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Posted: 9/10/2012 7:49:58 PM EDT
| When I wet tumble with lemishine, dawn dishsoap, and stainless media sometimes the batch of brass comes out browner and more tarnished than when I started. At first I thought it was due to tumble time, amount of lemishine and dawn, or water temp but everytime I try to be very consistent and I still get a batch every now and then that comes out looking very bad. I usually tumble for 45 min. each batch. The cases are spotless inside and out but its the color that makes them look extremely ugly. Any ideas what im doing wrong? |
| I'm using a cheap rock polisher tumbler I found at harbor freight. I have been putting in about 40 of .308 per batch. I fill the small drums almost to the top with water and put i believe its a little less 1/4 teaspoon of lemishine and then a tablespoon or so of blue dawn. Maybe I'm borderline using too much limishine for the small ammount of water my rig holds? It seems to clean extremely well if I leave them in for less than 45 min but around the 45min to 1 hour they sometimes come out nasty. When they do turn out clean they are no where near as shiny as the pic y'all just posted! I do know that once I left them in for a few hours and I had to throw them away they were so nasty looking because once they turn brown like that nothing I do revives them |
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Quoted:
I use just a dash(less than a teaspoon) of the powder lemi-shine and the same of the blue dawn, fill it to about an inch of the top with water and tumble for about 2 hours. Never had a problem. How much lemi/dawn/water/cases do you do in a load? its so shiny and purteeee. A gun enthusiast's bling |
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just an opinion here but i think there is something in the drum reacting with the ingredients causing your problem. they are not shiny because you are not tumbling near long enuff.
with the slow rock tumblers 3-4 hours should be your tumble time. a picture of the affected brass may help diagnose. |
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I'm not sure exactly what is wrong with your procedure, but here are a few ideas.
1. Don't fill the container to the top with water, only fill it to about an inch from the top. 2. If you're not pre-washing the brass; drain the water after about 1 hour, and refill with less lemishine/dawn than you started out with. 3. As others have said, let it run for 3-4 hours. Good luck. Pics of your current progress would be helpful. |
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Quoted:
I have been out of the reloading game for a couple of years so what is wet tumbling? Is it better than dry tumbling? check out dryflash3's thread here it will answer most of your questions http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/344832_Wet_tumbling_with_SS_media__lots_of_pics__New_info_second_post_1_18_2012_.html and you can also check out my thread on how to build your own how to build your own wet tumbler |
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Quoted:
I'm using a cheap rock polisher tumbler I found at harbor freight. I have been putting in about 40 of .308 per batch. I fill the small drums almost to the top with water and put i believe its a little less 1/4 teaspoon of lemishine and then a tablespoon or so of blue dawn. Maybe I'm borderline using too much limishine for the small ammount of water my rig holds? It seems to clean extremely well if I leave them in for less than 45 min but around the 45min to 1 hour they sometimes come out nasty. When they do turn out clean they are no where near as shiny as the pic y'all just posted! I do know that once I left them in for a few hours and I had to throw them away they were so nasty looking because once they turn brown like that nothing I do revives them Use a little more Lemishine and less dish soap. You'll need to tumble for a couple of hours to clean all the carbon out of every crevice. Just for an experiment, put hot water and Lemishine in the drum with the brass, then let it sit for an hour. Make sure the Lemishine is completely dissolved. The brass should be fairly shiny on the outside, but the carbon will still be in place, although very soft. |
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I'm using the same rock tumbler from Harbor Freight.
I think you're using too much Lemi Shine. My first batches of wet tumbled brass, I used too much and my brass came out clean but dark orange. Here's my recipe: I put in about 1 lb of whatever brass. I'm doing 9mm, .45 ACP and .223 right now. I also put in about .75 lbs of pins and just enough water to cover the brass. I put in a large drop, not a squirt, of dish soap and about a 1/3 9mm case of Lemi Shine. Tumble time is 4 hours or so. The water comes out black with a good head of soap foam on it at the end of the run. I drain and rinse a couple of times in the tumbler drums then dump them into a rotary media separator. I fill the separator with water and tumble a little, then drain the water and fill it and tumble again to get the last of the crud out and make sure the pins are separated. My brass now comes out brilliant blonde yellow. It looks like factory. Oh and I decap on a Lee Universal decapping die before I tumble. |
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