Drying brass after tumbling

[abunaitoo]

How do you guys dry the brass after tumbling????
I've been letting the sun do it.
Not much sun the last few days, so taking extra long to dry.

I was thinking of making a blow dryer.
A 5gal metal drum, or bucket, with a blower, blowing air from the side, up through the drum.
A colander on top to hold the brass.
Might even put a hot plate in the drum for hot air.

[bustermchooter]

I use a food dehydrator


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JimB..]

I deprime first, then dry on a towel with a fan if it’s a large batch, or in a dehydrator if it’s a small batch.

[XDROB]

Usally lay my brass spread out on a old towel. Let it dry over night. I don't do cement mixer batches.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[JM7.7x58]

I pre-dry with a thrift store salad spinner. Then if the sun isn't out (and the wife isn't home) the brass go into the convection oven at 170° Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. I use thrift store cake pans that are only used for drying and sorting brass. I've got about 4 bucks invested into this setup.

[Winger Ed.]

I've done them in the oven in years past.

Now days, I layout a few hundred on a towel outside and come back in a day or two.

[Paper Puncher]

Put them on a towel and run a blow dryer over them if in a hurry.

[RP]

Sun or the oven most of the time I also put them in the vib type with walnut and run it letting it soak up the water.

[Walks]

I've got a board with 200 finishing nails in it.
Just stick a case on each nail and blow out each primer pocket with canned air. I tried my air compressor, it blew the case past my head and into the neghbors yard.
Then leave it out in the CALIF Sun.

Kinda slow, but then so am I.

[farmerjim]

Shake on a sieve, then rocked back and forth on a large towel like a hammock, then 20 min in a convection oven at 200.

[bdicki]

The wifes hair dryer.

[georgerkahn]

Albeit I was lucky to chance upon one at twenty dollars less than MidwayUSA's current price -- https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1016298842/frankford-arsenal-platinum-series-brass-dryer -- I bought the Frankord dryer primarily to use a gift certificate I was presented. Initially -- e.g., upon opening the box -- I was quite UN-impressed -- it seeming to be quite chincy. However -- I think I'm on my sixth year or so, and many, many thousands of cases dried -- and it never failed. My only criticism is it has an adjustable heating element which, from factory, cannot be turned off. It took me a very short effort to insert a small toggle switch in circuit, so I now may choose to run fan sans heat. I also bought a (Home Depot) timer switch, which I have unit plugged into -- so I may load it with brass from pin tumbler, set timer for four hours, and come back to DRY cases.
geo

[725]

After washing the de-preimed brass, I rub them in a kitchen towel, and either stand them on a nail board and get back to them in a few days (sooner if left in the sun) or, lay them out on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes @180 degrees. I've come to really liking the wash with dish soap & "Lemi-Shine".

[dale2242]

On a dark towel in the sun on the sidewalk in the summer.
In the dehydrator in the not so sunny days....dale

[Bayou52]

To get the best finish on wet tumbled brass, it's critical to quickly remove all surface water/moisture. Otherwise, water spots will set in and ruin the finish.

After separating the pins and removing the water from the rotary media separator, I throw a dry towel into the squirrel cage with the wet brass and agitate back and forth for about 30 seconds. Repeat with a second dry towel, and all surface moisture is gone and absorbed into the towels.

Let the brass stand exposed to open air for 30-60 minutes, and the primer pockets and case insides are dry, too.

That's it - no fans, dryers or ovens needed...

Bayou52

[Metrobluing]

Lately I have been running the wet tumbled brass thru an annealing machine. I will shake off the excess water first then the machine does the rest. Two birds, one stone.

[robg]

Hang them in a bag over a radiator for a couple of days.don't get many hot days here .when we do I've other things to do.

[MrWolf]

I use a food dehydrator


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same here. Set it around 100 degrees if I remember right then let it run overnight.

[TNsailorman]

I had an old dehydrator left over from many years ago and it was not getting any use so I started using it for a brass dryer. Works excellently. james

[kevin c]

Like Bayou 52, I dislike water spots ( thought honestly it's just a cosmetic flaw).

I spin the just wet tumbled brass in a media separator to remove most of the excess water, then use a towel hammock to get most of the rest. After that the brass is spread over cloth in the sun until dry.

When it's wet, cold or overcast I'll dump the towelled brass on a wire mesh screen and set that over a floor heating vent at home.

ETA: I didn't think that there was such a thing as "not much sun" in Hawaii...

[Bookworm]

Decap, wash in a plastic jug with detergent and hot water. Rinse, dump out on a towel.

In the summer, out in the sun. Winter, towel full of brass just lays on the floor for a day.

Then it may go in the tumbler, maybe not.

[muta4warrior]

I toss mine in a tumbler that has turtle wax in the corn cob for about 10 mins, dry and has a nice protective finish.

[Shawlerbrook]

Dry on towel , then in the sun in summer and by the wood stove in winter. Usually never in a rush, but if I was the $8 HF heat gun would work.

[Hick]

Clothes dryer-- Our dryer has a little rack that sits in the middle for drying really delicate clothes that should not be tumbled (the dryer rotates but the rack stays level). I just spread the brass on a towel and its done in 40 minutes or less.

[lightman]

In the Summer I put them on a baking tray and set them out in the Sun. In the Winter the same baking tray goes into the oven on low heat. I have noticed that the oven will dull the shine a little bit if I use a wax type wash.

A friend uses a wire basket, like those used for frying potatoes, set on his outside a/c unit. Many others use a food dehydrator.

[Conditor22]

Spin in a media separator, dump on a towel - make a "hammock" and shake the back and forth removing all the outside water. then I load up a food dehydrator and dry them.

I do this year round.

[Reverend Al]

Like many I use a food dehydrator (7 tray) since my wife rarely used it. She felt it was too big and cumbersome so I bought her a little 4 tray unit that she DOES use and I took her older, bigger unit. Works great for brass. Drain from the tumbler, put a single layer on each tray, plug it in and walk away. I empty it later the same day. So far all of my cleaned brass that I stored for future use is still bright and shiny ...

[muta4warrior]

I toss mine in a tumbler that has turtle wax in the corn cob for about 10 mins, dry and has a nice protective finish.

[Pete44mag]

Wet tumble, spin in media separator, spin in towel hammock. Then spread out on dry towel near end of work bench. Use old blow dryer clamped in vise on the end of work bench, brass is dry in ten minutes.

[abunaitoo]

I don't know anyone here that uses a food dehydrator.
We make a hot box, and put it on the roof.
I think I'll try and see if my plan for a dryer might work.

[redhawk0]

After the wet process they go in the vibrator unit with corn cob media. I add a little liquid car wax to this and let it go about 15 minutes. Separate out and they are good to go.

redhawk

[XDROB]

I simply said in an above post that I just spread the brass on a towel.

What I do after running them through my AF tumbler is pour them into a media separator and tumble them to get pins and water out. Then spread them our on towel. Usally on top of clothes dryer.
The bucket the separator sits on has two or three magnets taped to the side. Got them at Harbor Freight. As I pour the water out the magnets catch the pins. I let them stay stuck to the magnets until dry, usally a day or so. Then remove magnets and pour the pins out into an old Tupperware container.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[kmw1954]

Had my one and only squib load after starting wet tumbling and getting wet powder. After that everything goes thru the toaster oven @200* for 30 minutes and then it stays in there until it's cool enough to handle.

[Burnt Fingers]

I use the sun when possible. If not a food dehydrator. If you've got an Ollie's near you they have one for $20.

[Hairy Dawg]

Food dehydrator overnight. I want to make sure that all moisture is out.

[JeepHammer]

What I personally do,
Screen out pins or whatever, most times on fresh range brass I don't use pins.
Once the water is screened out the brass is just damp.
I throw walnut media right in the tumbler and run a while.

Cleaned first, the brass doesn't plug up the media, and the media dries the brass out quickly.

When I don't care about polish, I dump them on a minnow seine (small mesh net) strung like a hammock and park a fan from Wally-World under them.
The net is synthetic, unlike wire, it doesn't mark/discolor the cases.

I use a cement mixer with a screen over the mouth, that let's me tumble out water, pins, walnut media without dumping/hoisting the brass two or three times,
Smaller batches this wouldn't be a concern.

[edp2k]

Made a drying rack out of 1x3 scrap wood.
square frame + 4 legs, staple a fabric mesh (e.g. mesh laundry bag) on top across the square frame.
dump brass on top, direct fan to brass.
airflow is needed to dry out insides, esp. inside the interior primer holes in non-deprimed brass (pistol and rifle)
and even deprimed bottle necked brass (e.g. 223, 308, 30-06, etc.)

[pworley1]

I stand them on there mouth in the sun.

[Freischütz]

Shake the water out of the cases. Then:

In summer dry them in the sunshine
In winter dry them in the oven or over your forced air furnace's vents

[samari46]

I have a 5 ton ac unit out back of the house. If for some reason I have to wash dirty brass when done I stick them in an old aluminum salad colander and put it on the top where the fan blows out the hot air. Here in Louisiana that would take about 20-30 minutes tops to dry any brass that has been washed. Frank

[abunaitoo]

I'm thinking my drier idea, would be the same as putting them over the A/C fan.
Not hot enough to dry to fast, and cause water spots, but hot enough to dry the fast.
I used to vibrate after, but it took more time.
I always seem to put off reloading for the weekend, until I run out of time.
Then it's rush, rush, rush, to get er' done.

[Land Owner]

I have a 5 ton ac unit out back of the house. If for some reason I have to wash dirty brass when done I stick them in an old aluminum salad colander and put it on the top where the fan blows out the hot air. Here in Louisiana that would take about 20-30 minutes tops to dry any brass that has been washed. Frank

I like your thinking Frank. REUSE is what reloaders do best and reusing the heat taken out of the house to dry brass is an EXCELLENT idea.

True story - DO NOT USE OPEN FLAME (at least not for too long). I used the top of a commercial fire pit to dry 500-750 cases of 223 brass on top of a grill (see pic below). The grill heated some of the cases up to red hot and they all dried PDQ (I suppose I was in a hurry and I truly did not know better at the time).

I went into production of a few single fired rounds (50). Problems then surfaced as soft brass and even softer primer pockets. The primers blew out even though they seemed to be firmly installed. I tossed ALL of the lot of them.

I suppose someone has to be "That Guy" and the Fickle Finger of Fate pointed in my direction on that day. What a waste...don't be like Land Owner...a good example of a bad experience. Lessen Learned - the hard way.


https://i.postimg.cc/J4NhWrDN/Reloading-002.jpg

[tankgunner59]

I don't use any dryers or ovens at all. After wet tumbling my brass I put it on a large towel on my reloading table, wipe off the excess water and let it air dry. Then I tumble using walnut media, Nu Finish and mineral spirits for about 3 hours.

[samari46]

One time I bought a couple buckets of indoor shooting range 45acp brass. All mostly once fired with all the dirt off the floor included. No way was I going to load up my tumbler with all that dirt. Deprimed and cleaned the primer pockets and washed them in water and some Dawn dish washing detergent. Then out back and into the colander. Just kept dumping out the dry ones and filled with wet. Took awhile but at the end had two buckets of clean & dry brass. Used to mine the pistol berm at our range. Dump some in a cement mixing tub and blasted with the pressure washer to get the mud and dirt off. Dumped on a cut open contractor sized black plastic bag and let mother nature do the rest. Very little dirt came out when fluxed. Frank

[nicholst55]

When I was living in Yuma, AZ, I just laid the wet brass out on a towel or old bedsheet on the back porch. It didn't take long to dry during the 9 months of summer.

[Land Owner]

nicholst55 you had 37% average or less humidity. In the SE, we suffer from 97%+ humidity and it takes a lot longer...usually just after the next monsoon hits, and the dry cycle starts over.

[redhawk0]

I suppose someone has to be "That Guy" and the Fickle Finger of Fate pointed in my direction on that day.

Hahahaha....I love this quote...it makes me want to Laugh - In your direction.

redhawk

[Land Owner]

I wonder where the generational "cut off line" is in understanding that?

[Kevin Rohrer]

My brass goes in the oven for a 1/2-hour at 250F. After turning off the heat, I allow the brass to continue drying w/ the door cracked.

[ioon44]

I use a 2 ft x 2 ft 1/4 " screen in a wooden frame and put it out in full sunshine for a few hours, in the winter I place the screen behind my wood stove over night.