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Just ordered a frankford arsenal wet tumbling setup from Amazon... Lemi-shine was one of the recommended purchases with it so I got that too.
Is it truly as easy as brass, water, dawn, and Lemi-shine?
P.S. I blame Gandog and happyguy... My brass looked just fine until I got some from them ;)
while i did once forget to add my ss pins they did shine up nicely... i do use the ss media when tumbling...tx
Right, forgot to list the SS media... I'm pretty certain it comes with it.
Yes it's that easy. Only thing that might throw you for a loop is don't over do it with the Lime-Shine. Another thing is mineral content in your water, if there is any. Some folks that live in certain places had wicked results and couldn't figure it out. If that happens to you look into distilled water just to see if that makes a difference. Always dry your brass with a towel immediately after tumbling and set them in the sun to dry. If you put brass in a propane oven to dry it will darken them some.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk5KoZ8XkPQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuDRzeZAgyA
Check those two videos out. They should answer all your questions, enjoy.
Thanks, and as for mineral content, I don't think there's much in the local water.
If you want to see what the SST Tumbler system that I bought 6 months ago is a real dream.Give me a shout and you can come over and see. I live in Wapakoneta and it is about an hour from you. You are welcome anytime.Once you run your brass you will wonder why you have struggled all this time with corn cob and polishing media. Tony
I'm hoping mine will be here beginning of next week... Just in time too, I have a bunch of brass that's in need of cleaning up.
And don't use a whole lot of Lemi-Shine. Too much is bad. I'm pretty sure the Frankfort Arsenal one does come with the stainless steel media.
I still use corncob too....as a final hi gloss polish, and to get the case lube off of my bottleneck shells after I size them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony M
I was planning on doing walnut after firing to get the grit off, then wet tumbling after I size and trim.
I looked at the listing on Amazon, it says it does come with the media.
I do it the other way around. I deprime them all using a Lee universal decapper first, then into the tumbler they go. After I dry them out after tumbling I size them, trim them, swage out any primer cups and trim them if I need to. Then they go into corncob vibrator with some Flitz for a final polish. (And remove any case lube if used)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
I think walnut cleans them faster, but corncob puts on a much higher gloss. Since the cleaning is done by the rotary, no need to use walnut.
I've been using walnut because it's cheap, and cob seems kind of hard to find in usable sized bags (50lbs is a bit much). I was getting crushed walnut in 6lb bags from a pet store for something like $5.
The only issue I found was that when the walnut got dirty it would start to collect in the primer pockets.
PS. My tumbler and lemi-shine arrived today. I'll have to run it on my next day off.
Do you guys mix cases when you wet tumble (223, 300aac,and 308) or just run separate loads for each caliber?
Depends. I just took out a load today. It has 7.62X54R, 7.62X39, .308 Win, 30.06, and .303 Brit. The next load will be 9mm Luger, 9mm Mak, .380 ACP, .38 special, .357 Mag, and 357 SIG cases. But don't do like .45 ACP, .40 cal, and 9mm together, as you could get three cases stuck together and the primer cups and insides don't get cleaned. I always do .223/5.56 alone because they just lodge into other cases.
So I can do 300aac with my 308 and 30-06 then, that's good to know...
They say this thing can do up to 1000 223 per load... I only have about 600 to run through it right now, ill save the torture test for another day I guess...
That include the 288 5.56 I just sent ya?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
This is how I have been cleaning. Just a light run in walnut to clean um up for my dies, and really clean um up in the ss. Think it's eazyer to clean the trash out of my walnut then the ss.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
havent they already been wet tumbled?Quote:
Originally Posted by gandog56
I second what GRUMPA said in regards to drying, once I'm done tumbling I put the cases in a colander and rinse off the soapy/dirty water and then put them straight on a towel. If that towel gets too wet during the transfer, then I put them on a second towel and leave them out to dry. I have dried them outside in the sun and in the laundry room on top of the dryer while it was running. One caveat here is that my laundry "room"is a closet, really. They may not dry quickly using this method if you have a real laundry ROOM.
I ran about 600 223 last night, it's amazing how much quieter the wet tumbler is than the vibratory one...
I ran them for 2 1/2 hours and the outsides look spotless, the primer pockets are pretty clean and so are the insides, but I think they could've stood to run for a bit longer. Right now they're drying out on a towel, haven't checked on them yet, I'll probably do so later in the day.
I did notice that it's a bit more work than just running them through cob or walnut, but the end result is much better looking... Now to get a transfer magnet...
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/375...ProductFinding
Try this on for size. made just for your new tumbler too.
I've never seen a transfer magnet! I cover the mouth of a bucket with an old t-shirt, secure it with a rubber band, place half of a conventional media separator over that, and poor out my drums into the bucket. The media separator catches all the brass and some of the ss pins. The rest of the pins are caught by the t-shirt.
Ed
That's actually the one I had my eye on.Quote:
Originally Posted by 62chevy
Got an actual count of cases last night as I was priming them, 542 cases... Up next I'm going to run about 280 308 and 60 or so 300aac, see how it handles that... So far I'll admit that I'm impressed, out of habit I checked the flash holes of the first 100 or so, perfectly clean and clear...
Didn't I just send you some 5.56 already wet tumbled?:rolleyes:
Yep, mine didn't look quite as good as yours, but it still came out perdy.
Well, I use the rotary for primary cleaning, but after sizing I put them in the vibratory with some Flitz media additive for a final polish and get the case lube off.
I might end up going to that method later, but for now I use stainless as a final finishing.
After 8 years of many 100's of hours of use, my Frankford vibratory motor crapped out. I too had been thinking of going the wet route so I ordered the Frankford wet tumbling setup from Midway today. Supposed to be here Friday. Hopefully it holds up to lots of use and my senior moments.
I ran another load today, 300 308win and 200 300aac. About 4 hours of run time and they look almost brand new...
My F.A. wet tumbler came Friday. Quick shipping from Midway as I ordered it on Monday. I did 4 loads of brass over the weekend and I'm very happy with the results. I'm still tweaking the soap/lemi-shine amounts but they put a better shine on the brass than the packet of cleaner that came with it. No more dust for me.