Trying out some new reloading accessories.

[nortac]

They make primer pocket cleaning tools that will remove most of the primer residue, but the pins in the wet tumble take care of that for you. Dry media doesn't do that consistently, but does reduce it. But you have to deprime first for either to work. To me it's a waste of time to clean the cases without depriming first. YMMV. This is most important if you clean the primer pocket by hand with some kind of twist tool. Now if you have a powered version, such as the Lyman case prep station that I have yet to use, that is a different issue.

 

[nikonNUT]

Yup! I actually use a Lyman primer pocket uniformer. I'm not a fan of the little brush style thingies. Two or three twists and clean as a whistle!

 

[nortac]

There are primer pocket uniformers that are a cutting tool with a controlled depth that uniform the depth of the primer pocket so as to ensure consistent primer detonation and then there are primer pocket cleaners that scrape old primer residue from the primer pockets without removing any brass from the case. Obviously the former takes care of both issues. Once a primer pocket has been cut to a uniform depth, it never has to be done again, but the uniformer can be used to remove subsequent primer residue. So if one is processing a number of fired cases by hand, it can become tedious. I only uniform my precision rifle brass, no need to do that with pistol or plinking ammo. So if your cleaning process is sufficient to adequately remover primer residue from fired cases, whether dry vibratory, ultra sonic or wet tumbling, then you can eliminate the manual primer pocket cleaning. Of course one can argue that you are trading one task for another by going "wet". It all comes down to personal preference. There are many ways to skin this cat. I use them all. When I get around to trying out the Lyman case prep center, I'll be adding another!

 

[Ad Astra]

I'm pretty happy new primers actually STAY seated! Yeah... I wear out brass pretty quick!

Dirty pockets seem to help, in that case!

AA

 

[jkingrph]

I have a couple of primer pocket cleaners I made back when I was in college, probably about 55 years ago. I made them from drill bits, using the shank end. Ground the end square and a couple of flats. We had an old wood lathe and I turned a couple of handles, and put the drill end up into the wood. Still use them.

 

[Ad Astra]

I have a couple of primer pocket cleaners I made back when I was in college, probably about 55 years ago. I made them from drill bits, using the shank end. Ground the end square and a couple of flats. We had an old wood lathe and I turned a couple of handles, and put the drill end up into the wood. Still use them.

My pocket-cleaning screwdriver has been at that task since 1979 and my Lee Loader... But you have me beat! That's only 41 years. With all I've lost in this life, I have no idea how that item survived....

AA

 

[jkingrph]

My pocket-cleaning screwdriver has been at that task since 1979 and my Lee Loader... But you have me beat! That's only 41 years. With all I've lost in this life, I have no idea how that item survived....

AA

I actually have those and a powder trickler I made about the same time, an old piece of 3/4" copper tube with flanged end and compression nut, then soft soldered onto a steel plate about 3" square. I figured a height appropriate for my powder scale and drilled a hole at an angle for a piece of brass rod, do not rememeber diameter, but close fit, drilled rod hollow and filed a notch into end of bore. Finally soldered a nut on upper end and rounded it off for a knob. I used an old spring as a spacer to locate my notch in center of the copper tube to pick up powder grains and soldered it in place also. For some reason I like it better than the commercial made manual tricklers, never had a need to try one of the electric models. One advantage, with copper and brass construction it is safe to use with black powder also.

 

[Xring3]

My pocket-cleaning screwdriver has been at that task since 1979 and my Lee Loader... But you have me beat! That's only 41 years. With all I've lost in this life, I have no idea how that item survived....

AA

In reference to all the things you have lost in your life. Reminds me of this. In, probably 1963, I bought this plastic hammer to use with my Lee Classic Loader that I had. It took almost all of the $2.00 I made mowing a lawn for a neighbor lady. My mother thought it was a foolish waste of money. I still have the little hammer and use it on occasion. Whenever I varnish a project I always make sure to put another coat on the handle. Probably has over 40 coats of varnish by not.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jkingrph]

Some of those old tools are great, and the one's that I made fit me unlike any commercial models. For the primer pocket cleaners, I actually turned the handles on an old wood lathe dad had, and I just like the function of the cobbled together powder trickler better than any commercial model I have seen. Another plus, I can stick a cork in the top and if I should knock it over powder does not spill.

 

[nortac]

I finally got around to trying out the Lyman Case Prep Express that my buddy gifted me.

This is not something that I would have bought for myself. It's a good idea, but poorly executed. I first tried to clean some dirty primer pockets in .45 ACP brass. The Lyman unit comes with both primer pocket cleaners and primer pocket uniformers. The uniformers are installed in the above pics. The cleaners were relatively ineffective and the uniformers were not much better. Simple hand held cleaners perform better. After using the uniformers, there was still some primer residue left. Following up with a Sinclair hand held uniformer resulted in a clean primer pocket with freshly removed brass. The Lyman uniformers were relatively dull and did not cut deep enough to remove enough brass to actually "uniform" the primer pocket. The crimp remover worked much better. I removed the primer pocket crimp from about 120 pieces of .300 BO range pick up brass. But this method of crimp removal is still slower than a bench mounted tool or the accessory I use on my Dillon press. But it did work. It is handy in that it catches the brass filings that are easily swept up with the included brush into the little removeable dump bin on the front of the unit. I don't see myself using the included case neck brushes. YMMV. I did not use the deburring and chamfer tools, but they looked like they are not very sharp and I'd be concerned that they might be overly aggressive on a powered unit. Although I'm sure the proper technique could be developed, I'd rather have the control of doing it by hand.

 

[nortac]

Bottom line, the Lyman unit is bulky, ineffective and I don't need it. I'd rather de-prime then wet or dry tumble and use hand tools for the primer pockets when needed. If a powered option is desired, I'd rather use an electric screw driver. More versatile, more efficient, less bulk and expense. YMMV.

 

[bberg100]

Frankford wet tumbler, been using for a couple years. Up to 1000 223 cases, or a crud ton of 9. Stainless pins, cover brass with water, a good squirt of Dawn, and a tsp of Lemishine. Run 3 hours, about how long I used to dry tumble.

Dillon CM2000 separator. Out in the driveway, stick in the hose and let rip. Crank and flow water until it runs clean, the pins all fall to the bottom of the tub. A squirt of liquid car wax and a few cranks keeps the brass shiny.

Dump brass in a repurposed dehydrator, $10 at a thrift shop, 30 minutes at 145 and they are ready to go.

Carefully pour water out of tub, Frankford magnet to pick up the pins and dump back in tumbler for next time. Less than 4 hours start to finish.

If I'm just cleaning a box of brass I use an ultrasonic, doesn't shine it up, but does get them really clean.

 

[Rudy Vey]

View attachment 1206285
Frankford wet tumbler, been using for a couple years. Up to 1000 223 cases, or a crud ton of 9. Stainless pins, cover brass with water, a good squirt of Dawn, and a tsp of Lemishine. Run 3 hours, about how long I used to dry tumble.

View attachment 1206287

Dillon CM2000 separator. Out in the driveway, stick in the hose and let rip. Crank and flow water until it runs clean, the pins all fall to the bottom of the tub. A squirt of liquid car wax and a few cranks keeps the brass shiny.

Dump brass in a repurposed dehydrator, $10 at a thrift shop, 30 minutes at 145 and they are ready to go.

Carefully pour water out of tub, Frankford magnet to pick up the pins and dump back in tumbler for next time. Less than 4 hours start to finish.

If I'm just cleaning a box of brass I use an ultrasonic, doesn't shine it up, but does get them really clean.

ah the FART...

 

[Ad Astra]

Bottom line, the Lyman unit is bulky, ineffective and I don't need it. I'd rather de-prime then wet or dry tumble and use hand tools for the primer pockets when needed. If a powered option is desired, I'd rather use an electric screw driver. More versatile, more efficient, less bulk and expense. YMMV.

A fair review. I wondered about that thing, since case prep is such a time-eater.

AA

 

[nortac]

I have to revise my review and impression of the Lyman case prep center. I used the case mouth deburring and chamfering attachments on some .223 brass that had been trimmed and it worked quite satisfactorily. My previous fear of it being too aggressive was completely unfounded and it proved to be easy to control. The tools were sharp enough to do the job, had they been sharper, then it may have been too aggressive to control.

 

[Scarry Knight]

At the time you did the first review of that, I figured you’d be more impressed with the chamferring and cleaning brushes with more use. I had just finished doing some .223 at the time, on an RCBS station.

 

[nortac]

I ran across a box of .223 brass that I had trimmed years ago but had never chamfered. The Lyman worked well to quickly chamfer 100 cases and removed the crimp from a few that needed it. Just a few 100 cases to go.

 

[The Pontificator]

Decided to try out wet tumbling on the cheap and picked up a Harbor Freight rock tumbler. SS pins from MidwayUSA and some Lemon-Shine from Amazon. The model I bought has two tumbler canisters that are rated for three pound loads each. I put 112 pieces of .300 BO range pickup brass in one and 56 pieces of .223 range p/u brass in the other. The SS pins came in a 2.5 lb. bottle that I split between the canisters. Added water, Lemon-shine and dishwashing liquid and let it run for a couple hours. Results were satisfactory, primer pockets reasonably clean, perhaps I could have let it run a little longer.

The recommended ratio for the HFT tumbler drum is 1:1:1 (pound of pins:brass:water)

You're overloading the drums with too many pins and overloading one of the drums with too much brass. Your run time is too short.

For optimal results do not use more than a pound of pins in each drum. You can actually get away with as little as 3/4 lb. of pins (in trade you can put it a bit more brass to make up the weight.

AmorAlly has a handy brass weight chart that tells you how many cases are in a pound:

Brass Counts by Weight - Arm or Ally - https://www.armorally.com/brass-counts-by-weight/

The chart is based on brass with primers left in so you can add a few more cases as you are de-capping your brass prior to tumbling.

I have found that a run time of at least 4 hours is needed to get shiny brass with completely clean primer pockets. Five hours is better. I have left my tumbler running for as much as 8 hours with amazing results.

Dawn and Lemishine: just a couple of drops in a drum is fine. For the Lemishine the general guide is to use a 9mm case full and that's not much. I just pour what I believe is that amount into the palm of my hand then dump it in.

 

[nortac]

@The Pontificator, I was using approximately 1.25 lbs of pins per drum, the pins came as 2.5 lbs and I roughly split that between the two drums, I did not weigh them out accurately. I certainly used more Dawn and Lemishine than was needed. I could have let the tumbler run a bit longer, but my results were at least satisfactory as it was. Thanks for the advice and link.

 

[nortac]

A further observation on the Lyman Prep Station. Although I will probably rarely use the case neck brushes, as I was resizing some 9 mm brass, I came across a case that had missed out on the tumbling process and was full of range crud. I used the appropriate sized neck brush, in its stationary storage position, to quickly remove the offending debris. I can concede that if one was not cleaning their brass by tumbling or a similar method, that the neck brushes would be very useful. Also, while reading reviews on this unit, some reviewers recommended replacing the primer pocket tools that are not very sharp with tools for the RCBS unit.