Stainless pin question

[JCSC]

I currently fry tumble everything in walnut. I tried shines ss chips from Facebook with soap and water. What a mess.

I’m curious about SS pins and have seen that the really clean the brass and pockets.

I use a thumblers tumbler that is the 12# model. The drum is about 3/4 the size of a milk gallon jug.

how much of those pins will I need? A 5# bag is about 1-1/2 cups and they are expensive. I can’t picture 5# rolling around with 250 PCs of brass and being very effective.

 

[jaguarxk120]

I think it all depends on what type of brass you are tumbling. That is 250 9mm 38/357 or 45's.
against 250 super magnum rifle brass.

 

[jmorris]

I’d use peanut oil for “fry” tumbling.

With 15 lbs of pins I tumble ~ 3000 45 ACP cases per batch.



My tumbler is a pair of 12.7 gallon pool chlorine buckets. One is motor driven and the one with the agitators and brass slide in and out of it for loading/unloading.



The separator tub full of water is a final rinse and reduced the surface tension letting all of the pins fallout of the cases before setting in the sun to dry.

 

[AJC1]

I currently fry tumble everything in walnut. I tried shines ss chips from Facebook with soap and water. What a mess.

I’m curious about SS pins and have seen that the really clean the brass and pockets.

I use a thumblers tumbler that is the 12# model. The drum is about 3/4 the size of a milk gallon jug.

how much of those pins will I need? A 5# bag is about 1-1/2 cups and they are expensive. I can’t picture 5# rolling around with 250 PCs of brass and being very effective.

That's the exact setup I use and it's beautiful. Most inportant part is to run a rinse cycle for 15 minutes after the initial clean cycle.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Im fine with dry tumbling. If the primer pockets are bad. I have a RCBS brush to clean them.

 

[bihj]

Using a Thumler's Tumbler with 5 pounds of pins, I regularly clean 5 - 600 pieces of 9mm brass (5 pounds) at a time. Yes the pins are expensive, but if you can keep from loosing them, they will last forever.

 

[JCSC]

I’d use peanut oil for “fry” tumbling.

With 15 lbs of pins I tumble ~ 3000 45 ACP cases per batch.

View attachment 1155353

My tumbler is a pair of 12.7 gallon pool chlorine buckets. One is motor driven and the one with the agitators and brass slide in and out of it for loading/unloading.

View attachment 1155352

The separator tub full of water is a final rinse and reduced the surface tension letting all of the pins fallout of the cases before setting in the sun to dry.

Wow. That’s quite a production. I’m just looking at 250 pistol or 556 here and there.

 

[JCSC]

I’ll give this a go. I just couldn’t picture that little 5# bag of pins having enough volume to clean 200-300 PCs of pistol brass.

fill with water to just cover the brass?

 

[Hugger-4641]

I have the FA lite, holds a bit less than 1 gaI. I use about 3lbs of pins with any load I put in it. 5lbs won't hurt, but 3 is plenty.

 

[AJC1]

I’ll give this a go. I just couldn’t picture that little 5# bag of pins having enough volume to clean 200-300 PCs of pistol brass.

fill with water to just cover the brass?

I fill water about half way. To much will make the barrel to heavy and slip the belt ruining it in a few loads.... pop the belt so it doesn't stretch while not using it.

 

[lightman]

I’ll give this a go. I just couldn’t picture that little 5# bag of pins having enough volume to clean 200-300 PCs of pistol brass.

fill with water to just cover the brass?

When I used a Thumler's tumbler mine was the 15# model B. I used 5 pounds of pins and filled the drum to about an inch from the top.

 

[Otto]

Pin to brass ratio is 1:2. 500 9mm pieces of brass weigh 4.25 lbs, so you’d use 2 lbs of pins. I switched to ceramic spheres about 14 years ago.

 

[JKP]

I use the chips from Southern Shine. I think they work much better for primer pockets. The trick is to use citric acid, I get milliard from amazon. I use 2 1/2 pounds of chips on the small FA wet tumbler. I can clean up to 500 9mm with this. The FA wet media separator is well worth the money, it takes about 2 minutes to separate the chips from the brass.

 

[jdsingleshot]

Never cleaned cases in 50 years. Mine work fine. Of course I don't let them roll around on the ground or in boxes with greasy hardware...I just wipe off the case lube after sizing and they are good to go.

 

[jaguarxk120]

The big plus with pin tumbling is the inside of the case's are cleaned!
I had 50 45 Colt that looked great outside BUT after pulling the bullets
tthe inside looked like very old drain pipe..
I do not want any of that crud going down the barrel.

 

[JEBruns]

Im fine with dry tumbling. If the primer pockets are bad. I have a RCBS brush to clean them.

I use pins to clean the inside of the cases. Walnut dry tumbling, which I also do occasionally, only cleans the outside of the cases. And it does a good job of that, when tumbled long enough. If I were not going to use pins, I'd dry tumble every time. I don't really know how much I use for pins though. I have a good sized bag and just pour in what seems appropriate for the load. I probably tend to go a little heavy on them. I figure why not? If I have to clean and dry 3# when I'm done, 4# or 5# is not that much more work.

 

[Blue68f100]

I currently fry tumble everything in walnut. I tried shines ss chips from Facebook with soap and water. What a mess.

I’m curious about SS pins and have seen that the really clean the brass and pockets.

I use a thumblers tumbler that is the 12# model. The drum is about 3/4 the size of a milk gallon jug.

how much of those pins will I need? A 5# bag is about 1-1/2 cups and they are expensive. I can’t picture 5# rolling around with 250 PCs of brass and being very effective.

When using SS pins for cleaning brass you really need a magnet for handling the pins. 400 series pins are slightly magnetic, where 300 series is not. The reason the 400 series is preferred. I've learned not to fill the drum over 1/2 full to get a good cleaning in a reasonable amount of time. I have the full size FART so I use 5# of SS pins. Any short ones which get stuck in the necks are thrown out. You also run the magnet over the brass to check for any pins left behind. Good for finding the brass plated steel cases too. I use the Armor-All W&W with citric acid, if real really dirty I will add some simple green to my mix. Only run for a couple of hrs. My rinse cycle is probably different than most. I use a garden hose stuffed in the top on full. This agitates the brass and gets all of the soap suds out so the pins fall free. Then into the separator to get the pins outs. Once out I scan the brass with a magnet to confirm I got them all. Then onto the drying cycle.

With that small of a volume you should be able to get by with just only a couple of pounds.

 

[GW Staar]

I only do it one way, the way I was taught and I didn't venture from it. In the picture below you'll see a nut jar with my pins and to the left of it the bottom of a 2 liter soft drink bottle:

That bottle is filled full of brass.....45, 9mm, .308....doesn't matter.....that's the volume of brass per tumble batch in my Thumbler's B. Then:
1. I pour the brass and all of the pins....then add cold water to cover the brass....than add a .45 ACP case full of lemishine booster, and a 2 second squirt of Dawn blue Dishwashing liquid.
2. Then I tumble for and hour or two depending on how dirty.....I only tumbled wet once with spent primers....not great....deprime first I like bling in the pockets!
3: I dump the tumbled brass in my separator, then I rinse while I tumble in the separator.
4. Finally I lay it out to dry.....usually patting the outsides first with a towel for a minute or two.

The rinse:

Prepping to dry on the back patio in the NM sun:


Not very hard.....however that first experience taught me to rinse it using a grey water valve after that....probably unwise to send that stuff to the sewer....I repented.

Results with this method:
Pistol...

LC 7.62 military range pickup....

 

[bihj]

5 pounds of pins, 5 pounds of brass, 5 pounds of hot water (about 2/3 gallon), cap full of dish detergent (can substitute car wash detergent), and 1/4 teaspoon of dry citric acid (canning or Lemishine).

 

[JCSC]

Thank you for the information everyone.

 

[Gillie Dog]

5 pounds of pins, 5 pounds of brass, 5 pounds of hot water (about 2/3 gallon), cap full of dish detergent (can substitute car wash detergent), and 1/4 teaspoon of dry citric acid (canning or Lemishine).

Like this ^^^^^^^

Hot water cuts time in half. 30 minutes should do most cases.
Separator and magnet.

You get this.



GD

 

[FROGO207]

I have that Thumlers and I use 5 pounds of SS pins as well. Fill the tub 1/2 to 3/4 full of brass, water to cover, half teaspoon citric acid, and a squirt of Dawn. Tumble 1 to 2 hours. Don't forget to rinse well. Seperate pins and dry.

 

[Varminterror]

Chips are better than pins for handling, and less prone to bridge in small caliber necks or wedge in flash holes. I hate pins.

I wet tumble without pins or chips 99% of the time.

 

[mkl]

A quick word about pins. Check with the various suppliers. If you are buying new, there is one size that works very well and will not get stuck in the flash hole. One of the pin sellers mentions this on their web site and recommends a size. Been so long ago I forgot the seller name, but the size they recommend for tumbling works and does not get stuck in flash hole.

 

[Kaldor]

Using a Thumler's Tumbler with 5 pounds of pins, I regularly clean 5 - 600 pieces of 9mm brass (5 pounds) at a time. Yes the pins are expensive, but if you can keep from loosing them, they will last forever.

Ive found the biggest place I lose them is in the drain in the sink. I just dropped a neodymium magnet in the sink drain when I dump now. Saves drama.