I recently switched to tumbling my brass in a rotary Thumbler using water, soap, lemi-shine and stainless steel media. While this gets the brass very clean inside and out, it needs to be dried. Those people in sunny climates can just put the brass on a tray and leave it in the sun for a few hours, not much of an option in Western WA even in the summer unless there is a drought. No drought this year, still rather wet.

I started off by stacking the my 50 bmg brass in front of a small space heater, it dried it in about 15 minutes. But this was with the brass decapped. I need something better to dry out brass that still have the primers in. I put together a small plywood box about 8x12 inches. The heater goes on one end, the other end has holes drilled in it and the top is removable for filling with brass.




Decapped brass stacked in front of the heater takes about ten minutes to dry; up to an hour or so for smaller brass dumped in with primers still in. I still need to make something to hold the brass off of the bottom of the box to improve air flow to speed the dry time.

Ranb

use the screen that you show in the pics.

I did. Now the brass is held an inch off of the bottom.

Ranb

Ranb40 For larger cases with the primers in try taking a piece of scrap wood that fits inside your plywood box and mark off approx 1/2 inch grid lines. Drill a small pilot hole at the intersection of all the grid lines then tap in 4 or 4 1/2 inch nails into these holes. Drop your cleaned wet cases over the protruding nails and stick the whole thing in your dryer. The water inside those cases will drain out and the cases dry in no time. You may want to flip the cases over and give them a few minutes in your dryer with the necks up.

I left brass in the dryer for an hour until it got rather hot, but the primer pocket was still wet after I decapped it. I think decapping prior to tumbling or drying after cleaning/decapping is the way to do. but thinks for the suggestion, I may give it a try.

Ranb

Take a Lee hand primer punch and knock the primers out. Wash and rinse in hot water.
Place case mouth down into a loading block.
After you get them rinsed and drained a few minutes place them in a glass container with isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will absorb the small remaining amount of water.
Pull out of the alcohol and place on an old bath towel. Wear gloves to protect your hands form the alcohol. Pick up one end of the towel and let the cases roll to the other end - roll them back and forth a time or two to dry the out side. Place back into dry loading blocks case mount down in front of a fan for about 15 mins and you are ready to load.

I put in a partition and raised the bottom an inch with mesh to let the air pass under and through the brass. There is enough room to hold a little over 100 pieces of 50 bmg brass or many more smaller pieces.

The brass dries faster if I stack it mouth towards the heater; much faster if it is deprimed first.

If I deprime first then I just shake the water off after rinsing. If I don't deprime then I fold up the brass in a towel and roll them back and forth for a minute to empty them out and dry the outside.

Ranb

I forgot to add that the alcohol does an excellent job of removing all traces of sizing lube.

Stoopid me i just used the oven!
Now i have to build a special dryer to do the same.

quote:

Originally posted by The Dane:
Stoopid me i just used the oven!
Now i have to build a special dryer to do the same.

I am forbidden to use the oven for gun stuff at home. The little heater uses much less electricity and circulates the air. My brother told me to put the brass in a sack and throw it into the dryer, but I thought the heater was a better idea.

Ranb

Its good idea, and it looks good too! Thanks for sharing your idea and work with us!!

The first dryer was too small and made the heater get too hot when I filled it with smaller brass. I made a larger box that diverts the hot air under the brass instead of across. Everything gets warm without the heater getting too hot.



Ranb

That is quite a neat rig. Have you seen a real difference in accuracy vs tumbling in corn cobs, walnut shells (each laced with shaved jewelers rouge ?)

I wash my BP cases in a sock bag in the washing machine (decapped, unsized) and let them air dry (not a problem in WY)

Have not noticed any change in accuracy. I changed methods to eliminate the airborne dust hazard and I was impressed with how much better the brass was cleaned.

Ranb