When I first started reloading I didn't have a large budget. I used an emptied peanut butter jar with some Amazon steel pins, laundry soap, citric acid from the canning supplies and hot water. Then I just sat down and shook the jar with everything in it for 5 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes repeat until the water has gone from hot to cool about an hour and a half. My first 3,000 rounds were done that way. Then I got a Frankford Arsenal Lite as a gift from my wife. (a woman who appreciates less expensive but quality ammo. I've seen her shoot a golf ball at 30 yards with a different handguns many times. Yes, I'm happily married.)
I'm poor AF! So I just use a 5 gallon bucket, fill it 2/3 full of brass, add hot water, staples, Dawn/Lemi Shine and roll the bucket for a distance of about 3 miles. I couldn't be happier with the results...I got clean sparkly brass and I'm fit AF yo!😀
Yes, I found that a good wash and wax is great for protecting the brass as well. It's helpful to store brass in an airtight if limited air environment. Like Ziploc bags, plastic containers and such. Exposure to open air environment will tarnish brass much more quickly.
In the beginning you mention armor all wash and wax……when do you use that. I watched the video twice to see if I missed you doing that but you didn’t. Thank you! Great video!
Great question, I technically use it twice-once with lemishine for the second wash cycle, and then after everything has been rinsed and pins are removed for a final coating wash (maybe 5 mins worth) to properly wax everything to prevent from tarnishing.
@@thereloadingcraft i have wet tumbled 100’s of thousands of cases and even have a few wet tumble videos of my own up. I have never used any wax and have never had any cases tarnish 🤷🏻♂️ I would think that the wax would help prevent the powder drop from sticking.
Part of it depends on climate, the other part depends on the acidity in your skin 😅 It DOES help with the powder drop/expander from sticking, and makes seating more consistent as well. The actual wax coating is incredibly thin and doesn’t affect any function or gum things up, but it does protect them well. What do you use as your tumbling media/solution?
It depends on how dirty the brass is. Unless it’s been dropped in mud or fine gravel that would be abrasive on the sizing die, I tumble after sizing. A little bit of firing carbon buildup actually helps when running an expander mandrel through the neck on rifle cartridges, and the little bit of soot on pistol cartridges doesn’t hurt. I prefer to tumble after sizing and depriming, so the case lube is removed and primer pockets cleaned.
@@thereloadingcraft That makes sense, when I dry, vibratory tumble, I give it a quick tumble before sizing, then thorough tumble after deprime/ size. But wet tumbling is a bit more involved so I wanted to avoid doing it twice.
Accuracy maybe not, but it makes it way easier to spot split, gouged, or otherwise damaged cases when loading. (And it helps give handloaded ammo a better public image to people you’re at the range with, too.)
The pins can stick to the side of wet case as well as be stuck in weird angles. Dry tumbling helps. But it just takes one pin still in a case to ruin a barrel. Im back to walnut. I really dont care if the primer pocket is shiny on mixed brass plinking ammo
I had a viewer suggest to me that when I tumble the brass to remove the pins, to let the bottom of the drum ride in a bucket full of water. (Frankford Arsenal media separator) It works WONDERS and in several tumbler loads I haven’t found a single remaining pin in any of the cases. I think the water rushing into and out of the cases pulls the pins out, while destroying surface tension.
That is just the 9/223 filter from the 3 filter set available in a bunch of reloading retailers for sorting brass. I think I got mine from either Midway or Ben Stoeger Pro Shops.
Try only running it initally for 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. Mine come out looking like new brass that way. 50% of the brass is typically range pickups that are fairly dirty.
@@thereloadingcraft 30 minutes cleaning time and maybe 30 minutes with the wash/wax if you feel it's required. I've only cleaned it in the past with case lube (lanolin spray) to keep the brass from sticking when I get to the reloading point. De-prime, swage the pockets so they're all uniform, trim to length, de-burr, tumble for 30 minutes, dry it all, anneal and finally start loading.
Ive had this for a while but only used it today,,I noticed the rear 2 wheels don`t spin only the 2 front ones,is this normal? my weight was under 30lbs,,
@@thereloadingcraft phheeewww,,,thanks,,I was worried I might have to return it which is a hassle,,I had under 8lbs of brass,,5lbs of steel pins,rest water,,and it would not turn the tumbler I was afraid I blew something
That looks like more work than dry-media vibrating, but the results look great. I see that you de-prime before tumbling, so do you use a de-primer, or actually re-size and de-prime first?
@Rider's-Range it's a good idea to deprime before wet tumbling, the lead styphnate in the primers is some nasty stuff, it makes the wet tumbling water very toxic.
Yes and no. The issue you run into by not removing the primer first before wet tumbling is it holds moisture, as well as can “copper weld” the primer into the pocket, so when you go to deprime it it just breaks off the end of the primer and leaves the primer walls in the primer pocket. Also if you decap first, it will actually clean the pocket and not require any post-cleaning before you re-prime.
The video is two years old, but the cost of components these days makes bulk reloading a losing proposition. It is cheaper to buy ammo than it is to make your own and to me, that’s crazy. You are reusing an expensive part of the process-the brass, and it still costs you more. Factor in time and it is a dead loser. Yet here I am spending many hours doing it. Why? Well, I have a ton of brass and maybe 11k primers, so I figure I’ll keep going. Then I’ll get more brass and pick up primers or a little powder over time- rinse & repeat. 😂😂😂
Safe to say you’re doing something wrong with your SS tumbler if corn cob is looking better. A large portion of the reloaders I’ve talked to get better results with SS wet tumbling, and can even recover tarnished and corroded brass to like new. It’s more aggressive than corn cob or even walnut, and as long as your tumbling solution is correct and your brass doesn’t have case lube on it (unless it’s water soluble lube, then it’s fine) you should be fine. I made the mistake a few years ago of trying to tumble lanolin-lubed cases without degreasing them first and they looked terrible, because the lanolin is very hard to break down. I used a degreaser rinse first, then tumbled and they came out perfect. Just my $0.02 though, not saying you have to change if it works for you, just that stainless tumbling done right is extremely hard to beat.
Get yourself the tumbler with the box. As you tumble, they are rinsed in water in the box. The pin all comes out and lays in the bottom of the box. Key point. Doing wet tumbling is a pain if not done correctly. When done with the correct gear, it is easy and ultra-fast. By the way, I built up to everything I use now. I started as cheap as I could go. Looking back, it was a painful process getting brass ready back them and took so long to complete.
When I first started reloading I didn't have a large budget. I used an emptied peanut butter jar with some Amazon steel pins, laundry soap, citric acid from the canning supplies and hot water. Then I just sat down and shook the jar with everything in it for 5 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes repeat until the water has gone from hot to cool about an hour and a half. My first 3,000 rounds were done that way. Then I got a Frankford Arsenal Lite as a gift from my wife. (a woman who appreciates less expensive but quality ammo. I've seen her shoot a golf ball at 30 yards with a different handguns many times. Yes, I'm happily married.)
Great video and great looking brass
Thanks for your explanationation men, really clear to me.
I just ordered the FART. I’m excited to get it.
Have you seen pins getting stuck inside of the casings before (have you seen pins come out during your wax/rinse)?
I'm poor AF! So I just use a 5 gallon bucket, fill it 2/3 full of brass, add hot water, staples, Dawn/Lemi Shine and roll the bucket for a distance of about 3 miles. I couldn't be happier with the results...I got clean sparkly brass and I'm fit AF yo!😀
@@thereloadingcraft I'll film my process one of these days! You'll just have to ignore the haters I get along my brass route...assholes!
I was wondering if lemishine + dawn combo was enough. Seems like stainless steel pins for agitation was missing from the equation. Great work!
Yes, I found that a good wash and wax is great for protecting the brass as well. It's helpful to store brass in an airtight if limited air environment. Like Ziploc bags, plastic containers and such. Exposure to open air environment will tarnish brass much more quickly.
Its definitely enough
In the beginning you mention armor all wash and wax……when do you use that. I watched the video twice to see if I missed you doing that but you didn’t. Thank you! Great video!
Great question, I technically use it twice-once with lemishine for the second wash cycle, and then after everything has been rinsed and pins are removed for a final coating wash (maybe 5 mins worth) to properly wax everything to prevent from tarnishing.
@@thereloadingcraft i have wet tumbled 100’s of thousands of cases and even have a few wet tumble videos of my own up. I have never used any wax and have never had any cases tarnish 🤷🏻♂️ I would think that the wax would help prevent the powder drop from sticking.
Part of it depends on climate, the other part depends on the acidity in your skin 😅
It DOES help with the powder drop/expander from sticking, and makes seating more consistent as well. The actual wax coating is incredibly thin and doesn’t affect any function or gum things up, but it does protect them well.
What do you use as your tumbling media/solution?
@@thereloadingcraft I use 1/4 tsp. Of lemi-shine, 2 healthy squirts of blue dawn and 10 pounds of pins in 2 different sizes!
do you tumble before or after sizing? I always thought it was better to size clean brass, to avoid contaminants damaging brass, or dies.
It depends on how dirty the brass is. Unless it’s been dropped in mud or fine gravel that would be abrasive on the sizing die, I tumble after sizing. A little bit of firing carbon buildup actually helps when running an expander mandrel through the neck on rifle cartridges, and the little bit of soot on pistol cartridges doesn’t hurt.
I prefer to tumble after sizing and depriming, so the case lube is removed and primer pockets cleaned.
@@thereloadingcraft That makes sense, when I dry, vibratory tumble, I give it a quick tumble before sizing, then thorough tumble after deprime/ size. But wet tumbling is a bit more involved so I wanted to avoid doing it twice.
Throw 3 Tbsp shinebrite burnishing compound in with the lemishine and soap
Can’t say as I’m familiar with it. Does it work off of chemical action or is it an abrasive?
Does the spoon come with the Lemi Shine or where can I get it? Thanks!!
But does super good looking brass increase accuracy?
Accuracy maybe not, but it makes it way easier to spot split, gouged, or otherwise damaged cases when loading. (And it helps give handloaded ammo a better public image to people you’re at the range with, too.)
Are those stainless pins just cylindrical roller bearings?
stainless wire cut to length in a low budget factory.
The pins can stick to the side of wet case as well as be stuck in weird angles. Dry tumbling helps. But it just takes one pin still in a case to ruin a barrel. Im back to walnut. I really dont care if the primer pocket is shiny on mixed brass plinking ammo
I had a viewer suggest to me that when I tumble the brass to remove the pins, to let the bottom of the drum ride in a bucket full of water. (Frankford Arsenal media separator)
It works WONDERS and in several tumbler loads I haven’t found a single remaining pin in any of the cases. I think the water rushing into and out of the cases pulls the pins out, while destroying surface tension.
What sifter are you using in your bucket?
That is just the 9/223 filter from the 3 filter set available in a bunch of reloading retailers for sorting brass. I think I got mine from either Midway or Ben Stoeger Pro Shops.
Try only running it initally for 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. Mine come out looking like new brass that way. 50% of the brass is typically range pickups that are fairly dirty.
@@thereloadingcraft 30 minutes cleaning time and maybe 30 minutes with the wash/wax if you feel it's required. I've only cleaned it in the past with case lube (lanolin spray) to keep the brass from sticking when I get to the reloading point. De-prime, swage the pockets so they're all uniform, trim to length, de-burr, tumble for 30 minutes, dry it all, anneal and finally start loading.
@@thereloadingcraft The chips do a MUCH better job cleaning.
Where can i buy that sifter tray from?
Ive had this for a while but only used it today,,I noticed the rear 2 wheels don`t spin only the 2 front ones,is this normal? my weight was under 30lbs,,
@@thereloadingcraft phheeewww,,,thanks,,I was worried I might have to return it which is a hassle,,I had under 8lbs of brass,,5lbs of steel pins,rest water,,and it would not turn the tumbler I was afraid I blew something
Where did you get the separating sifter from? And what is it called?
It’s been so long since I got it, I’m genuinely not sure. I think Midway carries them and maybe Brownells
That looks like more work than dry-media vibrating, but the results look great. I see that you de-prime before tumbling, so do you use a de-primer, or actually re-size and de-prime first?
@@thereloadingcraft I deprime furst but I wouldn't risk scratching my resize dies by running dirty brass through them.
@Rider's-Range it's a good idea to deprime before wet tumbling, the lead styphnate in the primers is some nasty stuff, it makes the wet tumbling water very toxic.
is it okay if i dont remove primer at this stage?
Yes and no. The issue you run into by not removing the primer first before wet tumbling is it holds moisture, as well as can “copper weld” the primer into the pocket, so when you go to deprime it it just breaks off the end of the primer and leaves the primer walls in the primer pocket. Also if you decap first, it will actually clean the pocket and not require any post-cleaning before you re-prime.
The video is two years old, but the cost of components these days makes bulk reloading a losing proposition.
It is cheaper to buy ammo than it is to make your own and to me, that’s crazy. You are reusing an expensive part of the process-the brass, and it still costs you more. Factor in time and it is a dead loser.
Yet here I am spending many hours doing it. Why? Well, I have a ton of brass and maybe 11k primers, so I figure I’ll keep going. Then I’ll get more brass and pick up primers or a little powder over time- rinse & repeat. 😂😂😂
Corn cob tumbler works way better and is easier .brass comes out brighter .I have a ss tumbler and never use it
Safe to say you’re doing something wrong with your SS tumbler if corn cob is looking better. A large portion of the reloaders I’ve talked to get better results with SS wet tumbling, and can even recover tarnished and corroded brass to like new. It’s more aggressive than corn cob or even walnut, and as long as your tumbling solution is correct and your brass doesn’t have case lube on it (unless it’s water soluble lube, then it’s fine) you should be fine. I made the mistake a few years ago of trying to tumble lanolin-lubed cases without degreasing them first and they looked terrible, because the lanolin is very hard to break down. I used a degreaser rinse first, then tumbled and they came out perfect. Just my $0.02 though, not saying you have to change if it works for you, just that stainless tumbling done right is extremely hard to beat.
Get yourself the tumbler with the box. As you tumble, they are rinsed in water in the box. The pin all comes out and lays in the bottom of the box. Key point. Doing wet tumbling is a pain if not done correctly. When done with the correct gear, it is easy and ultra-fast. By the way, I built up to everything I use now. I started as cheap as I could go. Looking back, it was a painful process getting brass ready back them and took so long to complete.
Ooo that’s an extent idea