First crack at SS tumbling

You can buy bulk citric acid (the main ingredient of Lemi Shine) for much cheaper at wine making stores, and supposedly bulk food stores.
 
One tip for .223:

Sometimes depending on the eclipse of the moon, pins will wedge themselves into .223 and are a royal PITA to get out. If you put the pin-filled brass back in the tumbler with just water (and no other pins), they almost always work themselves empty in about 10 mins.
 
redruns said:
I have been unable to find any reason why the type of soap makes any difference. If someone can point me to a source I would be grateful. I use laundry low e detergent because it's extra handy. Soap and hot water remove oil, wax and soil. The cirtic acid also helps with any wax.

Any source of citric acid is required to brighten and remove the tarnish from the brass. Any acid will work, but a very weak acid solution using citric acid is a better choice than salt and vinegar. Vinegar with salt creates a small amount of very strong acid in the presence of free oxygen and can rapidly turn shiny golden brass into dull pink pink brass. Too much acid and you get that pinkish coloured brass. Strong acids, although they do the job well, do it too much too fast due to the fact that you end up tumbling for a longer period to use the SS pins for an abrasive. Use a small amount of a mild acid source! Even one big squirt of pure lemon juice works.

If you can find it, powdered Kool aid (no sugar, just the powder) works very well. I found a couple of bargain boxes of Pres. Choice tangerine grapefruit which contain citric acid, colour and artificial flavour. 10g packets and smells kinds fruity. Lemishine is very good but you can't make a tasty drink from it. At 5g or so a use, you'll lose it before you run out.

Use water as hot as you can get it out of the tap. Your hot water might be up to 120-140 degrees depending on the hot water tank setting which should be fine.
Click to expand...

Interesting information, thanks! I've not found lemishine around where I looked, and wasn't sure I wanted it anyways.

One thing I am tempted to try is a small (teaspoon) quantity of CLP with the soapy water. Or lysol, or oxyclean, etc...
 
Somerset Bar said:
One tip for .223:

Sometimes depending on the eclipse of the moon, pins will wedge themselves into .223 and are a royal PITA to get out. If you put the pin-filled brass back in the tumbler with just water (and no other pins), they almost always work themselves empty in about 10 mins.
Click to expand...

I keep my drum full of water and pins, while removing each case while still under water and shaking neck down. I can usually grab 4-5 308 cases at a time and do the same, this also shakes off excess water.
 
bsand said:
I keep my drum full of water and pins, while removing each case while still under water and shaking neck down. I can usually grab 4-5 308 cases at a time and do the same, this also shakes off excess water.
Click to expand...

Yep, and every so often the pins are jammed in the cases so solid they will not at all come out.
I'm using a smaller 2 drum rock tumbler thingy, who knows maybe that makes a difference, but they load up solid, like hundreds of pins in the cases, base to case mouth.
 
When in doubt read the directions, hard water needs more soap and remember to tumble the pins for a few hours WITHOUT any brass.

STM_zps9d3bacae.jpg


Tumble time, less is more to prevent case mouth peening.
Below on the right a untouched brand new case from the factory, on the left is a over tumbled case that was trimmed to length and then left in the tumbler too long and has a peened and battered case mouth.

brasspins002_zpsa284f342.jpg


Below two cases left in for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and slight case mouth peening. These cases still need to be touched up with a VLD deburring tool to aid seating.

peen005_zps37eae259.jpg


A hair dryer will dry the brass in 10 minutes on high.

hairdryer_zps427528d6.jpg


Instructions for your tumbler
http://www.btibrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/909567-FA-PS-rotary-tumbler-instruction.pdf
 
Anyone care to share their 2 cents on the ideal rpm? I have a home made tumbler and it is too fast, what is considered ideal?
 
redruns said:
I have been unable to find any reason why the type of soap makes any difference. If someone can point me to a source I would be grateful. I use laundry low e detergent because it's extra handy. Soap and hot water remove oil, wax and soil. The cirtic acid also helps with any wax.

Any source of citric acid is required to brighten and remove the tarnish from the brass. Any acid will work, but a very weak acid solution using citric acid is a better choice than salt and vinegar. Vinegar with salt creates a small amount of very strong acid in the presence of free oxygen and can rapidly turn shiny golden brass into dull pink pink brass. Too much acid and you get that pinkish coloured brass. Strong acids, although they do the job well, do it too much too fast due to the fact that you end up tumbling for a longer period to use the SS pins for an abrasive. Use a small amount of a mild acid source! Even one big squirt of pure lemon juice works.

If you can find it, powdered Kool aid (no sugar, just the powder) works very well. I found a couple of bargain boxes of Pres. Choice tangerine grapefruit which contain citric acid, colour and artificial flavour. 10g packets and smells kinds fruity. Lemishine is very good but you can't make a tasty drink from it. At 5g or so a use, you'll lose it before you run out.

Use water as hot as you can get it out of the tap. Your hot water might be up to 120-140 degrees depending on the hot water tank setting which should be fine.
Click to expand...

Low E Laundry soap creates less sudsing and therefore easier to rinse the some of the regular soaps..
 
Somerset Bar said:
Yep, and every so often the pins are jammed in the cases so solid they will not at all come out.
I'm using a smaller 2 drum rock tumbler thingy, who knows maybe that makes a difference, but they load up solid, like hundreds of pins in the cases, base to case mouth.
Click to expand...

Something is amiss... Having tumbled tens of thousands of .223 cases I've never seen what you describe happen.
Once in awhile I'll get a couple pins stuck in the flash hole, but never have I had a case "jam up" with pins.
 
Somerset Bar said:
Yep, and every so often the pins are jammed in the cases so solid they will not at all come out.
I'm using a smaller 2 drum rock tumbler thingy, who knows maybe that makes a difference, but they load up solid, like hundreds of pins in the cases, base to case mouth.
Click to expand...

What kind of pins are you using? I haven't had that many get stuck in 223 cases, I use 5 lbs of the Frankford Arsenal and 5 pounds of STM pins. Most there are maybe 5-6?
 
bsand said:
What kind of pins are you using? I haven't had that many get stuck in 223 cases, I use 5 lbs of the Frankford Arsenal and 5 pounds of STM pins. Most there are maybe 5-6?
Click to expand...

Not sure where I got them, it was 5lbs of pins, over two years ago and I still have only used 2.5lbs. Looks like the frankford pins. I've got them in the harbor freight double drum tumbler.
 
I don't use dish soap anymore and have never tried laundry soap. I've found the brass can tarnish quickly after tumbling so I've replaced the usual dish soap with "wash &Wax" car wash soap. The brass comes out just as clean and spotless but is ever so slightly waxed so not only does it stay clean and shiny, I find it actually acts as case lube and makes a significant difference in resizing. This is most obviously beneficial and noticeable with pistol cartridges and carbide dies. I still use Lemishine though.
 
667 said:
Something is amiss... Having tumbled tens of thousands of .223 cases I've never seen what you describe happen.
Once in awhile I'll get a couple pins stuck in the flash hole, but never have I had a case "jam up" with pins.
Click to expand...

I've read that pin size makes a difference to getting pins stuck in the primer hole
 
iamcanadianeh said:
I've read that pin size makes a difference to getting pins stuck in the primer hole
Click to expand...

Sure, but flash hole size too has a lot to do with it I'm sure... Lol

In any case... SS tumbling is my favorite tumbling. One thing to keep in mind with regards to what soap you decide to use is "lubricity".
I actually visited the plant where the most popular pins come from... It was explained to me that yes... "soap" helps loosen and keeps in suspension dirt/carbon, but it's main job is to provide lubricity between the SS pins and the brass being polished.
At the time I was given a couple of sample bottles of experimental additives to try in lieu of the basic dish soap most people were using. The stuff wasn't really soap, but some formulation that would provide this mysterious "libricity" to the process of wet SS tumbling.
It makes sense... SS tumbling should be as gentle a polish as possible. Having the pins as slippery as possible helps.
 
Anyone who is dumping the pins out of the tumbled cases by hand should should get a "rotary media separator". Getting the pins out of the cases is the worst part of the process and takes up the most time. Cabelas has one, I am not sure who else carries them but a few spins and all the pins and water are separated.

I would also suggest getting some type of fine strainer to separate the water from the pins so you can dry your pins faster if you don't just throw the wet pins in the oven. I have been drying my brass by leaving them spread out on a towel for a day or two. Just make sure the inside of the cases are dry. To dry the pins before I put them away I spread them out in a plastic bucket and leave them for two days. Using a dehydrator or oven is great but not necessary unless you need to load them the same day.

Everyone is saying a specific soap but any soap or detergent will work fine. The lemishine works great but the citric acid as others have stated may be a cheaper alternative that I will also look into when I run out of lemishine.
 
Tons of great info in here, thanks gents! Got my Leminshine on the way into work this morning. Tumbled just the pins for 2 hours last night as one poster in here suggested. Even with just the pins, the water came out pretty dirty do it was apparently a good idea.

Flipped through the instruction manual last night and it had a suggestion I didn't consider. It said to wash your brass first with no pins just to get the crud off and save your dies. It then said to deprime and resize THEN tumble with pins to clear out the primer pockets. Is that basically what you guys do? I would imagine this would produce the best looking brass as the real cleaning takes place after a step in the process that could mar brass slightly.

I know using SS tumbling is ultimately for clearing out primer pockets but hey, who doesn't like top shelf looking finished cartridges?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom