Feedback on steel pin tumbling

[DEATHGRIP]

Have any of you used the steel pins in water/soap solution to clean your brass? I cannot see how this is not being rough on brass. I have seen the results and they look very good but is it messing up primer pockets or the case mouth? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

 

[J E Custom]

Have any of you used the steel pins in water/soap solution to clean your brass? I cannot see how this is not being rough on brass. I have seen the results and they look very good but is it messing up primer pockets or the case mouth? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

No, They do just the opposite, They clean the primer pockets, and the inside of the case very well
and remove carbon.

The only downside is that when you take the brass out of the media you have to rinse the brass very well and dry immediately or the brass will spot.(I use compressed air and follow up with a cotton rag).

They also don't leave any abrasive dust like the tumbler media does that can damage the bore if not removed.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Wachsmann]

I just went to this type of cleaning. I went the cheep way. I went down to harbor freight and bought one of the double rock polishers. I then emptied out the last bit of my daughter large apple sauce container. I purchased some of the franklin arsenal stainless pins from local gun shop (5lbs). Lemishine 2/3 teaspoon, and about 1 tea spoon of dawn. I only had twenty two 308 cases to clean up. 2.5 hours later the brass was clean. Only goof was I left it in the wafer over night. So now I have some blue cases. I could clean it up again but its not that big of a deal. Also I used my wife's $500.00 CABELAS dehydrater to dry my brass. Works like a champ to dry brass. But for the first time my shot cases are completely clean inside and out and I can still see the vld reamer lip I left on the case mouth. So in all I have about 100 bones in the hole setup. The one thing I do want to try and find is a little bit larger jug for the rock polisher. The apple sauce jar also is not perfectally round on the sides so it give a good agitation motion. But the edges are round so it sets and spins easy. If I change any thing I will add a longer peace of tubing on the rotation shaft to better grip the jar when it is wet.

 

[bill123]

I did not have great results. Brass is amazingly clean but case mouths are peened. From what I understand, the peening is from contact with other cases not the pins. I guess if you get the ratio of pins to brass right you should be fine.

 

[J E Custom]

I did not have great results. Brass is amazingly clean but case mouths are peened. From what I understand, the peening is from contact with other cases not the pins. I guess if you get the ratio of pins to brass right you should be fine.

Interesting results Bill.

I have not seen this so I cant say why it happened to you. Maybe the tumbler speed was wrong or there was not enough water to keep the brass from banging together.

I would contact someone like =

Kramer Industries Stainless Steel

and ask them if they could tell you why that happened.

J E CUSTOM

 

[lynxpilot]

I'm using a Frankford Arsenal tumbler with stainless pins, dish soap, and lemmi shine. I've had no ill effects whatsoever. The biggest benefit is cleaning places that crushed walnut hulls or corncob won't get to.

 

[bill123]

Interesting results Bill.

I have not seen this so I cant say why it happened to you. Maybe the tumbler speed was wrong or there was not enough water to keep the brass from banging together.

I would contact someone like =

Kramer Industries Stainless Steel

and ask them if they could tell you why that happened.

J E CUSTOM

Ill try. Thanks.

 

[DEATHGRIP]

Thanks for the input guys. The case mouth was one of the spots that i heard about. I use a sonic cleaner then tumble my brass for an hour or so. The inside gets really clean but my primer pockets still have some residual residue. I wipe them down after i take them out of the tumbler so there is no dust. It is just a lengthily process so this way of cleaning caught my attention.

 

[smalltruck]

I also did the harbor freight tumbler a couple of years ago. My experience in a machine shop years ago with steel shot tumbling to clean parts made me a bit wary because this will always peen the parts from the media.

So I went harbor freight for a couple of reasons. first I'm cheap and second the container size is smaller so less peening takes place. Make no mistake it will happen, my feeling was to limit it if possible. Keeping the mass in the tumbler down is key I believe. My recipe is about a pound of brass, pound of water and a pound of pins in hot water with Amorall car wash soap, and lemishine.

What that works out to for me is 25~28 25-06 brass or about 40 .223 brass. I dry mine in a warm oven (use the warm feature do NOT go over 150 degrees) usually about 30 minutes. The most important part for me is tumble time. I never go over an hour to lessen the amount of tumble and peening that can take place.

My opinion>>>If you have one of the large tumblers they work great but must be full to capacity or you will get peening and brass damage<<<My opinion

 

[deadidarren]

i just changed over to pins and i ain't ever going back .

but i couldn't find one big enough without costing a

bomb so out with the welder and this is what i ended

up with.

edit and if your worried about peening fill it up with water

 

[Lone Hunter]

Dang D/D, that is overkill. Wish I had the brass to put in that thing. Deathgrip, if you are concerned about it find someone that lives close to you and try it. I'm sure you will be impressed. As for me I've used my last corncob.

 

[deadidarren]

250+ 7mm mag case's 12lb pins 7lt of water

 

[nosualc]

SS media in a tumbler works very very well. Dawn dish soap will yield really clean cases. Add a little Lemishine and they will also be brilliantly shiny.

In my experience, the case mouths will peen, if you leave em in long enough to get the pockets clean.

Note that super clean or super shiny cases don't do anything for accuracy, in fact quite the contrary. They do look nice.

-nosualc

ps - deadidarren, that's quite a rig you got there