Omega
Well-Known Member
I didn't want to hijack the other thread, and seen where I did post some of these pics before but not the entire sequence so here goes, one of these is a stock photo, but most are mine.
First, I decap all the cases with a Lee universal decapping die
I tumble for about an hour with SS pins, lemishine and dawn, I use pins or chips depending on if bottleneck (chips) or straight walled (pins) due to finding a pin stuck in the neck of a bottle necked case. The larger cases may be GTG, this was a 25-06 (the only one mixed in), so it may just of been a fluke but still.
Here is a comparison of the size difference, I haven't used the chips extensively so haven't had enough experience with them to recommend them either way but they seem to perform pretty good so far, can't tell the difference really.
The 25-06 case, the pin was bridged in the neck, not hard to dislodge so with a bit more aggressive tumble it may have come out.
After the hour, I pour most of the water out of the tumbler straight into the sink, the cases and pins are heavy enough to stay in the container, but be careful to not try to dump too much out. I do this to keep the media separator from having too much water at the bottom and having it swish around too much making a mess.
I then dump the entire contents into the basket of the media separator, the remaining water will go through along with most of the pins. I close everything up and spin the handle, relatively slowly to get the pins out of the cases. I reverse direction now and then to agitate the cases as much as I can to get a more efficient action.
After I feel all the pins are out, I dump the cases onto a towel to tumble a bit on to get most of the moisture off the cases. I do this by picking up two corners in each hand and rolling the cases back and forth in the towel. Then leave them somewhere warm to dry off, if sunny I'll take them outside, if I need them faster I'll use an old dehydrator to dry them in. Some use the oven, at low temp, but I would rather not do it that way.
I then dump the water out of the bottom of the media separator, again, slowly as to not dump any pins. When most of the water is out, I use a magnet to transfer the pins back into the tumbler for another batch, or onto another towel to dry them out if I am done. You may notice some brass shavings at the bottom of the separator, I am not entirely sure where it comes from but I think its from the chamfering and deburring from the last load, as I don't do that step until after I clean and size the cases.
I have tried using a capful of car wax/wash to the cases during tumbling to prevent oxidation, but so far the batches look about the same so not yet sure if this helps or not. I also use a sonic cleaner when I have smaller batches of cases to do, it too works pretty good with just hot water, lemishine and dawn, no pins, clean but not as shiny.
First, I decap all the cases with a Lee universal decapping die
I tumble for about an hour with SS pins, lemishine and dawn, I use pins or chips depending on if bottleneck (chips) or straight walled (pins) due to finding a pin stuck in the neck of a bottle necked case. The larger cases may be GTG, this was a 25-06 (the only one mixed in), so it may just of been a fluke but still.
Here is a comparison of the size difference, I haven't used the chips extensively so haven't had enough experience with them to recommend them either way but they seem to perform pretty good so far, can't tell the difference really.
The 25-06 case, the pin was bridged in the neck, not hard to dislodge so with a bit more aggressive tumble it may have come out.
After the hour, I pour most of the water out of the tumbler straight into the sink, the cases and pins are heavy enough to stay in the container, but be careful to not try to dump too much out. I do this to keep the media separator from having too much water at the bottom and having it swish around too much making a mess.
I then dump the entire contents into the basket of the media separator, the remaining water will go through along with most of the pins. I close everything up and spin the handle, relatively slowly to get the pins out of the cases. I reverse direction now and then to agitate the cases as much as I can to get a more efficient action.
After I feel all the pins are out, I dump the cases onto a towel to tumble a bit on to get most of the moisture off the cases. I do this by picking up two corners in each hand and rolling the cases back and forth in the towel. Then leave them somewhere warm to dry off, if sunny I'll take them outside, if I need them faster I'll use an old dehydrator to dry them in. Some use the oven, at low temp, but I would rather not do it that way.
I then dump the water out of the bottom of the media separator, again, slowly as to not dump any pins. When most of the water is out, I use a magnet to transfer the pins back into the tumbler for another batch, or onto another towel to dry them out if I am done. You may notice some brass shavings at the bottom of the separator, I am not entirely sure where it comes from but I think its from the chamfering and deburring from the last load, as I don't do that step until after I clean and size the cases.
I have tried using a capful of car wax/wash to the cases during tumbling to prevent oxidation, but so far the batches look about the same so not yet sure if this helps or not. I also use a sonic cleaner when I have smaller batches of cases to do, it too works pretty good with just hot water, lemishine and dawn, no pins, clean but not as shiny.
