Washing/Polishing Brass with Stainless steel Pins ( Lots of Pics)

rdgietz

rdgietz

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Hello to all... Just wanted to post a step by step with pictures so everyone could see the results of polishing your brass with water and detergent and stainless steel pins. I know people have posted about using ceramic media (spheres and tubes) but no one has posted anything about using stainless steel pins. The results posted here are only with pistol cartridges but i have used this on .223 brass and it works just the same.. can post pics if you want.. The nice thing about SS pins is that they do not get stuck inside the bottle neck cartridges...

Pins are from Kramer Industries. Do a google search and you will find them..

The ones used here are 3/64" x 1/2"

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I use a Thumlers Tumbler and about 5 lbs of pins per tumbler.

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Decapp your brass first... I use my dillon 45 ACP sizing and decapping die for 9 mm and 40 brass...

9mm decapped brass

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Add 3 handfuls of brass to the tumbler and then fill with water to the top of brass.. Add a drop of Dish detergent... and tumble...

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Tumble for 6 hours to over night... Im lazy.. just leave it over night


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Rinse the brass with warm running water to get rid of the pins.. They seem to stick so you need to use running water..

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Let Dry on a Towel over night..

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Here is what they look like after washing in comparison to what they started out like..

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it is a lot of work..

Gatehouse said:
Seems like alot of work compared to just using crushed walnut, but whatever floats your boat is good...;)
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Yah you are right Gatehouse.. but there is just something about nice clean brass.. Its main use is Rifle brass.. but i use it on both..

I am just getting into precision shooting and they say that clean cases can give you a better group... i use it for pistol brass just because i have the routine down.. so i use it on both... I sure do like reloading shiny brass...

RDG
 
That's really nice, I may give it a try, better results that I get with my vibrating tumbler and walnut. In your 2nd pic I was scrolling down fast and thought "He's using the WASHING MACHINE" for a tumbler? Had to give a 2nd look to see your pot was just sitting on top of the machine. What do you pay for the pins, can you just use small SS nails?
 
hemidart said:
I want to see the primer pockets if they come out minty like the inside of the cases you have me sold:D
Can you use those in a Vibratory tumbler?
Pete....
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Ask him about the cost of those pins - then decide if you're sold. :D I'm still thinking...

The tumbler must be a rotary type, not vibratory for the pins to work.
 
The only problem is the price...

big boar said:
That's really nice, I may give it a try, better results that I get with my vibrating tumbler and walnut. In your 2nd pic I was scrolling down fast and thought "He's using the WASHING MACHINE" for a tumbler? Had to give a 2nd look to see your pot was just sitting on top of the machine. What do you pay for the pins, can you just use small SS nails?
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Hi big boar.. Not sure if you can use SS nails.. These pins are designed for polishing metal and used by manufacturers to give their products a nice shine... Sorry about the washing machine pic... just had to put the tumbler somewhere to take the pic..

RDG
 
This does clean the primer pockets !!!!

hemidart said:
I want to see the primer pockets if they come out minty like the inside of the cases you have me sold:D
Can you use those in a Vibratory tumbler?
Pete....
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Yes this method does clean the primer pockets very well .. i guess i will post some pics a bit later today... Not sure how well a Vibratory tumbler would work. I switched to a rock tumbler because i was concerned about how water tight my vibratory shaker was... I am sure some of them would be...water tight that is...
 
The pins are expensive..!!!!

hemidart said:
I seen the price of the pins in the EE;)
Pete....
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Yah the price of the pins are expensive.. I paid $26 / lb plus shipping USD and a $185 Customs fee and brokerage charge... The biggest problem is that there is a minimum order size of 50 lbs....

The good thing is that they will last forever. (as long as you dont loose them down the sink).. you will only need to get 4-5 lbs for a small tumbler like the ones i use..

I bought these for washing rifle brass and it works really well, cleaning the inside of the cases and the primer pockets..

I do have 26 lbs or so of pins left... and am selling them as cost recovery only.. you can look on the EE reloading...

rdg
 
$$$$$$ Time.$8.00 worth of tumbler media tumble for a couple of hours sounds more logical to me.
 
don't mean to hijack but has anyone here ever used the ultrasonic case cleaner?
h ttp://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

looks like it does a really good job, and it takes very little time to clean, and you don't have to use any special chemicals.

i think i might get one!
 
florin79 said:
don't mean to hijack but has anyone here ever used the ultrasonic case cleaner?
h ttp://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

looks like it does a really good job, and it takes very little time to clean, and you don't have to use any special chemicals.

i think i might get one!
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I have one. Works like a charm - but you have to babysit... Three 8min cycles in vinegar solution followed by a rinse, a cycle of baking soda, and another rinse - all for a total of 30-40 pieces of brass. I good tumbler will take 10 times that much and, after running unattended for 4-6Hrs, will give you a pretty good result - as good as USonic if you go the steel pin route.
 
I would also like to know if small stainless steel nails will work. What about small pieces of stainless steel wire, could that work?
 
P12 said:
I would also like to know if small stainless steel nails will work. What about small pieces of stainless steel wire, could that work?
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Here's a quote from another forum:
The media size that is recommended is 0.040"Dia x 0.25"lg.

If you get a pin dia bigger than 3/64"(0.040") it will not pass thru the primer flash hole and tends to want to stick in the flash hole!
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If you find cigar box stainless nails in this or similar size, you'll see that the price is very close to that of the stainless media. Otherwise I'd say they'll work about the same - especially if you find nails without heads...
 
I use corncob and walnut with Turtle wax as a polishing agent.

I suppose that many polishing mediums would work - why not sand?
 
TGC said:
One guy years ago said he put brasso in with it, anyone want to try it?
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When I got my tumbler, I opted for the RCBS Sidewinder. In addition to using the more traditional mediums like Crushed Walnut Shells it has the capability of using a chemical solution for the more difficult cleaning jobs. A while back I saw where a few table spoon fulls of brasso was added to the crushed walnut shell for some of these more difficult tasks. I checked into it a bit and decided to give it a try. There was some suggestion the brasso may have a detramental effect on the brass but this appears to be unfounded. At least I've never found any credible info or experienced anything to find this to be true.

For a clean up or bit of polish of brass that is fairly clean, running it through a cycle just using CWS is usually sufficient. On 'stuff' that needs a little more cleaning work, I'll use CWS with a couple table spoons of brasso for the initial cycle. If it's really bad, I'll individually hand clean the bad ones. Then for primarily polish, I use another batch of CWS with some car polish liquid added.

For the most part, clean brass is just that. I don't think it really matters if it's a bit tarnished, it's just that it looks pretty cleaned & polished. However, once you get it to that condition it doesn't take much to keep it that way.
 
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