Hunting Washington Forum

Equipment & Gear => Guns and Ammo => Topic started by: C-Money on January 25, 2022, 07:57:28 AM

Title: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: C-Money on January 25, 2022, 07:57:28 AM: I was happy to get a brass tumbler and some walnut media for Christmas. This will be my first attempt at tumbling brass. I usually always reload new Winchester brass for rifles and never really had a need to clean any. With the current shortage of supplies, time to clean brass. I am thinking this will be fine, but thought I'd ask...I'm going to re-size to get the old primer out, and trim case to proper length. Next step will be to tumble. Any potential issue with deformation of cases during tumbling? I really doubt it, but what's your process of steps when reloading? I'm going to toss in some Hornaday, Remington, Winchester, and Federal brass to see if any clean up nicer than the other.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Jingles on January 25, 2022, 08:04:34 AM: In my experience I have found that the corn cob media is better for a finished polish on used brass, in addition to using cob media I add about 2 tablespoon fulls of Flitz Metal polish in the media. Have not has any issues of tumbling causing any deformity of resized/trimmed brass.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: jjness11 on January 25, 2022, 08:25:44 AM: I have two tumblers. One for walnut and one for corn. When I get done shooting, the dirty brass goes in the walnut to do a “first clean”. I do this to avoid running dirty brass through my dies. Then size, and tumble in corn cob media to remove the case lube and polish. Then trim, chamfer and debur. That’s what works for me. Ask 10 people, you may get up to 10 different answers. Like the guy above mentioned, Flitz is a great additive to corn cob media.
Also, Sportsman’s sells both walnut and corn cob in 5 gallon buckets for pretty cheap. So I try to keep my media fresh.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: C-Money on January 25, 2022, 08:26:51 AM: Great info, thank you for the replies! Never gave a thought about running dirty brass through the die. I'll grab some Flitz as well.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Evil_EdwardO on January 25, 2022, 08:27:28 AM: Quote from: Jingles on January 25, 2022, 08:04:34 AM
In my experience I have found that the corn cob media is better for a finished polish on used brass, in addition to using cob media I add about 2 tablespoon fulls of Flitz Metal polish in the media. Have not has any issues of tumbling causing any deformity of resized/trimmed brass.

:yeah:

I do the same and use Flitz also.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: BigGoonTuna on January 25, 2022, 12:19:31 PM: I usually clean mine in the tumbler for a few hours before case prep. Once I’m finished with prep work I’ll usually toss them in for 15-20 minutes to get the lube off. I use corncob media with a capful of nufinish car polish added.

Really considering getting a rotary tumbler for cleaning up sooty necks. Shiny stuff works better, right…right? :chuckle:
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: NRA4LIFE on January 25, 2022, 12:39:16 PM: Flitz user here too.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Bareback on January 25, 2022, 12:44:38 PM: Rotary tumblers beat the brass up pretty good. Every time the brass falls and hits another piece of brass it puts a ding in it. At least that’s what I’ve found.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Norman89 on January 25, 2022, 02:44:30 PM: Another vote for flitz and corncob. Really dirty brass ( dirt/mud) goes in the tumbler with water and dawn dish soap for 5 minutes, rinse let dry or dry in the oven then into the corn cob
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: hunter399 on January 25, 2022, 03:06:10 PM: Quote from: C-Money on January 25, 2022, 07:57:28 AM
I was happy to get a brass tumbler and some walnut media for Christmas. This will be my first attempt at tumbling brass. I usually always reload new Winchester brass for rifles and never really had a need to clean any. With the current shortage of supplies, time to clean brass. I am thinking this will be fine, but thought I'd ask...I'm going to re-size to get the old primer out, and trim case to proper length. Next step will be to tumble. Any potential issue with deformation of cases during tumbling? I really doubt it, but what's your process of steps when reloading? I'm going to toss in some Hornaday, Remington, Winchester, and Federal brass to see if any clean up nicer than the other.
I clean first,then resize just cause the walnut stuff gets stuck in the flash hole primer pocket . So if I clean first I know the flash hole is clear by the deprimer pin .
But that's just me. You can always go through clean primer pocket and punch out the walnut stuff out the flash hole later.

Trim
Clean primer pocket.
Prime
Powder bullet.
There's a lot in between ,depending how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: C-Money on January 25, 2022, 03:17:50 PM: 30, 30-06 brass are now tumbling! I may have done it all bass akwards, but I resized & trimmed first. Put the Range Maxx tumbler together and filled to 2/3 capacity with Lyman walnut media. Appears to be working great. The media and brass are circulating well. I did not add Flitz, as I didn't make a trip into town to grab any. But will next time I'm at the hardware store. Fun project today.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: callturner on January 25, 2022, 05:04:58 PM: Yep, I deprime and resize then trim if needed. I use SS pins, gave up on the organic media years ago. Thumblers B tumbler all the way. 1/2 tsp of either Lemi Shine or citric acid and a squirt of dawn dish soap and cover with about a inch of water, no more. About 2 hrs.' and their done, primer pockets included. I do 50 to 100 at a time, no dings or peened case lips.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Iveexcaped3 on January 25, 2022, 05:55:10 PM: Heard you can use walnut bird bedding to save money
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Caseknife on January 25, 2022, 06:32:34 PM: I use a dedicated decapping die and an older cheap press first. Then everything goes in the tumbler with brass pins and a cleaning solution. Many ways to skin a cat, brass will be cleaner than when it came out of the gun.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: HighlandLofts on January 25, 2022, 07:56:08 PM: Back when I used the dry tumblers I added different kinds of additives. Then when I started selling lots of range brass I switched over to wet tumbleing with the bigger Frankford Arsonal wet rotary tumbler. I can tumble larger loads and the brass comes out cleaner.
When I was just reloading for myself the dry tumbler was good enough because the brass wasn't to dirty. If you tumble the brass after you resize them look for the media stuck in the flash hole.
I bought a small four piece punch set to clean the flash hole. I used the straight one that looks like a mini ice pick.
Harbor Freight has a twenty-five pound box of crushed walnut hulls pretty cheap. If you buy a box from there but the coarse ones.

Dry tumbleing does create a lot of dust, wet tumbleling no dust and cleaner cases.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: Magnum_Willys on January 25, 2022, 08:17:35 PM: Flitz and Nu Polish with Walnut. Corncob if I wanta show off.
Gave up on SS Pins couple years ago - they messed with my sd's. If I was using range brass or really old brass I would use the SS Pins.
If you use the ss Pins in a wet tumbler get some Blaster Graphite Spray Lube, Spray 3/8 inch in the cap or a small cup - ( tilt cup on an angle) dip neck in graphite, wipe outside, set neck down in your tray. This helps your bullet release more consistently since you got rid of all the carbon tumbling.
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: jasnt on January 25, 2022, 10:38:48 PM: I don’t really clean my brass so I’m no help. Only thing I do is steel wool the neck and shoulder to clean off the burnt case lube from annealing Almost never clean primer pockets either. :dunno:
Title: Re: Cleaning Brass Question
Post by: C-Money on January 26, 2022, 06:24:07 AM: After 3hrs & 15 min, I pulled the brass. They were like new shiny. All brands went in, all were pretty dull, all came out like new. I used a toothpick to clean the flash holes as needed. I'll finish loading them up today. I think the Remington brass shined up better than when you buy new Remington ammo by far.