I have loaded thousands of shot gun shells ( 410, 28 ga, 20ga, and 12ga ) over the years with my MEC loaders . Now in finding your channel I'm going to start reloading my own brass . Your channel is a great place to start with all of the good information that you have on it . Wish me luck . LOL Thanks
That is really awesome! I've been using a similar process (LemiShine + Dawn) in my wet tumbler, but with the stainless steel pins. Checking each case for pins is my least favorite part of reloading. I'll have to run a comparison, stainless media vs no media. I'm guessing the biggest difference will be inside the cases, which isn't really a concern. Also, I have a tip for you...add the dish soap AFTER you've filled it with water. This prevents suds-city from happening all in your workspace. :-) Thanks for the video!
Good comentary and video. I have been using this method for about 2 years now. I watched the video to see if i could find some new insight. Which I did. THANK YOU! I had made up a handfull of stainless "pins" from cutting about 1/2 box of stainless brad nails. This video proves that was a waste of my energy and time. Your brass (with out pins) looks every bit as clean as mine (with wire pins). I have not yet tried it w/o the pins. I will on my next run. A bit of advise: Always deprime befor wet tumbling. moisture gets hung up in the primer, even a week later, maby longer. When the depriming pin punches out the old primer it causes it to squirt inside the case. This KILLS the powder charge and the new primer as well. It sucks spending all this effort to reload "DUDS". Yep School of hard knocks grad here. Happy reloading, be safe and thanks for your time and effort in making this video. Scott.
+Scott Thornton I have not had any issues related to not depriming first, however I put the processed brass in a warm place for a couple days and them box them up for later use, they may sit that way for months until I load them. With rifle brass or brass that I plan to use soon I do deprime first, clean the primer pockets and then wet tumble, that way the primer pockets are cleaner and dry out faster. Thanks for your input.
+Garry Oldham Yeah, I was suprised myself the first time I tried it. The insides of the brass would be cleaner with the ss pins, but it's good enough for my purposes.
I have seen this process being demonstrated in other videos. However, they added stainless steel pins as tumbling media. I think this video shows that the steel media really is not needed. Thanks for sharing!
This WORKS. I use this in my stainless steel tumbler. I use a cheap dual-drum wet tumbler from Harbor Freight (similar to yours) and put a half a 9mm case in each drum. Does NOT take much. You can use too much.
+Slade McCuiston Done that! It makes the brass turn from yellow to Orange/red. Then it splits some when fired. I think it caused the brass to harden some how.
A little Wash & Wax car soap works good added instead of dish soap, the "wax" in the soap retards any retarnishing quite well. Some soap of some kind is good to have in there for surfactant properties. I have built my own rotary tumbler using some pillow ball bearings, some steel tubing for cheap shafting that fits the bearings, a couple of pulleys and a motor I got for free. The motor I got was a Sears/Craftsman water well type pump, not something that looked usable but I tore into it and found it had a common 3/4" shaft. Works perfect, its fan cooled and 2/3hp so plenty of power. The drum was a section of 8" pvc pipe with a cap, a 8" to 6" reducer and a slip on rubber cap and I put some agitater bars in it of pvc. I have a welded frame now but it was all on 2x4 board frame. It's single driven shaft with some rubber hose on it for gripping the drum and caster wheels instead of another shaft & bearings. I have like $50 in it and it works just beautifully! I can process a LOT of brass. I do use stainless pins and I deprime everything with a universal die or my Harvey Deprimer, I like how clean the pins get the inside of the brass and the primer pockets, perfectly spotless inside & out, better than new looking brass
+mytmousemalibu I bet that home-brew machine of yours will do quite a big batch of brass. Interesting tip with the Wash & Wax car soap, I'll have to give that a try some time. I'd also like to try the stainless steel pins, they would be just the ticket for nasty range salvage brass.
314299 Shooting Channel I absolutely love the rotary machine! The vibratory can be used for other things now. Powder coating bullets, cleaning car parts, etc, but no longer my means of brass cleaning. I like the superior cleaning of wet/STM cleaning, no dusty cases, all the oxides, fouling and lead syphnate residue is all in the water to be dumped. Better cleaner brass and less lead toxicity to deal with since your not breathing or coating everything in dust. The downside is drying time (proper planning ahead and good technique negates this in my opinion) and in small bottle neck cases like 5.56/.223 some say pins can bridge in the cases. I haven't had any issues with bottle neck brass. I give my wet brass a go in a spin basket tumbler which gets most of the pins out. Once the brass is dry the pins will fall away much better and they are magnetic stainless if you like to use that. I handle and inspect my rifle brass which is all single stage loaded, no high volume rifle shooting as of yet so not likely i'll miss a pin after the screening process. For the guys that do, you can forgo the pins and still get really clean brass, I like the pins and use'em on everything. Some gripe about sticking in flashholes, the right size pins just won't, mine are .047 Ultra pins from Bullseye. STM and Guntap have them too. I don't like dirty primer pockets which could cushion the firing pin blow in the right circumstances and clean is good, nothing can touch how well the pins clean. You can build yourself a quite adequate to superb rotary machine really cheap if you are a little creative and mechanically inclined. My motor, the well pump, it was laying in my friends backyard when he bought his house and essentially wanted it to go away, I saved a really good motor from the trash. Almost perfect RPM too. That you can tweak with pulley size to get what you need. Like I said, I made mine with wood at first, nothing wrong with it, worked great and faster to make. I cut costs again by using caster wheels for the other "roller". Just some small fixed rubber tired casters. You can be creative with the bearings too and save money instead of pillow balls. A little googling for web pages and images of home made tumblers will amaze you! I have even see a recycled treadmill turned into a tumbler! The sky is the limit.
That was both simple and impressive. If you do run in to a situation that needs boosting from there,consider adding a little tsp.Trisodium phosphate has no suds,acts as a detergent. For that matter,sodium carbonate,washing soda is a booster that is both cheap and readily available.
The "experts" claim that you MUST decap all brass before wet cleaning, due to risk of corrosion of the primer pocket. I don't see where that would be much of a problem, when the cases most likely will be reloaded as soon as dry. I've seen vids where Lemi-Shine was used with the stainless pins; didn't know that stuff worked that well without them. I usually tumble with crushed walnut shell and liquid car polish. Will have to give this a try. Thanks for another great video.
It is important to decap the brass before any cleaning with a chemical solution. Many reloaders, including myself have storage tubs of clean brass waiting to be reloaded when we need it, it can sometimes sit in those tubs as much as 5 years on the calibers that I don't reload as much. Here's what happened to ME, I had some brass that was wet cleaned with the primers left in place, they had been stored 2 or 3 yrs. When I got them out to reload them I had serious problems, when you deprimed the case, the bottom of the primer punched out leaving the sides of the primer in place, I spent hours trying to find a way to get those sides out, nothing reasonable worked. Can you even imaging how mad I was when I had to throw out about half those cases? They weren't good for anything but scrap brass. Believe me, it is extremely important to decap your brass before any wet cleaning method, I know this from personal experience.
I'm using about half a teaspoon of lemi shine only and half a cup of 1/8th inch ball bearings to get inside the cases. The cases come out looking just like the video. As an experiment I let the tumbler run for 6 hours and the brass came out almost looking like chrome however I would imagine running that long would put undue wear on the brass. I also found that I can reuse the same batch of solution for three loads of the tumbler before having to increase the tumbling time.
As an experiment, I put 200 .357 mag cases in my RCBS sidewinder tumbler with a quart of hot water and a 9mm case full each of Lemi-Shine and Dawn. Let them tumble for two hours. They came out looking brand new. Sure beats anything else I've tried.
Yes it's an exceptionally good cleaning method. I currently using the Lemi Shine with stainless steel pins and it does and exceptional job of cleaning the brass and especially the primer pockets.
314299 Shooting Channel buy them on eBay for that little tumbler you would only need one pound maybe $17 u.s. dollars look up guntap stainless steel media
Given I go to the range weekly , I only clean my brass once after 3 times reload , dirty brass have the same accuracy as the clean one , I clean it without Lemi shine for 2 hr, then add the Lemi shine and run it for just 10 mins more ...
My current process is to de-cap all my brass and wet tumble it with Lemi-Shine and stainless steel pins, when done and rinsed the brass is set it aside to dry. When I need it I have virtually 100% clean brass, and I've never had to clean a primer pocket since I started using the pins.
This is a great idea - I've been using it about a year now and really happy with the results. My question has to do with decapping the rifle cases before cleaning. I missed that part originally and have been cleaning the rifle cases with the spent primers still in the cases and the results are still great. Why do you suggest decapping first?What am I missing. Thank You for this video.
If you decap the brass prior to cleaning most of the primer residue gets removed, so that saves you from manually doing this. If you decap and use the stainless steel pins the primer pockets come out almost like new brass.
True, I've switched to de-priming and using stainless steel pins and the process gets the primer pockets shiny and clean, as well as cleaning the insides of the cases.
I have had my so called Rock Tumbler for over 40 years it cost me $30 and clean all my brass for 2 hours a full batch with SS pins, Lemi Shine and Dawn dish soap. Everyone I have showed it to is switching from other media to this. Warm or hot water is a factor. Then I dry them on a backing grate on my wood stove. They come out looking like brand new or at least 99%!!!
I have sourced some of the pins since making this video and I can say that the resulting brass does come out amazingly clean. I especially like the fact that when de-capped first the primer pockets come out clean so it's no longer necessary to scrape them out.
just got me the dual drum tumbler similar to yours, Lemi shine and soap. all I need is the Pins but after watching this video I might pass on the pins for now. $50 I can spend on something else thanks for the video
You can also use citric acid, which is the active ingredient of lemishine. In the US, citric acid can be bought at Walmart in the section with canning supplies.
Got a tumbler like this ($35 craigslist) and it came with a pound of stainless steel pins. Brass are cleaner, shinier and no toxic dust compared to my dry tumbler.
Quick question: All perfect, except for some of the brass has white marks inside any idea whats causing that? It appears to be kind of like a paste that can be brushed out with a bore brush but it leaves behind parts of the brass removed and more silver colored. Also had some green spots on some especially down where the primer pocket is. Is it not drying enough?
@@314299 Thanks, my only guess left at this point is that its leftover powder residue that isnt coming off and going white. Or dezincification. Even after drying straight away. These are once fired cases from factory.
@@314299 It is cheaper for sure, i will try to find some or a similar product Ye i don't like vinegar cause you have to use sodium bicarbonate to neutralize it otherwise it will start oxidazing the brass, happened to me with some 45 colt and 45 70 cases, and lemon is just way more efficient at least in my ultrasonic cleaner Primer holes are all perfectly clean, inside is also pretty nice and takes only 20 minutes
looks pretty good without the stainless steel media. You should of deprimed them first. I would of liked to see how clean the primer pockets got without stainless steel media.
At this point I generally do deprime them before washing them, but I do this mostly to promote quicker drying. Primer pockets end up slightly cleaner when they are decapped first, but not as much as you would think. My current procedure is to decap, clean primer pockets with a primer pocket cleaning tool, then wash with Lemi Shine and soap.
I use a commercial version of CLR available at Home Depot and wow does it ever work well. Soak the brass for about 15 minutes and then rinse well and dry.
I use 2 teaspoons of LemiShine in a quart of water with a teaspoon of Dawn. I have a sonic cleaner that I use this solution in. I run it for 30 minutes at 80C. I deprime my cases before cleaning unless they are really dirty.
Since making the video I have switched to depriming my brass prior to cleaning as it does a wonderful job of cleaning out the primer pockets, and the brass dries out much faster as well.
All I can add is don't do what I did and listen to some pillock on the intranet who said to add vinegar to your mix along with the citric acid and dish detergent!. I cleaned 300 x .223 once fired brass with the stainless pins media, all de-capped first, and tumbled them for 3 hours! They came out spotless clean alright - BUT - they also came out dull as dishwater tarnished brown as if they were 50 year old brass been laying at the range in the sun all their lives! Its taken me a few days now - to get them back to clean bright shiny brass again. People say don't use ammonia, but I have had no choice with these they were so badly tarnished by the vinegar! I've ended up having to tumble them all again - this time with the same stainless pins media and a bottle of Brasso - which as you know contains ammonia!. Well let me tell you that's a heck of a messy process just to get back to as brassy looking as they were when I first started, I've washed, rinsed and dried them all thoroughly after the treatment in the neat brasso and stainless spins media to try and remove any hint of Ammonia / brasso polish from them. They are now back to nice clean brass color, but they are anything but shiny! I will now have to thoroughly wash all my stainless steel pins media to remove all the brasso.... before then going back to the original Lemishine and Dawn recipe... to get a final polish on them. The strange thing is - once they were tarnished by the vinegar, even normal Lemishine and detergent in the stainless spins media wouldn't return them to non tarnished - it took the effort with Brasso to undo that stupid step. Might be handy trick for any of you who shoot military vintage guns and need to tarnish some new brass in a hurry for display to make them look like they came from WW2. I'd like to get my hands on the pillock who said add vinegar! Whatever you do don't do it... unless you deliberately want to tarnish all your new brass. It takes all kinds I guess & for some reason you seem to find "special types' on the intranet from time to time.! Vinegar - whatever was I thinking? ;o(
Could you use lemishine in a dry tumbler? I've got salvaged water damaged ammo that I want to clean wholesale(it's safe to shoot, just corroded cases from salt water damage)
I use citric acid which is basically lemi shine but all my cases are coming out with a ring around them near the bottom, do you know why? I put the brass through a decap and resizing die prior to tumbling is that causing issues...? I use 2 9mm casing worth of lemi shine and a squirt of dish soap basically for roughly 75 cases with 3mm~ ball bearings and probably just under 1L of water.
I cant say as I've heard of that happening before. Decapping should not cause that. Perhaps it's the ball bearings, most folks use stainless steel pins.
Actually before I got my Lyman I used two glass jars with soapy water, vinegar. agitate it for about 10 minutes (that's technical for shake it up). then poor out the water into a spare jar using a plastic strainer. then simply air dry the brass after a quick dry with a shop rag (again the tech term for an old while t-shirt). Problem with a media tumbler is the noise. living in a terrace house now and single garage, so it's too loud. looking at going old school again with the cleaning.
i used my old method of using glass coffee jars, cleans them optimally in about 10 minutes. i think if you left them for longer you'd get fully clean, but after 10 mins, good to reload.
I will use vinegar, as lemonshine is just a low ph product for acidity. and vinegar is cheap and useful for many things, such as when eating beets and cucumbers--isn't that a contrast of ideas!
+Cmax Arms It does help with getting the primer pockets cleaner. as for the rest of the inside of the case I dont think it matters a great deal. Since doing the video I've decided to deprime all brass prior to cleaning, I think the cleaner primer pockets are worth the effort.
+314299 Shooting Channel ... Great, thanks for your response. I like your style and will check out your other videos.....I noticed we have some same subscribers....Cmax
Just a couple of points on this one. It would probably be best not to get the contaminated water on your hands after the tumbling, there could be lots of nasty things in there.And it is also best, for the same reason, to empty the gunge down the foul water drain, and not the kitchen sink.I notice that the very impressive finish you got on the outside of the case, did not match the still grotty inside, which is the part that I always like to get clean, the SS pins would have achieved this, (as you know), I also add a squirt of car wash/wax to the last rinse, that stops the cases tarnishing.PS If you cant get Lemishine, Citric Acid crystals from the food store are just as good.
The citric acid the product is cleaning the metal by chelation. The physical tumbling just exposes more surface area on the exterior of the case for chemical action. Imo, the cleaning of the interior of the case should be less aggressive, so this process is ideal. My $.01
Why don't you de-prime your pistol brass as you would your rifle brass. Just cleaned 200 rounds of rifle brass using dawn, vinegar, and water mix using a sonic cleaner for 15 minutes. Did a fine job. I will try the Lemi Shine next time I clean brass.
+Jerry Ribet The quantity of pistol brass just makes the extra step a bit daunting. I dont load as much rifle ammo at a time so it is not so much extra work.
Lemi shine and a one gallon jug with about 1 guart of water and 3oz. of semi shine by itself no soap no stainless steel pins add 400 9mm shells shake about 2 minuets out of 5 minuets for about 1/2 hr. drain but save rinse well and your brass will look amaizing I dry mine out in the Sun. Mixture good for 3 more batches
Often times they are good enough at an hour, it of course depends on how crappy the brass was to start with. A way to accelerate cleaning is to use very not water, works much faster than cold or just warm water.
What kind of store sells lemi shine ive never seen or herd of it or know what kind of product it is . I never did wet tumbling yet in all my years of reloading looks pretty awesome btw im from Michigan
Yes, it does a good job. Since making this video I have switched to using the stainless steel pins with Lemi-Shine and the results are even nicer, the primer pockets get clean as well.
Thank you for the Lemi Shine and Dawn Dish Soap wet tumble tip.... I knew of this and did not have the "recipe" for proper concentration. Obviously very little of the chemicals are needed. I might prefer this to walnut tumbling.
Tumbling with this set up really does have dramatic results. If you wanna kick it up a notch, add a 1/4cup of distilled white vinegar and a cap full of Barkeepers Friend. The vinegar will work to break down the carbon and the Barkeepers Friend with remove the oxidization. A couple of teaspoons of ketchup will further deoxidize the brass. Give it a shot!!!!
I had a couple thousand .45ACP cases to clean and did not want to add another step (de-priming) to the process due to all the time it would take. Now that I'm "caught up" I do de-prime the brass when I get home from the range and then clean them. Without pins this process really does not do much to the primer pockets, although it does remove some of the residue.
Reel-Lentless I only deprime before cleaning because I don't like all the mess on my press and hands with the primer pocket residue that comes out. Not just messy but toxic. It's nice to have brass that's clean in my hands, through my press and dies.
Use old pants leg used to dry cleaned, rinsed brass,, with attached zip tie on each end of opening of pantsand put in clothes dryer with couple old clothes items to cushion the bouncing around. Brass is cleaned so will not leave residue in dryer.
Thanks! I bought one of these the other day and it's remarkable how clean they get. I also lucked into a brand new food dehydrator at a Goodwill shop (thing had never been used) so about an hour or so in there and the brass is dry). Appreciate you posting the video!
With most pistol ammo slight variations are less important than they are with rifle ammo - pistols are not expected to meet the accuracy expectations that rifles are.
+Russell Houghton (Russ303) No, it was not bought in a chain store. I found it a few years in one of those clearance type stores, they had only the one. I thought it an odd thing for them to carry, since most of the stuff they had was construction materials and furniture.
+Russell Houghton (Russ303) I've cleaned over 100,000 brass cases with a frankford arsenal wet tumbler. The harbor freight ones are only good for doing tiny batches.
+314299 Shooting Channel Harbor Freight has the same as shown in this video and one with 2 drums. WAY cheeper than those at the "reloading supplys / gun shops".
Scott Thornton Cheaper doesn't usually mean better. The harbor freight ones don't hold as much brass as the one I use. I can do 10 lbs of brass at once. In one day I can clean a 5 gal bucket full of brass. That would probably take a whole week with the harbor freight one.
+Prepare2Survive It's true that the small machine does less at a time, however I find if I process brass soon after I shoot it (or collect from the range) the amount the machine does is adequate. I can do two or three batches in an evening if I fall behind.
@@314299 My apologies. I wasn’t trying to be rude and if I was I’m sorry. I was merely trying to get and understanding of Canadian gun laws. I realize that sounded disrespectful and for that I apologize.
Seems like a good idea to me. I have heard of others doing the same thing. As it is currently summertime I place my brass in front of my basement dehumidifier to dry it out.
Did I use too much Lemi Shine?? At first my brass turn out so bright yellow like fresh brass, but for 2 days most turned orange + Reddish, I used Dawn and Lemi Shine. Any ones have any idea??
I'm not sure if that was the problem, although it might be. You dont want to use too much Lemi Shine, or too much detergent with it. I have had poor results when I used too much of either. Another thing that can mess up a batch is if you get a round of steel case ammo mixed in with a batch, some steel cases have zinc coatings on them and they will react with the Lemi Shine and will turn your brass orange.
Go easy on the Lemishine. It's my understanding that it is basically citric acid.The acid leeches stuff out of the brass turning it orange. Or so I've heard.
50/50 mix of Nu Finish car polish/mineral spirits. Tear three or four 2 inch square sized pieces of a used dryer sheet and throw them in your Tumbler. No more dust problem. An hour and a half to two hours should be sufficient.
instructions and spectacular brass The trick to using the tumbler with stainless steel pins are the right ingredients and steps "Washing" brass is a two step process. Washing and polishing Washing brass is totally different than polishing brass You want to load the dirty brass (NO SS PINS) into your tumbler and wash the brass with dish soap (degreaser) before removing the primers. 30 minute wash This will save a ton of dirt from getting all over the place. This will also save your decapping/sizing dies from becoming grossly dirty. How much can you put into your tumbler? 30lbs total weight Here's what I bought from amazon ACCUTECK All-in-1 Series W-8250-50bs $17 Pour tumbler water and brass thru SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen Now that you've washed, decapped (de-primed) and sorted your brass, it's time to polish You absolutely want to use the stainless steel pins, unless you like manually cleaning primer pockets For the love of GOD, don't even think about working with stainless steel pins without a magnet Frankford Arsenal Media Transfer Magnet - $15 Frankford Arsenal stainless steel pin size (small enough to go through the hole in a piece of brass) 0.040" in diameter x .311" long 5lb = 1000's of pins The magnet will pick the pins outta gravel and grass Now if you search how to clean the metal, brass, you will find that phosphorus acid is best. You can search amazon for cleaner with a 20% phosphorus acid mixture. Marc M-252 Tuff Stuff Commercial Cleaner $25 It requires very little. A cap full added AFTER you have all your media and water in your tumbler. I polish 30 lbs of media and water with 1 cap of "tuff stuff" and no dawn for 45 mins. Brilliant as jewelry. with any of the acid based products, understand that too much time will lead to tarnishing. if you research polishing metal, you will run across phosphorus acid... the toilet cleaner isn't some crazy high percentage, which can be dangerous Now install the grate on one side of the tumbler Pour the dirty water through SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30" 1/30" = 0.033" diameter This will avoid losing any SS pins Fill three 5 gallon buckets up with water place the tumbler in the first bucket, grate down While the tumbler is in the first bucket, remove the solid cap and replace with grate. Now that both ends of your tumbler have grates, pull the tumbler out of bucket number one and flip into bucket number two and again in bucket number three Don't worry about the pins in the rinse buckets, we'll take care of them in a minute. If you stack the following pans on the frankford vibratory sifter, you can remove most of the stainless steel pins from your brass and helps remove water from inside the cases. SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30" 1/30" = 0.033" diameter From here, I pour the brass into a towel and shake the remaining water from the brass (as if polishing a bowling ball) Once shaken well, I pour brass onto a towel lying on the floor flatten all the cases so they don't hold water. fan blowing directly onto the wet cases In my case, my towel is laid in front of the basement dehumidifier Typically a couple hours is all that needed to dry in this environment Cleaning up pour the three buckets of rinse water thru the sifting pans to catch all the pins SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30" 1/30" = 0.033" diameter Typically, there are pins on the ground, which I go around and pick up using the Frankford Arsenal Media Transfer Magnet I leave the pins in the SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30" 1/30" = 0.033" diameter and carry into the basement for drying beside the brass
Sheesh... Do you have any time left for reloading? Fer cryin out loud...You're not going to cap your teeth with them. Such Overkill. All you need is about an hour and a half to two hours in a vibratory tumbler. To make it even easier attach a timer and let it run at night.
I have a large size ultrasonic cleaner I inherited from my Dad who was a reloader. I have not used it yet. Would this method work with the Dawn and Lemi Shine in the ultra sonic cleaner?
@@314299 No, the problem is the Ph is too high (too much Lemi shine). Use the paper strips to get it right. Who the heck would allow a steel case to get into their brass?
@@geraldmahle9833 thanks for the info.. just started wet tumbling & had a few cases with a weird copper hue on it....I guess iam overdoing it with the lemi shin.
@@314299 I don't see how. Brass is in fact copper alloyed with zinc. It's not zinc turning the cases pink etc. but too much lemishine. Use litmus paper to control the Ph and you won't have that problem.
The container in the video was bought 8 years ago and is a 12 ounce size and was about $4 then. In the same store they only have the 24 ounce size for $15. So here it has gone from $0.33 an ounce to $0.63 an ounce, pretty close to double the price. Next time I need some I am going to buy a package of powdered citric acid as it is cheaper and is supposed to be basically the same stuff.
I have loaded thousands of shot gun shells ( 410, 28 ga, 20ga, and 12ga ) over the years with my MEC loaders . Now in finding your channel I'm going to start reloading my own brass . Your channel is a great place to start with all of the good information that you have on it . Wish me luck . LOL Thanks
+Henry Rodgers I'm sure you'll get along just fine with all that other reloading experience.
That is really awesome! I've been using a similar process (LemiShine + Dawn) in my wet tumbler, but with the stainless steel pins. Checking each case for pins is my least favorite part of reloading. I'll have to run a comparison, stainless media vs no media. I'm guessing the biggest difference will be inside the cases, which isn't really a concern. Also, I have a tip for you...add the dish soap AFTER you've filled it with water. This prevents suds-city from happening all in your workspace. :-)
Thanks for the video!
Good comentary and video. I have been using this method for about 2 years now. I watched the video to see if i could find some new insight. Which I did. THANK YOU! I had made up a handfull of stainless "pins" from cutting about 1/2 box of stainless brad nails. This video proves that was a waste of my energy and time. Your brass (with out pins) looks every bit as clean as mine (with wire pins). I have not yet tried it w/o the pins. I will on my next run. A bit of advise: Always deprime befor wet tumbling. moisture gets hung up in the primer, even a week later, maby longer. When the depriming pin punches out the old primer it causes it to squirt inside the case. This KILLS the powder charge and the new primer as well. It sucks spending all this effort to reload "DUDS". Yep School of hard knocks grad here. Happy reloading, be safe and thanks for your time and effort in making this video.
Scott.
+Scott Thornton I have not had any issues related to not depriming first, however I put the processed brass in a warm place for a couple days and them box them up for later use, they may sit that way for months until I load them. With rifle brass or brass that I plan to use soon I do deprime first, clean the primer pockets and then wet tumble, that way the primer pockets are cleaner and dry out faster. Thanks for your input.
I'm surprised that brass came that clean without using stainless steel pins, nice job, great video.
+Garry Oldham Yeah, I was suprised myself the first time I tried it. The insides of the brass would be cleaner with the ss pins, but it's good enough for my purposes.
Fantastic tip for cleaning brass on the cheap!
+MrHondaguy1 Cheap and it works, a pretty good combination!
Great video and great looking brass
Thanks for the feedback and for watching.
Great video. Good job brother. Rick from Arizona.
Thanks for watching and for the comment.
That looks like an impressive and easy way to do this job. Thanks for the tip. I will be looking this up tomorrow when I visit my CTC store.
Cheers.
+Reg Sparkes I'm pretty happy with it so far. The only downside is that my tumbler is rather small.
I have seen this process being demonstrated in other videos. However, they added stainless steel pins as tumbling media. I think this video shows that the steel media really is not needed.
Thanks for sharing!
+ritterbruder212 The pins will get the insides or the cases cleaner, but this method works well enough for my needs.
@@314299Absolutely. I use the pins and was amazed to see the job done well w/o them. Amazed. They're not necessary.
This WORKS. I use this in my stainless steel tumbler. I use a cheap dual-drum wet tumbler from Harbor Freight (similar to yours) and put a half a 9mm case in each drum. Does NOT take much. You can use too much.
+Slade McCuiston That's probably a similar amount to what I've been using.
+Slade McCuiston Done that! It makes the brass turn from yellow to Orange/red. Then it splits some when fired. I think it caused the brass to harden some how.
A little Wash & Wax car soap works good added instead of dish soap, the "wax" in the soap retards any retarnishing quite well. Some soap of some kind is good to have in there for surfactant properties. I have built my own rotary tumbler using some pillow ball bearings, some steel tubing for cheap shafting that fits the bearings, a couple of pulleys and a motor I got for free. The motor I got was a Sears/Craftsman water well type pump, not something that looked usable but I tore into it and found it had a common 3/4" shaft. Works perfect, its fan cooled and 2/3hp so plenty of power. The drum was a section of 8" pvc pipe with a cap, a 8" to 6" reducer and a slip on rubber cap and I put some agitater bars in it of pvc. I have a welded frame now but it was all on 2x4 board frame. It's single driven shaft with some rubber hose on it for gripping the drum and caster wheels instead of another shaft & bearings. I have like $50 in it and it works just beautifully! I can process a LOT of brass. I do use stainless pins and I deprime everything with a universal die or my Harvey Deprimer, I like how clean the pins get the inside of the brass and the primer pockets, perfectly spotless inside & out, better than new looking brass
+mytmousemalibu I bet that home-brew machine of yours will do quite a big batch of brass. Interesting tip with the Wash & Wax car soap, I'll have to give that a try some time. I'd also like to try the stainless steel pins, they would be just the ticket for nasty range salvage brass.
314299 Shooting Channel I absolutely love the rotary machine! The vibratory can be used for other things now. Powder coating bullets, cleaning car parts, etc, but no longer my means of brass cleaning. I like the superior cleaning of wet/STM cleaning, no dusty cases, all the oxides, fouling and lead syphnate residue is all in the water to be dumped. Better cleaner brass and less lead toxicity to deal with since your not breathing or coating everything in dust. The downside is drying time (proper planning ahead and good technique negates this in my opinion) and in small bottle neck cases like 5.56/.223 some say pins can bridge in the cases. I haven't had any issues with bottle neck brass. I give my wet brass a go in a spin basket tumbler which gets most of the pins out. Once the brass is dry the pins will fall away much better and they are magnetic stainless if you like to use that. I handle and inspect my rifle brass which is all single stage loaded, no high volume rifle shooting as of yet so not likely i'll miss a pin after the screening process. For the guys that do, you can forgo the pins and still get really clean brass, I like the pins and use'em on everything. Some gripe about sticking in flashholes, the right size pins just won't, mine are .047 Ultra pins from Bullseye. STM and Guntap have them too. I don't like dirty primer pockets which could cushion the firing pin blow in the right circumstances and clean is good, nothing can touch how well the pins clean.
You can build yourself a quite adequate to superb rotary machine really cheap if you are a little creative and mechanically inclined. My motor, the well pump, it was laying in my friends backyard when he bought his house and essentially wanted it to go away, I saved a really good motor from the trash. Almost perfect RPM too. That you can tweak with pulley size to get what you need. Like I said, I made mine with wood at first, nothing wrong with it, worked great and faster to make. I cut costs again by using caster wheels for the other "roller". Just some small fixed rubber tired casters. You can be creative with the bearings too and save money instead of pillow balls. A little googling for web pages and images of home made tumblers will amaze you! I have even see a recycled treadmill turned into a tumbler! The sky is the limit.
kicking myself for buying the stainless media! seems like lemishine is doing most of the work.
The insides of the cases and the primer pockets do get considerably cleaner with the pins.
That was both simple and impressive. If you do run in to a situation that needs boosting from there,consider adding a little tsp.Trisodium phosphate has no suds,acts as a detergent. For that matter,sodium carbonate,washing soda is a booster that is both cheap and readily available.
+paul manson I've got a package of TSP and have tried it on brass in the past, but not with the Lemi Shine. Should be worth a try.
The "experts" claim that you MUST decap all brass before wet cleaning, due to risk of corrosion of the primer pocket. I don't see where that would be much of a problem, when the cases most likely will be reloaded as soon as dry. I've seen vids where Lemi-Shine was used with the stainless pins; didn't know that stuff worked that well without them. I usually tumble with crushed walnut shell and liquid car polish. Will have to give this a try. Thanks for another great video.
It is important to decap the brass before any cleaning with a chemical solution. Many reloaders, including myself have storage tubs of clean brass waiting to be reloaded when we need it, it can sometimes sit in those tubs as much as 5 years on the calibers that I don't reload as much. Here's what happened to ME, I had some brass that was wet cleaned with the primers left in place, they had been stored 2 or 3 yrs. When I got them out to reload them I had serious problems, when you deprimed the case, the bottom of the primer punched out leaving the sides of the primer in place, I spent hours trying to find a way to get those sides out, nothing reasonable worked. Can you even imaging how mad I was when I had to throw out about half those cases? They weren't good for anything but scrap brass. Believe me, it is extremely important to decap your brass before any wet cleaning method, I know this from personal experience.
I'm using about half a teaspoon of lemi shine only and half a cup of 1/8th inch ball bearings to get inside the cases. The cases come out looking just like the video. As an experiment I let the tumbler run for 6 hours and the brass came out almost looking like chrome however I would imagine running that long would put undue wear on the brass. I also found that I can reuse the same batch of solution for three loads of the tumbler before having to increase the tumbling time.
As an experiment, I put 200 .357 mag cases in my RCBS sidewinder tumbler with a quart of hot water and a 9mm case full each of Lemi-Shine and Dawn. Let them tumble for two hours. They came out looking brand new. Sure beats anything else I've tried.
Yes it's an exceptionally good cleaning method. I currently using the Lemi Shine with stainless steel pins and it does and exceptional job of cleaning the brass and especially the primer pockets.
That is a great video, I can't wait to try this. I will be trying to reload my ammo and I have now a starting point for cleaning my brass.
Very informative and thorough vid. Thnx
No problem, thanks for commenting.
Great video my friend.
Thank you for watching and for the comment.
You really should use the stainless steel pin media....unbelievable shine!
I might give it a try but locally they want about $70 for the pins, seems a bit steep to me.
314299 Shooting Channel buy them on eBay for that little tumbler you would only need one pound maybe $17 u.s. dollars look up guntap stainless steel media
nvdwarriorLtc would you mind explaining why the pins needed what will happen if we dont use pins
Travis Pitt Uh, okay thank you very much.
Video is excellent. Just ask what materials are used to clean the fire
Given I go to the range weekly , I only clean my brass once after 3 times reload , dirty brass have the same accuracy as the clean one , I clean it without Lemi shine for 2 hr, then add the Lemi shine and run it for just 10 mins more ...
My current process is to de-cap all my brass and wet tumble it with Lemi-Shine and stainless steel pins, when done and rinsed the brass is set it aside to dry. When I need it I have virtually 100% clean brass, and I've never had to clean a primer pocket since I started using the pins.
This is a great idea - I've been using it about a year now and really happy with the results. My question has to do with decapping the rifle cases before cleaning. I missed that part originally and have been cleaning the rifle cases with the spent primers still in the cases and the results are still great. Why do you suggest decapping first?What am I missing.
Thank You for this video.
If you decap the brass prior to cleaning most of the primer residue gets removed, so that saves you from manually doing this. If you decap and use the stainless steel pins the primer pockets come out almost like new brass.
I wonder if ya put lemi shine in a dry media? Good video
I don't think that would do anything other than waste Lemi Shine.
it does a great job even better with the stainless steel
True, I've switched to de-priming and using stainless steel pins and the process gets the primer pockets shiny and clean, as well as cleaning the insides of the cases.
I have had my so called Rock Tumbler for over 40 years it cost me $30 and clean all my brass for 2 hours a full batch with SS pins, Lemi Shine and Dawn dish soap. Everyone I have showed it to is switching from other media to this. Warm or hot water is a factor. Then I dry them on a backing grate on my wood stove. They come out looking like brand new or at least 99%!!!
I have sourced some of the pins since making this video and I can say that the resulting brass does come out amazingly clean. I especially like the fact that when de-capped first the primer pockets come out clean so it's no longer necessary to scrape them out.
just got me the dual drum tumbler similar to yours, Lemi shine and soap. all I need is the Pins but after watching this video I might pass on the pins for now. $50 I can spend on something else thanks for the video
+Michael Calderon The dual drum model makes a lot of sense as this one holds so little. I'd like to give the pins a try sometime, but I'm in no hurry.
+314299 Shooting Channel From what I hear the Pins make the process quicker and give them a bit more shine.
+Michael Calderon Yes, apparently it takes about 1/2 the time with the pins, and the insides of the cases are just as clean as the outside.
You can also use citric acid, which is the active ingredient of lemishine. In the US, citric acid can be bought at Walmart in the section with canning supplies.
+footpetaljones Lemishine is much cheaper than buying the canning citric acid
Got a tumbler like this ($35 craigslist) and it came with a pound of stainless steel pins. Brass are cleaner, shinier and no toxic dust compared to my dry tumbler.
You got a good deal on that.
So, what exactly are the "dislikes" for again? For a process that is proven to work? Hmmmm....
I'm not sure. Perhaps the lack of explosions and scantily clad women was disappointing to some folks?
Quick question: All perfect, except for some of the brass has white marks inside any idea whats causing that? It appears to be kind of like a paste that can be brushed out with a bore brush but it leaves behind parts of the brass removed and more silver colored. Also had some green spots on some especially down where the primer pocket is. Is it not drying enough?
I must say I've never had those sorts of things happen to the brass I cleaned. Perhaps you are on the right track with them not drying quickly enough.
@@314299 Thanks, my only guess left at this point is that its leftover powder residue that isnt coming off and going white. Or dezincification. Even after drying straight away. These are once fired cases from factory.
I tried lemon juice with my ultrasonic cleaner, gave me the best result even better than vinegar
I expect Lemi Shine is cheaper than lemon juice. Vinegar always left the cases with a dull, etched appearance.
@@314299 It is cheaper for sure, i will try to find some or a similar product
Ye i don't like vinegar cause you have to use sodium bicarbonate to neutralize it otherwise it will start oxidazing the brass, happened to me with some 45 colt and 45 70 cases, and lemon is just way more efficient at least in my ultrasonic cleaner
Primer holes are all perfectly clean, inside is also pretty nice and takes only 20 minutes
looks pretty good without the stainless steel media. You should of deprimed them first. I would of liked to see how clean the primer pockets got without stainless steel media.
At this point I generally do deprime them before washing them, but I do this mostly to promote quicker drying. Primer pockets end up slightly cleaner when they are decapped first, but not as much as you would think. My current procedure is to decap, clean primer pockets with a primer pocket cleaning tool, then wash with Lemi Shine and soap.
Going to give that a try with my FA. It's a pain to separate and dry the SS pins. Nice tip on the pant leg.
+kent stright I would like to try those pins some time, would be great for really cruddy brass.
+314299 Shooting Channel
Any time, did my range pick up with them. Works really nice. The water gets really dirty, Brass gets really clean and purty.
I use a commercial version of CLR available at Home Depot and wow does it ever work well. Soak the brass for about 15 minutes and then rinse well and dry.
I use 2 teaspoons of LemiShine in a quart of water with a teaspoon of Dawn. I have a sonic cleaner that I use this solution in. I run it for 30 minutes at 80C. I deprime my cases before cleaning unless they are really dirty.
Since making the video I have switched to depriming my brass prior to cleaning as it does a wonderful job of cleaning out the primer pockets, and the brass dries out much faster as well.
All I can add is don't do what I did and listen to some pillock on the intranet who said to add vinegar to your mix along with the citric acid and dish detergent!.
I cleaned 300 x .223 once fired brass with the stainless pins media, all de-capped first, and tumbled them for 3 hours!
They came out spotless clean alright - BUT - they also came out dull as dishwater tarnished brown as if they were 50 year old brass been laying at the range in the sun all their lives!
Its taken me a few days now - to get them back to clean bright shiny brass again.
People say don't use ammonia, but I have had no choice with these they were so badly tarnished by the vinegar!
I've ended up having to tumble them all again - this time with the same stainless pins media and a bottle of Brasso - which as you know contains ammonia!.
Well let me tell you that's a heck of a messy process just to get back to as brassy looking as they were when I first started,
I've washed, rinsed and dried them all thoroughly after the treatment in the neat brasso and stainless spins media to try and remove any hint of Ammonia / brasso polish from them.
They are now back to nice clean brass color, but they are anything but shiny!
I will now have to thoroughly wash all my stainless steel pins media to remove all the brasso.... before then going back to the original Lemishine and Dawn recipe... to get a final polish on them.
The strange thing is - once they were tarnished by the vinegar, even normal Lemishine and detergent in the stainless spins media wouldn't return them to non tarnished - it took the effort with Brasso to undo that stupid step.
Might be handy trick for any of you who shoot military vintage guns and need to tarnish some new brass in a hurry for display to make them look like they came from WW2.
I'd like to get my hands on the pillock who said add vinegar!
Whatever you do don't do it... unless you deliberately want to tarnish all your new brass.
It takes all kinds I guess & for some reason you seem to find "special types' on the intranet from time to time.!
Vinegar - whatever was I thinking? ;o(
That sounds like a real pain in the butt type experience. Thanks for the warning.
Could you use lemishine in a dry tumbler? I've got salvaged water damaged ammo that I want to clean wholesale(it's safe to shoot, just corroded cases from salt water damage)
No, Lemishine has to be used with water.
I use citric acid which is basically lemi shine but all my cases are coming out with a ring around them near the bottom, do you know why? I put the brass through a decap and resizing die prior to tumbling is that causing issues...? I use 2 9mm casing worth of lemi shine and a squirt of dish soap basically for roughly 75 cases with 3mm~ ball bearings and probably just under 1L of water.
I cant say as I've heard of that happening before. Decapping should not cause that. Perhaps it's the ball bearings, most folks use stainless steel pins.
Actually before I got my Lyman I used two glass jars with soapy water, vinegar. agitate it for about 10 minutes (that's technical for shake it up). then poor out the water into a spare jar using a plastic strainer. then simply air dry the brass after a quick dry with a shop rag (again the tech term for an old while t-shirt). Problem with a media tumbler is the noise. living in a terrace house now and single garage, so it's too loud. looking at going old school again with the cleaning.
i used my old method of using glass coffee jars, cleans them optimally in about 10 minutes. i think if you left them for longer you'd get fully clean, but after 10 mins, good to reload.
I will use vinegar, as lemonshine is just a low ph product for acidity. and vinegar is cheap and useful for many things, such as when eating beets and cucumbers--isn't that a contrast of ideas!
Thank you, appreciate the time given, cheers.
No problem, hope you find the process useful in your own reloading.
Do you think that depriming would help cleaning the inside? thanks for the info...Cmax
+Cmax Arms It does help with getting the primer pockets cleaner. as for the rest of the inside of the case I dont think it matters a great deal. Since doing the video I've decided to deprime all brass prior to cleaning, I think the cleaner primer pockets are worth the effort.
+314299 Shooting Channel ... Great, thanks for your response. I like your style and will check out your other videos.....I noticed we have some same subscribers....Cmax
Just a couple of points on this one. It would probably be best not to get the contaminated water on your hands after the tumbling, there could be lots of nasty things in there.And it is also best, for the same reason, to empty the gunge down the foul water drain, and not the kitchen sink.I notice that the very impressive finish you got on the outside of the case, did not match the still grotty inside, which is the part that I always like to get clean, the SS pins would have achieved this, (as you know), I also add a squirt of car wash/wax to the last rinse, that stops the cases tarnishing.PS If you cant get Lemishine, Citric Acid crystals from the food store are just as good.
The citric acid the product is cleaning the metal by chelation. The physical tumbling just exposes more surface area on the exterior of the case for chemical action. Imo, the cleaning of the interior of the case should be less aggressive, so this process is ideal. My $.01
Why don't you de-prime your pistol brass as you would your rifle brass. Just cleaned 200 rounds of rifle brass using dawn, vinegar, and water mix using a sonic cleaner for 15 minutes. Did a fine job. I will try the Lemi Shine next time I clean brass.
+Jerry Ribet The quantity of pistol brass just makes the extra step a bit daunting. I dont load as much rifle ammo at a time so it is not so much extra work.
Lemi shine and a one gallon jug with about 1 guart of water and 3oz. of semi shine by itself no soap no stainless steel pins add 400 9mm shells shake about 2 minuets out of 5 minuets for about 1/2 hr. drain but save rinse well and your brass will look amaizing I dry mine out in the Sun. Mixture good for 3 more batches
That's a heck of a lot of Lemi Shine. You dont need to use anywhere near that much.
The fastest way to dry brass is to place it in a metal mesh basket, then dip the brass in acetone, it will evaporate the water instantly.
Interesting. I'm not generally in a big hurry so I just leave them in a warm place to dry.
Great video
+David Wagner Thanks.
Have you checked it under the 2 hour mark? I'm thinking about giving this a try but that's a long time.
Often times they are good enough at an hour, it of course depends on how crappy the brass was to start with. A way to accelerate cleaning is to use very not water, works much faster than cold or just warm water.
@@314299 ok I'll try this method, thank you.
@@314299 Thanks for the advice, I'll give this a try.
What kind of store sells lemi shine ive never seen or herd of it or know what kind of product it is . I never did wet tumbling yet in all my years of reloading looks pretty awesome btw im from Michigan
It should be available at stores selling detergent for dish washing machines. www.lemishine.com/where_to_buy_lemi_shine/
@@314299 Exactly. You'll find it on the detergent aisle. Any good supermarket. Publix has it.
Wow, clean!
Yes, it does a good job. Since making this video I have switched to using the stainless steel pins with Lemi-Shine and the results are even nicer, the primer pockets get clean as well.
got to get them primers out thought the pockets will be cleaner
It is better to de-prime them first, that is what I do now. Not just cleaner cases but they dry faster as well.
Thank you for the Lemi Shine and Dawn Dish Soap wet tumble tip.... I knew of this and did not have the "recipe" for proper concentration. Obviously very little of the chemicals are needed. I might prefer this to walnut tumbling.
I've not used my vibratory tumbler since I got on to the wet method, the cases are cleaner and there is no dust.
Some of mine turn out glistening brass and some are more silver??
Tumbling with this set up really does have dramatic results. If you wanna kick it up a notch, add a 1/4cup of distilled white vinegar and a cap full of Barkeepers Friend. The vinegar will work to break down the carbon and the Barkeepers Friend with remove the oxidization. A couple of teaspoons of ketchup will further deoxidize the brass. Give it a shot!!!!
I've switched to using the Lemi-Shine with stainless steel pins and they do an exceptional job.
Why do you tumble your brass with the primers in? Don't you want the primer pocket cleaned as well?
I had a couple thousand .45ACP cases to clean and did not want to add another step (de-priming) to the process due to all the time it would take. Now that I'm "caught up" I do de-prime the brass when I get home from the range and then clean them. Without pins this process really does not do much to the primer pockets, although it does remove some of the residue.
Reel-Lentless I only deprime before cleaning because I don't like all the mess on my press and hands with the primer pocket residue that comes out. Not just messy but toxic. It's nice to have brass that's clean in my hands, through my press and dies.
Use old pants leg used to dry cleaned, rinsed brass,, with attached zip tie on each end of opening of pantsand put in clothes dryer with couple old clothes items to cushion the bouncing around. Brass is cleaned so will not leave residue in dryer.
Interesting idea. I just put the cleaned brass in a warm area for a day or so to let it dry.
Way Cool Bro 😎👍🇺🇸💯
Thanks.
When you deprime the rifle rounds, would you resize as well or just de-cap, tumble, then size?
I decap first, then clean. I dont size the cases until they are clean.
Thanks! I bought one of these the other day and it's remarkable how clean they get. I also lucked into a brand new food dehydrator at a Goodwill shop (thing had never been used) so about an hour or so in there and the brass is dry).
Appreciate you posting the video!
Good idea on the food dehydrator, I'll keep a look out for a cheap one.
Why is it less important to remove the primers for the pistol brass than the rifle brass?
With most pistol ammo slight variations are less important than they are with rifle ammo - pistols are not expected to meet the accuracy expectations that rifles are.
How we can get LEMISHINE powder in
Ahmedabad. Where ?
I suggest you contact the manufacturer and ask them.
I heard armor all car wash, wash and wax.. helps keep cases from dulling
I've heard that too, must give it a try sometime.
The last 30 yrs I am happy with my Corn Cobb Media Tumbler etc If it not broke.?
There is a lot of toxic dust produced by a Tumber using dry media, whereas with the wet method it is in the water and you don't end up breathing it.
Looks Great.
You can also use citric acid it is what lemishine is made of.
That is what I have heard others say.
Looks worth a shot. Not a big fan of the dust, either. Thanks.
+slowhand11 Yeah dust off the vibratory machine makes me nervous, lots of nasty crap in it.
Did you find the tumbler in a chain store. I would like to find one.
+Russell Houghton (Russ303) No, it was not bought in a chain store. I found it a few years in one of those clearance type stores, they had only the one. I thought it an odd thing for them to carry, since most of the stuff they had was construction materials and furniture.
+Russell Houghton (Russ303) I've cleaned over 100,000 brass cases with a frankford arsenal wet tumbler. The harbor freight ones are only good for doing tiny batches.
+314299 Shooting Channel Harbor Freight has the same as shown in this video and one with 2 drums. WAY cheeper than those at the "reloading supplys / gun shops".
Scott Thornton
Cheaper doesn't usually mean better. The harbor freight ones don't hold as much brass as the one I use. I can do 10 lbs of brass at once. In one day I can clean a 5 gal bucket full of brass. That would probably take a whole week with the harbor freight one.
+Prepare2Survive It's true that the small machine does less at a time, however I find if I process brass soon after I shoot it (or collect from the range) the amount the machine does is adequate. I can do two or three batches in an evening if I fall behind.
It isn't hard cleaning the outside of the bullet casing. It's the inside I think is what is the hardest part to clean!
If you deprime the brass it will also clean the primer pockets.
Yes, to some degree. For really clean primer pockets wet tumbling with stainless steel pins really does the job.
Thanks for sharing
+303canadiana No problem.
Can I do this by hand without a tumbler?
Yes you can. Just use a plastic bottle with a lid.
What’s it like in Canada being told what rights you can and can’t have?
I fail to see the relevance of your question to the topic of cleaning brass. If you want political talk and debate you'll have to go elsewhere.
@@314299 My apologies. I wasn’t trying to be rude and if I was I’m sorry. I was merely trying to get and understanding of Canadian gun laws. I realize that sounded disrespectful and for that I apologize.
Dollar store strainer goes a long way
I have a couple of those kicking around and they work if I think to use them.
I use an old food dehydrator to dry my brass.
Seems like a good idea to me. I have heard of others doing the same thing. As it is currently summertime I place my brass in front of my basement dehumidifier to dry it out.
Did I use too much Lemi Shine?? At first my brass turn out so bright yellow like fresh brass, but for 2 days most turned orange + Reddish, I used Dawn and Lemi Shine. Any ones have any idea??
I'm not sure if that was the problem, although it might be. You dont want to use too much Lemi Shine, or too much detergent with it. I have had poor results when I used too much of either. Another thing that can mess up a batch is if you get a round of steel case ammo mixed in with a batch, some steel cases have zinc coatings on them and they will react with the Lemi Shine and will turn your brass orange.
ok..It could be, I will watch on my next tumbling. Thanks tho
Go easy on the Lemishine. It's my understanding that it is basically citric acid.The acid leeches stuff out of the brass turning it orange. Or so I've heard.
what is the best solution to use in a dry tumbler
50/50 mix of Nu Finish car polish/mineral spirits.
Tear three or four 2 inch square sized pieces of a used dryer sheet and throw them in your Tumbler. No more dust problem.
An hour and a half to two hours should be sufficient.
@@jungleno. okay thanks my friend. There is no ammonia in the car polish correct ,?
Eight years ago it was four dollars, purchased some today 9/12/2024, it’s nine dollars!
That's what happens when they print money and hand it out.
With lemi 1 9mm case full. And 2 9mm cases of dawn detergent.
I dont find I need to add that much detergent, I use about 1/2 that much. The amount of Lemi Shine I use is similar to what you use.
Hot means 50C or 90C?
It's water that is as hot as my hot water heater is set to at the moment, which is about 40C.
instructions and spectacular brass
The trick to using the tumbler with stainless steel pins are the right ingredients and steps
"Washing" brass is a two step process.
Washing and polishing
Washing brass is totally different than polishing brass
You want to load the dirty brass (NO SS PINS) into your tumbler and wash the brass with dish soap (degreaser) before removing the primers.
30 minute wash
This will save a ton of dirt from getting all over the place.
This will also save your decapping/sizing dies from becoming grossly dirty.
How much can you put into your tumbler?
30lbs total weight
Here's what I bought from amazon
ACCUTECK All-in-1 Series W-8250-50bs $17
Pour tumbler water and brass thru
SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen
Now that you've washed, decapped (de-primed) and sorted your brass, it's time to polish
You absolutely want to use the stainless steel pins, unless you like manually cleaning primer pockets
For the love of GOD, don't even think about working with stainless steel pins without a magnet
Frankford Arsenal Media Transfer Magnet - $15
Frankford Arsenal stainless steel pin size
(small enough to go through the hole in a piece of brass)
0.040" in diameter x .311" long
5lb = 1000's of pins
The magnet will pick the pins outta gravel and grass
Now if you search how to clean the metal, brass, you will find that phosphorus acid is best.
You can search amazon for cleaner with a 20% phosphorus acid mixture.
Marc M-252 Tuff Stuff Commercial Cleaner $25
It requires very little.
A cap full added AFTER you have all your media and water in your tumbler.
I polish 30 lbs of media and water with 1 cap of "tuff stuff" and no dawn for 45 mins.
Brilliant as jewelry.
with any of the acid based products, understand that too much time will lead to tarnishing.
if you research polishing metal, you will run across phosphorus acid... the toilet cleaner isn't some crazy high percentage, which can be dangerous
Now install the grate on one side of the tumbler
Pour the dirty water through
SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen
SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30"
1/30" = 0.033" diameter
This will avoid losing any SS pins
Fill three 5 gallon buckets up with water
place the tumbler in the first bucket, grate down
While the tumbler is in the first bucket, remove the solid cap and replace with grate.
Now that both ends of your tumbler have grates, pull the tumbler out of bucket number one and flip into bucket number two and again in bucket number three
Don't worry about the pins in the rinse buckets, we'll take care of them in a minute.
If you stack the following pans on the frankford vibratory sifter, you can remove most of the stainless steel pins from your brass and helps remove water from inside the cases.
SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen
SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30"
1/30" = 0.033" diameter
From here, I pour the brass into a towel and shake the remaining water from the brass
(as if polishing a bowling ball)
Once shaken well, I pour brass onto a towel lying on the floor
flatten all the cases so they don't hold water.
fan blowing directly onto the wet cases
In my case, my towel is laid in front of the basement dehumidifier
Typically a couple hours is all that needed to dry in this environment
Cleaning up
pour the three buckets of rinse water thru the sifting pans to catch all the pins
SE GP2-14 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, 1/4" Mesh Screen
SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30"
1/30" = 0.033" diameter
Typically, there are pins on the ground, which I go around and pick up using the
Frankford Arsenal Media Transfer Magnet
I leave the pins in the
SE GP2-130 Patented Stackable 13-1/4" Sifting Pan, Mesh Size 1/30"
1/30" = 0.033" diameter
and carry into the basement for drying beside the brass
Sheesh... Do you have any time left for reloading? Fer cryin out loud...You're not going to cap your teeth with them.
Such Overkill. All you need is about an hour and a half to two hours in a vibratory tumbler. To make it even easier attach a timer and let it run at night.
I have a large size ultrasonic cleaner I inherited from my Dad who was a reloader. I have not used it yet. Would this method work with the Dawn and Lemi Shine in the ultra sonic cleaner?
I expect it would work quite well. If I were you I would give it a try, please let us know how well it works out.
Yes 15 minutes in the ultra sonic with a cleaner ,and 1 hour in a tumbler to get the shine and acid removed from the us cleaning
Don't overload the tumbler. Too much weight wears out the drive belt prematurely in the tumbler. Belts are available in Amazon.
I've been using the hell out of mine for years with the machine full of water and 2/3 full of brass. No issues.
I have heard. fill a 9mm case with lemi shine. To much will leach the brass and make them look pink.
If you end up with one of those zinc plated steel cases in the batch with your brass and Lemi Shine they will really turn pink.
And that is a fact. Today I scored on 8lbs of Unique for 19.50 a lb. Yea baby.
Nice
Thanks
I just left what I do with lemi Shine I remove the primers before starting and I buy my lemi Shine at a minnesota walmart
My current process includes removing the primers as the brass dries more quickly.
@@314299 you don't clean your brass before resizing/decapping? Isn't that terrible for the dies?
$4 dollars? We are getting ripped off here in Canada. It's $5.42 CND. Here it's $15 CND. some one is making almost $10 on that little thing.
Currently $4.49 for 340 gram container at Canadian Tire:
www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/lemi-shine-dishwasher-detergent-booster-0534063p.0534063.html
Why not deprime cases first, for better cleansing..
That's what I do now that I have a supply of the stainless steel pins. It eliminates having to clean primer pockets.
4 or 5 dollars in U S here in U K £ 17 00 we get pipped off !
Yikes, that certainly is expensive.
Doesn't need that much water. Harbor freight tumbler will give away before time. I use steel.pins wuth same process and brass comes out like C3PO
This tumbler is still going strong after many years of use and thousands of hours. Replaced one drive belt about six or seven years ago.
it works
I used this Lemi Shine with Dawn and it turned my brass pink
You must have had a zinc plated steel case mixed in with your brass. Any zinc will have that effect on the brass.
It happened to me also. No worries shoots fine.
@@314299 No, the problem is the Ph is too high (too much Lemi shine). Use the paper strips to get it right. Who the heck would allow a steel case to get into their brass?
@@geraldmahle9833 thanks for the info.. just started wet tumbling & had a few cases with a weird copper hue on it....I guess iam overdoing it with the lemi shin.
@@314299 I don't see how. Brass is in fact copper alloyed with zinc. It's not zinc turning the cases pink etc. but too much lemishine. Use litmus paper to control the Ph and you won't have that problem.
Deprime first So the primer pockets will get washed out at the same time.
That does work better and is what I currently do.
nice !!!
Inside yet cases aren't clean
Nice :O)
+Björn Ahlström It works well.
:-)
Noisy
Yes, it's not a quiet process.
now its $21 15 years and 1 joe biden later
The container in the video was bought 8 years ago and is a 12 ounce size and was about $4 then. In the same store they only have the 24 ounce size for $15. So here it has gone from $0.33 an ounce to $0.63 an ounce, pretty close to double the price. Next time I need some I am going to buy a package of powdered citric acid as it is cheaper and is supposed to be basically the same stuff.
Great video
+David Wagner Thanks.