I think my post got lost. I have been using for 20+ years corn cob / walnut shell vibratory cleaners. I use both of them for initial cleaning, removing lube, and final polishing. A friend of mine is using a tumbler that uses a lime something, dawn dishsoap ,water and SS steel pins. I have seen the final product it is great, but I missed the process. He lives in Utah I'm in Illinois. My question is how does the pins get separated from the cases? Moreover the cases are wet so what is the process for drying? Any info will be helpful. Thank you in advance.

I use the Stainless Steel pins and shapes with a squirt of Dawn and hot water. If cleaning the nasty 6.5 Swede brass I add 1/2 cup of Vinegar.
Never use ammonia.
Brass come out as new in one hour.
I rise in distilled water and air dry on a screen.
If in a rush,use an alcohol wash and then air dry.
air hotter than 200 degrees F with tarnish the brass.

I use a several methods for drying cases I have cleaned. Never do large batches of cases, though.
a] I rinse the cases well. shake em good to get off excess water drops and put them in an old cake pan I liberated from the kitchen. The pan has an old dark nonstick finish and in direct sunlight it becomes quiet hot. I put the cases in the pan and set it out in the sun. Solar drying.

b] My bride decided that the electric griddle she cooks on[once in a while] was no longer adequate--the temp controller settings were not very legible. So we HAD TO get a new griddle. I rescued the old one from the garbage and use that to dry my cases. With an electronic kitchen thermometer probe, I calibrated a temperature setting of 160 F. Put the wet cases on the griddle, turn on to that temp and leave em for bout an hour. Works well enough for me.

c] When said bride is not home, have used the kitchen oven for drying. Shook em, spread em out on a [previously rescued]cookie sheet. The sheet when into a preheating oven. When the oven got to 200 degrees, I shut off the oven and left the sheet/cases in there. An hour later or so took em out. [this oven wont preheat to less than 200]

Drying brass isn't too hard. Be creative.

I have seen at Cabelas a case dryer. It looks similar to a dehydrator. I have a dehydrator and it only gets 165 degrees so maybe this is an option for drying. Also I have heard NOT to overpolish cases. Is this a problem? Sometimes when working I might put brass in my cob tumbler for 6 hrs or so. Should I not be doing this?

Somewhere I read an article (think the author was an engineer) that said brass too long in a tumbler would become "work hardened".

Maybe, maybe not.

I'm not an engineer.

Haven't lost any sleep over it.

I just use a tumbler and a mix of media. But if I were to go with a wet system I think I would use compressed air combined with sitting in a warm place on a dry cloth for a while.

I use Armor All Wash and Wax instead of dish soap.
It sheds water and gives the cases a nice slick feel so with pistol brass I don't even need to lube them. I rinse with hot water from the tap with the water running into the tumbler liner so as I remove them from the liner they get rinsed.
My tumbler is in the utility room where the furnace is so simply laying them out on a dry towel overnight leaves them totally dry. Have used the warm oven technique too when I am in a hurry.
The pins just pour out of the cases with the water or some are using a media separater which is just a rolling basket that allows the media, be it pins or walnut or corn cob, to fall out the bottom leaving the brass in the basket.

The lime something you refer to is Lemishine which is some sort of citric acid derivative. It can be bought at WalMart in the dish soap section I think.

Depends on whether they are rifle. For rifle, I pick them out one at a tie and drop in a bucket of water to rinse. Also, I have learned to do no more than 100 rifle cases at a time or neck s will get peened. I have a very big tumbler so pistol has to be mechanical. Procedure is: take top off, stick hose in barrel and let it flush out as much soap as possible; fill Dillon large separator tub with water; dump cases in spinner and spin (partially under water until all pins are out and cases are rinsed; dump cases in bucket with hole in bottom to drain last water; put in dehydrator or sun to dry. I can do about 2500 at a time that way

I'm SOLD on the SS pin method of cleaning cases and have been using it for years.

To separate the pins from the cases I rinse the water clean and then with the tumbler container about half full of water I grab handfuls of cases (under water) and the pins easily fall out of the mouths as I lift them out of the water. To me that seems like the easiest way to separate, but there might be better ways.

Originally I drug my feet switching to the wet method because I didn't want to deal with drying the cases. Then I thought of this idea to dry and never looked back: After dumping out the pins and letting the cases sit in a towel for a bit, I throw a couple handfuls of cases at a time in a running hot air popcorn popper and about 20 seconds or so later you have dry cases. Tape the plastic lid permanently on the popper. Tip the popper back and forth a few times to mix the cases around and allow each one to get a quick blast of hot air. Then dump them into a cardboard box to cool. Obviously don't run them too long or they get hot. At least around here you can get a hot air popcorn popper at the thrift store for $10 or new for $20. I've mentioned this tip on here several times and no one has ever commented whether it's good, bad or indifferent - so maybe I'm wacky for using it, but I'm sure happy with this quick and trouble free method.

Craigster, I am an engineer, a metallurgical one. Tumbling isn't going to work harden your brass. At most it could peen the surface, but that would be the extreme surface which would be meaningless in use. Sizing and crimping are the only reloading operations that can work harden brass.

This is an interesting thread. I've never seen the need to clean my brass.

jeremy

Just last week I bought a sonic cleaner. I have heard to use Purple Power (similar to simple green) in it with the water. Would you also put lemishine in there too? Also what is the ratio of each per liter of water? Cleaner also has heater unit that heats the solution to 145 degrees. Any body use one of these or have any ideas.

quote:

Originally posted by Huvius:
I use Armor All Wash and Wax instead of dish soap.

I like my brass to be as free from any residue as possible when it is time to fire it. Same with the chamber. Brass is actually designed to create a seal between itself and the chamber walls. If it is squeaky clean, it will more or less grip the chamber walls, which is what it is supposed to do. If the wrong kind of residue is on the case and it is too slick to "grab" the chamber wall, it could potentially cause premature bolt thrust and limits on your rifles max loads.

I'm in the "shiny brass don't score more points nor does it kill stuff deader" school of thought.
I've used corn cobs for 40 years and it does what I want. Which is to have a clean, dry case after I resize and before I prime/reload.

for drying, I took a 24" square piece of 1/2" plywood I had laying around and drew rows of lines 3/4" apart. Looks like a checkerboard. Every where the lines crossed I drilled a 1/16th" hole. Turned it over and tapped a nail thru it flush with the bottom. I just stick a case on each one using the primer flash hole to hold them.
They dry pretty quick in the kitchen in the winter and the Boss does not mind, since they do not smell. Summer, out in the garage or on the back porch.

I just bought a Sonic Cleaner, which will clean the primer pockets as well.

I still use tumbler with walnut shells etc from 53 years ago..No expert on this ..But before I put my brass thru size die I use BRASSO to clean cases and wire brush inside necks then wipe with sizing lube ..

then after sizing i use solvent to take the die lube off not tumbler as I only load a few shells not lot..

I do not know if BRASSO is ok on shell but boy does it make brass shine with no fine swirls on brass..Is brasso ok on shells ? thanks..