Thread: Wet Tumbling

What are peoples recipes for wet tumbling brass?

Tablespoon of Palmolive and a smidgen of citric acid. Ad water brass and stainless media an stir lots and lots and lots.

Palmolive as in the dish wash detergent?

I use citric (a pinch), plain old liquid soap (a drip) and car wash (a drip). half the drum filled with hot water and 25 mid sized cases (deprimed). Dump in the steel media, 2 hours, then rinse in fresh water with a pinch of ctric. Then towel them and bung them in the oven at 65deg till the water dries off.

Palmolive dish washing detergent with citric acid (dishwashing machine granules).

I use a tablespoon of each and dump that into the tumbler with tap hot water as cold water doesn’t work aswell.

I generally tumble for a good 4 hours then rinse, towel dry and leave the cases sitting in a tin foil tray.

A little bit of experimenting and you’ll soon fine what works best for you.

It’s certainly the best method for cleaning brass especially primer pockets!

As for drying I used to put them in the oven on low temperature with the oven door ajar but typically I just leave them by the fire when it’s on or in the sun room for a couple of days before they I start using them.

Yes the dish wash Palmolive. Car wash is an interesting one, must try that.

BTW don't leave brass too long in citric acid solution as you will dissolve out the zinc. Easy to do if you are easy distracted like me

Never clean mine (except primer pockets).

My 'Tuppence worth."

In hot, to start water with squirt of liquid soap and a citric additive....there are so many, then with stainless medi, one hour does it.

A THOROUGH rinse then onto a towel, hold the 4 corners to make a bag and roll / shake to remove excess interior and exterior water, then into one of these for about 30 mins.



The Sunbeam can be expensive, (unless "She Who Must Be Obeyed" has one) or periodically available cheaply from the Op Shops.

The Sunbeam is also great for drying the media as well, but I suggest using paper towels between the media and the trays as the media can mark / stain the plastic trays, then when you thought you were off to bed tonight for a sleep, a long expression her views may delay that considerably. .

I used to use citric acid, but decided that they got shiny enough without it, and didn't have to think about particular elements being leeched from the brass.

So now I just clean dirty brass in the tumbler with plain water and dishwash before sizing, dry, lube/size/deprime, then before loading I clean the lube off in the tumbler again, with a hefty dollop (dependent on volume of water going into tumbler) of cheapish car wash. Car wash stops it tarnishing afterwards.

Originally Posted by Lost In The Hill

What are peoples recipes for wet tumbling brass?

Oooops wrong thread, I thought wet tumbling was like mud wrestling.

It gets warmish a couple of days a year

I use citric acid/lemon oil mix and a dash of rinse aid for good measure. Comes out better than new!

Same as most above, though I don’t use the steel pins anymore as I don’t really notice any difference in using them. the pain in having to clean them up is why I no longer use them. A good magnet with a release is handy. Citric acid and dish wash liquid and I use the sunbeam dehydrator also to dry the brass. Contemplating getting an old front loading washing machine and doing it in bulk ( one wash to rule them all ) and disposing waste water at our chemical dump at work.

I no longer wet tumblr my 6.5 creed brass as they will peening the case mouse even for 40 minutes.

Originally Posted by G.I_Joel

Same as most above, though I don’t use the steel pins anymore as I don’t really notice any difference in using them. the pain in having to clean them up is why I no longer use them.

I used steel pins once....never again because it takes ages getting all the small pins separated from the brass and then dealing with them.

Anybody wanting a freebie 200 grm packet ( minus a few) ,of 0.3mm Stainless Steel polishing pins, just P.M. me.

Balls of steel, :>) are my choice, a 380 gram mixture of two sizes of steel balls, 2 mm and 3 mm.

After tumbler cleaning, I place a kitchen sieve with the wire mesh slightly larger than 3 mm over a 10 litre bucket, empty the tumbler contents into the sieve then run a tap over the contents whilst shaking the sieve. . A couple of good rinses and shaking of the brass removes all the balls including the smaller ones which clean the primer pockets, inside and out .
Then swap the sieve for another with a less than 2 mm mesh and pour the dirty through it to recover the steel balls then dry them. Once dried, I usually give them a short squirt of CR C and a shake then back into their plastic container