Arsenal brass dryer now. An hour in the trays and ready to load.

For soap, I use the Armor All car wash. It leaves just a little protection on the brass. Lemishine is the ticket to "new" looking brass, too.

I use my old media separator from the vibratory days with water in it and separating the media is no chore at all. I use a good grade strainer to pour the water through and that captures the media. Pour the media back into the tumbler and its ready for another day.

35 Whelen · Mar 12, 2017

Here is more I just did, these are 35 year old Musgrave brass my Dad had under the bench, it was very dark and so nasty I just never bothered to load it!

Every case is like factory new ! Even the headstamp letters are cleaned right down into the bottom of the impressions!

Amazing results compared to anything I ever tryed before.

truck driver · Mar 12, 2017

They sure look pretty Earle. I must admit that it dose a great job on cleaning.

Dr. Vette · Mar 12, 2017

35 Whelen":32czldsw said:
Every case is like factory new ! Even the headstamp letters are cleaned right down into the bottom of the impressions!
Amazing results compared to anything I ever tried before.

Tip:

Get a universal depriming die, and remove the primers before cleaning them. It will get the primer pockets perfectly clean.

Alderman · Mar 12, 2017

Use the pins only. I bought some media that was mixed pins and beads. The beads ended up stuck in the primer pockets of 9mm brass. No issue on large rifle sized primer pockets though.

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mike06 · Mar 12, 2017

Are any of you that use a ultrasonic using a tray or just letting the brass lay on the bottom of the machine? I have seen youtube vids both ways. Wondering which has the best results. I have been using a tray.

35 Whelen · Mar 12, 2017

Alderman,
I bought some media that had some "doublecones" mixed in as well and it was exactly the right size to stick in LR Primer holes, out of a hundred cases 80 of them would have a cone jamed right in tbe primer pocket!!##!
However I tryed cleaning old bullets up and that media
Actually cleans old brown bullets like crazy! Much better than just the pins. I also did some experimenting just squirting in lemon juice vs buying lemishine and couldnt see much difference. Most are just adding a few drops of Dawn but I found you can really speed up the process by adding about 4 teaspoons of Lysol multi surface cleaner! That really brightened them up fast!