Adventures in wet tumbling. There's no going back!!!

[Ericpwp]

I'm gonna try a rare earth magnet in a bag.

 

[t-squared]

After watching pretty much every video on wet tumbling, I went with a media separator.....Stainless Tumbling Media | STM Media Separator

Dump the contents of your tumbler in it, give it a dozen slow turns, and there are zero pins left in the brass.
I then give the pins a quick rinse before pouring them back into one of my tumbler's drums. Any pins left in the separator get pulled out with a magnet covered with a plastic sandwich bag.

 

[gmcttr]

The wet pins do stick to the cases. I use a media separator with the bottom half filled with clean water. A few turns and the pins drop out.

I suspect you could dump the mesh bag with cases in a bucket of water and stir them around to get a similar result.

 

[AngryRooster]

The wet pins do stick to the cases. I use a media separator with the bottom half filled with clean water. A few turns and the pins drop out.

I suspect you could dump the mesh bag with cases in a bucket of water and stir them around to get a similar result.

I'll probably give that a try. With the small tumbler there's not really a need to buy a media separator right now. If I get the large FA tumbler then I'll probably go ahead and get one. UPS is due in a couple of hours with the pins. I know I'll get them cleaned this evening but may not get pictures up until tomorrow.



ETA:

Pins are here, they came with a sample packet of a brass shine. I used it instead of going out in the rain to buy lemishine. They went into the tumbler at 3:45 and I plan to pull them out around 6:00, if I can get to the barn without getting drenched or blown away.

 

[AngryRooster]

Here's what I've got so far. The 45acp was wet tumbled with Dawn soap, NO pins, NO lemishine. It was tumbled for 3 hours. It also had some 357 brass in with it, the other drum (done the same way) had 38's in it. None of these were deprimed yet. (Bent pin) The 38 & 357 look the same, I just photographed the 45's because it was easier to see inside.

The 9mm brass was dry tumbled in a Lyman Pro Magnum for 13 hours with walnut media. 1 hour to clean it a bit so I could deprime it. Once deprimed it went back in for the remaining 12 hours.

My depriming pin came today and the stainless tumbling pins will be here tomorrow. When they get here I'll tumble half of the 45's again with Dawn, Lemishine and the SS pins. I'll do comparison pictures again after that.




It was about 6:30 pm and not very sunny out.


45acp - Wet with Dawn, no pins

9mm - Dry tumbled, walnut media

Both

There is only a slight difference with the wet tumbling edging out the dry. I'm sure that gap will widen once the SS pins come into play and they get deprimed.

Quoting yesterdays pics so they are together.

Here's the results after 2 hours. Steel pins, brass polish powder that came with the pins, Dawn soap & hot water.
Really liking the results.


Cases on the right side are yesterdays cases.

Pile of 45 & 357/38

 

[canterbc]

When you have all of the components (pins and dawn being the most important IMO) it is really a very good system.

 

[padawan]

Very nice, Rooster. Good comparison. Good looking brass.

 

[AngryRooster]

Things I've learned in the past week:

• The rubber drums do a good job, but suck to work with. If you're going to use them then open both of the screw tops while your hands are dry. This avoids having to go back out to the garage to get a pair of pliers. Then later on you get to explain why there is a set of pliers & a screwdriver in the bathroom "because they don't belong in here". (Because I'm not finished yet only works on day one. After day 3 that reasoning will earn you 'the look'.)

• The washer and metal lid are sharp. Hit them with some sandpaper or you WILL end up cutting yourself eventually.

• The metal top fits very tight and you will need something to pry it off with (see screwdriver above).

• If you decide to run the tumbler overnight then you need to pop the tops to let some pressure out. The pressure causes the bottoms of the rubber tubs to swell and press against each other. That will cause the ends with the screw top to press against the frame. This can loosen one of the caps causing the tub to leak nasty black water all over the garage floor. A wonderful side effect of this is the drive rod is now covered in a wet sticky mess that a pain to clean. It gets on AND inside the rubber sleeve causing the entire thing to slip and the tubs to stop rotating. It sucks to clean.

• You can build a PVC container pretty cheap that's much easier to use. YouTube is your friend. There also is a guy that built his entire unit from scratch and uses the large applesauce containers with the handles molded in. The handles act as an agitator for the brass inside. I like this idea but don't know if the containers will fit the HF unit. Now I get to be the weird guy in Wmart walking around with a tape measure checking the size of food containers.

• The steel pins suck to pick up without a magnet. They suck even more when you drop one and it falls in your shoe. Don't worry though, it will let you know it's there, eventually.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'm forgetting something that will come to me as soon as I leave to do something else. For now I'm going to dig out the keychain sized tape measure and decide how to go about a new container. I may go to the neighboring towns Wmart and make a show of it. Black socks with crocks, shorts, tanktop, walking around the grocery section measuring stuff, maybe a limp or just drag one foot behind me. Do I get bonus points if I put one arm in a sling and get other people to measure things for me???

 

[canterbc]

It is kinda par for the course at Walmart. I doubt anybody even gives you a second look!

 

[canterbc]

I do need to look into alternate containers for the HF tumbler. The rubber ones are nice and quiet, but as you mentioned are a bit of a pain.

 

[AngryRooster]

I do need to look into alternate containers for the HF tumbler. The rubber ones are nice and quiet, but as you mentioned are a bit of a pain.

Thinking about trying something, if I can find some without it costing a bunch just to experiment. Thinking about a can of that flex-seal spray stuff. Spray both the inside and outside. It would cut down on noise and add some grip for the rollers to bite into. Not planning on $20+ a can just to try it out but if I can find something similar maybe.

 

[Ericpwp]

I put Bubba to shame with my setup.

 

[MemphisR32]

What are you doing with the lead contaminated waste water after tumbling? I can't imagine it would be good to pour down the drain or even legal if on city sewer.

 

[padawan]

It is kinda par for the course at Walmart. I doubt anybody even gives you a second look!

Wow- I was in our local Wally just yesterday. Didn't have the tape measure with me or I would be looking for the handled applesauce container.

You might be able to use rubberized grip/tread tape on the outside of the container to gain traction in the HF tumbler. Maybe the big Musselman's 2 pack applesauce at Sams.

Good info.

 

[voidsherpa]

Harbour Freight has 20% off single item coupons all weekend, and a 25% off one for monday.

Also PVC drum mod Made a new drum for my tumbler - Friendly Metal Detecting Forums

 

[bulletsmith]

What are you doing with the lead contaminated waste water after tumbling? I can't imagine it would be good to pour down the drain or even legal if on city sewer.

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2004-title40-vol26/pdf/CFR-2004-title40-vol26-sec302-4.pdf

On page 292 you find lead. The reportable quantity for lead is 10 lbs per release. While I'm not sure about how much lead actually exists in spent brass, I suspect you may not wash 10 lbs of lead down the drain in a lifetime. What lead does make it's way into the sewage plant will settle out in the processes.

 

[Doublehelix]

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2004-title40-vol26/pdf/CFR-2004-title40-vol26-sec302-4.pdf

On page 292 you find lead. The reportable quantity for lead is 10 lbs per release. While I'm not sure about how much lead actually exists in spent brass, I suspect you may not wash 10 lbs of lead down the drain in a lifetime. What lead does make it's way into the sewage plant will settle out in the processes.

I was going to make a comment on this as well, but MemphisR32 beat me to it. Even if there is a regulation about how much you can dump at once, it can't be a good thing to have 100's of INGO-ers dumping lead-contaminated water down the sink into the White River. Not sure if it is any better releasing it into the air and then into the landfill when using the dry tumblers...

 

[bulletsmith]

I was going to make a comment on this as well, but MemphisR32 beat me to it. Even if there is a regulation about how much you can dump at once, it can't be a good thing to have 100's of INGO-ers dumping lead-contaminated water down the sink into the White River. Not sure if it is any better releasing it into the air and then into the landfill when using the dry tumblers...

I would argue that there is more lead released into the environment by shooting than what is left in your brass. No data, just my opinion based on my understanding of the physics of the thing.

Hopefully your sewage is not pumped directly into the river. The normal settling procedures employed by most sewage plants would trap most, if not all the lead collected.

 

[Doublehelix]

I would argue that there is more lead released into the environment by shooting than what is left in your brass. No data, just my opinion based on my understanding of the physics of the thing.

You're probably right...

Hopefully your sewage is not pumped directly into the river. The normal settling procedures employed by most sewage plants would trap most, if not all the lead collected.

I am sure some (a lot?) settles in the pipes along the way as well.

No matter how we slice it, lead is nasty stuff, and I guess I worry about it. Not a tree-hugger, but nonetheless...

 

[bulletsmith]

You're probably right...




I am sure some (a lot?) settles in the pipes along the way as well.

No matter how we slice it, lead is nasty stuff, and I guess I worry about it. Not a tree-hugger, but nonetheless...

All true. But the only logical solution is to stop shooting . Therefore I must assume we shouldn't worry about it.