Case polishing.

Short Fuse

Short Fuse

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I have not needed to tumble brass in a few years thanks to a friend who supplied me with more than I thought I would ever use. Well I used it. So the way I used to polish large qaunites was in a harbour freight electric cement mixer with crushed walnut shells, I could do 5 gallons at a time that way but it is so loud I am sure it desturbs the neibhors. I was looking for a new media to use in a vibratory tumbler for small batches. I want a media that will last a long time and and polish quickly. What is the best stuff going right know.
 
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I prefer to hand polish every piece of brass that I load. I use 800 grit sand paper to do inside and out. I can usually get about 3 an hour doing straight wall cases. About 1 an hour for rifle brass.
 
I more interested in more non conventional means like stainless rods or ceramic media, stuff like that. The walnut media loses it's effectiveness pretty quick so does corn cob.
 
stainless pins wet tumbling.......beautiful, unnecessarily shiny, sparking, clean, wonderfulness.
 
Gazengine;n81726 said:
I wet tumble with stainless pins. Won't ever go back to dry. Started with a cheap HF rock tumbler to see if it would work.Looked at the Frankford tumbler.but ended up building one.
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Can it be done dry? I have some old ammo that needs some minor cleaning before I seal it up.
 
Don't think so. The water and soap solution keep the brass from hammering each other to death. You can media polish loaded ammo.If it is to bad for that,I would pull bullets and deprime to wet tumble.I'm no expert- your mileage may vary.
 
I tried a media today called Tuffnut red. It is walnut shell mixed with red jewlers rouge. It polishes very quickly. We will have to see how long a batch will last now, if it works for longer than the traditional walnut shell then I think I have found a new dry media.
 
I toss some cat litter into my walnut media......seems to mix well and it smells better.......I also have a wet setup.......some have had good luck with wet tumbling pistol brass with no medial just water,soap,and a water softner.
 
Just did my first batch of wet tumbling, no stainless pins, just a little dawn, a pinch of lemi shine, and a tad of amonia, let it roll for two hours n a cheap rock tumbler. This is the cleanest brass I've ever done. I'm sold on wet tumble, no pins.

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Wet tumble here as well. I switched from Dawn to Armorall Wash-n-wax.

Dawn is a pure soap that get things very clean, but leaves the brass completely bare. Two problems I noticed is that sometimes the brass would tarnish later, and also I had problems with some brass galling in the expander die (powder funnel on the Dillon). Never had these problem dry tumbling, since the polish used in dry tumbling left a thin film on the brass. The Wash-n-wax leaves a thin film of carnuba wax, so the brass does not tarnish and it also runs through the dies easier, especially the expander.

I sometimes wet tumble without pins, but I usually do that for 15 minutes or so, with rifle brass, just so I can lube/resize/decap. I then tumble with pins (clean inside and primer pockets) and finish my brass prep (trim, debur, swage, etc).
 
For really dirty suppressed brass, I'll fill a milk jug about half full with brass, then pour in a good bit of Lemi-Shine and a drop of Dawn. Fill about 3/4 with HOT water, shake shake shake a bunch and let everything mix. Let it set and soak for a few hours, then rinse really well til the water is clean and all the gunk is out. Pour the brass out onto a towel, pat dry and let air out, then tumble in a vibratory tumbler with corn media (and a splash of polish if necessary/desired)
 
Last week I broke a shell plate screw and had to call Dillon for a replacement. While talking to Tim with Dillon (who was very helpful and knowledgeable), I told him I was starting to have issues with my Square Deal B (9mm) hanging up on the powder funnel during the down stroke. Tim asked how I cleaned my brass. I had been just using plain old corncob media with no additive up till a few months ago when a buddy gave me a bunch of brass that had been wet tumbled. Tim stated that wet tumbling was great for rifle brass but shouldn't be done on pistol brass. It gets the brass to clean and removes residue that other wise be act as a lubricant. Tim said Dillon suggest to use corncob media with either Dillon brand of lubricant or Nu-Finish car wax added into the media for pistol brass. With in a couple days I received my shell plate screw and loaded my first batch of range pick up brass tumbled with corncob media and Nu-Finish car wax. I pleased with the way they turned out and I could tell a difference on the down stroke. I'm going to take the remaining batch of wet tumbled brass and tumble it in the corncob media with Nu-Finish to see how they load.
 
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Average Joe said:
. Tim stated that wet tumbling was great for rifle brass but shouldn't be done on pistol brass. It gets the brass to clean and removes residue that other wise be act as a lubricant...
Click to expand...

Has Tim ever heard of wet tumbling with wash and wax?

Also carbide dies dont have a problem at least in my experience....you can always rub some lube on every 50th case...
 
Ikarus1 said:
Has Tim ever heard of wet tumbling with wash and wax?
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Not sure if Tim has ever heard about that or not, didn't ask him. I asked how Dillon recommends to clean pistol brass. However in my experience there's always another way to do something and doesn't make either way the only right way. I was just stating what Dillon recommends. What wash and wax and mix ratio do you use when wet tumbling?
 
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Average Joe said:
Last week I broke a shell plate screw and had to call Dillon for a replacement. While talking to Tim with Dillon (who was very helpful and knowledgeable), I told him I was starting to have issues with my Square Deal B (9mm) hanging up on the powder funnel during the down stroke. Tim asked how I cleaned my brass. I had been just using plain old corncob media with no additive up till a few months ago when a buddy gave me a bunch of brass that had been wet tumbled. Tim stated that wet tumbling was great for rifle brass but shouldn't be done on pistol brass. It gets the brass to clean and removes residue that other wise be act as a lubricant. Tim said Dillon suggest to use corncob media with either Dillon brand of lubricant or Nu-Finish car wax added into the media for pistol brass. With in a couple days I received my shell plate screw and loaded my first batch of range pick up brass tumbled with corncob media and Nu-Finish car wax. I pleased with the way they turned out and I could tell a difference on the down stroke. I'm going to take the remaining batch of wet tumbled brass and tumble it in the corncob media with Nu-Finish to see how they load.
Click to expand...

I had the same issue, and actually noticed the brass was galling on the powder funnel (tiny streaks of brass). I noticed it more on 45acp than I did on 9mm. I had been using Dawn. I read somewhere about using Armorall Wash-n-Wax, so I started using that instead, and I have not had the problem since.
 
When me and a friend were wet tumbling and had to deal with super clear brass, we'd hit it with a couple quirts of One Shot. Just a bit. It's a lube with a binder that evaporates and leaves a dry lube, or something to that effect.
Made for very clean brass and super smooth press operation on a 650. I really liked that. Have since moved to a Square Deal. Buddy tumbles it in walnut for the slight tarnish/dirt-as-lube-method. It works for the volume we have been doing. But it's still sticky and no where near as smooth as the other method I used. The One Shot on clean brass was like astroglide for the press, and it wouldn't surprise me if it extended the life of the press parts considerably.


We had originally used Dillon lube and it made my mags a gummy mess and left a sticky film on the loaded rounds. But having discussed, and now read his post, the method Dillon recommends with AverageJoe, I now realize Dillon may have intended that lanolin lube to be used in a dry media.
 
You can use the Dillon or homemade lanolin lube, just cut it with some 99% alcohol to thin it a bit. I recommend a 1:12 lanolin to alcohol mix when making my own lube. Also i re-tumble my brass after sizing and trimming operations to get any lube off.

As far as the amount of armor all wash and wax or dawn, it depends on water hardness. My water comes from my RO tap so its essentially like distilled water and has no hardness or minerals. So about 1 drop does it for me. A bottle should last a lifetime.

One could just get some lee lube or imperial wax and put a smear from their finger every other case if brass galling is really an issue.
 
I just use lizard bedding with an occasional shot of a case cleaner that does not contain any ammonia. I clean them again after prep if I have used any case lube during the prep. My 550 sometimes sticks a bit on the downstroke if the cases are real clean. I cure that by just rubbing the expander between my fingers to clean it a bit and perhaps to put some finger oil on it. (Touch some glass and see if you don't have a little oil on your fingers.)

My cases may not be as like-new as some, but they look pretty good and work just fine.
 
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