Stainless Steel Tumbling problems: need some advice here please!
- Thread starter Longshot338
- Start date
Longshot338
CGN Regular
- Location
- Southern Ontario
Thanks to the input I have gotten from you guys, I have figured my problem out.
I handwashed my tumbler and pins with soap and water. I then ran the pins only for 6 hours with a barrel full of hot water and a lot of Dawn dishsoap. Seeing as the tumbler and pins were cleaned before this, I figured the colour of the water that came out would tell me if the problem was the lube or the rubber. It came out black and sludgy. This confirmed that it was the rubber degrading.
I then repeated the process. I was hoping that the liberal use of dishsoap would neutralize the oils and solvents that might be degrading my rubber liner. If the second time resulted in the same dirty water I would know that my rubber gasket would need to be replaced. If however it was cleaner water, that meant I was stopping the breakdown of the rubber.
After another 6 hours, I opened the tumbler and dumped out the suds and water. It was only slightly discoloured.
I ran it a third time, and the suds and water came out clear. Looks like I was able to halt the rubber degradation with liberal use of soap.
For the final test I tumbled 100 pieces of range pickup 30-06. Came out looking perfect!
I was also able to pinpoint the cause of my problems. A while ago I had shot in the rain at a CQB match. I cleaned my AR when I got home, but neglected to dry out the rings holding the optics. The screws developed rust on the heads and threads. I found that cleaning them by hand was a pain, so I threw them in the tumbler with a batch of brass. The screws would have been covered in G96 CLP. This is the only time I have ever tumbled with anything other than Dawn dishsoap, Lemishine citric acid, and water. It was the next batch of brass I did after this where I first ran into the problems.
Thanks to the help I got here, my problems are solved, and I have learned a lot more about wet tumbling with stainless steel pins.
BTW, I only tumbled that 30-06 brass for 1 hour and it looks as clean as the other batches that I tumbled for 4 hours.
Thanks guys!
Alec
I handwashed my tumbler and pins with soap and water. I then ran the pins only for 6 hours with a barrel full of hot water and a lot of Dawn dishsoap. Seeing as the tumbler and pins were cleaned before this, I figured the colour of the water that came out would tell me if the problem was the lube or the rubber. It came out black and sludgy. This confirmed that it was the rubber degrading.
I then repeated the process. I was hoping that the liberal use of dishsoap would neutralize the oils and solvents that might be degrading my rubber liner. If the second time resulted in the same dirty water I would know that my rubber gasket would need to be replaced. If however it was cleaner water, that meant I was stopping the breakdown of the rubber.
After another 6 hours, I opened the tumbler and dumped out the suds and water. It was only slightly discoloured.
I ran it a third time, and the suds and water came out clear. Looks like I was able to halt the rubber degradation with liberal use of soap.
For the final test I tumbled 100 pieces of range pickup 30-06. Came out looking perfect!
I was also able to pinpoint the cause of my problems. A while ago I had shot in the rain at a CQB match. I cleaned my AR when I got home, but neglected to dry out the rings holding the optics. The screws developed rust on the heads and threads. I found that cleaning them by hand was a pain, so I threw them in the tumbler with a batch of brass. The screws would have been covered in G96 CLP. This is the only time I have ever tumbled with anything other than Dawn dishsoap, Lemishine citric acid, and water. It was the next batch of brass I did after this where I first ran into the problems.
Thanks to the help I got here, my problems are solved, and I have learned a lot more about wet tumbling with stainless steel pins.
BTW, I only tumbled that 30-06 brass for 1 hour and it looks as clean as the other batches that I tumbled for 4 hours.
Thanks guys!
Alec
