Pins stick in 223 brass

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rjbmjb

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I have been wet tumbling for several years now for a lot of rifle and pistol calibers that I reload. I don't shoot 223 often, but since I am a reloading junky I just got around to getting the dies to load some brass that was sitting in the cabinet waiting for me to run out of other calibers to reload.

When I wet tumbled the brass, I discovered that the pins packed themselves inside some of the cases so tightly that I had to tap each one multiple times to get them out. Never had that issue with larger bottle necked brass nor, obviously, with straight mouthed cartridges. The pins are .046 in diameter and 1/4 inch long. I tumble the brass in a Lortone tumbler with Lemi Shine and Armoral wash & wax. I tried searching the threads for this issue, but only found questions about pins stuck in flash holes, which didn't happen to me.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm thinking about getting a rotary separator, but I'm not sure if it will solve this problem.
 
I have it happen occasionally. I seem to be able to get them out my just shaking them. I recently had 2 pins get jammed into a flash hole so tightly that I had to get my needle nose pliers after them. That was a first! I have a rotary separater but I've found that I make less mess by just dumping the tumbler drum into a tub in the sink and fishing them out by hand. And its about as quick.
 
I Never had that issue what pins are you using ?
And how many pounds of pins are you using in what tumbler
 
higgite said:
Would a different size pin help?
Click to expand...
No, according to the manufacture it will make them stick even worse.

I buy the seconds (that are not uniform in size) for tumbling rusty tools, the inside of scuba tanks, ect.
 
I have this issue as well. I have started dumping the cases into my Dillon media removal basket and using a magnet to pull out all the pins that I can, this will also pull out the cases that are full of pins which you do have to shake out. I then spin them in the basket to remove the rest of the pins. Spraying them with Ultimate Spray Wax helps too and keeps them from tarnishing as quickly.
 
JO JO said:
I Never had that issue what pins are you using ?
And how many pounds of pins are you using in what tumbler
Click to expand...

The pins are .046 in diameter and 1/4 inch long. I tumbled 84 cases in a Lortone tumbler (6 Lb barrel) with Lemi Shine and Armoral wash & wax and about 2 pounds of pins. Of the 84 cases, about a dozen had pins stuck inside
 
pin size sounds about right not sure why you are having trouble with sticking pins ?
have you pins somehow become magnetized or are the dirty/fouled and sticking together and bunching up ?
maybe run a load without brass just pins to clean up your pins ?
I am just guessing I use stm pins that are very close in size to yours and I am not having any issues with pins sticking in my 223 brass I just rinse well and spin in a separator after
rinsing and 99% of my pins fall out never had any stuck in the case that I need to repeatably tap on a case to remove them
 
Throw the cases that have pins packed in them or in the flash holes into an empty vibratory tumbler and turn it on. They all come out.
 
rjbmjb said:
Does anyone else have this problem? I'm thinking about getting a rotary separator, but I'm not sure if it will solve this problem.
Click to expand...

I used to when I used the HF tumbler. (With it's round bins, it's more of a brass 'roller' than a brass 'tumbler')
Also had a few 'singles' wedged in sideways,,, Took a small screwdriver to dislodge,,
Got a rotary separator, seemed to help a lot,,, (Out of caution, I still did a visual check for 'singles')
Shortly thereafter, I got a FART.
No more stuck pins today..
 
Last edited:
Before the separator, I used a dry media 'sieve pan' over a large plastic container to screen out the pins. Pistol cases were a breeze, but 223 was another story.
The action of the rotary separator is far more vigorous, plus it helps remove extra water as well,
 
When I first started wet tumbling, I had heard about the pins getting stuck in the flash holes, so I bought the slightly larger sized pins (0.047, I believe) and have never had a problem with pins in flash holes.

I have had pins stuck in the primer pocket, though. I might have 2-3 cases out of a load that have them caught in the primer pocket.

Only a couple of times have I had any pins stuck inside the case, though, and they were 223. I use the RCBS rotary separator to separate the pins. I fill the tub with water when separating the pins, otherwise the surface tension of the water would make the pins tend to stick to the cases. I spend a couple of minutes tumbling in the water, then a minute or so tumbling in the other tub (RCBS has a bottom and top half) without water, to help drain the water and any remaining pins.
 
Stopped by my LGS yesterday and picked up a Lymon rotary separator he had on sale. This morning I wet tumbled 40 cases using the same procedure as the other batches. I spun them in the separator for less than a minute, and all the pins inside the cases came out. I didn't need to fill the tub with water as Toprudder suggested, but I decided to try his method next to see how well it rinses off the soap from the cases.

Problem solved, thanks for the input.
 
If you use wash n wax, using water to help remove pins will also remove some of the wax,

If you are using dawn, there is no downside to using water in the separator
 
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