Stainless steel pins in tumbler

[spudgun]

I have a small rock tumbler that I have been using for my brass for years now. Works fine with corn, walnut and other organic tumbling media.

I only polish about 50 brass at a time.

I was wondering about using stainless steel pins, but have some questions about it.

1. other than not needed to change out the media due to getting dirty what are the advantages of stainless steel?

2. Does it polish the brass (make it shinny) or just clean it?

3. Do the pins get stuck inside the cases?

4. Do you need water or dry tumble?

Is it really better than corn or walnut?

Thanks for your advise.

Larry

 

[CT10ring]

1. Stainless steel pins clean the inside and outside of cases to a bright finish
2. Both
3. I leave the fired primers + the pins do not get stuck.
4. Good results with hot water, couple drops of Dawn liquid soap and a small amount of Lemi-Shine
5. After cleaning- more shine than dry media, but the cases have to be dried after. More work + time there.
6. Is it better than corn or walnut? hmmm? If you like really shiny and want to spend the time drying the
brass ( 200 deg on a pan in the oven 30 min). or in the hot summer sun, yes.

 

[acloco]

I deprime rifle brass prior to stainless pin tumbling. Cleans most of the primer pockets as well as inside/outside of the cases.

Amount of lemi shine depends on the PG of your local water.

I dry in a retired food dehydrator and have upgraded to a Frankford Arsenal brass drier.

Tumble for and hour (hot water), rinse with hot water while seperating pins/brass, and dry for an hour at 140F.

The human does not spend much time in the process, tumble for an hour, rinse, and dry for an hour.

No residue from corn, walnut, rice, or any other media. Helps keep the dies and the presses clean.

I had to clean dies every 6-9 months (maybe thousand rounds), now.....make it a yearly during Christmas/New Years.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Tumble with Brass Juice, no pins, will get just as clean and shiney. I went back to vibrator and fine corn cob.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

Wet w/pins is unparalleled for nasty range pickup brass, especially the old dirty tarnished stuff you pick up out of the dirt after it's been there a while through a storm or two. Easily removes 100% of all tarnish and makes it literally like new. Brass Juice is amazing, skip the LemiShine. Without pins works 80% as good, still easier and faster than dry tumbling. Easy in a big Frankford Arsenal machine, seems like it'd be a real pain in small batches in a small rock tumbler.

For your own pampered bench brass, or fresh fired range brass that barely touched the ground, dry vibrating is all you need.

There's tons of reviews and videos on wet tumbling.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I have a small rock tumbler that I have been using for my brass for years now. Works fine with corn, walnut and other organic tumbling media.

I only polish about 50 brass at a time.

I was wondering about using stainless steel pins, but have some questions about it.

1. other than not needed to change out the media due to getting dirty what are the advantages of stainless steel?

The main benefit is that they will help clean the inside of the cases.

2. Does it polish the brass (make it shinny) or just clean it?

It has some "polishing" effect on the brass, but a lot has to do with what's mixed in with the water with the pins.

3. Do the pins get stuck inside the cases?

Depends on the size of the cases as well as the size of the stainless steel media. It's not unusual for pins to get stuck in cases like 223's.

4. Do you need water or dry tumble?

No. But it's not a good idea to tumble using steel pins without water as the water keeps the dirt and powder residue suspended during the tumbling.

I like to do a short tumble with hot water and not pins as I don't was the powder residue on the inside to be cleaned out. But if cases area caked with dirt and mud, pins and water is a very good way to go.

Is it really better than corn or walnut?

Thanks for your advise.

Larry

SS pins with hot water, liquid soap and a little Lemi Shine can do a better job and in a much shorter period of time. . . . depending on just how clean you want to get your brass. Of course, when you use water, you need to have a way of drying out the brass (like I use a heat gun that takes ~5+ minutes to dry when I do this kind of cleaning.

 

[NorCalMikie]

SS pin will get your brass TOO CLEAN. No powder fouling to act as a neck lube. Be prepared to lube for bullet seating. (dry bullet lube works)

 

[DiRTY DOG]

SS pin will get your brass TOO CLEAN. No powder fouling to act as a neck lube. Be prepared to lube for bullet seating. (dry bullet lube works)

As if?? Virgin brass is bad? Is virgin Lapua brass bad? Lube EVERY case every time, virgin or not. Consistency is the key.

 

[Ray123]

I like the stainless steel pin cleaning ...been doing it since it first hit the market... it's always better to buy the tools specifically made (tumbler) for the job. Spend the $150. get the right stuff, including the SS pins for the job. I tumble in hot water, a table full of Dawn detergent, and about a sprinkle 1/8 teaspoon of Lemi shine, and tumble in my Lyman Cyclone case tumbler. Rinse in hot water, separate SS pins in provided container.
Put out old bath towels, and roll the shiny cases to dry the outside, put them in cardboard boxes. Tip them up next to the forced air gas heater vents this time of year dry cases and heat the home.
Shake the pins out of the cases, with products made for that and pick them up with a magnetic indicator stand from Harbor Freight, that turns on and off to pick up steel pins and drop them back into the tumbler barrel... easy and fast when you use the right stuff. I don't dry any in an oven or dehydrator, but let them air dry ...cause I already have a bunch of cases most times 2000 to 8000 ready to load in one caliber...like 308, 9mm, 380, 45 colt, 300 blk, 5.56, etc. Doesn't everyone have atleast 500 min to 1000 cases of every caliber they own, even your 50BMG? I'm only down on 2 new calibers I'm playing with the 8 6 Blackout and 358 Win in AR platform, by 250 cases ...but thats already been remedied, with another 1000 308 cases to form, or neck up to 358 & 8.6.
They will be wet tumbled, and look like factory new and fit the rifles when done.

 

[MUP]

1. Stainless steel pins clean the inside and outside of cases to a bright finish
2. Both
3. I leave the fired primers + the pins do not get stuck.
4. Good results with hot water, couple drops of Dawn liquid soap and a small amount of Lemi-Shine
5. After cleaning- more shine than dry media, but the cases have to be dried after. More work + time there.
6. Is it better than corn or walnut? hmmm? If you like really shiny and want to spend the time drying the
brass ( 200 deg on a pan in the oven 30 min). or in the hot summer sun, yes.
View attachment 1395366

This for my preference as well, only I deprime the cases so that the pins can clean the inside of the primer pockets as well. I prefer SS pins/wet tumbling over dry hands down. I also do my case prep after tumbling as well, that way there's no worry about the case mouth getting peened over as I've heard some talk about.

 

[V509]

I have been looking for 22 hornet brass for a while

I found some and the previous owner was nice enough to and shiney
I HATE stainless pins

 

[SSchnd]

Not ALL Pins are created equal. Where I got my pins they have not gotten stuck in cases. Length and Diameter mater. Pop the primer, it cleans the pockets so you don't have tooooooooooo.

There are many other media shapes out there, I run chips also and they are great in pockets. Dawn and as mentioned very little lemishine (dry crystals) for me but have Brass Juice, it is awesome and the solution can be reused several times until your finished with a batch of brass. Try it wet with out media first, you'll be surprised.

IF using media, make sure to have a good enclosed media separator that the basket (mine rotates, is F/A 3 piece type) and have the cases immersed in the rinsing water, that will help loosen and float the media out of the cases much better. If you do it and learn a solid process doing wet cleaning it really is not a pain but very simple. Magnet for loose media pick up is handy if your messy.

Clean Brass is easier to inspect inside the case.
Good luck.

 

[otnot]

Instead of Dawn try Cascade

 

[762plinker]

not all pins are equal is very true...do not buy cheap, buy quality
pins may stick but come out easy if submerged and shaken in water
i use fine ground corn cob for most work buy do have pins for occassional use.
they do not damage brass

 

[markm87]

I've only had the pins double up and stick in the flash holes. I definitely rinse in clean/soft water and shake all the brass out, and rap it on the sifting pan to ensure there are none remaining inside the cases.

I've never had any lodge sideways like the picture above. But if they did, you'd find out during sizing when the sizer decap hit or moved them anyway.

 

[Minshooter]

All of the above, plus I run the pin cleaned dried cases through the tumbling separator cage one more time.
Sometimes will get a few more pins.
One thing about dry vibrator medias (Corn Cob, Walnut): For me, they can apply collected grit to the brass, and I would find fine longitudinal scratches all around the case neck after sizing; almost like they were done with sandpaper. Even keeping separate range and final cleaning vibrator machines, that still would happen.
But, if using vibrator cleaning, I now do a final wash cycle in the Lyman Cyclone, and have never found a scratched case neck, after I started doing that.
Maybe constant changing of the vibrator media would eliminate this, but I use enough 50 lb bags, as is.

 

[jelenko]

One thing about dry vibrator medias (Corn Cob, Walnut): For me, they can apply collected grit to the brass, and I would find fine longitudinal scratches all around the case neck after sizing; almost like they were done with sandpaper.

I had this happen when I used the RCBS polishing powder. It's abrasive, as I found out after the scratches appeared.

Otherwise, I haven't noticed any scratches with other case cleaners.

 

[ronemus]

I've been interested in wet tumbling for a while, but was hesitant to use media that could lodge in a case and potentially damage a bore if fired. I found stainless balls used as polishing media by jewelers, and bought the 1 mm size because they're too small to lodge in any part of the case, and they're small enough to do a fairly good job of cleaning primer pockets. They aren't as aggressive as pins, so more time is needed; 1 hr wasn't enough but 4 hr did a good job - the outside is like new, all carbon is removed from the inside (rough, not shiny), and primer pockets are mostly clean. The balls I bought range in size from 0.5 to 1.5 mm, and the largest ones could lodge in a flash hole, but that's not a problem for me because I ream all of my flash holes to 0.0625" - YMMV. So far I'm really liking the process.