Quick SS Tumbling Question

A

AndrewNS

CGN frequent flyer
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
31   0   0
Location
Nova Scotia
Hey everyone,

I am new to stainless steel tumbling and am just getting set up to run my first batch. I have looked around online to get some directions to follow and these ones seem to be pretty good:

1. Add 5 Lbs (2.27 kg) of SS media into the drum

2. Next fill with 1 gallon (3.78 Liters) of cold water. (One gallon)=8 Lbs/3.63 kg

3. Add your brass into the drum (2 Lbs/907g of brass)

4. Add dish soap. 1 -2 Tbs (15-30 mL) of either Dawn, Ivory, or Joy dish soap (if there are no soap bubbles in the water after you tumble, you need more soap)

5. Add 1/4 Tsp. (1.25 mL) of Lemishine. This is the key to the shine. (Not too much)

6. Tumble 3-4 hours with the Model B High Speed Thumler’s Tumbler

7. Pour out as much water as you can without losing any brass or pins (The more you rinse the brass and pins the better your results will be next time)

8. Fill drum with water, and separate brass by hand or use an STM Media Separator with water.

9. Rinse your brass off really good with some warm water. (Not getting a good rinse can leave water spots on the brass)

10. Dump brass onto a towel and let dry. If any pins get stuck in the neck of the brass throw those pins away


Can someone tell me if these are the basic directions that they follow or if I should change the process some how? The reason that I choose these ones is that I have the Thumbler's Model B Tumbler and these are specific to it.

I also noticed in another thread here that someone is using Spray Nine as opposed to (or in addition to??) the dish soap. I have Spray Nine, is it better to use? Is it added to the mix in addition to everything else?


Any help or guidence would be greatly appreciated.
 
That's how I do mine as well. Lee decapping die to deprime and then tumble.
I use the media separator and it works great
I also use a small magnet to pick up the pins and bought this strainer for the sink at a dollar store.
 
chalkriver said:
That's how I do mine as well. Lee decapping die to deprime and then tumble.
I use the media separator and it works great
I also use a small magnet to pick up the pins and bought this strainer for the sink at a dollar store.
Click to expand...

Any idea where you got this? I was out today and looked at Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Sobeys, and Superstore and couldn't find anything this large.
 
I'm happy to say that you guys were quite correct, these directions worked very well. Of course, I forgot to take any before pictures, but here are the finished cases:

P1090017_zps3453ef14.jpg


P1090019_zps172ae082.jpg


There is a little bit of residue on them, but it rubs off. Other than that the brass is stained in some places, which you can still somewhat see, but it is very clean and shiny. The pins cleaned out the primer pockets better than any other type of tumbling that I have ever seen, and the inside of the cases are about as clean as they will ever be.

All in all, I am quite impressed with the stainless tumbling.
 
my water here has a tendency to spot.

when out, I towel most of the water. Then I just bake in the oven for an hour at 200F.
if you want more shine, toss into corncob with some brass polish.


my error was to use too much lemishine, and I always got terrible spotting.
 
I take them out of the tumbler AFTER thoroughly rinsing shells and pins in tumbler under the tap with cold water and cover them immediately in a towel, over to the gas oven for 30 minutes.

Don't know if it makes a diffenece but gas oven is a moist heat.. they sparkle
 
1/4 teaspoon as approx. 17-18 grains - for those that can't be bothered to go through the baking drawer for the measuring spoons and have a scale handy in the gun room ;)
 
I only do mine for about 1.5 hours and does a great job. For drying, I bought some cheap plastic socket holders from Princess Auto and put the brass on them. I do about 200 at a time. They dry in hours
 
AndrewNS said:
He's offering to one of the steps from the original post, the directions say to discard any pins that get stuck in the shells. I didn't have any get stuck, but I don't think I'll be discarding ones that do.
Click to expand...


I *think* what this means is that you should discard pins that get literally stuck in the neck or case mouse, and not just pins that wind up sitting inside the case, because they are of just the right length to get stuck again. I'm not even sure how that would happen.
 
AndrewNS said:
10. Dump brass onto a towel and let dry. If any pins get stuck in the neck of the brass throw those pins away.
Click to expand...

HeavyTread said:
I *think* what this means is that you should discard pins that get literally stuck in the neck or case mouse, and not just pins that wind up sitting inside the case, because they are of just the right length to get stuck again. I'm not even sure how that would happen.
Click to expand...

It makes no sense to throw them away. Those pins are not "defective", they just happen to be the pins that oriented themselves to get stuck that time in those cases. Just remove them and toss them back in.
 
Andy said:
It makes no sense to throw them away. Those pins are not "defective", they just happen to be the pins that oriented themselves to get stuck that time in those cases. Just remove them and toss them back in.
Click to expand...

True. Or for that matter, have a set of wire cutters handy and snip a mm off of the end of them. Problem solved.
 
Andy said:
It makes no sense to throw them away. Those pins are not "defective", they just happen to be the pins that oriented themselves to get stuck that time in those cases. Just remove them and toss them back in.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't throw any pins away.. I'm just trying to make sense of what they've written. It wouldn't just be pins that have oriented themselves correctly though.. it would be pins of a specific length that have oriented themselves correctly. I doubt all the pins are the same length. Or, at least, that's probably what the guys who wrote that guide think.

Anyway, like I said, I think it's dumb to throw any of them away. I sure don't. Those little buggers are expensive.

Edit: there's a current thread on this very forum about pins getting stuck in case mouths/necks..
 
I dry in electric oven.
190 degrees F for an hour or 2.
Use a old cookie sheet, from the wife, of the sally anne for a buck.
Use tin foil as the old tray may rust a bit, one of mine did. Or buy a decent tray. I do not want stained brass.

I shoot BPCR and cleaning de primed cases with a water tumbler is almost a must.
And no issue with 30, 40 and 45 calibers and case mouth pins.

Some with the 6.5
But my .204 not sure yet???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom