How long do you tumble brass?

[Model 52]

I use Lyman's red walnut media in my turbo tumblers and generally speaking I plan on a minimum of 3 hours then check it. If some of the brass are still stained, I'll run it for another 2-3 hours.

With badly stained ammo, I may run it over night to as long as 24 hours.

In short, it takes whatever it takes.

[Fyodor]

You use ammonia to clean the copper or of the barrel quickly, and it does exactly the same to the copper in brass casings, leaving the zinc that now looks like swiss cheese.

Ammonia and brass is no good.

[larryw]

Well, not much help from me on this one, I use
the SS pins & a healthy squirt of dish soap.
Doesn't take long at all until they look new.
That includes primer pockets. Hour & 15,
Hour & 30 Maybe???

[62chevy]

Well, not much help from me on this one, I use
the SS pins & a healthy squirt of dish soap.
Doesn't take long at all until they look new.
That includes primer pockets. Hour & 15,
Hour & 30 Maybe???

I was thinking of going that way but Walmart had the tumbler and even with the discount at Harbor Freight it would have cost more. It would take less time and no corn cob in the primer pockets either.

[scotland]

I normally do mine for 4 or so hours. Now with my new timer I can turn it on and let it run. Still using the original corn cob media and polish. Works great so far. Some old brass didn't get shiny, but that is okay. It still looked clean. Only downfall is cleaning cob out of the primer pockets (sometimes), but I always clean the pockets, check brass and measure and separate the shells by brand.

[beekeeper]

Is this new brass you are tumbling?
Or is it some older brass such as range pickup and Military brass?
I use Military brass and it takes several cleanings before it begins to shine.
I use Lemi-shine in a crock pot and let it work for about an hour or sometimes two or three depending on how dirty the brass was to start with.
In the crock pot the lemi-shine water mix will get up to almost boiling in a couple of hours and you would be surprised as to how much dirt and corrosion it will remove.
Rinse with cold soapy water , shake dry on a towel an tumble with walnut lizard litter.
I do not use polish but do add the paper towel and a small amount of barkeepers friend.
After 2 hours on a timer I get as new brass but without the maximum shine.
Don't really need the maximum shine and after the second or third time through the tumbler even military brass looks as good as store bought

[mikld]

I'm one of those K.I.S.S. fellers and most of the time I use Econoline corn cob blast media, nekkid. And because of so many variables there is no "set" cleaning time (how dirty is the brass?, How old is the media?, how well your tumbler works, how full the tumbler is run, etc.). I've tried just about everything for cleaning and/or polishing brass from dried coffee grounds, to dried beans/peas, cat litter, wood chunks, beach sand and commercial tumbling media (ceramic or plastic pyramids or squares), and more that I've forgotten, and plain old corn cob blast media works best for my needs. Occasionally I'll drop an ounce of mineral spirits in my cob blast media, bu mostly I use 98% cob and 2% plastic tumbling/deburring media...

[62chevy]

No it's range pick up, once fired military and police that I bought on line and at gun shows. I started tumbling for 6 hours and that made a difference but the insides are not coming as clean as I would like. Not sure insides make a difference in performance with stains still in there.

Thanks for the input.

[Steve]

At the range Jim got one of those rotary tumblers that is suposed to have liqued and stainles media to clean with. Problem is we don't have a good source for water at the range so he is using walnut media. It does an excelent job in only 4 hours.

[celem]

3 hours. I have a wall plug timer that turns on the tumbler for 3-hours when I press a button on the timer. 9mm comes out bright but 45lc needs another cycle.

I use critter litter