Review-ish Storytime: The Frankford Arsenal Tumbler Testing Story

[dennishoddy]

I've read so much about wet tumbling brass and the problems associated with it that I decided never to do that.
My vibratory tumblers with corn cob and a cap full of liquid car polish get the brass bright and shiny in a couple of hours or leave it overnight for a really shiny patina. Quick tumble in the RCBS case/media Seperator and it's done ready to load with zero dry time.
I have a wet tumbler but it's for lapidary stuff which is about done. This thread makes me want to try the corn cob with polish in the tumbler and see how it turns out dry.

 

[Rez Exelon]

I've read so much about wet tumbling brass and the problems associated with it that I decided never to do that.
My vibratory tumblers with corn cob and a cap full of liquid car polish get the brass bright and shiny in a couple of hours or leave it overnight for a really shiny patina. Quick tumble in the RCBS case/media Seperator and it's done ready to load with zero dry time.
I have a wet tumbler but it's for lapidary stuff which is about done. This thread makes me want to try the corn cob with polish in the tumbler and see how it turns out dry.

I've tried every which way, with vibratory and feel confident in saying that the wet blew away the cleanest and shiniest I could ever hope to achieve with it. The biggest but is that I'd never use wet for small batches. Way too much time and setup. If I'm not doing a large run of multiple types where I can make it worth it I'm happy settling for "clean but not as shiny"

 

[Bahick71]

I love the wet pins. It cleans the primer pockets and inside, like nothing else will. It
does not get stuck in the primer pockets like media. With tumbling, separating, and
letting air dry on paper towels. It still takes less time than the media vibrator, and the
end results are far better.

 

[swampratt]

I do small batches in a wet tumbler.
But I do not shoot that much anymore.
1 Quart of cases at a time.

After tumbling i dump the liquid and rinse cases and pins together in the tumbling container.
Usually 4to 5 times under the faucet with hot water.
Drain the last of the water out and pour it all out onto a bath towel.
Pick a case up with each hand out of the pile and clack them together 4 times case mouths down and set them on another towel.

That gets any pins out.
Does not take very long. Then the towel with clean cases gets put in the sun if I am in a hurry.
Usually jest leave it on the bedroom floor until the morning and all cases will be dry inside.

Outsides are almost dry as they hit the towel.
I do fold the towel over the cases to dry them all the way on the outside.

I will need to get me some corn cob as I have never used it surprisingly.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

I will need to get me some corn cob as I have never used it surprisingly.

Walnut to clean / Corn cob to polish

I use wet tumbling for my more precision stuff or the stuff I mainly single stage load.

I do vibratory tumble with corn cob and polish for my pistol calibers. I’m not patient enough to wet tumble pistol cases. I did wet tumble maybe 500 rounds of .223 but now I vibratory tumble it.

 

[Snattlerake]

This was getting it into the shell plate. Basically on the 650 the case feeder drops the case down then a little arm pushes it into position in the shell plate. The brass that was failing was hanging up before getting fully into position in the shell plate --- maybe 2mm outside the plate. If I was to push it in the plate, it'd go around the stations but not exit the plate without manual help either.

Was this bad feeding into the shell plate due to extraction ejection marring of the bases?

I also have a suggestion to remove the pins from the bottlenecks.

Make sure the cases you just ran are absolutely dry, then run them through the vibratory dry without liquid or media for a few minutes to see if there are any pins in the tumbler. Just a precaution and I think either way you might be surprised.

 

[Rez Exelon]

Was this bad feeding into the shell plate due to extraction ejection marring of the bases?

I also have a suggestion to remove the pins from the bottlenecks.

Make sure the cases you just ran are absolutely dry, then run them through the vibratory dry without liquid or media for a few minutes to see if there are any pins in the tumbler. Just a precaution and I think either way you might be surprised.

For the cases, I don't think it was ejection marring. I could rotate them around and they all were kind of at the same spot. More likely than anything, the shell plate #5 that is one there is cut really tight. And while Dillon may say it's the same, and ship it the same if you order a 40S&W kit, it's probably not as good for 40 as the "W" plate that is designated for 40. At this point with all my 40 done for a while I suppose that I can take some time to find one cheap on the eBay or something to test this theory the next time I run a batch.

 

[swampratt]

I have had a few of every caliber that does not like to go into the shell plate.
Extractor Pulled too hard on it or a tick over pressure from the bullet being "welded" into the case.

 

[GHArms]

Ultra sonic to Clean and only clean, quickly- err, if you have a large commercial grade. Mine does 300 pieces in about 20 minutes.

Wet tumble with media pins to clean and polish. I find about an hour for 100 rounds does a good job. Whoever talked about the strainer is right. I do that in winter, in summer I use Barney the big purple media separator after straining off most water, the let the sun dry the brass and water out of the media pins.

Dry media is dead.

 

[swampratt]

Am I the only one who made their own Pins besides my neighbor?
Copper ones from left over Stranded THHN wire.