Stainless steel pin brass polishing tumblers

[Coffinmaker]

Betcha it'll RUST too then   

[Pappy Myles]

For the OCDers (Im included there) here's my process ifn your interested.    I shoot 45 colt and 44-40 with goex 2f.    Sometimes 44 Russian and 12 or 20 gauge magtech brass. When I finish a stage and on my way from the reloading bench to my cart, I have an old plastic milk carton that has a solution of water, white vinegar and a small squirt of dawn dish detergent.  I have a hand de-priming tool that I pop out the spent primers and drop the brass in the carton.  That goes in the back of the truck.   On the way home the solution is agitated by the ride and when I get home its about 2/3 clean.    Pour out, brass in the Frankfort arsenal tumble, steel pins, 1/2 container water, another squirt of dawn, lemon shine, and tumble an hour.    Wash tumbler in sink to overflow soap solution out, dump all in the basket of an rcbs media separator.  Turn until pins separated, brass then goes into a dehydrator for 20 minutes.   water poured out of media separator (carefully as not to lose pins) then I use a Frankfort magnet to pull and deposit pins back in the tumbler.

ok   ok   ok    I like my brass like new.......its a lot easier and quicker than it sounds.

[wildman1]

Betcha it'll RUST too then   

Nope, mine sits in the water until I do the next batch of brass, sometimes for a month. When it does dry out it is done by draining the water off of it and let it dry. I've been using it for about 6 or 7 years and it has never been cleaned (well ok sometimes I rinse it) just left in the Dillon media separator. Not rusted not stained looks like new. We just finished a series of trips and for the last 2 weeks I have been doing 2-3 batches a day in each of my Thumbler B's. For the preceding months since April it hadn't been used and the water it was in had dried up. Still no rust.
wM1

[Crow Choker]

YOU     GUYS     ARE     KNUTZ!!!!   STARK     RAVING     LOONS     AWREADY!!!!!!

Gabriel, your washing your cases WRONG (I think).  I shoot APP on Saturday and wash the cases immediately!!  Like by Wednesday or Thursday.  I wash my cases in Tap Hot Water (inna sink) with a goodly amount of White Vinegar.  Let em sit for .. oh .. 30 minute than rinse.  Toss em inna Dillon vibrator tumbler for 90 minutes.  PRESTO!!  Nice looking cases.  Some staining happens.

DDD, there are very effective treatments for OCD.  Really!!  There are!!  Trust Me!!!!

Let us also remember.  I'm LAZY.  Sparkely brass is entirely too much WORK.  Doesn't shoot any better than lightly stained brass.  So There!!

I'm with Coffinmaker. Due to the nature of shooting blackpowder, removing the stains off of brass is a pain and shoots just as well as bright shiny new. When I shoot black in brass cases, I always toss em hot soapy water, let em soak, swirl around, rinse with hot water, drain, and let em dry on a towel. I then vibrate the beejebbers out of them in a Lyman vibrator and leave them at that. Some stains remain, but the cost of going to a steel pin setup just for shiny brass for black powder isn't worth it to me. Once in a while I'll toss them in some brass cleaner solution prior to vibrating if they're really stained. My brass for SL powder loads be it handgun or rifle gets polished just like out of the bag, but that powder isn't as nasty as black.

[Dick Dastardly]

I admit, I do like really clean, inside and out and in the primer pockets.  It takes so little to have them that way and I do like loading sparkling clean ammo into my guns.  It's just a matter of pride to me.  Be that as it may, I've never had a loading or shooting with clean ammo, whether it's new, or cleaned to new condition.

BTW, my media, both SS pins or ceramic porcelain, it's reclaimable and re-usable.  The initial cost is in the original purchase.  The stuff works over and over, actually better with use.

DD-MDA

[Crow Choker]

Well I'm not a slob shooter or reloader. I don't think a bit of stain on the brass makes ya one. My brass used for black powder are clean when loaded, a few may show some stains, but they are shiny for the most part. For the expense of going to a new tumbler, pins, and all of the other needs, what little tarnish is left on the brass is no big deal and not worth stainless steel pins IMO. Ya stick em in the cylinder, fire em, and in a fraction of a second they're all scruffy looking again. I don't polish my boots every time I go shootin, but that doesn't make me a slob shooter. I do take pride in my gear and other things that matter. Have a shootin friend that started shooting a 44 1851 Euroarms Navy same time I did back in the early 70's. When mentioning that we shoot black powder he would sometimes cringe because he didn't want to get his brass on the Navy revolver stained and dirty. That gun had more brass polish used on it than the King of England's carriage did back 200 years ago. He no longer shoots black powder.

[hellgate]

Maybe I should start another thread but I had asked if one could use the SS pins (or ceramic media) COMPLETELY DRY and tumble as if it were walnut and get clean brass without all the bathing. I didn't get anyone to comment, therefore this additional posting.

I use nickeled brass anyway because it cleans up so easily.

[Cliff Fendley]

Ya'all realize tiffin those be REAL Stainless pins, a Magnet ain't gonna hep ya pick em up ..... right

400 series, hardenable stainless steel and other modern steels with similar composition is magnetic and can even become magnetized. It's corrosion resistance depends on the content of different alloys to make up the steel, how it's worked and hardened.

I'm a knifemaker and use primarily stainless steel for blades and use a magnetic chuck on a surface grinder to do the flats and in fact after working with the blades I have to demagnetize them in order to keep them from attaching themselves to everything.

[Wallace Foster]

I made my own a while ago, I had a motor in the shop so I thought what better reason reason to build a tumbler.
That's 8 inch ABS

[Coffinmaker]

So Sorry Hellgate   

I didn't even begin to address your original question.  OOPS.  But I'ma dry hole.  I don't and never have, used SS or Ceramic pins to clean brass.  Just Lizard Litter in a Dillon.  Sorry again, no help.

[Isom]

Here's my take Hellgate. For me, ceramic, walnut or corncob work good for smokeless. They don't cut it for me with b/p. I use real b/p. SS pins work best for B/P. I use both.
Isom

[hellgate]

Isom (Dart?),
Do you use the SS pins dry or wet?

[Wallace Foster]

For shooting I just use the ss pins a soap they don't come out new brass shiny but they are clean if I want them bright and shiny I use the same tumbler with walnut and nushine after the ss soap and water 

[greenjoytj]

Isom (Dart?),
Do you use the SS pins dry or wet?

Wet tumble SS pins to keep all types of not good for your health nasty fouling dust suspended in a liquid (soapy water) medium so it can be poured off and throughly rinsed off.

Otherwise if tumbled dry you would be making fouling dust that still need to be removed somehow.
Dry tumbling would present more problems.

[Major 2]

..... two barrel rock tumblers from Harbor Freight with stainless pins from STM.

On a budget the little Harbor Freight tumbler is great and I like it when I want to clean small amounts especially when I have two different cartridges cleaned so the small ones don't get jammed in the larger ones.

Dual Drum Rotary Rock Tumbler   https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html

$57.99

use their coupons and get 20-30 % off 

I had one of their 50% sidewalk sale coupons and paid  $32 bucks out the door tax included 

4 years later it still works a champ

[R.M. Conversion]

At the range, I use a milk jug half full with water and some dish soap.  The cases go right in there after shooting.  Dump out at home, then tumble as you like.

[Coffinmaker]

   Nope.  Not ME   

I, like so many "others" use to lug this little jug of Soapy (Dawn) water around and dump'd my fired cases innit just as soon as I finished the stage or stages.  Then I asked myself why??  Myself answered, "Dunno.  Ever body does zit."  SO:

I just throw ALL my fired brass (or nickel) inna bag at the range and lug it home DRY (Much more simpler).  At the Hacienda I dump 'em all inna sink inna shop with tap hot water and White Vinegar.
Rinse after 30 minutes and dry.  Tumble 30 minutes.  Done.  A CAVEAT:  I'm LAZY and don't care if there is a little bit of staining.

[greenjoytj]

I have never and would never transport fired cases wet in a jug of soapy water.  I wouldn?t trust the container not to leak.  If that black fouling water ever spilled in the car the stain would be there forever.

I place my fired cases back into the plastic MTM cartridge box for transport home.
At home I de-prime with a universal de-priming die and clean the primer pockets.
Then go through my cleaning process.
Pre soak with water an Dawn detergent.
With a cordless drill I spin a bronze brush briefly inside each case under the running water faucet.
Then into the RCBS rotary tumbler with a tablespoon of Cascade dish washing machine powdered detergent.
After an hour I pour off the dirty water and add clean water and detergent and citric acid ? tsp/L.
The cases get tumbled again for another hour or two till I am satisfied at the state of clean and shiny.
Spread the wet cases out on a towel roll them a bit to dry the outside, the inside dries overnight.

[wildman1]

BP cases, rinse em at home. SS pins Dawn & Lemishine 3 hrs inna Thumbler B dry in the sun or oven at 255 for 30 minutes. Like new shiny. IF I want primer pockets cleaned, universal deprimer before tumbling, primer pockets come out clean.
wM1

[sail32]

I substitute concentrated lemon juice for Lemishine.