I finally broke down and bought a tumbler after years of hand cleaning. I have a 150 7-08 cases to prep, 200 30-06, 400 44 spcl/mag then the others - 243,7x57,7 mag,308,... Just too much time clean all of these.

I realize the tumbler is used before the sizing, but I think I have heard of folks using the tumbler to clean the lub off the cases.

I use the Lee wax on some and the spray on with others.

Any Thoughts on the use of a tumbler.

Thanks

Trigger
I use STP to lube my cases for sizing. When I come home from the range the cases get tumbled then I decap and resize. I use lots of 100, except 308 and there I use 300, rifle cases, so it's worth while to throw the cases into the tumbler over night to clean off the lube.
With pistol cases I don't lube so they go right in the Dillon and get loaded, after tumbling.
Then I trim to length, the trimming punches out any walnut granuals caught in the flash hole, champfer, reprime, throw powder charges etc.
Jim

Since I live in a rural area I use white gas.....1/2 quart in a coffee can full of brass and swirl it around the brass with the lid on and then dump the gas in a barrel and burn whatever needs burning. Paint thinner or other solvents will work fine too.

I then use an air hose (175 PSI) and blow the cases dry. One can just leave them in garage overnight and do the same thing. Or put them back in the tumbler again for an hour.

Process
1. tumble to clean
2. lube, resize, trim to length
3. clean off lube with solvent or other....
4. blow/air dry and tumble to clean again.

I have been using that RCBS water based lube, it sprays on and I tumble after to clean any residue off. I do maybe 3000 rounds a year and I think it is pretty economical and clean.

My cleaning regimen is to tumble in walnut with a little Flitz and rouge. Then I resize, using cheap, Dollar Store, non-stick cooking spray. A little goes a long way. I place about 150 .223 cases in the broiler pan from my oven, spray 'em lightly, roll 'em around so they get evenly coated and resize. When the lot is done, I wash them in very warm, soapy water turning them all around and over and over with old rags in the washtub, then rinse copiuosly with warm water. Then I throw 'em into a vat of Birchwood-Casey cleaner to bring up as much shine as possible. After the B-C, they get rinsed again and laid out in my Mr. Coffee food dehydrator to be forced-air dried for several hours. They come out looking really good. During the winter, I dry the cases in the (washed-out) broiler pan atop my kerosene heater-- saves the money for using the dehydrator. I have done thousands this way. You can also dry smaller lots of them in a stainless steel skillet on your stovetop on LO heat. Be careful-- they will be hot, hot, hot when you take them off. I usually just wait until they cool, which gives them more time to completely dry.

Why clean them at all. If you use just a little Imperial die Wax, and wipe with a cloth that's enough.
Good luck!

I use Lee's lube and just wipe w/ a towel when I take the case from press after sizing. I don't believe it takes more time than it would to clean in another fashion.

I also run a plastic bore brush into the case to remove the lube in the neck.

Good Luck!

Reloader

rinse the lube off with a garden hose, let dry and tumble.

I tumble first, to get range grit and loose powder residue off before it can scratch my sizing die. I also use an old sock to wipe the rouge from the media (Lyman green) as I put the cases into the press for step 2.

Second, I size with RCBS lube and a pad, no expander/decapper in the size die.

Third I tumble to fully clean and polish.

Now I proceed with the rest of the reloading steps...expand/decap, prime, charge, seat, and FIRE!

YMMV. Have fun!

After tumbling the cases are lubed with a Bardahl saturated rag, sized and primed and placed upside down in a loading block for a visual that each is primed . Since I have to pick up each one and set it upright I wipe it for a short time before putting it back upright in the loading block.

The cases are definitely lightly lubed. This may be creating a small problem?? and maybe some one out there knows for sure. It seems that I'm seeing more soot on the case necks and than again it may be my imagination as I am playing with some really dirty powder.

In the back of my mind I thought perhaps the necks were not properly sealing because the residual Bardhal was being sandwiched and creating a path for the burning gases to enter. Pure conjecture at this point. roger

I still use plain old RCBS lube and a pad, resize the case, wipe with a papertowel, put in the tumbler with plain corn cob for a couple hours, knock out any pieces in the primer hole and inside the case. primer, powder load and bullet. No special lube, wax, solvents just plain oold lube and clean.

I use the tumbler with bare corncobb to remove the lube after the shell is finished. That's usually after the dillon 650 is thru with them.

If I'm using a single stage loader, I use the lee case trimming system to trim, deburr, chamfer and the last step is to hold a dry paper towel against them while still spinning. They end up nearly dry, if I'm real concerned about any risidual lube left on them, I follow with a paper towel soaked in de-natured alcohol. Of course all this after a trip through the tumbler with corncobb and either flitz or midway tumbler media added.

I switched to water based lube years ago & just wioe the brass off w/ an old hand towel. You guys are working at this too hard.

I neck size all my calibers using graphite for the necks, and wipe even that off the necks after sizing. When I tumble the cases I use a Lyman product called Tuf-nut which is impregnated with jewellers rouge; nothing else. The idea is I want nothing in my tumbler that will contaminate the media. Different lubes and additives will dirty the media quickly, otherwise it'll last quite a while. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I use a water based lube and an old wet towel to clean off the cases. Tried to use the tumbler to do it once, and spent a week digging media out of .223 cases (not fun).

I don't like the potential water based lube creates. I load for bolt guns, and my brass is generally very clean. After resizing using bonanza's lube, I wipe off the cases with an alcohol soaked towel. This also takes off any "indelible" ink markings on charge, powder, bullets and primer I may have put on the case. (I am anal retentive.)

I really don't tumble cases anymore unless they are really tarnished from sitting. It was such a pain to get the media out of the primer pockets. Kudude

I am not a high volume re-loader, but I occasionally clean more than 100 rounds at one time. I tumble, then re-size, without de-capping. I also use a water-based lube. I tumble again then decap with a universal de-capping die. I then clean primer pockets, trim, and de-burr inside and out. I realize this is very time consuming, but it keeps the cleaning media out of the flash holes. I also am fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to just re-loading so time is not an issue.

Well, I just did a little test this weekend. The wife is out of town, so I spent most of the day Saturday on the range or at the reloading bench.

Using Hornady One shot (water based lube), I cleaned the brass in my tumbler after resizing.

Didn't work to bad for my rifle brass, but I did have to get little pieces of corn cob out of the flash hole. Wasn't a big problem as I was triming the necks on that batch anyway.

So, in my case, it worked pretty well.

Trigger ----- I do several hundred cases per year, my process is quite simple. I use Hornady One Shot resizing spray on lube, resize then tumble for 8-9 hours with Walnut Media until desired, then prime, neck prep and load. I used to use Corn Cob but got tired of cleaning primer pockets, the Walnut flows through the primer holes and cleans inside and out. Good cleaning.