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Thread: A new "what are you doing in the loading room today" thread

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  1. #1
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    A new "what are you doing in the loading room today" thread

    I find these kind of threads to be fun so lets get one started again. I'm changing dies in my Star sizer and waiting on the heater to get the lube softened up. I have a couple gallon jugs each or H&G 503's and H&G 68's to size.

    I'm also looking out of the window at the barren soybean field behind the house and the cold dreary weather and thinking about all of the years that I worked out in it.

  2. #2
    Brass Trader SafetyJoe's Avatar
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    I just finished drying 5 gallons of 38/357 mag brass that I wet tumbled clean last night. I'm using a homemade brass dryer I invented that uses stacked plastic tubs and two 100 watt equivalent halogen light bulbs. The top tub that the brass is inside has hundreds of holes I melted in the bottom with a soldering iron. The holes allow the heat from the light bulbs to permeate up and through the brass. The middle tub has a large hole in the center for the heat from the light bulbs to pass through while still shielding the bulbs from any dripping water and the bottom tub allows the room for the light bulbs. The bottom tub and top tub lid also have vent holes to allow the heat and moisture to circulate up and out. All 3 tubs are not the same height. The bottom tub is the deepest to allow extra room for the light bulbs. I was able to dry all 5 gallons of brass in only a few hours. Tumbling clean all 5 gallons of brass took 3 hours to tumble in 3 separate tumblers. Each batch tumbled for 1.5 hours and I ran 6 of those batches. Total hands on time spent loading the tumblers and later rinsing the 5 gallons of brass and dumping them in my homemade dryer was under 1.5 hours. So with this setup I'm able to clean 5 gallons of brass with about 1hr 15 min of actual hands on work and 3 hours total of wet tumbling.


  3. #3
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    What is the advantage of wet tumbling, what equipment do you wet tumble in and what wet material do you wet tumble with? Tim

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    Brass Trader WarEagleEd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bullet45120 View Post
    What is the advantage of wet tumbling, what equipment do you wet tumble in and what wet material do you wet tumble with? Tim
    I use a Lortone model 33B. I use some Lemi-Shine, non-concentrated Dawn dish detergent, and water. I get my stainless steel pins from Best Byte computers in Katy, TX. The Lortone 33B can't process a lot of brass at a time (just about a pound per barrel, the 33B has two barrels), but it suits my needs. My brass comes out very clean inside and out. Primer pockets usually come out just as clean, but sometimes there is a little residue left inside the pocket. With the vibratory cleaner I had issues with bits of the abrasive getting stuck in flash hole and powder/dust accumulation on brass that then had to be cleaned. I don't know if, generally speaking, there is any significant advantage to wet-tumbling.

    As far as reloading related stuff, today I wet-tumbled a batch of .38 special and 9mm brass.

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    Back to sizing bullets today. When I get tired or bored I'll start back to reorganizing my ammo storage. Years ago I just dumped loaded rounds directly into ammo cans. Now I put them in ZipLoc bags first, with labels containing dates, loads, counts/amounts, ect. I'm also spraying the lid gaskets with Silicon spray while I have them empty.

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    Still spending a few hours a day sizing bullets. After that I spend a little time on my ammo storage.

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    Still sizing bullets and still sorting ammo.

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    Scored a bare loadmaster today for an extremely good price. Just need to come up with shellplates and a space turret, then I can swap 40 and 45acp from the pro1000 and keep it for just 223/300aac.

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    Got multiple things going on this week. Deer season closed Sunday so I'm back home. Got the Ranger washed up and the truck unpacked. Got a drum of range brass on the tumbler. Still sizing bullets. Still moving loaded ammo to ammo cans. Got a half of a bucket of wheel weights to sort. I smelt wheel weights in batches of 350-400# and it looks like I almost have enough to smelt pretty soon.

  10. #10
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    It looks like I won't be doing very much for the rest of the year. Have lots of company coming over for Christmas and we're trying to get the house in order, and keep it in order. Then gun deer season opens again for a few days after Christmas. I took today to tidy up in the loading room a little and sorted a little range brass. Added a few cases to my trade page.

  11. #11
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    im cleaning up the back wall of my garage and gonna build myself a new reloading bench. its gonna be bigger than the one i built for my wife for her to make her rock jewelry if anyone saw the pictures before the spam removal took them down


    who got the 40 cal TC TL mold and was gonna try it? did you have any luck with it? im still thinking of getting the regular version without the tumble lube rings

    safetyjoe,
    man you are gonna have corpal tunnel in both hands loading the revolvers with that much 357

    Mbaker,
    you actually got the lee 1000 to load reliabaly? i bought one new that was "supposedly" factory setup for 223 according to the label on the box abt 10 years ago, it just felt like a toy with the plastic powder measure and lightswitch pull chain, loaded about 10 rounds of 223 and had no consistancy in charge weights, it didnt index into stations correctly and just worked like crap. so i took it to the next gunshow and got rid of it, got a dillon and never looked back
    Last edited by Pacomdiver; 12-22-2018 at 01:48 PM.

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    It was I that got the 40 TL TC mold, have it tried it yet, still trying to get a decent space to cast.

    As for the pro1000, it runs pretty well(if a bit finicky) when you learn what it likes. But I don’t really load conventionally on it. I size rifle cases on a single stage so that I can trim, tumble, and hand prime. So I just charge, seat, and crimp on the pro1000. I also switched to an auto drum as opposed to the auto disk, it’s much more consistent with a positive spring return, the chain is just to prevent double charges.

    From what I’ve read about the loadmaster, the priming system is the weak link, so I’m going to bypass that altogether and hand prime pistol cases too. I’ll remove the decap stem from the sizing die and put either a powder cop or bullet feeding die in station 3. I’ll keep the pro1000 around for now for 300aac and 223rem, maybe I’ll eventualy move them to the loadmaster too, it would certainly clean up the bench.

  13. #13
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    i also preprepped my cases, so i just put a RTL case in and loaded it, worst part of it was , i had about half of a dillon 550 invested in it with the toolheads and extras i bought but live and learn.

    im getting a dillon 650 for christmas so that will be the first press on my new reloading bench when its done. it will be a big "L" with the rough length will be a 16ft long straight section and a 8ft "L" section on the end and it will be 30in wide with 3 12 inch wide shelves above the main work area the full length so i will have plenty of storage space


    i have a 6ft long and 3ft wide table that i move near the door of my garage that i set up my casting stuff on, turn the fan on and let it blow out the doors, but i kinda shot myself in the foot, since i built the bench for my wife next to the doors, it doesnt leave enough space to get thru anymore

  14. #14
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    bench is done, it looks awesome, am wiring it for power today and will start moving my stuff off 3 benches to this one, so all my stuff is in one area with seperate sections dedicated for reloading with 3 presses on it, case prep or general work in the center and a section on right for cast bullets and PC coating. i did some quick calculations, it has 52.5 sq ft of work space and 67 sq ft of shelf storage

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    Got my loadmaster running last night, cranked out 180 rounds of 40s&w in pretty short order. Now I’m out of brass, might try loading a bit of aluminum, just to try and see.

  16. #16
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    Mbaker,
    too bad this wasnt about 2 months ago, i traded a local guy 4500 40 cases, could've sent you some

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pacomdiver View Post
    Mbaker,
    too bad this wasnt about 2 months ago, i traded a local guy 4500 40 cases, could've sent you some
    I’ve generated a few hundred empties over the last few days, so I’m good, just need to sit down at the bench again.

  18. #18
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    anybody still having problems with pictures not loading from their computer to here? ive tried a couple times and it loads, then says it had "failed"

  19. #19
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    With the Holidays past I'm back to sorting ammo again. I'm doing this while the tumbler is running. I'll dry and sort that brass and start all over again.

  20. #20
    Brass Trader Pacomdiver's Avatar
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    mbaker, i have the same problem, i go to the range with ammo and come back with a bucket of empty brass, LOL. i have loaded the 9 and 45 CCI aluminum cases to see the feasability, they work fine for cast bullets, dont know if id make factory charges with jacketed in them, but figured i could down load them for subs . years ago, i did a torture test of the boxer primed wolf 45 cases, i loaded and shot them, got to 7 reloads and gave up. i still had the original 25 test subjects. i didnt lose any in the test, so they are a good cantidate

    with the 550, i used to do runs of at least 1k at a shot for the common stuff 9,45,223,308,and B/0. i hope to up that with my new 650, i just loaded up 50 9mm test rounds in less than 5 minutes with the lee 120g tc bullet with 2 different charges of unique, 4 and 4.5g to see if my various 9 mils like it

    i use a concrete mixer to wet tumble brass, i do about 3k 9mm or 2k 223 at a shot since i dont wanna overload it. if i put too much in, the dawn foams too much and comes over the lip, so i use a small rubbermaid tote to catch any "burps". i have reduced what i use to a teaspoon and a partial teaspoon of lemishine per run
    Last edited by Pacomdiver; 01-02-2019 at 06:27 PM.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check