Case Cleaning + Laundry Bag = Frugal Good Idea?

[Forester]

I stole a spoon from the kitchen once to use skimming a lead pot off. The hell I heard from that leads to me believe that cleaning brass in the washer/dryer/dishwasher might be fatal.

Tumblers are $40 at MidwayUSA, sometimes less. I think thats the better plan.

[dakotashooter2]

Poor mans tumbler

1 or 2 coffee cans with lid/s
tumbling media
duct tape
pickup truck

Insert media and cases in coffee cans
snap on cover/s and duct tape in place
lay in box of pick and permit to rollaround

After driving around for a week check results

Not as fast as a tumbler but it works to some degree


I've also found that putting a few cases in your pants pocket every day does a pretty good job of polishing the outside. Tends to wear out pockets though.

[montana_charlie]

Poor mans tumbler

1 or 2 coffee cans with lid/s
tumbling media
duct tape
pickup truck

I am intrigued by the simplicity of that solution.
If you attached three or four arms to the bottoms of the cans...and put something on the ends of the arms to catch the wind...they would rotate as you drive if they were threaded onto a rod set between the stake pockets.
Longer arms cause slower rotation...and transversly.

One who lives in windy country could do without the pickup...
CM

[cohutt]

For really funky range brass- stuff i've picked up that might have mud, sand gravel, bugs, whatever in it:
I collect it in a mesh laundry back that had a drawstring top.
Shake it around a lot to get out the loose pieces of crud. watch the toxic dust though...
When i get back from the range, it is the first item i unload. It goes into a 5 gallon bucket of water with some dishwashing soap (some nasty peppermint smelling stuff someone gave us in a christmas basket a couple years ago) and maybe a tiny bit of "Simple Green" type cleaner.
Shake, rattle, slush, agitate a couple times
unload rest of gear.
Shake, rattle, slush, agitate a couple times again, notice toxic mud/carbon hue of water
Clean a couple of guns
Dump bucket and shake out as much water fro the bag of cases as you can
rinse bucket and return cases, turn on hos elow and leave running under bag of cases.
Clean a couple more guns, record range data, watch tv, aploogize to spouse for staying so late at range (again)
turn off hose, shake back in bucket if water looks clean, dump and put up
shake water out of cases and lay bag flat in sun (black truck bed liner makes a nice sun-oven even in winter.) roll over once or twice. IN dedicaed pan in warmer oven @ 200 degress works too if wetaher isn't good although i prefer to let the sun do it.
when cases dry, sort, inspect.
Tumble for a few minutes to finish the job.

I wash new to me range pickup so that:
1- I can sort/inpect scavenged case bounty more easily CLEAN
2- Tumlbing media lasts 5x longer.