Tumbling, how do you do it?

[Matt O]

Since my last post, I've changed a few things, I quit using the steel pins altogether, and now just use water dish soap and a 1/4tsp of lemi-shine. The reason for not using the pins is threefold. 1. The extra step of decapping the brass before tumbling. 2. I was always worried that I'd get a pin in the brass and miss it. 3. While using the pins, there's no doubt that they come out clean, they are too clean, I started having problems with the cases sticking on my powder funnel in my 550, sometimes sticking pretty darn well.

By leaving the pins out, I was able to add 5lbs more brass into the tumbler, did'nt need to decap before tumbling, the cases came out quite clean enough, and because they're not super clean, I no longer have any sticking issues. Currently, I let the cases tumble for about 45 minutes, rinse, and then into the dehydrator for an hour to hour and half, done. The only problem with the steel pins is that they do too good of a job, I've come to believe that while the cases need to be clean, they don't need to be THAT clean. So far this has worked well.

Thanks for the heads up - I'm going to have to try this. I noticed some sticking as well which is pretty annoying.

[SecondsCount]

Since my last post, I've changed a few things, I quit using the steel pins altogether, and now just use water dish soap and a 1/4tsp of lemi-shine. The reason for not using the pins is threefold. 1. The extra step of decapping the brass before tumbling. 2. I was always worried that I'd get a pin in the brass and miss it. 3. While using the pins, there's no doubt that they come out clean, they are too clean, I started having problems with the cases sticking on my powder funnel in my 550, sometimes sticking pretty darn well.

By leaving the pins out, I was able to add 5lbs more brass into the tumbler, did'nt need to decap before tumbling, the cases came out quite clean enough, and because they're not super clean, I no longer have any sticking issues. Currently, I let the cases tumble for about 45 minutes, rinse, and then into the dehydrator for an hour to hour and half, done. The only problem with the steel pins is that they do too good of a job, I've come to believe that while the cases need to be clean, they don't need to be THAT clean. So far this has worked well.

Link to my post

This is why I tumble the brass in corncob media with a polish before I run it through the press. Even without using pins, or even tumbling in the lemishine/soap/water mixture, they get stripped of whatever it is that gives them the slipperiness to make it easier to resize and expand.

[dbateman]

For those of you who are wet tumbling: Do you check every case for steel media? Have you ever found steel media stuck in any cases after using a rotary separator and drying? I'm only loading 9mm (not decapped) and my media separator seems to get all of it out. No problems in ~10k rounds so far. Today, I just sifted through the cases for any signs of media & called it good. Just curious to hear others' experiences.

I don't really do much of an inspection.
I just rinse my cases and media pour off most of the water and tip the lot into my separator.
After I separate my pins and brass I rinse the brass again, then place the brass in trays to dry.
Depending on the time frame I have sometimes I put them into an oven sometimes not.
Anyway the point is if there were pins left in the case I'd see them in the dying trays.

There is one time I do inspect brass for pins. That is unprimed new brass, they tend to get pins stuck in the flash hole.

I do not deprime my brass before tumbling.

[flux]

I use a stasdard Lyman turbo 1200. Don't deprime before tumbling ,rebel cleans superbly , but don't see myself changing yet.

[ralph]

Link to my post

This is why I tumble the brass in corncob media with a polish before I run it through the press. Even without using pins, or even tumbling in the lemishine/soap/water mixture, they get stripped of whatever it is that gives them the slipperiness to make it easier to resize and expand.

I understand what you're saying.. I followed your link, to see how you're doing it. Myself, I'm looking at reducing the number of steps required to get decently clean brass that dosen't hang up on my powder funnel. So far, what I'm doing seems to fill that bill, and it seems to work well. I don't see the need,for example, to have the primer pockets squeaky clean, for practice ammo (if I'm loading rifle ammo for accuracy I'll take the time to clean them, but not for pistol ammo) the pins work really,really well, too well. I figure it's just unessessary to get the casesTHAT clean.

[NETim]

I am a brass whore. Nothing delights me more than to find some old, grungy brass in amongst the wooly mammoth bones at the range and making that brass all sparkly again. IMHO nothing beats wet tumbling when it comes to cleaning the interior of brass because many times my range treasure is filled with rocks, mud, sand and other debris. Wet tumbling gets rid of that stuff. Also, I've found that nothing cleans up interior corrosion like wet tumbling and SS pins.

It can be overdone though, as noted earlier and clean brass does tend to stick to the powder funnel. To lessen the frustration:

1) 25 minutes in the tumbler, tops. Lemi-shine/Armor All wash n' wax mix. SS pins. Wash n' wax makes the brass slightly slicker IMHO. Shorter tumbling time doesn't clean the interior quite as well. REALLY clean, bright interiors just beg for drag on the downstroke.

2) AA replacement powder funnel in the 650. Much shorter than the Dillon factory version. It also performs much like the classic Lyman "M" belling die.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/267...-powder-funnel

[Slavex]

Interesting reading on the cleaning without pins, I'm going to assume the case sticking to the powder funnel is something you can really feel running a press manually. I can hear it happen on my press, but I've got a MKVII running it, so I don't feel anything, I just hear it. Will have to try cleaning some without pins next time.

[ralph]

Interesting reading on the cleaning without pins, I'm going to assume the case sticking to the powder funnel is something you can really feel running a press manually. I can hear it happen on my press, but I've got a MKVII running it, so I don't feel anything, I just hear it. Will have to try cleaning some without pins next time.

You sure can feel when the cases stick, it's noticable.. by leaving the pins out,, adding more brass to make up the difference in weight in the tumbler,shortening the tumbling time, the cases come out plenty clean enough, inside and out. Sticking is eliminated. And you still retain the benefits of wet tumbling....No lead dust...All I could teĺl anyone interested is to try it once, see what you think, if you don't like it, then go back to using the pins, you're not out anything by trying it once.