Wet tumblers for beginners

DarrenC

DarrenC

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Just starting. I have a Lyman Turbo that I use corn cob media in. I keep hearing about wet tumbling and I'm turning to my subject matter experts on here to educate me.
How does it differ from the corn cob? Am I supposed to be using each (wet and dry) for a different purpose?
Thanks all!
 
The wet tumbler uses little stainless steel pins in water and a cleaning solution. There are some prepackaged solutions but a squirt of Dawn and a sprinkle of Lemishine ( a citric acid water softener) is a popular mix. Best to decal the brass before wet tumbling; it will clean the primer pockets and avoid problems with water getting trapped in the old primers. This step, and the need to separate the pins from the cases after tumbling, and the need to dry the cases, means that wet tumbling requires a little more labor than vibratory case cleaning.

The advantage is that the cases end up looking like factory virgin brass. Clean inside and out.
 
I don't deprime most of the time. I like it because it is fast. Half hour and you're good. Longer and it does look new. I rinse and shake them to separate the pins and then spread in a tray to dry.

Biggest thing is the pins last forever. No media to replace. And no dust...
 
I just got a wet tumbler for Christmas, before that I used a vibratory tumbler for years. I doubt I ever use it again. Wet tumbling is way better and faster.

I dont bother with with the pins or de-capping, just dump a bunch of brass into the tumbler with a good shot of armor all wash and wax, a table spoon of straight citric acid, and the hottest tap water my sink can muster. Set the timer for an hour in case I forget about it but usually stop it at about 45 mins. Pour off the water, fill back up with clean tap water to rinse a couple times, dump the cases out on a big beach towel to pat dry, and finally spread them out under a ceiling fan to dry out. Cases look brand new on the outside, and the insides are plenty clean for me. I could care less about clean primer pockets in pistol brass.

When I start loading .223 rifle brass I may use the pins then.
 
The wet way is by far the best way. :p

There I said it.

For rifle brass.

I always de-prime my brass before I do it. Leaves me with super clean easy to inspect brass.

And I'm not getting a snoot full of dust anymore.

Pistol brass doesn't really matter. Either way works fine.

Pistol brass is the red headed step child of brass anyway. :eek:
 
Dry tumble=no soap in washing machine
wet tumble=lots of soap and using jet engine for washer machine.
Night and day difference. Once you go wet, you'll never go back. I did a small batch in a cheap HF rock polisher, just to see what it would look like. Biggest mistake of my life, had to wet tumble ALL of my already prepped brass. Took almost 2 weeks. But it's clean and shiny as hell. Wet tumbling cleans primer pocket better also.
 
harbor freight $40.00 tumbler and a $20.00 dehydrator. $15.00 worth of .047 steel pins off ebay. $1.50 dawn, $4.00 worth of lemonshine. 1 plastic bowl and 1 plastic colander from the dollar store and you are in business. Just as easy as dry tumbling and a lot cleaner brass.
 
and NEVER ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever wash a smaller caliber(like 9mm) with a bigger caliber such as 40 or 45 you will have cases stuck together all over the place...
 
I'm thinking about selling my Lyman tumbler (walnut media) and going with the wet tumbler.
I have brass in the tumbler right now, but it's messy to sift out inside and I'm not going to do it outside right now.

Can you recommend a wet tumbler? Thx.
 
Good grief.
Why are all my hobbies expensive?? :D

I'm sure there's something available that's less expensive and will do the job.
I'll do my research. :)
 
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I built my own wet tumbler a couple of years ago and can clean ~2,000 pcs of 9mm at one time. The only use my dry tumbler gets is cleaning loaded rounds occasionally.
 
wolfpack65;n50039 said:
Good grief.
Why are all my hobbies expensive?? :D

I'm sure there's something available that's less expensive and will do the job.
I'll do my research. :)
Click to expand...

Find a used set up ,build your own, or find a friend to go half on it
 
Lucky13bullets;n49734 said:
45 minutes in corncob is fine.. i got no time to decap, tumble, dry in either the oven or a dehydrator, or let air dry.. then find some place to get rid of the water which is now hazmat, just so my brass can look new
Click to expand...

This is one of my biggest concerns. What to do with wastewater after the fact? Don't want to pour down the drain, can't in good conscience dump it down sewer grate. Won't pour in yard where pet could drink.....I have a few gallons of wastewater In the garage I don't know what to do with, has been sitting there for years.
 
Metalliman27055;n50274 said:
This is one of my biggest concerns. What to do with wastewater after the fact? Don't want to pour down the drain, can't in good conscience dump it down sewer grate. Won't pour in yard where pet could drink.....I have a few gallons of wastewater In the garage I don't know what to do with, has been sitting there for years.
Click to expand...

curious, what happens to the dirty walnut or corncob?
And why cant it go down the drain? What is supposedly in it to make it a hazard waste?
 
Mike Overlay;n50326 said:
curious, what happens to the dirty walnut or corncob?
And why cant it go down the drain? What is supposedly in it to make it a hazard waste?
Click to expand...

Particulate lead, I think, mainly from the primers.
 
trcubed;n50337 said:
Particulate lead, I think, mainly from the primers.
Click to expand...

oh...Just how much can it possibly be? Parts per million/billion? (truly curious) Cause I'm sure my laundry waste water is worse off from the line of work I do
 
I thought primers were lead free now? Maybe Im wrong but I dont remember seeing any california compliant lead warning labels on my primer boxes anywhere, but Im going from memory here and very well could be wrong.

Ive got a Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART) that came from Cabelas on sale for $129 with free shipping. It comes with its own supply of SS pins in case I ever want to use them. Its advertised to hold 1000 pieces of .223 brass so I would guess it holds twice as much 9mm. There are cheaper options but Im very happy with it.
 
Mike Overlay said:
trcubed;n50337 said:
Particulate lead, I think, mainly from the primers.
Click to expand...

oh...Just how much can it possibly be? Parts per million/billion? (truly curious) Cause I'm sure my laundry waste water is worse off from the line of work I do
Click to expand...
I have no idea how much, so I won't discuss how I dispose of mine.
 
I think I'll sell of all my reloading stuff.

Its all hazmat.

Its a wonder that @lucky13 bullets hasn't killed that old lady across the street by now. The one that sits on her porch and sucks in all those fumes.
 
trcubed said:
I built my own wet tumbler a couple of years ago and can clean ~2,000 pcs of 9mm at one time. The only use my dry tumbler gets is cleaning loaded rounds occasionally.
Click to expand...
Did you take pics? Could be a sticky... I think I remember a thread about it but I drink a lot...
 
Tailhunter said:
I think I'll sell of all my reloading stuff.

Its all hazmat.

Its a wonder that @lucky13 bullets hasn't killed that old lady across the street by now. The one that sits on her porch and sucks in all those fumes.
Click to expand...
You are fumey.
 
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
 
Muddy said:
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
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That was my thoughts. But 3 years later it is still going just fine.
 
Muddy said:
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
Click to expand...
I have had mine for about 6 months and it is still working like a champ....
 
Muddy said:
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
Click to expand...
Yeah, had mine for years too. I just did buy a new belt for it. $4 for 3 of them...
 
Muddy said:
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
Click to expand...
Mine came with a bag of belts bigfelipe
 
Muddy said:
Wolfie I just bought the old double drum tumbler from Harbor freight. It is not the greatest but it also is only 50 bucks so use it till it quits and then go get another one... :D
Click to expand...
If mine did I lost them long ago...
 
I'll share one caution about wet tumbling. My first experience was when a friend brought over his Thumbler's Tumbler to show me what a good job it does. I tossed in some fired .45 ACP cases without bothering to decap them (I don't decap pistol brass before putting it into my vibratory tumbler). The cases came out super clean; I was impressed. I shook the water out and spread the clean cases on a towel and let them air dry for a few days. Later I used that brass to load up some ammo for a match. At the match I had several rounds that failed to fire which is very unusual. About 15% of my rounds did not go off.

It turns out that the fired primer retains a little bit of moisture, so when I ran the cases through my progressive press, I was punching out slightly damp primers and immediately seating a fresh primer. It was enough to affect reliability. Lesson learned. Now if I want to wet tumble I use a universal decapping die and punch out the old primers first.
 
Mike Overlay said:
Metalliman27055;n50274 said:
This is one of my biggest concerns. What to do with wastewater after the fact? Don't want to pour down the drain, can't in good conscience dump it down sewer grate. Won't pour in yard where pet could drink.....I have a few gallons of wastewater In the garage I don't know what to do with, has been sitting there for years.
Click to expand...

curious, what happens to the dirty walnut or corncob?
And why cant it go down the drain? What is supposedly in it to make it a hazard waste?
Click to expand...
If you have a septic tank, youre just completing the blank spaces in the periodic table. IIRC lead is a naturally occuring element, as is arsenic, mercury, et al. It takes 30+ years for surface water to trickle into the water table and that is for normal soil, not my bull tallow aka yellow clay
 
Crunchy Frog said:
I'll share one caution about wet tumbling. My first experience was when a friend brought over his Thumbler's Tumbler to show me what a good job it does. I tossed in some fired .45 ACP cases without bothering to decap them (I don't decap pistol brass before putting it into my vibratory tumbler). The cases came out super clean; I was impressed. I shook the water out and spread the clean cases on a towel and let them air dry for a few days. Later I used that brass to load up some ammo for a match. At the match I had several rounds that failed to fire which is very unusual. About 15% of my rounds did not go off.

It turns out that the fired primer retains a little bit of moisture, so when I ran the cases through my progressive press, I was punching out slightly damp primers and immediately seating a fresh primer. It was enough to affect reliability. Lesson learned. Now if I want to wet tumble I use a universal decapping die and punch out the old primers first.
Click to expand...
I haven't had it happen because I decap first, but I'd be concerned about a stainless pin lodging itself in an old primer and breaking the decap pin when I tried to push it out.
 
FWIW, I sent an email to the Wake Co. Solid Waste Management manger and ask for advice on deposing of the dirty water. She said to take it to one of the county hazardous waste facilities.
 
I am a total overkill. I have a sonic cleaner. The brass gets a cruise in the basket of the sonic cleaner before decapping. Once I get it decapped it goes into the wet tumbler.
 
Crunchy Frog;n51602 said:
I'll share one caution about wet tumbling. My first experience was when a friend brought over his Thumbler's Tumbler to show me what a good job it does. I tossed in some fired .45 ACP cases without bothering to decap them (I don't decap pistol brass before putting it into my vibratory tumbler). The cases came out super clean; I was impressed. I shook the water out and spread the clean cases on a towel and let them air dry for a few days. Later I used that brass to load up some ammo for a match. At the match I had several rounds that failed to fire which is very unusual. About 15% of my rounds did not go off.

It turns out that the fired primer retains a little bit of moisture, so when I ran the cases through my progressive press, I was punching out slightly damp primers and immediately seating a fresh primer. It was enough to affect reliability. Lesson learned. Now if I want to wet tumble I use a universal decapping die and punch out the old primers first.
Click to expand...

I have never had that problem but I do dry all my wet tumbled brass in a dehydrator for at least an hour. I never decap my pistol brass befor wet tumbling.
 
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