If you’re thinking about getting into wet tumbling, the FART is on sale

[LittleLebowski]

The Frankford Arsenal Reloading Tumbler is on sale at Amazon for way below anywhere else at $130 and this tumbler is the standard for wet tumbling which is the way.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HTN4R6O

[Clusterfrack]

Excellent tool. Totally changed my process.

[ER_STL]

All I read was wet fart. Not sure why I clicked.

Is wet tumbling that much better than dry media with polish? My brass gets pretty clean with the latter but I've never wet tumbled before...

[Duelist]

All I read was wet fart. Not sure why I clicked.

Is wet tumbling that much better than dry media with polish? My brass gets pretty clean with the latter but I've never wet tumbled before...

Wet media curious...

[JCS]

You, sir, just cost me some money! Had my eye on one for awhile so glad to snag it on sale. Goodbye harbor freight rock tumbler.

[JCS]

Excellent tool. Totally changed my process.

What “recipe” do you use? I’ve been using lemishine and armorall car wash n wax.

[Clusterfrack]

What “recipe” do you use? I’ve been using lemishine and armorall car wash n wax.

My goal was to eliminate lead contamination from dry tumbling, and also not pollute the environment with the washing solution. From the papers I’ve read on washing lead contaminated soil, you need a ~2 millimolar solution of EDTA (https://www.saveoncitric.com/died1lb.html) to chelate the lead. Roughly, that works out to 1 gram of EDTA per liter of water. Apparently you need to titrate the water to pH 8 in order for the EDTA to dissolve. After tumbling, I think we can just discard the solution since the lead is bound to the EDTA.

1/8 tsp washing soda per gal of hot tap water brings pH above 8. Then I add 1 tsp of EDTA for approx 4 mMol solution. To that, I add Lemishine and Wash-n-Wax, and pour that gallon into the brass-filled FART. It's working well so far.


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180225/9362a828a023da2c359cdc1223ffce72.jpg

[Borderland]

Looks like a deal. I still use a dry medium that gets brass clean enough for my purposes, but if I were buying into reloading gear for the first time I would spend the bucks on that one.

[Borderland]

My goal was to eliminate lead contamination from dry tumbling, and also not pollute the environment with the washing solution. From the papers I’ve read on washing lead contaminated soil, you need a ~2 millimolar solution of EDTA (https://www.saveoncitric.com/died1lb.html) to chelate the lead. Roughly, that works out to 1 gram of EDTA per liter of water. Apparently you need to titrate the water to pH 8 in order for the EDTA to dissolve. After tumbling, I think we can just discard the solution since the lead is bound to the EDTA.

1/8 tsp washing soda per gal of hot tap water brings pH above 8. Then I add 1 tsp of EDTA for approx 4 mMol solution. To that, I add Lemishine and Wash-n-Wax, and pour that gallon into the brass-filled FART. It's working well so far.

Spoken like a true Bio Chemist. ;)

[Oldherkpilot]

Spoken like a true Bio Chemist. ;)

I was thinking Mad Scientist, but close enough.😁

[awp_101]

[Beavis]So wet FARTs are where it’s at?[/Butthead]

[Borderland]

I was thinking Mad Scientist, but close enough.😁

https://youtu.be/IpiHCZHGbF8?t=181

[JCS]

My goal was to eliminate lead contamination from dry tumbling, and also not pollute the environment with the washing solution. From the papers I’ve read on washing lead contaminated soil, you need a ~2 millimolar solution of EDTA (https://www.saveoncitric.com/died1lb.html) to chelate the lead. Roughly, that works out to 1 gram of EDTA per liter of water. Apparently you need to titrate the water to pH 8 in order for the EDTA to dissolve. After tumbling, I think we can just discard the solution since the lead is bound to the EDTA.

1/8 tsp washing soda per gal of hot tap water brings pH above 8. Then I add 1 tsp of EDTA for approx 4 mMol solution. To that, I add Lemishine and Wash-n-Wax, and pour that gallon into the brass-filled FART. It's working well so far.

Does the strength of the solution need to change based off how much lead is in the water?

[Clusterfrack]

Does the strength of the solution need to change based off how much lead is in the water?

Since I'm a mad scientist, not a real environmental chemist, I can't answer that with certainty.

My recipe is hopefully better than nothing. The 4 mMol EDTA concentration is double that used for remediating lead contaminated soil.

[LHS]

How do you like that brass drying machine? Living in the desert, I generally just lay mine out on an old cookie sheet with a paper tower under them in the sun, but on occasion it does rain here.


My goal was to eliminate lead contamination from dry tumbling, and also not pollute the environment with the washing solution. From the papers I’ve read on washing lead contaminated soil, you need a ~2 millimolar solution of EDTA (https://www.saveoncitric.com/died1lb.html) to chelate the lead. Roughly, that works out to 1 gram of EDTA per liter of water. Apparently you need to titrate the water to pH 8 in order for the EDTA to dissolve. After tumbling, I think we can just discard the solution since the lead is bound to the EDTA.

1/8 tsp washing soda per gal of hot tap water brings pH above 8. Then I add 1 tsp of EDTA for approx 4 mMol solution. To that, I add Lemishine and Wash-n-Wax, and pour that gallon into the brass-filled FART. It's working well so far.

[LtDave]

What “recipe” do you use? I’ve been using lemishine and armorall car wash n wax.

I've been wet tumbling for years, using ceramic media. I don't think you need a magic recipe. I add a little dish soap to the water, and sometimes will add Lemishine. If you only use the soap and water without the media, it cleans the brass but doesn't make it super shiny. It also won't get all the junk out of the primer pockets.

[Clusterfrack]

How do you like that brass drying machine? Living in the desert, I generally just lay mine out on an old cookie sheet with a paper tower under them in the sun, but on occasion it does rain here.

I like it quite a bit--especially because I don't deprime pistol brass before tumbling. 3 hours in the Lyman Cyclone does the trick.

[Sal Picante]

How do you like that brass drying machine? Living in the desert, I generally just lay mine out on an old cookie sheet with a paper tower under them in the sun, but on occasion it does rain here.

Heh - In Florida, it would NEVER dry... :o

[mmc45414]

I am in Ohio, and always have enough lead time to just let it dry laid out in the basement:
- Pistol brass without primers laid on their side could probably be loaded the next morning
- Rifle brass without primers laying on their side I give a couple days or so
- Rifle brass I am in a hurry for I will leave overnight vertical in a loading block (typically smaller quantities)
- Pistol brass with primers I leave on their sides on a towel for several days, sometimes I was doing more business travel I would make a point to do a batch before I left

ETA: All this is without pins, the only time I needed to use the pins was on some cheap brass that was so bad, when I got it I considered just discarding it. The pins made it look like they had just fallen out of the die, but haven't used them since.

[LittleLebowski]

Tumbling some .357/.38.


https://youtu.be/7dJGF_d8GHU

[LittleLebowski]

Clusterfrack Will this work for titrating the lead?

https://www.amazon.com/Bulksupplements-EDTA-Disodium-Powder-Grams/dp/B019J68NVS/

[Clusterfrack]

Clusterfrack Will this work for titrating the lead?

https://www.amazon.com/Bulksupplements-EDTA-Disodium-Powder-Grams/dp/B019J68NVS/

Yes, but this is cheaper:
https://www.saveoncitric.com/died1lb.html

Don't forget, you also need washing soda (not baking soda)

[LittleLebowski]

76702

[FNFAN]

All I read was wet fart. Not sure why I clicked.


Yeah, I had to find out what ‘wet’ was being discussed. Thought maybe it was going to be some cautionary tale about ‘wet work.’

[Shotgun]

Been thinking about wet tumbling. I have a sonic cleaner and a dry tumbler -- neither of which do a good job on primer pockets. The sonic cleaners already requires drying (200 degrees on a cookie sheet in the oven for a couple of hours does the job). At least from what I see on YouTube, wet tumbling with Dawn and steel pins makes the brass look brand new. Comments/thoughts on wet tumbling vs other methods?

[SecondsCount]

It depends.

With pistol brass, I will throw the dirty brass into a bucket of warm water with a little lemishine and dish soap for about an hour. I don't decap first and do not care about primer pockets.

I rinse off the brass and then lay it on a towel to dry overnight. This takes a good amount of the crud off. After that I run it in the dry tumbler for about an hour. This puts a little polish back on the squeaky clean brass.

[mmc45414]

I have a sonic cleaner and a dry tumbler -- neither of which do a good job on primer pockets. ... At least from what I see on YouTube, wet tumbling with Dawn and steel pins makes the brass look brand new.
The pins are a PITA, but using them will make nasty cases look like were just struck by the die, inside, outside, primer pockets, even the writing of the headstamp. But wet tumbling without the pins makes for some really pretty brass. And since the advent of the Lee APP I have even been sizing 9mm with case lube, and with the primers punched pistol cases laying on their sides will be dry overnight.

[jtcarm]

The pins are a PITA, but using them will make nasty cases look like were just struck by the die, inside, outside, primer pockets,

Agree, I put the FART on my Christmas list.

I decided to clean all my nasty .38 brass and sized/de-primed about 1,200 cases. Can’t argue with how clean. It’s amazing how easily primers seat in a nice, clean pocket.

The pins are a PITA and make me tense as I worry about some getting left in a case. I’ll be buying the gin that fits on a 5-gallon bucket.

[willie]

Some have said that wrong size pins can get stuck in primer flash holes.

[Flamingo]

I just bought the Franklin Armory (https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Separator-Perforated-Reloading/dp/B01B6S8JUC/ref=sr_1_12?crid=WYYJCG1GF2DB&keywords=franklin+armory+tumbler&qid=1642202067&sprefix=franklin+armo%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-12) wet/dry media separator. I like it better than the 5 gallon bucket version that I have. I like to fill the small bucket that came with it with water and let the ball sit around 1/3 of the way in the water. That keeps the pins under water and makes them fall down into the bucket. When I was using the 5 gallon bucket method I had to fill the bucket really full. That made a bigger mess when I was messing with the bucket.

[358156hp]

The pins are easiest removed when the case is under water so the waters surface tension doesn't prevent the pins from falling out when using a rotary media separator. You can separate the pins from the cases manually by simply holding the case under water, and allowing the pins to fall out. This only works when the cases are submerged in water.

[RevolverRob]

For those worried about pins stuck in brass. The pins are steel and the brass isn't...

82839

Depends on your setup, but using a media separator like Flamingo posted, then take a strong magnet and wave it over your brass. In theory you could "suck up" any cases with pins in them. You'd have to experiment with how strong and close the magnet needs to be. You could also just setup a magnet on your bench and invert your cases as you put them into a case feeder or dryer, or do any other processing with them.

[Duelist]

For those worried about pins stuck in brass. The pins are steel and the brass isn't...

82839

Depends on your setup, but using a media separator like Flamingo posted, then take a strong magnet and wave it over your brass. In theory you could "suck up" any cases with pins in them. You'd have to experiment with how strong and close the magnet needs to be. You could also just setup a magnet on your bench and invert your cases as you put them into a case feeder or dryer, or do any other processing with them.

There you get getting all scienc-y on us again. Sheesh!

[chances R]

been wet tumbling for 10+ yrs. Used a Lortone rock tumbler, tried FA, like the Hornady best. I use RCBS brass solution additive with a teaspoon of lemishine. Run the first load for a hour, then rinse and change solution. Run another hour. No rinse, leave the solution on it the separater, then to a food dehydrator. Excellent, like new appearance. Leaving the solution on without rinse retards tarnish.

[mmc45414]

Another problem is separating the pins in the water. They make this magnetic gadget:
https://www.frankfordarsenal.com/case-cleaning/case-cleaning-media/media-transfer-magnet/909271.html

[358156hp]

Another problem is separating the pins in the water. They make this magnetic gadget:
https://www.frankfordarsenal.com/case-cleaning/case-cleaning-media/media-transfer-magnet/909271.html

I have one of these, pour most of the water out before using this, and drop your pins on a towel to dry. Water inside the magnet will eventually cause it to rust.

[mmc45414]

With all this talk about separating the pins, I thought I might mention that we had a pretty good thread about not using the pins. When I went to look for it, it had drifted back to page 13 so maybe some folks have not noticed it:

Wet tumbling sans SS pins, with near SS pins results! (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?25659-Wet-tumbling-sans-SS-pins-with-near-SS-pins-results!)

[md8232]

1309831 (tel:1309831)[/URL]]I have one of these, pour most of the water out before using this, and drop your pins on a towel to dry. Water inside the magnet will eventually cause it to rust.

Put a baggie over the magnet while in use. Works for me.

Also, I discovered this product to replace the Dawn Lemishine mixture.
https://www.thereloadingstation.com/products/brass-juice-case-wash

Pleased with the results and it lasts a long time.

[Boxy]

Do it without pins and it will work just fine. Pins are a hassle.

[Clusterfrack]

Do it without pins and it will work just fine. Pins are a hassle.

^^^This. I have never used pins.

[Super77]

I’ve just been using d-lead soap instead of dish soap. I wonder if the active ingredient is EDTA.

What does the washing soda do? pH I’m guessing?