Knowing What You Know Now

[horseman]

Dry tumble in a rotary. In my experiences, for me the other methods are too messy, too labor intensive and/or just marginally better (if any) than my corn cob blast media with 10% hard resin media.

My experiences are just the opposite. Wet tumbling is not "messy" unless you consider pouring dirty water down the drain and picking the pins up with a magnet from the catch bin and putting them back in the tumbler, messy. I use the same media separator to separate the pins from the brass as I DID separating media from the brass, just add water. AND it (wet tumbling) is far more than "marginally" better IMO and takes half the time for spotless, clean inside and out look like new brass. I won't say never again with the dry media but only if my wet tumbler goes south and it takes a long time to replace it. I do not miss the dust from the media nor the coating on my brass that comes out only marginally better than before media tumbling. I media tumbled brass for years as that's what was available, but I am a definite convert these days. I have a Lyman Turbo 1200 full of new, clean, Lyman corn media and enough left in the bag for twice more. Not gonna need it.

[GasGuzzler]

The dust, storage of dry media between uses, bulk of the vibrator and the separator, and the hours it takes to dry tumble are not messy or labor intensive? How about picking clods out of every 4th flash hole? Are we counting how long it takes to sweep my garage floor? Oh, the dry shaker is 3X as loud.

My wet set up is the size of a loaf of bread and can clean about 350 9X19s per batch in about 30 minutes with the same or less amount of work than dry.

I have a Lyman shaker with three types of media plus an RCBS separator and I haven't used any of it in years.

[Ranch Dog]

Dry vibrate with Lyman Corncob Plus.

None of this probably changes any minds, if you have settled on something.

I have done it all from chemicals through wet and dry. I have all the wet stuff, bought it all from start to finish. The only thing that I still use is the dryer as I do wash pistol brass, and my annealer drops the brass into a water quench.

I did not care for the mess the wet made nor the wastewater it generates. That's me.

Not all cleaning media is the same. I spent a lot of time looking into a bunch of the stuff out there. If a manufacturer took the time to communicate or talk with me about their product, I would listen, and then try their product.

The one that I stuck with after trying half of a dozen products was the Lyman Corn Cob Plus. This product uses a slightly larger cut, to avoid the plugged flash hole, plus the media uses a proprietary polishing agent. So far, I've used the first load of the material 14 times. My cycle time is 1:15 ~ 2:00, depending on the condition of the brass. What's different is that I also started using Lyman's Brass Baggies and load the vibrator to the max. I haven't kept a record of how many bags of different brass are in the bin, but there is no doubt that the media has done a considerable amount of work. After the last load, and shaking the material off the brass with a brass sifter bin, there has still not been one plugged flash hole.

All the cleaning equipment has been the Frankford Arsenal products. I have the big double-ended, Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler, but prefer the older Quick-N-EZ Case Tumbler (it is a vibrator, and it 20 years old). If it ever flames out, I will pull the big one out and use it with the Corn Cob Plus.

[horseman]

Dry vibrate with Lyman Corncob Plus.

None of this probably changes any minds, if you have settled on something.

I have done it all from chemicals through wet and dry. I have all the wet stuff, bought it all from start to finish. The only thing that I still use is the dryer as I do wash pistol brass, and my annealer drops the brass into a water quench.

I did not care for the mess the wet made nor the wastewater it generates. That's me.

Not all cleaning media is the same. I spent a lot of time looking into a bunch of the stuff out there. If a manufacturer took the time to communicate or talk with me about their product, I would listen, and then try their product.

The one that I stuck with after trying half of a dozen products was the Lyman Corn Cob Plus. This product uses a slightly larger cut, to avoid the plugged flash hole, plus the media uses a proprietary polishing agent. So far, I've used the first load of the material 14 times. My cycle time is 1:15 ~ 2:00, depending on the condition of the brass. What's different is that I also started using Lyman's Brass Baggies and load the vibrator to the max. I haven't kept a record of how many bags of different brass are in the bin, but there is no doubt that the media has done a considerable amount of work. After the last load, and shaking the material off the brass with a brass sifter bin, there has still not been one plugged flash hole.

All the cleaning equipment has been the Frankford Arsenal products. I have the big double-ended, Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler, but prefer the older Quick-N-EZ Case Tumbler (it is a vibrator, and it 20 years old). If it ever flames out, I will pull the big one out and use it with the Corn Cob Plus.

I agree with your first sentence for sure. Generally when one try's different methods and settles on a system they are usually pretty set on that decision whatever the subject. But when new information on a given subject is obtained taking a look at said information can be beneficial and maybe form a new perceptive. Those brass baggies could be a step in that direction for instance. Those sound like a good idea and would eliminate ONE of the issues I had with a buzz bucket along with the media dust, and clogging flash holes. One thing mentioned is the "waste water" part with wet cleaning, I just pour that "stuff" down the drain, gone, with the dry media it stays with the cleaning agent. Admittedly that bothered me. I will also admit to having become "addicted" to really shiny, clean inside and out brass. Larryw sent me some 45 acp brass that a lot of it was so discolored as to have a dark purplish color, almost black. (it was actually very shiny and looked preeeety cool, but). Dry tumbling would have "cleaned" it probably, but no way would it have removed the "tarnish". Two hours wet tumbling even that brass looked as good as the new Starline brass I have. Does it matter? maybe not, it did/does to me. I'm not trying to change any minds. I consider all opinions valid.

[mikld]

Wet tumble without the hassle of pins.

How do you wet tumble without pins? Is it just water, detergent and lemishine? After watching several video's about wet tumbling. It sure looks to me that the pins create a lot of extra work. Maybe for really dirty, range brass thats been on the range for months. Even then it seems you would have to clean them, decap them and then tumble with the pins.
Thanks for the reply

When I was experimenting with wet tumbling I tried pins, small SS screws, hard resin media, soap/water with lemoshine, soap/water alone and water alone. The water and 9mm brass worked as well as using "the formula". Plain brass and plain water got the cases shiny and squeaky clean. I don't need pristine case interiors nor primer pockets and have found the wet tumbling to be labor intensive and produce unnecessary results with some downsides (like mess, and quickly tarnishing).

[Ranch Dog]

I hear you, horseman. The wastewater bothers me in that I drink the water that comes out of the ground. I do have an anaerobic wastewater system, so what goes in is put back out on the edges of my yard. I hadn't thought about the stuff in the water when I ordered the tools, but this picture bugged me the moment I opened the instructions.

wastewater.jpg

The media goes into a bag and ends up in a landfill. There is an environmental cost to everything when you get down to it. I think that the difference between media and fluid, for me, is what I mentioned concerning the 14 cycles. I don't remember how much water was put in the drum, even if it was a gallon, that is still 14 gallons of wastewater dumped for no dry media being discarded yet.

One of the claims of the CCPlus is no dust, and it delivers on that.

[GasGuzzler]

I thought of the same point yesterday. I don't have a septic system or my "own" water source. My wastewater gets dumped in the car wash at work. I'm putting cleaner water in there than the wash guys.

The no-name media I got with the tumbler works better than the Lyman media I have but I probably got the wrong Lyman media.

When I was dry tumbling my best results came from the finer (than Lyman I have) media and a tablespoon of lighter fluid plus about 10 granules of Lemi-Shine in the dry mix.

But I still had to WASH them to get the dust off. I still had a mess on the floor from dust. I still had to tumble for 2 hours minimum to get clean brass.

So...I went shopping for the specific product and found the reviews say 3.5 out of 5 stars, sticks in flash holes, and leaves dusty residue.

I am going to get that specific media the next time I make an order and I will try again. As mentioned above one or two details can change a process or perspective. It's worth $10 to find out.

[Ranch Dog]

The ratings seem to be where you look. Amazon is 4.7 of 5.

I wonder if I'm not having the flash hole issue because I deburr my flash holes? I've done that for... 30 years or so. I use a K&M Tool.



Just about every manufacturer of reloading equipment, other than Lee, offers these tools now. Back then they were hard to find and I enjoyed working with K&M. It was a small home-based company, the initials being husband and wife. They have passed and the business moved on.

Flash holes are punched through the pocket, leaving a "star" burr of brass extending into the interior of the case. Of course, the primary reason to remove it is that it causes uninformed ignition. I'm sure you have had a propane torch that has ended up with a spider in one of the ports. The flame cannot get up to heat, and you can't control your work.

The first time you spin the tool, you will be like "holly chit!" You won't believe how bad they are, and that extends to all brass. Some worse than others, but present on all. The flash hole work is a one time fix. Every case I shoot has had the work; 25 Auto through 45-70 Govt.

The last cleaning was the 25 Auto, and like all the others, I shake it in the media bin and bag it. No dust of need to wipe it down.

Steel pins are no problem-free. I'm still finding them in odd places. I bought all kinds of pins, some costly, but supposedly to end problems that I was having. Not. Seeing them in the brass after all the work to free them was not unusual. I've had them impact my 218 Bee and 25-20 Win. Brass for both of these cartridges are tough to get and costly; otherwise, I would have tossed all of it. It took hours to correct.

I know not many others don't load 25 Auto, but this was a problem with the 25-20 Win as well. Not so bad on the rifle cartridge but a real issue with the pistol. Once my brass is cleaned, it goes straight to the press as all the other prep work as done. With the 25 Auto, this was a real problem because it went straight to the collator. What was unique about this issue is that it was not going to fall out under any circumstances. These lodged pins need needlenosed pliers to remove them. It will "F" up a Load-Master something terrible.



At the time, I was loading the 25-20 Win on the turret press, so with that being hands-on, it was easier to catch, but it still needed to be removed with pliers.

As I said, most of us probably are fixed in thought on this. But to explain why is more than a sentence. I would never go back to wet pins. I think your wash (GG) is more effective and less of a hassle. I would do that. As a note, my reloading room is part of a large garage/barn with its own water heater. That heater is set at max. Its amazing how really hot water will clean.

[Macd]

Sonic clean in hot water with citric acid and soap mixture. Hot water rinse and, if I want polished cases, dry vibrate in corn media. A small squirt of ammonia free brass polish adds to shine and keeps dust down.

[GasGuzzler]

I don't use pins so they cannot get stuck in cases

ETA - I put a flash hole uniformer in my cart along with the media you suggested.