Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler: how to get rid of the water spots?

My Toy · Jan 31, 2015

Just got a Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler from Midway; just finished my first batch of 400 range pick up 5.56 brass. Using their supplied cleaning solution the brass came out after 2 hrs of tumbling with stainless steel media looking better than new. After 2 rinses I shook off most of the water that I could and placed the cases in a 170 degree oven for 1-1/2 hours stirring the brass ever 20 minutes.
The brass is still bright but has lots of water/tarnish spots that won't easily rub off. I'm am a little disappointed with this aspect.
Has anybody that has uses this process know how to avoid these spots on the cases? Or till me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks

BradMacc82 · Jan 31, 2015

Use purified water for the rinse??

trickg · Jan 31, 2015

Put them in your vibratory tumbler.

balttigger · Jan 31, 2015

Lemi-shine?

Overboost44 · Jan 31, 2015

I did the oven once and had spots. I think it just cooks the water and minerals into the brass. I rinsed another batch with distilled water and it worked. No spots.

Reloader · Feb 1, 2015

I use Lemi Shine, rinse in plain old well water then spread the brass out on a towel to dry. Never had any problems with spots

Pinecone · Feb 1, 2015

Distilled or RO water.

Water spots are minerals in the water. As the water drops dry, the mineral precipitate out of the water.

Distilled or RO water has little to no mineral content. You could use it for the whole process, or just do the final rinse with it. Distilled is about $1 a gallon at most stores. And you could use it several times before the mineral content gets high enough to cause spotting.

Or you just could just skip the whole wet clean thing and not worry about it at all.

outrider58 · Feb 1, 2015

trickg said:
Put them in your vibratory tumbler.

Heh heh heh...

Melnic · Feb 1, 2015

When I want shiny brass, I don't use my walnut media, I use drop of dishwasher soap, some lemon shine (tsp) and water. When I'm done, I will run clean warm water through it to get the gunk out, then pull the brass one by one dumping the media (Don't have a suitable media seperator). I then shake each one then place onto aluminum cooking pans on top of a paper towel. I'll rub them around, then discard the towel and hit with a heat gun, set aside over night or two and let dry. I have yet to see a water spots significant to pay any mind to it. Spots are usually not water, but something the water left behind or tarnish on the brass from the water. If you want to just mod what you are doing I'd say look at making sure you are removing as much water before hitting the oven. Get as much water off the outside of the case with paper towels or such. Make sure you have a clean rinse to it before drying.

coopermania · Feb 1, 2015

Melnic said:
When I want shiny brass, I don't use my walnut media, I use drop of dishwasher soap, some lemon shine (tsp) and water. When I'm done, I will run clean warm water through it to get the gunk out, then pull the brass one by one dumping the media (Don't have a suitable media seperator). I then shake each one then place onto aluminum cooking pans on top of a paper towel. I'll rub them around, then discard the towel and hit with a heat gun, set aside over night or two and let dry. I have yet to see a water spots significant to pay any mind to it. Spots are usually not water, but something the water left behind or tarnish on the brass from the water. If you want to just mod what you are doing I'd say look at making sure you are removing as much water before hitting the oven. Get as much water off the outside of the case with paper towels or such. Make sure you have a clean rinse to it before drying.

F That.... When I want shiny brass I size my cases and drop them in my Dillon Vibrater with corn cob for about two hours and dump them in a seperater and finish loading.
I can't imagine spending all that time and all those steps to do something as simple as polish
emptys.
To me wet tumblings is right up there with powder coating bullets... Too many steps to do something so easy...

Melnic · Feb 1, 2015

coopermania said:
F That.... When I want shiny brass I size my cases and drop them in my Dillon Vibrater with corn cob for about two hours and dump them in a seperater and finish loading.
I can't imagine spending all that time and all those steps to do something as simple as polish
emptys.
To me wet tumblings is right up there with powder coating bullets... Too many steps to do something so easy...

I started with wet and switched to walnut. I have not had to make "shiny" brass since I was picking up outdoor range pick 223 up last year
Is corncob better at cleaning up outdoor range pick up than Walnut?
All I have is crushed walnut which is fine for what I'm doing now but is not cleaning up the rained on week old range pickups I have stashed in bags. Only the stainless steel pins are cleaning those.

My Toy · Feb 1, 2015

Melnic said:
When I want shiny brass, I don't use my walnut media, I use drop of dishwasher soap, some lemon shine (tsp) and water. When I'm done, I will run clean warm water through it to get the gunk out, then pull the brass one by one dumping the media (Don't have a suitable media seperator). I then shake each one then place onto aluminum cooking pans on top of a paper towel. I'll rub them around, then discard the towel and hit with a heat gun, set aside over night or two and let dry. I have yet to see a water spots significant to pay any mind to it. Spots are usually not water, but something the water left behind or tarnish on the brass from the water. If you want to just mod what you are doing I'd say look at making sure you are removing as much water before hitting the oven. Get as much water off the outside of the case with paper towels or such. Make sure you have a clean rinse to it before drying.

Your right I think the key to no water spots is removing the water from the outside of the case before oven drying. With the second batch I just finished with, after the rinse I dumped them on an old bath towel and rolled them around in the towel. It pretty much got all the water off the outside of the cases. Spread the cases on an aluminum turkey pan, popped in a 180 degree oven for an hour and the cases came out beautifully; no water spots.

coopermania · Feb 1, 2015

I have never really used that much walnut to tell the difference... I buy fifty lb bags of corn cobb from the auto parts store ( oil- adsorb ) and add polish to the corn cobb...
I tumble....separate... clean pockets...and load...

outrider58 · Feb 1, 2015

And that's why I'll never be a wet/tumble guy. Too many more steps to go through. Especially when you're loading 100s-1000s of rounds.

coopermania · Feb 1, 2015

outrider58 said:
And that's why I'll never be a wet/tumble guy. Too many more steps to go through. Especially when you're loading 100s-1000s of rounds.

Yep.....

.... I liked the part when you pick up brass one at a time and hand dry it.. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.

outrider58 · Feb 1, 2015

coopermania said:
Yep..... .... I liked the part when you pick up brass one at a time and hand dry it.. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.

Don't forget to swab out the insides with a Q-tip. Hoofa!

Broncolou · Feb 1, 2015

I lay them out on beach towels and roll them around until the outsides are dry and them let then air dry for 2 days after that...... well water with lemishine/dawn. Nothing special. No water spots at all. Once for initial with primer in 30-45 min tumble, then once after size/swage/trim/necksize(in that order) for 2 hours to debur and make pretty. Store until time to load.

Pinecone · Feb 2, 2015

coopermania said:
F That.... When I want shiny brass I size my cases and drop them in my Dillon Vibrater with corn cob for about two hours and dump them in a seperater and finish loading.
I can't imagine spending all that time and all those steps to do something as simple as polish emptys.

I agree.

Traveler · Feb 2, 2015

Yup, just like Young Frankenstein, a quick roll in the hay .... um, old towel. No issues with hard water spots.

ironpony · Feb 2, 2015

Reminds me of the water conditioners on the docks, clean your boat with clean water and get a cleaner boat. Some swear by that logic.

Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler: how to get rid of the water spots?

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