Tumbler cleaning recipe?

[TXCOONDOG]

Cover the brass with water plus 1/4 teaspoon of lemishine is all I use with SS media and tumble for two hours.

[tstowater]

Cleaning brass is either getting better or more complicated. So far, I am using Armour All W&W and citric acid. Not good at measuring, but I find that different brass cleans different. Some older rifle brass (not sure if composition is different) cleans differently. 220 Swift seems to clean hard. Not sure if is the difference in powder or what. 223 and 45ACP and most other handgun brass cleans pretty easy. For some of the "harder" cleaning, I may need to go to a presoak.

[mdhillbilly1]

Ok, so:
1: water-Gallon
2: dawn 3-tbsp
3: Lemi Shime (9mm case-full)
4: Cream of Tartar

I also have an ultrasonic cleaner but I suspect this will perform better and be less annoying...if not as fast.

I heard someone used the Wet Tumbler solution in the Ultra Sonic Cleaner. They ended up with holes in the Ultra Sonic Cleaner pan. I have been told it is cheaper & easier in the Wet Tumblers. The largest units I have seen was different sized harbor freight cement mixers and DIY using long PVC pipes of various sizes was 10 inch with a neck down to 8 inch to install a seal on one end and a screwed in cap on the other. The pipe was 10 foot long. They used one dryer motor with various size pulleys depending on you pipe size to get a specific rotation. The use pillow blocks to run the axles using two for each pipe. The man used his to run 4 pipes at once running a company to sell clean brass.

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

[MyFlatline]

Here's mine, will do 1 gallon of brass easy..

[hornet112]

Best recipe I found is
1/4 tsp of lemishine
1 tsp of Dawn
hot water filled to the top.
Run for an hour or so then change the water (sometimes an hour is enough) but for dirty brass I change the water.

[Grmps]

I built a 2-gallon setup.
7.5 lbs pins
1/2 tsp (apr) lemi shine or citric acid
2-3 pumps of dawn (pump dispenser)
Hot water

Dirty brass gets pre-washed by hand in a tub then rinsed.

when done tumbling, water is poured off and brass gets hand rinsed and drained in a tub until water is clear.
into the separator to remove SS pins then into a pail of water -w- car wash soap
drain and save the water/carwash soap and back into the tub to lightly rinse off the excess bubbles.
back into the separator to remove excess water
dumped small batches at a time onto a doubled-up towel, "sandwiched with the towel and rolled by hand to remove excess water
placed in a towel like a hammock and "shifted from one end to the other.
brass is then placed in a dehydrator tray and dehydrated for a couple hours

[6bg6ga]

Alternative to this method of cleaning is to use the ultrasonic cleaner and the brass is clean in 15 minutes you rinse with clean water and your good to go.

[SlowBurn]

for my 2 gallon setup:
- 10 lbs pins
- 7 lbs brass
- hot water to 1" below top of container
- 1/2 tsp lemi shine
- 1 tbsp Dawn soap
tumble up to 3 hours for very clean primer pockets - brass is very clean after 1 hour, but I run it longer for the primer pockets

[JimB..]

A squirt of car wash soap/wax and a sprinkle of lemishine. I fill with water to about 1” of the top, leaving more space just creates bubbles. I will dump most of the water and refill after an hour if the brass is really bad. Remove brass shortly after tumbling stops, leaving it longer is at best not helpful.

[Honcho]

I have three of the dry Frankford vibrator brass cleaners and one small Harbor freight Sonic, and have been thinking of getting a wet tumbler, does anyone have a "ballpark" figure on what a set up would cost?
I had a bad experience buying some Lyman dry media that had red rouge cleaner in it, they went a little crazy with the rouge, and while it cleaned the brass O.K., the darned rouge got all over everything, and was impossible to get rid of! The dies and everything were loaded with it!
Having a wet tumbler system seems the way to go--

[Ianagos]

I have three of the dry Frankford vibrator brass cleaners and one small Harbor freight Sonic, and have been thinking of getting a wet tumbler, does anyone have a "ballpark" figure on what a set up would cost?
I had a bad experience buying some Lyman dry media that had red rouge cleaner in it, they went a little crazy with the rouge, and while it cleaned the brass O.K., the darned rouge got all over everything, and was impossible to get rid of! The dies and everything were loaded with it!
Having a wet tumbler system seems the way to go--

Well on a budget you could grab a rock tumbler from harbor freight for under $60 and it has two drums. I put about 100 9mm or 50 .223 cases in there at once with a pound or two of media and it works great. Media can be had from any online place. That would be your cheapest option but it works great for under $100 including the pins and lemishine and some soap.

[lightman]

I have three of the dry Frankford vibrator brass cleaners and one small Harbor freight Sonic, and have been thinking of getting a wet tumbler, does anyone have a "ballpark" figure on what a set up would cost?--

Click on the STM ad at the top of the page. It looks like $249.95 will get you a 15# set-up. There are other tumblers available too.

[JimB..]

Click on the STM ad at the top of the page. It looks like $249.95 will get you a 15# set-up. There are other tumblers available too.

Just FYI, I have the 40lb unit from STM and it is far quieter in operation than the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler. You’ll probably select a smaller STM unit, but I bet the STM is quieter than the FART, and it matters in a small shop.

[phidelt208]

I keep it simple,
SS pins
Brass
Dash of Dawn
and 45 case of Limishine

[Budzilla 19]

A “shake “ of Lemishine, a squirt of Armor All wash and wax, hot water to within 1” of the top, hot water works better, don’t know why. This is the result.







Dillon vibratory polisher gathering dust now. Good luck to you, whatever way you decide to go. Frankfort Arsenal set up was on sale for $167 last year.

[mdhillbilly1]

They reduced it to around $119 close to Christmas that I had posted on several sites on Facebook.