... Are there any advantages to using steel pins to clean cases ...
... Thanks for any opinions. ...
I gave up using my two vibratory case cleaners as
primary case cleaners in 2014 after using a "F.A.R.T." with pins (Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler)
once. The cases that emerged from the process looked almost new.
I tried one batch of cases without the pins and, while they were "clean", they were not LN ... so, why bother.
I quickly fine-tuned the process and replaced Dawn with ArmourAll Wash&Wax (I was already adding citric acid powder, which I have been using to pre-clean cases for decades).
I use the RCBS case separator that I already had. After rinsing them clean in the basement bathtub (the pins remove a
LOT of crap) I towel them partially dry before pouring them into corrugated cardboard flats (think, cases of catfood cans
) , place them in front of a 16" circulation fan that I fan in the basement 24/7 and walk away for a day or 3.
The AAW&W helps to both keep them BRIGHT for quite a while
and eases their passage in the resizing die.
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I have not read all of the responses in this Thread, I rarely do.
By now someone may have (sometimes condescendingly) commented that cases don't have to be shiny-bright to work just fine. True. But having used some reeeeeeally ugly "clean enough" cases for reloading for
many years, I appreciate reloading used cases that look almost new.