How Long Do Y'All Run the Tumbler for Wet Cleaning?

[GeekWithGuns]

Silly question but how long do folks let their tumbler run when cleaning brass with water and stainless media?

Sometimes I let it roll overnight but seems like way overkill. Currently thinking 2 or 3 hours is plenty.

[capincurt]

I have the franklin arsenal tumbler and the timer maxes out at 3 hours which usually works fine. Sometimes I run for an extra hour or two depending on what’s in it

[lamrith]

Silly question but how long do folks let their tumbler run when cleaning brass with water and stainless media?

Sometimes I let it roll overnight but seems like way overkill. Currently thinking 2 or 3 hours is plenty.

That can depend on a few things. How bad the brass is, what media and how active your tumbler is and of course your goals for the finished product.

I think most people/videos I have seen run in the 4hr range. usually referring to a Thumler Tumblers which has been around the longest I think.
If you just want nice clean brass 2hrs will be just fine, if you want it to come out like it is new from factory you will wan to run 4ish.

If you have an older Thumler like I do that is the Rock polish version and runs at 1/2 speed and you want that new brass look, then you run 8hrs, like this batch I ran lastnight.

Last edited by lamrith on Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:53 am, edited 2 times in total.

[MadPick]

I have the Thumler High-Speed. I consider four hours to be a “full tumble,” which will get nearly anything clean. That’s what I normally do.

Two or three hours will do a pretty decent job, though, if you don’t require your brass to look like jewelry.

[MadPick]

I’ll add, though, that it also depends on how full the tumbler is. Last weekend I ran a record load (for me) of 8 pounds of .40 brass, which means the drum was about 2/3 full. I ran it four hours and it was pretty darn clean, but there were still little spots inside a few of the cases.

[GeekWithGuns]

Thanks guys for the info. I have a Thumler's Model B rated for 3000rpm which is the high speed model I believe on their website. Ran with stainless pins for about 3 hours this morning with Lemi-Shine (we have hard water here), Dawn, and the Armor All polish. I never thought about fill level making a difference as I usually load mine routinely about 2/3 full of brass. Came out squeaky clean and now drying on a towel in front of a small space heater.

Based on the feedback I'll settle on 3-4 hours. All my brass started as factory ammo American Eagle/Federal brass which I scrounged for a couple years before buying reloading gear so it's pretty clean to start in terms of tarnish or grime (as long as you don't factor in that I'm using Unique powder which makes the cases look like they came out of a coal mine lol).

[velillen]

It does depends how dirty the brass is. But honestly I usually do two cycles of ~30min-1 hour and am more than happy. The 1st cycle is more just a water and soap change. Sometimes the first change is done quicker. Pretty much the first cycle just gets all the major crap off and the second is the make it shiny stage. 1st cycle is just cold water and dawn dish soap. Second cycle is <1/4" tsp of lemishine and a splash more dishsoap. Once done it gets a wash under hot water and then put in the dehydrator for ~30-60minutes.

For once fired brass out of my own guns I honestly havent noticed a difference doing an hour total vs 3 or 4 hours

[MadPick]

It does depends how dirty the brass is. But honestly I usually do two cycles of ~30min-1 hour and am more than happy. The 1st cycle is more just a water and soap change. Sometimes the first change is done quicker. Pretty much the first cycle just gets all the major crap off and the second is the make it shiny stage. 1st cycle is just cold water and dawn dish soap. Second cycle is <1/4" tsp of lemishine and a splash more dishsoap. Once done it gets a wash under hot water and then put in the dehydrator for ~30-60minutes.

For once fired brass out of my own guns I honestly havent noticed a difference doing an hour total vs 3 or 4 hours

Have you tried doing it all in one run?

Honestly, doing the water change sounds like a LOT more hassle than just letting it run longer.

[lamrith]

Thanks guys for the info. I have a Thumler's Model B rated for 3000rpm which is the high speed model I believe on their website. Ran with stainless pins for about 3 hours this morning with Lemi-Shine (we have hard water here), Dawn, and the Armor All polish. I never thought about fill level making a difference as I usually load mine routinely about 2/3 full of brass. Came out squeaky clean and now drying on a towel in front of a small space heater.

Based on the feedback I'll settle on 3-4 hours. All my brass started as factory ammo American Eagle/Federal brass which I scrounged for a couple years before buying reloading gear so it's pretty clean to start in terms of tarnish or grime (as long as you don't factor in that I'm using Unique powder which makes the cases look like they came out of a coal mine lol).

Try Car saw soap with Carnuba wax. I used Dawn a week ago and it did not give the brass the pop and shine that the Car was stuff does. One of these will last a long long time and many batches.
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-G7164-C ... 0CJEA3RDV3

Not had a reason to do more than one run or change water using the stuff above and some lemishine.

[deadshot2]

I use the Frankford Arsenal tumbler and if you're cleaning your brass every couple of shoot/reload cycles an hour to hour and a half is all that's needed.

If you're cleaning some military once fired or range pickup stuff, you might just have to tumble overnight to get it clean.

One caution. Tumblers have a tendency to cause case mouth's to "peen" if you leave them tumbling too long. To make sure you don't have excessive neck tensions either size AFTER you clean (and have removed primers) or use an expander mandrel to uniform the case mouths before loading.

One way to minimize the peening effect is to make sure you have a high ratio of pins to brass. This cushions the brass as it's tumbling.

[sportsdad60]

Like most stated here, 3-4 hrs.

[velillen]

It does depends how dirty the brass is. But honestly I usually do two cycles of ~30min-1 hour and am more than happy. The 1st cycle is more just a water and soap change. Sometimes the first change is done quicker. Pretty much the first cycle just gets all the major crap off and the second is the make it shiny stage. 1st cycle is just cold water and dawn dish soap. Second cycle is <1/4" tsp of lemishine and a splash more dishsoap. Once done it gets a wash under hot water and then put in the dehydrator for ~30-60minutes.

For once fired brass out of my own guns I honestly havent noticed a difference doing an hour total vs 3 or 4 hours

Have you tried doing it all in one run?

Honestly, doing the water change sounds like a LOT more hassle than just letting it run longer.

It honestly takes about 3-4 minutes. Undo the top, dump the water out, put more in, put the top back, let it run again. Im not like flushing everything. Just dumping the dirty water/soap out and adding new. The cases and steel pins stay in the tumbler during the exchange. If that makes sense lol

[STED9R]

Have a heavy duty tumbler, between the two drums can fit a couple hundred pieces of 300WM brass between the two.

I run mine long, very long...
I'll flip the switch about 8pm, an turn it off and start rinsing brass about 4pm the next day.
I've forgotten I've had brass in and it running for a couple days....
Have yet to ruin any brass.

[Pablo]

Most of the time 2 hours isn't quite long enough. But I have never had to go longer than 3, so now I set the timer at 3 hours and never check sooner as it's just not worth it to gain 30 minutes or whatever. As I have said before my brass cleaning is really quite a separate process for me so I always have dry shiny deprimed brass ready to go.

[Barfly]

you guys that use lemishine. are you using the "booster" stuff? I'm just getting going with a little "toy" thumler tumbler at the moment for the really stubborn cases, but am building a large super wet-tumbler to use going forward. I just want to make sure I'm buying the right stuff.

This is what I'm finding. right stuff?