I switched to Steel pin tumbling

[Richard N Heglund Jr]

You too Osprey 176. Thank you

 

[waterdog540]

Ive heard that stainless pins do NOT work in vibrating tumblers. Apparently all the pins all go to the bottom and cases all ride on top. The case cleaner I bought direct from bore-tech. I think hornady makes a case cleaning solution too. Probably works about the same, but is found a little more easily.

Boozer, could you tell us how much of the Bore-tec stuff do you use in a batch of brass? Do you still use any of the dish detergent or the lemon-shine along with it. I have some Lyman sonic cleaner solution so thought I would give it a try.
Thanks for your help!
Larry

 

[HunterLongRange]

The peening on the case mouths are the direct result of how much water, media and cases are being cleaned. I've never had peening or my mouths chewed up like the pictures here.
I've had great results using about a pound of Steel Media, A good squirt of Dawn Liquid Soap, a pinch of Lemishine and (50) 308's in my case... as far as water...I fill my Tumbler about 3" over the Brass. Wait about 1.5 hours and they are very clean including the Primer Pockets.
I debur and chamfer as I Full length prior to the cleaning.

 

[mason3379]

OK all, I don't know why I didn't do this eons ago but I switched to stainless media. Easy to use especially if you have a powerful magnet and all I did was what everyone else did, go figure. I did it on the cheap though. Split the 2 lb bag in half, one for each drum. 40pcs of 308 brass. About 9mm casing of lemishine. 2 squirts of dish soap. The below pictures were of it running only 1.5 hrs.
Harbor freight dual tumbler $43.99 %20 coupon
Stainless media 2 lb $20.00 cause I really didn't need the extra, media lasts forever
Lemishine $3.00 this stuff might last me the rest of my life lol
Dish soap $0.00 we always have this on hand, well I guess I pay for this from grocery bill
Water $0.00 , well I pay for the electric
Results and pictures of equipment, don't mind the craft project, the kid has been sick and home. She wanted to participate in the photo op.

I too went through the steel pin phase. It got old trying to pick pins out of case mouths and verifying they are all out. I stumbled upon Brass Juice brass wash and have not touched pins since. You add a small amount in with your brass and tumble for 2-3 hours. Comes out every bit as clean as pins and does not require the clean up. Also, yes, it does even clean the primer pockets. I will try to run a batch this weekend and post pictures.

 

[C1Pro]

I've been using the pins for about 4 years also and love the results. Only once had i misgivings. One forum, Ivory Liquid was suggested. I tumbled for two hours and my cases look like they were covered with black grease.
After wasting half a day I switched back to Dawn detergent and Lemishine, re-tumbled, twenty minutes, and they looked like new cases.
Drying is done with the whole batch in my RCBC Rotary Case/Media Separator with a fan blowing down 45° from above. This not only separates the pins, but yields dry, spotless brass.
Anyway, I always have clean primer pockets using warm water and tumble for two hours.
Have a great shooting season in 2019 and make sure you vote in April!

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I've been using the STM tumbling kit for a few years. I have found it to work great and haven't seen any reason to reconsider an alternative method. The drum is large and I fill it with water to within an inch of the top. My guess is that this minimizes any case mouth peening. The STM motor does rotate quicker than typical rock tumblers so the cleaning time should be shorter to achieve the desired results.

Here is a little advice for tumbler users: Don't clean your SS muzzle breaks in the tumbler. While it cleans them better than new, it also slightly changes the finish (if that matters) and it DOES damage finely cut threads. I seriously damaged two brakes by cleaning them in the tumbler.

 

[C1Pro]

I've been using the STM tumbling kit for a few years. I have found it to work great and haven't seen any reason to reconsider an alternative method. The drum is large and I fill it with water to within an inch of the top. My guess is that this minimizes any case mouth peening. The STM motor does rotate quicker than typical rock tumblers so the cleaning time should be shorter to achieve the desired results.

Here is a little advice for tumbler users: Don't clean your SS muzzle breaks in the tumbler. While it cleans them better than new, it also slightly changes the finish (if that matters) and it DOES damage finely cut threads. I seriously damaged two brakes but cleaning them in the tumbler.

I just looked up the STM Tumbling Kit, as far as I am concerned, that's the way to fly!
The base of the machine uses pillow blocks rather than plastic bushings. This thing appears to be one heavy duty machine. Everything one needs is included.

 

[4rd_tuff]

Harbor freight dual tumbler $43.99 %20 coupon

Where were you a week ago?? I just shelled out $180 - for the Frankfort arsenal tumbler - wish I had researched this a little further. BUT I do love the wet tumbling and the clean primer pockets.

 

[Impulsive]

The Frankfort Arsenal tumbler is hands above the Harbor Freight model. Do not feel like you made a mistake, you have not.

 

[graywolf]

Sloth is the true engine of innovation. I don't use any pins or wet (or dry) tumble anymore. I don't clean primer pockets or brush case mouths. I use Lapua brass. I use a Lee collet die that doesn't need any lube, I give case neck and shoulders a quick turn with a fine steel wool to keep the die clean. Then size necks and deprime in one step, re-prime and ignore the little carbon in the primer pocket. Depending on the cartridge and load, I can neck size 5-6 times before needing to full length size. Then I repeat the process except using some lube after cleaning necks, and wiping it off after FL sizing. Then more collet sizing cycles. Getting ~10 firings is good enough for me, the payoff in saved time and hassle is huge. This surely won't work for every cartridge, or if you are running hot loads. The proof for me anyway is in the accuracy, I'm not shooting bench rest competitions, but I get consistent sub 1/2" accuracy with 6.5 caliber Tikka CTR rifles. I think leaving a layer of carbon in the case mouth and collet sizing gives a level of consistency in neck tension and concentricity (.001" or less) that is conducive to excellent accuracy. Anyway, like I said it works for me. YMMV.

 

[Boozer]

Boozer, could you tell us how much of the Bore-tec stuff do you use in a batch of brass? Do you still use any of the dish detergent or the lemon-shine along with it. I have some Lyman sonic cleaner solution so thought I would give it a try.
Thanks for your help!
Larry

The jug of boretec has the mixing ratios. 1:20 with water, and I did not supplement it with anything else, as I just wanted to give it a shot all on it's own. It says on the bottle that you can reuse it a number of times so Im going to just keep running it until is stops cleaning. In each of the 2 HF tumbler "drums" I have 1.5lbs of steel pins, and can fit either 25 30-06 cases or 50 .223 cases.

I was going to upgrade to a larger tumbler, but now that I can process brass 4x faster than before when I used lemishine and dawn, maybe i won't need to...

 

[SealT5]

Any issues with accuracy from removing the carbon inside the neck?

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Any issues with accuracy from removing the carbon inside the neck?

While I have "read" that a totally clean neck can affect accuracy, I have never noticed it.

 

[LRHog hunter]

What advantage do you gain by cleaning brass to like new condition vs media tumbling

I'm new here so not sure how to PM but was reading your winter project article I just did trade for a 6.5 creedmore getting stuff together for reloading my local stores carry only two die set do you think the 4 die set is better or what I need vs 2 die set
Thank you for your input
LR Hoghunter