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So, I just bought a Lyman 1200 Tumbler (special offer out of this months Target Shooter from Hannams)...

It should be here on Tuesday.

What procedures do people use these in...

is it, deprime/resize, tumble...
or
tumble, deprime/resize...

I'm leaning towards depriming and resizing first, then tumbling so it removes the lube from resizing... pocket primer clean... reprime, charge and seat.

that makes most sense...

Does anyone see any problem with this method?

(I also bought a new auto prime too as theres just not enough "feel" in my current method, and I believe that autoprime will shave a few seconds off per round - it all mounts up!)

I am a bit 'anal' about making dead sure that I get no crud (from spent Primers or general range dirt 'pickup' on cases) into my expensive Redding Comp dies and scratch them up SO........ I deprime on a cheap Lee press set aside just for that purpose and THEN tumble before anything else so that I start the reload process off with absolutely clean brass ...which is the only brass I let near my Forster Co-ax.

Everything lubed with the merest whiff of Imperial Size Wax which works BRILL and comes off real easy.

If I am to use a tumbler (Mine is a 1200 as well) I tumble first then decap and clean the primer pockets by hand. If I was to start all over again I would probably go for stainless media and a drum tumbler and do the cases wet.

DaveT wrote:I am a bit 'anal' about making dead sure that I get no crud (from spent Primers or general range dirt 'pickup' on cases) into my expensive Redding Comp dies and scratch them up SO........ I deprime on a cheap Lee press set aside just for that purpose and THEN tumble before anything else so that I start the reload process off with absolutely clean brass ...which is the only brass I let near my Forster Co-ax.

Everything lubed with the merest whiff of Imperial Size Wax which works BRILL and comes off real easy.

I've gotta be honest, trying to keep my kit like that now would be like trying to close the barn doors after the horse has bolted...

So far I have never cleaned inside the neck of the cases other than the ocassional clean with a q-tip when theres obvious brass filings in the neck that might score the bullet when seated...

I'm hoping a tumbler will make my cleaning routine easier and less intensive (basically if I can tumble whilst I'm setting up other stuff, or tumble 50 already deprimed cases whilst I deprime the next 50 and cut my actual working time down by some as its taking me over 6 hours to do 100 rounds at the minute... I don't want to lose accuracy in reloading, but I do want to make better use of my time...)

I think trying to clean my dies might be a good idea though...

would some kind of solvent bath be any use to clean the inside of the FL die? get rid of some of this crud?

I definately have a buildup of sizing lube on my die that I have to continually wipe from the entrance... this leads me to believe the inside is quite a mess...

You should really clean the die regularly with some sort of solvent (I just use Napier or KG) or else , apart from having crap in there to scratch cases, you may end up with something affecting reliable headspace setting in worst case.

Re Ovenpaas comments above....I am very impressed with my new Stainless Steel media wet tumbler..... high initial investment (£250 - £270) BUT no cleaning primer pockets or necks (Yaaay!!!)....Hated that chore!

to be honest, I don't have that kind of outlay, or rather I'm not prepared to put that kind of outlay into my case prep at this current time...
I got the tumbler as it was on offer and it involves 1 less stage of me having to do something manually and can use that time to do other reloading bits :)

I must say though, you are both making it sound like a wet dream to have a stainless wet media tumbler... and I hate you both for it!

I have bought a lyman large primer pocket cleaner (from the states) though which should be here in a few days...

the small lee one was giving my hand major cramp!

De-prime first using a die which performs only that task.

(For years I used the spike (and a hammer) which came with my first Lee Load All in about the year nineteen ..........)

Tumble (wet or dry). Never put dirty cases in your dies.

Other than that - you takes your pick, whatever floats your boat!

:cheers:

DaveT wrote: I deprime on a cheap Lee press set aside just for that purpose and THEN tumble

Can't believe I didn't think of that! sign92

Oh no, not Lee again!

For cases that have used smokeless powder I firstly clean my cases in my dry Thumlers Tumblers using walnut media (bought by the 1/2cwt from sand blasting suppliers, used to get 1 cwt bags but they seem to have got rid of those for most nowadays. ) with a squirt of car polish. I do this because I don't want dirty cases near my press or dies. After tumbling I then deprime and FL or Neck size followed by cleaning the primer pockets using primer pocket cleaning brush on my motorised Lyman trimmer, to me it would be worth getting the trimmer for its primer pocket cleaning feature alone.

You could deprime first and then clean as many here seem to do however I don't as I like to keep my tumbling medium as free from primer dust as possible. I would never put an uncleaned case anywhere near a sizing die, one scratch on the inside of the die and its ruined I also want as little debris as possible finding its way between my ram and the press.

For cases that have used BP I wet tumble in my wet Thumlers Tumbler using ceramic media. I find wet tumbling a real chew on but it is the only way to get the insides of the cases clean with BP. These cases are deprimed on the range immediately after being fired and dropped into a plastic bottle of water with some washing up liquid in it. The primer pockets come out clean witrh this process.

I have tried stainless steel pins and forund them to be no better than ceramic media and more of a chew on to separate from the cases afterwards than the ceramic even when I used a magnet.

Dry tumbling with walnut is my preferred choice for smokeless cartridges as it gets the cases as clean, not as shiny, as stainless but without the chew on a using a wet method and the extra stages of drying. Stainless will clean your primer pockets but I've also had issues with it sticking in the flash holes.

I remove sizing lube witha cloth immediately after the case comes out of the die.