Best for the $ liquid/SS pins case cleaner system?

[Big Boomer]

Have made the decision to leave the dry walnut tumbling system with an old RCBS vibratory tumbler and move to a liquid cleaning system. Have SS pins and plenty of citric acid on hand … now I have to decide on the water tight tumbler. Which one is the best for the $ involved. My needs will not be high volume and in some cases I like to clean single boxes of .30 Carbine, .357 Mag, .41 Mag. and .45 Colt separately so as to keep them unmixed. I record on the box the number of times the cases have been fired, trimmed, etc. 9mm and .45 ACP are kept in larger quantities in ammo cans so are cleaned in higher volume. What are you using and what is the cost of your system? Big Boomer

[CraigOK]

Someday I'd like to get the Frankford Arsenal one I've heard great things about it.

[mdi]

FWIW, I've used a Harbor Freight dual drum tumbler for wet tumbling (when I was experimenting with it). The drums are water tight and will hold 100, 38 Special, 9mm or 45 ACP with a bit fewer 357 Magnum or 44 Magnum cases with pins and solution in each drum. I found my trial worked quite well with fewer cases at a time, but the 100 did work well...

[scotner]

I have the Frankford Arsenal and it is great but it is not really suitable for small batches. It is a more complicated process than dry tumbling and much more time consuming.

I have seen all kinds of opinions on what you have to do to clean brass with this system but my best results have come from simply using the liquid cleaner that comes with it and the hottest water you can get from the sink. I run for two hours, rinse and separate the pins (the hardest part of this process). Then I use my Dillon media separator to spin dry most of the water from the brass and spread it out on a large towel to finish drying. Not quick or simple but even range pickup brass comes out looking like new.

I bought mine from jet.com. They had a coupon good for 15% off for first time buyers and free shiping. Best price I could find. If you decide to buy a stainless pin cleaning system be sure to order the magnetic pickup tool for it. It is not terribly expensive and makes the process much easier.

[Grmps]

My DIY wet tumbler ( I built my first one out of wood with the metal strap holding the wiper motor)
computer power supply (yellow is 12 V Black is ground green is off/on. use 1 group of yellow and black with the green and a black)
heavy duty wiper motor(as heavy as you can find, (I use a small fan to keep the motor cool)
scrap metal and casters
2 gal bucket and Leaktite lid (at first year I used a regular lid)
4 pcs 3/4 nylon/plastic cut at a bevel with silicone and screwed into the bucket (you can use aluminum angle with silicone and short bolts)













The 223 brass keeps the buket handle out of the rollers



7# stainless pins



Leaktite lid/ Gamma Seal Lid for 2 Gallon Plastic Pail (I got at Uline.com, still looking for better bucket/lid combo)

You can use this setup with different containers inside for tumbling in
▼▼▼

[Grmps]

For small batches I put spacers in the buclet



and used a 2# square peanut jar to tumble in

[dkonrai]

I got my FART on sale on Amazon last year for 99.00 shipped plus tax. It was a black Friday sale. Hold on bf is almost here.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk

[GregLaROCHE]

I wash my brass by hand with dish washing detergent and ammonia. Five minutes swishing with an old dish brush. It really gets them clean. I then rinse and put them in a solution of citric acid. Then rinse thoroughly and let dry.

I don’t think the citric actually really makes a big difference and may stop using it because, if not well rinsed, it will leave streaks.

The ammonia really cleans fast and well. I often think if one day I get a liquid tumbler I would use the dish soap and ammonia in it.

I see people using citric acid with detergents. To me that makes no sense. Soaps and detergents are basic and of course acids are acidic. The two will want to neutralize each other.

My system by hand works pretty well and doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes. The only drawback I see with it, is the primer pockets don’t get clean enough for me and I have to do them by hand. Do the stainless pins get the primer pockets really clean?

[lightman]

Do the stainless pins get the primer pockets really clean?

Two hours in my tumbler gets all but the worst primer pockets clean. I'm not sure if its the stainless media or the citric acid.

[wv109323]

I just got a flyer from Midsouth and the FACTORY was on sale for $159 with pins included.

[HangFireW8]

I wash my brass by hand with dish washing detergent and ammonia. Five minutes swishing with an old dish brush. It really gets them clean. I then rinse and put them in a solution of citric acid. Then rinse thoroughly and let dry.

I don’t think the citric actually really makes a big difference and may stop using it because, if not well rinsed, it will leave streaks.

The ammonia really cleans fast and well. I often think if one day I get a liquid tumbler I would use the dish soap and ammonia in it.

I see people using citric acid with detergents. To me that makes no sense. Soaps and detergents are basic and of course acids are acidic. The two will want to neutralize each other.

My system by hand works pretty well and doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes. The only drawback I see with it, is the primer pockets don’t get clean enough for me and I have to do them by hand. Do the stainless pins get the primer pockets really clean?

Ammonia dissolves the zinc out of the brass and leaves it weaker. Using ammonia has therefore never been recommended for cleaning ammo brass. Yet every year someone on some forum comes forward with this great new idea.

[PowPow]

I just got the Lyman model, since I saw it's on Amazon for $139.39. Wow, turned my well loved .45acp brass into looking brand new including the primer pockets, clean primer pockets being my reason for wanting this. Some of them were pretty well gunked up. At this point, I don't think I'm going to completely stop dry tumbling my brass every week, but I might take it all and reset primer pockets to spanky new every so often. I know I could use one of the case prep tools to clean them, but this way fed my gadget curiosity.

[jmort]

The FART is rightly held in high regard

[RedlegEd]

Hi. I've got the FA Platinum wet tumbler and I love it, but if I saw the Lyman version that PowPow got for ~$140, I would have bought that one. In any event, wet tumbling with SS pins is a great way to get your brass unbelievably clean. Ed

[Chad5005]

ive got the lyman cyclone and it works great,weve done from small 50 count loads to 1000 count loads

[Omega]

I have the Harbor Freight and Frankford Arsenal versions, I like the FA version, I only run mine for 30-45 minutes with dawn and lemisine and they come out as new, including primer pockets. Much easier, IMHO, than dry tumblers, I seem to get a bunch of dust, even with a bit of wax or drier sheet tossed in. With the media separator and magnet it's a super simple process.

[GregLaROCHE]

One of the biggest benifits of wet tumbling is it keeps the dust down. Cases are full of fine lead from the primers and can easily be inhaled with dry tumbling. With wet tumbling, your risks of lead contamination are brought way down.

[GregLaROCHE]

Ammonia dissolves the zinc out of the brass and leaves it weaker. Using ammonia has therefore never been recommended for cleaning ammo brass. Yet every year someone on some forum comes forward with this great new idea.

You are right, ammonia can attack the zinc in brass. However, that depends on how strong it is and how long the exposure is. A table spoon of ammonia in hot water with dish detergent for five minutes has little effect on the structural strength of the brass. Maybe running brass in a tumbler for two hours in a solution of it, would not be a good idea. Thanks for pointing that out

[PowPow]

ive got the lyman cyclone and it works great,weve done from small 50 count loads to 1000 count loads

My first load was ~650 .45acp cases. Every one of them came out looking brand new. (Dawn & Lemi-shine, 2 hours) Some have 12-14 loads. After drying in a food dehydrator for ~3 hours, I ran them through the media separator that I use for my dry tumbling. I thought I had gotten all of the pins out before putting them in to dry, but behold there were 5 more pins that came out. So, the moral of the story is to be extra sure the pins are out. If you think there's a chance, take the time to verify. Then, since I'm new to wet tumbling, I checked every case as I was loading it. No pins. We don't want those pins in the loaded cartridges!

[dkonrai]

Anyone else wash theirs twice? I wet tumble for 30 or 40 minutes with dawn, no pins, dump dirty water, run it again. Then rinse.
Process brass, I use lube, then final tumble with pins to clean the pockets.
Rinse, i use a strainer then a magnetic separator. Final rinse in a bucket, dump in car wash, rinse again. My ocd kills me.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk