Some of you asked about using the Sleeping Giant SS tumbling media in 5.56/223 cases as I have only used it for 308/7.62. There were questions about clogging inside the cases like what happens with pins that go sideways.

I did a batch of about 300 cases today. At no time did I experience stuck media in the cases, primer pockets, or flash holes.

Here's the process...

5 pounds of media and close to 300 cases of 5.56/223. I could have thrown in another 100 cases easily as this didn't even fill the Thumler's Tumbler half way. I just got bored de-capping cases.


Filled the cylinder with hot tap water and left some room at the top.


2 tablespoons of Dawn and 1/2 TEAspoon of Lemi-Shine...


Tumbled for 1.5 hours and strained the dirty water out...


Dumped the brass into a rotary media separator made for separating dry media...


Filled it with clean water...


Put on the second half of the cage and the lid and turned the brass back and forth for about 30 seconds to a minute. This emptied ALL of the media from the cases.

I opened the cage and did a final rinse with a garden hose.


I reclaimed all my media with the strainer...


Some chips made it onto the driveway...


I collect any spillage with a magnet...


I patted the brass dry with a bath towel and put them in the oven at 200˚ for 30 minutes.






Again, not one stray chip found in the cases and everything came out in the media separator.

Tony.

they are pretty but seems like allot of work and steps.

I'd say it's not all that much more work than using corn cob or walnut media. And I loathed the dusty mess of the dry media. Every time I was done working with brass from dry media, my hands had a film on them.

Filling the tumbler with water and adding the dish soap and lemi-shine takes less than 5 minutes. I'd say the rinsing process takes maybe 10 minutes. Pre-heat the oven while you're doing that and the rest of the time is letting them dry for 30 minutes.

Tumbling time and drying time aside, you're looking at 15 minutes of actual work for clean, spotless brass that won't get your sizing die or your fingers dirty.

Tony.

Thanx for sharing! I have some of the Sleeping Bear SS chips, on your suggestion, waiting to tumble a load of 223/556. Looks to be superior to SS pins.

Great pics and results. I should probably switch to wet tumbling but I do a LOT of brass when I clean it. Seems like tons of time for a few hundred cases at once. But the results you get are great.

Seems like you have your cleaning process down pretty well. I'm more in favor of the vibratory tumbler method myself.

The link : https://www.sleepinggiantbrass...nless-tumbling-media
I may try this for suppressor cleaning.

I purchased a small counter top oven cuz the boss lady complained.

"Good" Stainless steel is NOT magnetic.

I went to wet tumbling with Frankford Arsenal gear about four years ago and haven’t looked back. It gently satisfies the OCD itch I have regarding brass. And the complete removal of all fouling to like new condition just can’t be beat, for me.

I use pins and their brand name solution. I’ll have to look for this Lemi shine stuff to try.

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
"Good" Stainless steel is NOT magnetic.

Own any stainless guns? Sigs perhaps? Bet a magnet sticks to them. Many types of stainless are magnetic, especially the good stuff.

I have you noticed any drawbacks to wet SS media yet? I have been a corn/polish dry guy my whole life until recently. I'm using the Frankford large rotary with SS pins. It's a bitch to set up, run and separate compared to corn, but man this stuff is purdy.

I spent less time on the necks/shoulders/primer pockets making sure they are clean and burr free since. I just hope I don't mess the inside of my necks up.