Drawback to wet tumbling before depriming. - Page 2

Clay · December 31, 2010, 06:57 AM

I'm just wondering how many folks recognize the irony of arguing over dispensing minute amounts of lead into the water supply when the goal is to dispense MASSIVE amounts of lead into the ground (or potentially an animal...but the ground for the most part).

salvadore · December 31, 2010, 08:10 AM

I've been using wet media to clean my brass ever since trying dry media. The best way to dry the clean brass is shake off excess in a collander, (buy your own) put it on a fluffy towel and lay it out in the sun. This doesn't work in the winter time, that is when I break out the hair dryer. Here's a teachable moment as the corrupt romeo foxtrots in Wahington say, Don't put .38 brass is a hot oven before checking for a loose wadcutter round.

maillemaker · December 31, 2010, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Where do you live that they line the Landfills?

My wife worked for a landfill in Montgomery, Alabama. They had a liner in theirs; I assumed all of them did.

One thing I was amazed at was the number of garbage trucks that would come into the landfill to dump and have the garbage be on fire. It was a hassle for them to put it out.

Once they were putting it out and found a puppy in the garbage. They named him "Lucky".

maillemaker · December 31, 2010, 11:36 AM

Quote:

I'm just wondering how many folks recognize the irony of arguing over dispensing minute amounts of lead into the water supply when the goal is to dispense MASSIVE amounts of lead into the ground (or potentially an animal...but the ground for the most part).

My guess here is that when you disperse tiny particulates of lead in the water supply it is distributed rather far and wide. I would think that, being heavy, it would settle out quickly, but I don't know.

But when you shoot it into a birm of dirt, the lead pretty much stays put where it is.

Of course, we know that lead shot is banned for hunting waterfoul, because supposedly the ducks eat it out of the mud on the bottom of lakes while they are nibble around for bits to eat.

I always envision a duck taking a poop and then floating a couple of inches higher in the water.

Steve

Taroman · December 31, 2010, 12:08 PM

After trying all sorts of methods, I settled on depriming with a universal (non-sizing) die and cleaning the cases in the washing machine. Our machine has a heater in it to get really HOT. I use powdered Tide and Oxy-Clean. The cases come out almost dry. I let them sit overnight to dry fully and they're good to go. Clean enough for me:

mikld · December 31, 2010, 01:38 PM

FWIW, I can find no reason to "wet tumble" over plain old "dry tumbling".

maillemaker · December 31, 2010, 02:26 PM

Quote:

FWIW, I can find no reason to "wet tumble" over plain old "dry tumbling".

Well, what I'm liking so far is that the media is reusable. I'm using steel shot in my wet tumbler. A squirt of dish soap and a little lemi-shine and I'm good to go. No lead dust to deal with when unloading the brass, either.

Steve

MrBorland · December 31, 2010, 04:27 PM

Quote:

FWIW, I can find no reason to "wet tumble" over plain old "dry tumbling".

I can - those tumbled cases look nice and shiny, but they're coated inside and out with a thin layer media residue and aren't really as clean as they appear.

The residue's not a biggie generally, but might be something to consider in some cases. I've been shooting a revolver in competition, for example, and smooth, consistent reloads are critical. The longer I can keep the cylinder clean, the less likely I'll needlessly bobble a reload due to dirty, sticky cylinders, so I recently switched to wet cleaning (I also clean my dies on a regular basis for the same reason).

maillemaker · December 31, 2010, 04:31 PM

posted in wrong place

demigod · December 31, 2010, 04:52 PM

Quote:

I settled on depriming with a universal (non-sizing) die and cleaning the cases in the washing machine.

I hope you don't wash anything else in that machine.

I'm waiting for someone to say he uses the dishwasher for this.

vladan · December 31, 2010, 06:45 PM

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I hope you don't wash anything else in that machine.

Just clothes... what's this obsession with the lead residues anyway? by the end of hi spin cycle the lead is down the drain ... besides the majority of lead in primer is evaporated and ejected in the air during the shooting - hope you are not breading while you are on the range

Quote:

I'm waiting for someone to say he uses the dishwasher for this

I know one that clean his glock right along his pots in dishwasher and recently there was thread of someone baking his 1911 in the owen

snuffy · December 31, 2010, 06:52 PM

Quote:

FWIW, I can find no reason to "wet tumble" over plain old "dry tumbling".

Quote:

I can - those tumbled cases look nice and shiny, but they're coated inside and out with a thin layer media residue and aren't really as clean as they appear.

Yeah, take a clean, dry, WHITE cloth to a tumbler cleaned case. The old white glove treatment, will tell you they're really clean, at least mine are. AND they don't have to be dried. If you mean that Lyman rouge treated crap, then I'll agree. But the midway brass polish, or flitz leaves no residue.

I'd say it's safe to say, to each their own. As to which process you use.

I bought an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning small gun parts. I also tried it for brass cases. It works! It even cleaned the primer pockets AND the inside was missing the black powder fouling. If I was THAT worried about clean, that's how I would do it. I'm NOT! The old problem of "is all the water gone"?, still leaves a bit of worry in the back of the mind.

Just about all the processes mentioned involve energy use, that cost money. Please don't say let them lay out in the sun, that would be about 50 days in mid summer around here. Then they'd get wet when it rained. Old adage about Wisconsin, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it'll change"! It was sunny all day long yesterday, problem is it was 20 degrees!

salvadore · December 31, 2010, 10:34 PM

"Just about all the processes mentioned involve energy use, that cost money. Please don't say let them lay out in the sun, that would be about 50 days in mid summer around here." About an hour in Idaho during the summer, but you do have to dry em.

I check two or three pieces by looking for moisture at the bottom of the case and if dry I load em up.

The only time I had a failure to fire from moisture was when I brought some very cold .223s loaded with cast bullets in to a very warm humid house. About 50% failure to fire....bummer.

I think dry media is just nasty, but I agree, to each his own.

December 31, 2010, 12:08 PM	#30
Taroman Senior Member Join Date: January 15, 2010 Posts: 166	After trying all sorts of methods, I settled on depriming with a universal (non-sizing) die and cleaning the cases in the washing machine. Our machine has a heater in it to get really HOT. I use powdered Tide and Oxy-Clean. The cases come out almost dry. I let them sit overnight to dry fully and they're good to go. Clean enough for me: __________________ -jwk- Si vis pacem, para bellum

December 31, 2010, 01:38 PM	#31
mikld Senior Member Join Date: February 7, 2009 Location: Southern Oregon! Posts: 2,891	FWIW, I can find no reason to "wet tumble" over plain old "dry tumbling". __________________ My Anchor is holding fast! I've learned how to stand on my own two knees...

December 31, 2010, 04:31 PM	#34
maillemaker Senior Member Join Date: August 30, 2010 Posts: 1,635	posted in wrong place Last edited by maillemaker; December 31, 2010 at 05:02 PM. Reason: wrong place

December 31, 2010, 06:57 AM	#26
Clay Senior Member Join Date: November 11, 2009 Posts: 166	I'm just wondering how many folks recognize the irony of arguing over dispensing minute amounts of lead into the water supply when the goal is to dispense MASSIVE amounts of lead into the ground (or potentially an animal...but the ground for the most part).

December 31, 2010, 08:10 AM	#27
salvadore Junior member Join Date: January 1, 2007 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,282	I've been using wet media to clean my brass ever since trying dry media. The best way to dry the clean brass is shake off excess in a collander, (buy your own) put it on a fluffy towel and lay it out in the sun. This doesn't work in the winter time, that is when I break out the hair dryer. Here's a teachable moment as the corrupt romeo foxtrots in Wahington say, Don't put .38 brass is a hot oven before checking for a loose wadcutter round.

December 31, 2010, 10:34 PM	#38
salvadore Junior member Join Date: January 1, 2007 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,282	"Just about all the processes mentioned involve energy use, that cost money. Please don't say let them lay out in the sun, that would be about 50 days in mid summer around here." About an hour in Idaho during the summer, but you do have to dry em. I check two or three pieces by looking for moisture at the bottom of the case and if dry I load em up. The only time I had a failure to fire from moisture was when I brought some very cold .223s loaded with cast bullets in to a very warm humid house. About 50% failure to fire....bummer. I think dry media is just nasty, but I agree, to each his own.