Brass tumbling questions

[bulletsmith]

I tumble my brass to get the lube off, both empty sized brass and any loaded ones with lube on them.

Is this a common practice guys? Are you not concerned about the vibration altering the powder grains as well? I know that at one time this was warned against by powder manufacturers. Is this no longer the case?

 

[17 squirrel]

Hahahahaha,, you will not find a powder manufacture or a company that manufactures tumblers or Vibrators that will tell you it's safe.
But you will find some independent testing that says its safe to do.
Also most ammunition manufacturing companys do a quick tumble at the end of manufacturing just before packaging to clean the loaded rounds.

 

[Leo]

What abrasive is used in car polish or case polish?

Cristobalite, a high temperature poly morph of silica




Don't ask me what it is, I read it from the MSDS sheet.

 

[17 squirrel]

Cristobalite, a high temperature poly morph of silic
.

Dang.... I'm gonna get my girl to say that in dirty Russian to me later..

 

[Fullmag]

What abrasive is used in car polish or case polish?

Nu-finish removes the oxidization form the painted surface, so it's a chemical reaction that cleans the brass. Not clean brass is much worse on barrel, the same as if you drop a round on the ground your supposed to throw it away.

 

[Fullmag]

What abrasive is used in car polish or case polish?

Nu-finish removes the oxidization form the painted surface, so it's a chemical reaction that cleans the brass. Not clean brass is much worse on barrel, it becomes an abrasive, the same as if you drop a round on the ground your supposed to throw it away.

 

[bulletsmith]

Throw it away?

Throw it away?

Blasphemy!

Blasphemy!

 

[STFU]

Dang.... I'm gonna get my girl to say that in dirty Russian to me later..

Hahahahaha...priceless!

 

[ckcollins2003]

Is this a common practice guys? Are you not concerned about the vibration altering the powder grains as well? I know that at one time this was warned against by powder manufacturers. Is this no longer the case?

Check it...
Tumble live ammo Tumbler O' thruth EXTREME edition, 200hour torture test**UPDATE**fired rounds in OP - AR15.COM

 

[bulletsmith]

Check it...
Tumble live ammo Tumbler O' thruth EXTREME edition, 200hour torture test**UPDATE**fired rounds in OP - AR15.COM

Thanks for that! I had always believed it was a nono, without any discussion to the contrary. Those images are impressive, and it looks like the pressure signs (or the lack of) are unchanged. I was a little disappointed that the link to the "Box of silence" was broken though...

Thanks again!

 

[Lee S. Forsberg]

Nu-finish removes the oxidization form the painted surface, so it's a chemical reaction that cleans the brass. Not clean brass is much worse on barrel, it becomes an abrasive, the same as if you drop a round on the ground your supposed to throw it away.

What chemicals? What do these chemicals do to the brass? TP and SS pins have worked very well for me and I'm not worried about abrasives or chemical reactions. Clean brass inside and out always works better. TP is inexpensive and plentiful. SS pins don't ware out so they pay for themselves over time if they are not lost. No reason to change. If it's not broke don't fix it.

 

[Lee S. Forsberg]

Check it...
Tumble live ammo Tumbler O' thruth EXTREME edition, 200hour torture test**UPDATE**fired rounds in OP - AR15.COM

Very good!! Put a lot of questions to rest.

 

[Drail]

To me even if it IS totally cool to tumble live rounds I can't understand why you need to. My ammo comes straight off the press cleaner and shiner than any factory round I have ever seen and drops into chambers.

 

[Fullmag]

Fullmag, do you pour it in while the tumbler is running?
Does it affect the inside of the brass? EG: leaves a residue or film that the powder sticks to during the powder drop phase?

BTW, thank you for answering the noob questions!

The next thing I do is use a cheap aluminum roaster pan fill it with a little dish soap and hot water and dump brass in to remove any residue. To remove the brass use a large strainer form Dollar General, $1.00 in cooking utensils. Place brass on towel overnight. Then they are clean and ready to go.

 

[Fullmag]

What chemicals? What do these chemicals do to the brass? TP and SS pins have worked very well for me and I'm not worried about abrasives or chemical reactions. Clean brass inside and out always works better. TP is inexpensive and plentiful. SS pins don't ware out so they pay for themselves over time if they are not lost. No reason to change. If it's not broke don't fix it.

The stainless steel pins and toilet paper are abrasive and the dish soap has a chemical reaction or the brass would not clean up. Brasso, Ammonia or any type of ammonia based products are bad for brass.

You have no reason to change if it works for you and don't mind the process.

 

[ckcollins2003]

To me even if it IS totally cool to tumble live rounds I can't understand why you need to. My ammo comes straight off the press cleaner and shiner than any factory round I have ever seen and drops into chambers.

I've only done it a handful of times, but I usually reload before I even know the next time I'm going to shoot. Sometimes months pass before I shoot that ammo and I just don't like my ammo to look dingy and old. From a performance standpoint, it's not needed at all... it's just personal preference on how well you want your ammo to look.

 

[Fullmag]

I've only done it a handful of times, but I usually reload before I even know the next time I'm going to shoot. Sometimes months pass before I shoot that ammo and I just don't like my ammo to look dingy and old. From a performance standpoint, it's not needed at all... it's just personal preference on how well you want your ammo to look.

My friend that helped me get started in reloading said that tumbling was not important. He now shoots bench rest only and the brass never goes to the ground. When I started loading for semi-auto hand guns the brass always went to ground. At that time was loading for 357sig and the brass was not re-sizing very well, not long after that noticed that the brass were looking really scratched. Did some research and found out the brass was dirty and that is what was scratching the dies it came from the grit after being on the ground.

 

[Drail]

"dingy and old" Sounds just like what my wife says about me........

 

[Leo]

The old bullseye shooters made a lot of targets with one ragged hole shooting a .45 one handed in slow and timed fire events. Between that sooty old Hercules bullseye powder and bees wax and crisco lubed cast bullets, most of their brass was black, and they laughed at people with shiney brass.

In the late 70's/early 80's, cheap brass polishers came out and everyone (including me) has shiny brass, but very few of us are shooting one hole groups one handed. I don't think shiny buys us any inherent accuracy, but if it makes us happy, why not.

I just tried retumbing 1/2 of the brass after sizing (and before loading) to clean any lube residue off. The retumbled and the single tumbled all started pretty shiney. The ones that still felt slippery with lube were a lot dirtier when I picked them out of the grass than the retumbled, so some of what makes the cases ugly must be scorched case lube. I use the lanolin base stuff from Dillon or Midway.

 

[natdscott]

My competition brass is almost always more tarnished than my neighbors, even though I DO tumble it, but I still shoot okay.

-Nate