How to Clean Brass | Dry Tumbling and Wet Tumbling Process

Should you wet tumble or dry tumble your brass? I'll explain the positives and negatives of both wet and dry tumbling and show you my methods for each one. Dry tumbling is usually more affordable, quicker, and easier to use. While wet tumbling is more of a hassle, the brass will come out much cleaner because wet tumbling is usually more thorough. The tumblers I own are the Frankford Arsenal vibratory tumbler, and Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite. Any brand will do as they're all pretty similar, you could even use Harbor Freight rock tumbler as well.
0:00 Intro
0:25 About tumbling
1:40 Use NuFinish as a brass polish substitute
2:42 Pouring in corn cob media
3:26 Measuring the NuFinish to "activate" the corn cob media
4:20 Letting the dry tumbler run before dropping in brass
5:15 Dropping in brass to dry tumbler
6:53 Demonstrating the wet tumbler
7:28 About stainless steel pins/media
8:55 What you'll need: dish soap, lemishine, and optional rinse aid
9:17 Wet tumbling benefits
10:33 Dropping in brass to wet tumbler
11:32 Filling wet tumbler with water
12:24 Adding dish soap and lemishine
14:04 Closing up wet tumbler and starting
14:47 Sifting dry tumbled brass
17:07 Separating brass from stainless steel pins
18:43 Rinsing brass with water
20:14 Using a food dehydrator to dry brass
22:50 Final results and closing thoughts

[@dennisdow]

Reloaded for many years a LONG time ago and never heard of wet tumbling. Very helpful, thanks.

[@Jim-oo7dk]

I was concerned about the dust, until I realized I could first do a 5 minute wash in the Dawn, lemon juice, vinegar, salt recipe, and all the contaminants would go down the drain. Then I was free to walnut vibrate for 2 hrs, and then corncob vibrate for 2 more. By doing the pre-wash, it also kept the vibratory media practically pristine.

[@theAV8R]

Do you not have to then dry the brass before doing into the dry media?

[@VeritasOmniaVincit176]

I do both: clean first with wet tumbling, polish with dry tumbling. And I don’t deprime my cases prior to tumbling any longer. Didn’t notice any changes I’m not cleaning the primer pockets and I don’t have to go through the hassle of removing media from them.

[@zzyzxroad3245]

The CED Media Separator from Double Alpha will shorten your work load significantly for separating pins and soapy water from your brass. You dump the recently cleaned brass into the basket with clean water at the base of the tub. As you spin the basket, the water will wash the pins from the cases along with the soap. I usually dump that water and refill it with fresh and rinse it again before moving them to the dryer. We collect brass from out in the desert that has been out there for decades. Sometimes they're as black as black can be. The stainless media will clean them as bright and shiny as new brass with a three hour run. We have a multi-step process that is somewhat overkill, but it had lead to zero malfunctions in about 50,000 pistol rounds over the past 15 years. 1. Collect brass into a bucket. 2. Sort brass by similar caliber so the cases don't get stuck together during tumbling. You learn quick which batches work together, like 9mm, 38, 357. Then 45, 44 mag, 45lc. Throw out obviously damaged cases that can't be repaired by resizing. If I don't use that particular caliber, I hand deprime the cases so the first cycle thru the wet tumbler will clean out the primer pockets. 3. Clean brass in stainless steel media, Lyman brass cleaner and Lemonshine. I use the CED Brass Tornado Pro tumbler. 4. Remove stainless pins and the majority of the water from the cases with the CED separator. 5. Dry the cases in the CED food dehydrator. 6. Sort and separate cases by caliber. Inspect cases for damage. Cases I don't plan on resizing or loading then get separated out and stored with their like calibers. I'm looking for berdan primed shit at this point and tossing it. I have gallon ziplock bags full of calibers I don't use. I then sell off the brass which has paid for my loading equipment several times over. 7. Lubricate cases intended for use. 8. Resize, deprime and use the powder die to bell the mouths of the pistol brass. This helps iron out any cases that have minor bends in them. 9. Throw cases into a media tumbler to remove the lubricant. I find a traditional tumbler removes the lubricant better than wet tumbling stainless pins. Separate the media from the cases with its media separator. I have a Dillon setup for this. I don't worry about media getting stuck in the primer flash hole since when I load them, the resizing die and deprimer pin is still in place and will remove it. 10. Throw the cases back into the stainless media tumbler and run it for a cycle. This will remove all of the media dust and give the cases a final polish. You could skip this step if you don't care what the cases look like. This final spin will also clean out the primer pockets. 11. Remove the stainless pins and water again. 12. Dry the brass. 13. Make a final inspection of the brass. Insert each case into a case gauge to ensure they sound and look right. Cases ring a certain way on the lip of a case gauge to give you a heads up if there is a split. The gauge then gives you a good indication on if it resized correctly or if other damage is present. You also catch all the fuckery that is out there. Like people who trim down 9x19 ammo to 9x18. So you have a 9x19 typical headstamp that is short. Or the 380 that slips by your eyes. Or good ol' 45 GAP rounds sneaking into your stash. 14. These cases are then stored in ammo cans ready to be used. Yes, this is overkill, but the ammo is also jam free with zero wait-a-minute events. There is also something satisfying about taking old cases that were destined for the recycling bin and making them better than new. Bottleneck cases have a couple extra steps. I have a die with the resizing die and trim die on it to uniform their length. I also don't save old bottleneck cases for safety concerns.

[@nerradnosnhoj5122]

Turned out nice Thank you for taking time to video the process & results

[@UteFan925]

Hey man I just watched all your videos. I hope you make more sometime. I enjoyed them and hope you make more sometime. Thanks

[@jamesmooney5348]

Hey cool to see you over with Gavin and'em... I was already subscribed to your channel and just now saw you haven't put a video out for 2 yrs... hahaha... oh well... I really enjoy Guy over there and am glad they're doing videos on the 308. Sometimes I do give Gavin flack, but hey, we're all good for it once in a while... I kinda think Guy helps keep Gavins feet on the ground and hope it don't go too far the other way, shooting a rifle that looks like a ray gun as opposed to a good ol' fashion wood stock hunting rifle. But that's just me, an 80's n 70's boy.... Congratulations, again. For what vids you do gave, I liked them....

[@humansvd3269]

Good video. I got the discontinued Cabella's 400 Model Tumbler. It came with media and soap additive too with a media sifter. Works perfectly fine. Also, dryer sheets are your friend.

[@wemcal]

Great video and great looking brass

[@EverydayReloadingandShooting]

Excellent video. I discovered that when the carbon starts to build up around the case, Neck,, it’s time to change the media

[@geraldf.1222]

I would use s blue Scotchbrite sponge to clean out the bowl and used dryer sheets to keep the media clean. Works great.

[@richardmorris158]

I don't put the wax in until I clean the loaded rounds in the dry media. That way, they stay nice and shiny for a long time, provided you don't touch the rounds with your bare hands. I have 2 buckets for the media, one for media I use for basic cleaning before resizing, and one that has the wax infused media for shining the loaded rounds.

[@thrivealist9458]

Put a noodle strainer on top of your screen and it will separate the pins from brass before drying.

[@lonewolf286]

I have never seen anybody use wax inside of a tumbling before

[@miketowne9206]

Wish there was something more recenf

[@repurposedperformance5762]

Curious what kind of magnet you are using? Stainless steel is NOT magnetic and just to make sure before I made this comment I just went out in the shop and stuck a magnet in my pins and they are infact NOT magnetic… Maybe you can point me in the direction of a stainless media that is magnetic because that would help speed up the process.

[@dutchmanoutdoors7212]

They do make magnetic SS pins and chips

[@mindyjemison900]

i run my dry tumbler over night

[@davidreynolds4715]

Wet tumble! My total investment is less than $45. Don't have to buy the stuff Midway/Midsouth or the box stores try to sell you.

[@Birdfeeder795]

What happend to this channel?

[@willhas8416]

It’s obvious you’re a rep for Frankfort

[@thelostboyscout1489]

Nah, he's just cheap! lol thumlers all the way!!!