Cut My Tumbling Time in Half

[Jackie Graham]

I have not but did try Dawn a couple of times. Also tried Oxi Clean. They both foamed so bad it took several rinses to get all the soap out.

 

[EMC45]

Question for wet tumblers -

When I was a kid building engines for weekend destruction, I used to clean greasy engines by wetting them down, sprinkling Tide laundry detergent on them, letting them set for a couple of hours and then re-hosing them. The Tide cut through tough engine grease like it was butter.

Question - has anyone used laundry detergent, like Tide, to either tumble with or pre-soak with? What type of results did you notice?

Thanks -

Bayou

That's similar to the Dawn on my "recipe". It cuts through the carbon fouling/bullet lube like a knife.

 

[Bushwhacker]

I use a couple drops of dawn and 1/2 teaspoon of lemi-shine.

 

[Bushwhacker]

I am new to the reloading and just tumle my brass with corn cob media. Is wet tumbling better? Really needed? I only load pistol rounds now. Thx and great thread to read.

I'v been there. When I first started loading, I was only doing my deer hunting cartridges and that was about it. Then I started doing handgun and .223 so then came the turret press. So inevitably if you load more, you shoot more. So then I'm sitting there staring at tons of brass that I want to load. I then bought a wet tumbler and have only loved it since. It is much more labor intensive, once you fill it with brass and media, you put in detergent/polish/shine whatever then run it. After that the work begins. Pour off the black water, rinse and repeat. Then the work begins. It takes a good bit longer to seperate than it does with a tumbler because of the stainless pins. A magnet like the one listed above is a must. Once you get a system in place it's not bad. I bought a dryer as well that I put them in. But for the same amount of time I can clean (better in my opinion) and dry 3 times the brass. I'll even run small batches of say 100-150 cases. It only cost me a couple gallons of water and a teaspoon of cleaner to run a batch.

Plus you never have to clean a primer pocket again, that saves time on the loading side as well.

Is it necessary? No, not at all. But you'll never regret it.