Wet tumble and Dawn

[abunaitoo]

Does Dawn make that much of a difference????
I'm using up some cheap dish washing liquid, and it doesn't come out looking like some posted here.
My formula is a bit of Lemi shine, a squirt of dish wash, a squirt of liquid car wash wax and wash, hot water.
Tumble for an hour.
They do come clean, but primer pockets on some of the are not clean, the inside of some cases are not shiny.
Just wonder if Dawn would make a difference.

[dale2242]

I use 1/2 tsp of citric acid and a squirt of Dawn.
I tumble for 3 hrs. Brass is very shiny.
Dawn seems to work best.
You may need to tumble longer to get clean primer pockets.

[slim1836]

I use Dawn and citric acid tumbled for up to 3 hours and I can't get the "new look" either. It really doesn't bother me any as I'm just gonna dirty them up again.

Slim

[StuBach]

I’ve used dawn, Ajax, dollar store soap and commercial food service soap and all come out about the same. I just use what’s on hand at the time.

[JimB..]

Try using more soap. I find that if there are no suds when you open the tumbler that the brass won’t be as polished looking. With really dirty brass I may tumble for an hour then change the water and tumble for another hour.
I don’t use dawn, have gone to wash-and-wax type auto cleaner plus lemishine.

[pastera]

If you aren't using pins then primer pockets and insides aren't getting wiped the same way the outsides wipe against each other to clean.
The idea is to get the cases clean so dirt doesn't damage your dies or chambers - shiny is not necessary.
A little fouling in the primer pocket or case interior isn't going to hurt anything

As far as soap - it's whatever the wife bought and usually not Dawn unless there was a big sale

[Brass&Lead]

For the F. A. R. T. VERY full of range brass (2/3 of a MFRB) and pins with our water I use:
6 Tablespoon measure of cheap dish soap
1 Teaspoon of Lemishine
Fill it almost full of cold water.
Run for 1.5 – 2 hours.

After depriming / sizinging / trimming:
8 - 10 Tablespoon measure of cheap dish soap
3/4 Teaspoon of Lemishine
Fill it almost full of cold water.
Run for 2 hours.

If it is coming out dull, grey, not smooth feeling increase the soap till it comes out looking like new or better.

[Jsm180]

The amount of soap and lemishine depend on how hard/soft your water is. The pins are what cleans the the inside of cases and primer pockets, if you pack the drum with cases you need to tumble longer.

I use 2-3 second squirt dawn ultra and 9mm case of lemishine then tumble for 2-6 hours depending on number of cases.

[NyFirefighter357]

Does Dawn make that much of a difference????
I'm using up some cheap dish washing liquid, and it doesn't come out looking like some posted here.
My formula is a bit of Lemi shine, a squirt of dish wash, a squirt of liquid car wash wax and wash, hot water.
Tumble for an hour.
They do come clean, but primer pockets on some of the are not clean, the inside of some cases are not shiny.
Just wonder if Dawn would make a difference.

I use several tumblers and have used several types of soap. The key is after an hour dump out most of the water and run it again. My first run I use a dash of Lemishine and a couple of drops of dish soap. After an hour I pour off most of my water and run them again with a dash of Lemishine & a teaspoon of car wash soap. The initial run is usually in hot water.

The citric acid should be used to combat hard water, it can be used to increase the acidity of the solution for cleaning but too much acid can damage the brass. The soap suspends the dirt into the solution, if the brass is very dirty the solution may saturate and doesn't suspend all the crud. By replacing the solution after an initial tumble, you have removed most of the heavy crud, thus the second tumble makes for a better polish.

[Huskerguy]

Well, this is interesting. I just make the switch from dry to wet tumbling about 2 months ago and have been going through my brass stash and a friends. I have had generally great results with some being in the good category.

My formula right now seems to be a red folgers can full of brass in my platinum tumbler, a 9mm case full of lemishine and a few grains more as I put it in my hand to fill the case, a good sized squirt or two of Dawn X4 soap and one or two caps of Armoral Wash and Wax. An hour and a half is plenty long enough, 2 if it is really dirty. I put water in just over the brass, not clear up to the top and generally use hot water. I tried without pins and that is a no go. Some of my brass looks better than some new stuff I had, but not all.

The stuff I did for a friend was out in Western KS where the water is very hard but he has a softener. I just wasn't getting good results so I ran them a bit longer, didn't make much difference. Picked up some distilled water and it helped but not much. The brass was clean inside and out, primer pockets but I just could not get the brass. I attributed it to his heavy use of homemade lanolin/alcohol sizing spray. I used the same stuff on some of my 223 but not nearly as much and my brass came out very shiny. Another thing I tried was to reuse the water to reclean a batch just to see if that would help. I put a little rinse water back into the bucket but it was mostly the used stuff and I would put in more soap and lemi and the results were really good the second time around. So I ended up doing well over 4,000 223 and several more thousands of 45, 45 colt.

I do think the water does make a difference. We live in an area that has a lot of natural salt in our water and we do not need a softener. I am still looking for the fool proof, always shiny outcome but it escapes me. I just think there are too many variables. But overall I am very satisfied with my clean and mostly high gloss brass.

[MOA]

Keep in mind:
1. The dirtiest brass needs to have less pieces of brass per run.
2. The higher the count in brass, the longer the runtime should be.
3. Containers the size of F.A.R.T need a minimum of 5 pounds of pins.
4. Hot water
5. Forget the car waxes
6. Half teaspoon of Lemi-shime.
7. Minimum of 2 oz. of dawn.
And when timer runs out remove from tumbler and rinse with fresh water immediately and dry.

300 Savage.

Before


After

[Dusty Bannister]

I think we all have our own choices of what recipe to follow for our own area conditions. I am on city water, and run the Lyman Cyclone. Most recently I have been running deprimed brass to fill the large red plastic Folgers can within about 2" of the top, 1/2 teaspoon of LemiShine, 1 tablespoon of Armorall car wash and wax. Hot water to the bottom of the shoulder of the drum making sure to jostle the contents to allow air to escape the cases. Swirl it a few times every few minutes because the LemiShine is already reacting with oxides and you want to relieve the air pressure before securing the cap. Add to the liquid level if necessary and cap tightly. I do not use the pins unless some severely stained cases are being cleaned. The max time set is three hours and that works great for me.

When the timer goes off, remove the cap and seal and pour out as much as you can then fill and rinse with hot water several times and drain well. I like to use the FA rotating sifter with some dry rags to absorb the water as the strainer is rotated. Then to the drying trays for 12 to 18 hours under a fan. Summer time, gets full sunshine for a shorter time. Some primer residue remains, but cleaning pockets should be part of the case inspection before reloading begins.

[Mal Paso]

Dish soap and wash wax products will fight each other. I clean with Dawn and final rinse with the car wash and wax.

The whole point of Dawn is it's concentrated. If you use the cheap stuff it takes more. Just like it does on dishes. There is a reason it is cheaper.

[Half Dog]

I fill the tumbler to 3/4 full of water, add the car wash, citric acid, and tumble for 1-1/2 hours. I find the shine lasts longer this way.

[lightman]

Its been my experience that dish soap and wash-in-wax work against each other. I suggest using one to the other. If you don't use the wax products your brass tarnishes pretty quick because they get so clean that there is nothing left on them to protect it.

The Citric Acid/Lemi-Shine is a balancing act depending on your water hardness. I use the cap from my wash-in-wax (Armor-all) to measure and a 40 S&W case for the Lemi-Shine. A 2 hour tumble makes all but the grubbiest cases look better than new.

I've seen some post that claim Dawn or Ivory work better than other brands of shop if you go the soap route.

Every now and then I have a batch that comes out dull. It just happens??? When that happens I run the pins alone in some Dawn for a cycle and then start over.

[Mal Paso]

I use beeswax and grease lube so I need the Dawn to cut it. If you don't have that issue car wash and wax will probably do.

[KCcactus]

Try laundry detergent and some baking soda. I also put some cloth strips in with it. If you don't want to do a whole batch, leave a piece of dirty brass in your jeans pocket to see how it turns out.

[fatnhappy]

I’m using 3-5 gallons of water and upwards of 10 lbs of pins in a home made wet tumbler.
No Lemi-shine, no dawn. I’m using some generic soap and food grade citric acid. IIRC I’m paying $5 a lb for it.

[bimus]

I would never go back to dry tumbling

[Pete44mag]

I use Dawn and Lemishine. A full .45 ACP empty of Lemishine and a good squeeze of Dawn in my F.A.R.T tumbler with hot water. 5# of SS pins and tumble for 1.5 to 2 hours. Then I rinse the brass in cold water with auto polish and separate the pins. I shake I. A large towel spread on my work bench and use a hair blow dryer to dry. Dont mix Dawn Lemishine and auto wax in tumbler because they fight each other and bras will not come out shiny.