Heads Up for You Wet Tumblers!
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 7:09 pm
When I decided on my cheap-o Harbor Freight rock tumbler, I ordered some stainless steel tumbling pins (through Amazon, I think) and got a sample packet of some cleaning powder. I had already found out (from some wise person here) about the Dawn Dish Soap/Lemon juice method, so I lost track of that sample packet until today, so I decided to do a little experiment.
I had 100 rds of 45 Colt once-fired that the local range scrounged for me, so I decapped 'em all and gave 'em a quick pre-soak in some warm water and Dawn, just to get the big pieces off.
I did about 60 cases in the Dawn/Lemon juice solution for two hours, which can be seen in the top two rows of the pic below.
After rinsing everything out, I did the last 40 rounds using the Brass Shine cleaning powder. Since the container was so small, I just did a 1/2 teaspoon and warm water. In the bottom two rows of the pic, you can see those cases, after just THIRTY MINUTES.
To my eye, the appearance scores are very close and both very good (some of it is the LED lighting/glare from my range hood), but the time savings that the powder brings to the party is what's selling me. That, and zero foaming, so there's no re-rinsing of cases filled with Dawn suds after separating out the pins (kind of OCD, yeah, but worth it!).
The smaller Batch (#2) might have also made a small difference, but, still, to cut the tumbling time by 75% is pretty substantial. I'll continue to play with it, and this may be old news to many of you, but just thought I'd pass it along.
30 minutes of tumble time gets my attention. AND, it's $15 for a pound of it, shipped free (see link below). I'm not crazy (OCD), so I didn't weigh 1/2 a teaspoon, but I'm pretty sure that a pound of this stuff will last me a LONG time. Assume conservatively that there are 12 ea. 1/2 tspoons in an ounce; 16 ounces in a pound = 16 X 12 = 192 batches. Now I'm gonna have to weigh it, aren't I?
https://shop.guntap.com/brass-shine-pow ... -shipping/
I had 100 rds of 45 Colt once-fired that the local range scrounged for me, so I decapped 'em all and gave 'em a quick pre-soak in some warm water and Dawn, just to get the big pieces off.
I did about 60 cases in the Dawn/Lemon juice solution for two hours, which can be seen in the top two rows of the pic below.
After rinsing everything out, I did the last 40 rounds using the Brass Shine cleaning powder. Since the container was so small, I just did a 1/2 teaspoon and warm water. In the bottom two rows of the pic, you can see those cases, after just THIRTY MINUTES.
To my eye, the appearance scores are very close and both very good (some of it is the LED lighting/glare from my range hood), but the time savings that the powder brings to the party is what's selling me. That, and zero foaming, so there's no re-rinsing of cases filled with Dawn suds after separating out the pins (kind of OCD, yeah, but worth it!).
The smaller Batch (#2) might have also made a small difference, but, still, to cut the tumbling time by 75% is pretty substantial. I'll continue to play with it, and this may be old news to many of you, but just thought I'd pass it along.
30 minutes of tumble time gets my attention. AND, it's $15 for a pound of it, shipped free (see link below). I'm not crazy (OCD), so I didn't weigh 1/2 a teaspoon, but I'm pretty sure that a pound of this stuff will last me a LONG time. Assume conservatively that there are 12 ea. 1/2 tspoons in an ounce; 16 ounces in a pound = 16 X 12 = 192 batches. Now I'm gonna have to weigh it, aren't I?
https://shop.guntap.com/brass-shine-pow ... -shipping/
