SS Media Tumbling Start-up- small quantity

[ncbearman]

I have helped a few guys get set up to ss media tumble their brass and they have encouraged me to “share”. :veryconfu It’s really pretty basic. I got a dual drum rock tumbler from Harbor freight ($45) the refill pack from STM website at the top of this page http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/stainless-tumbling-media-refresh.html ($30 w/shipping), Dawn dish soap ($5), Lemishine from grocery store ($5),Citric Acid for canning ($5) and a used hair dryer from Goodwill ($5).

The process is; I size and de-prime my brass before tumbling. The ss will clean the primer pockets this way (we all love clean primer pockets). Then I put 1# of ss media in each container, fill with brass but leave some room for it to “tumble”. Then I cover the top of the brass with Dawn, Lemishine, Citric acid. I let mine tumble overnight, sometimes it goes for 12 hours. I then lay out the brass in a “row” on a towel with the hair dryer at the end. Then fold the towel over to make a tunnel. Let it dry for a few minutes, rotate the brass, and let dry for a few more minutes. The brass will be too hot to hold and dry as can be. Let it cool and put it away.

A few points; for some reason Dawn dish soap works better than anything else I have tried. It cleans the brass. The Lemishine is important as it is what shines the brass. I am told the citric acid is what helps the brass hold its shine. Eventually over time though I think the brass will take on it’s “bronze” appearance once it sets for a long time. So the citric acid is not necessary for the purpose of cleaning the brass.

You can get about 200 9mm cases in each container. They say 3# is what you want in there ideally including the ss media. It's important to be sure and leave room for the brass to tumble. That is how it will get the cleanest. You also may not have to tumble as long as I do, but I put it in at night before I go to bed. There are some really nice set ups on here for larger quantity tumbling and someday if I have a need (or not) I would love to get set up to tumble a whole 5 gallon bucket at a time. But this is a small way to get great results. Once you do this I guarantee you won't use vibratory any more.

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[rainyday]

ncbearman, if you get dirty or sun blackened brass, you can use just 1/4 cup of liquid dish soap(no lemi shine) and tumbel for 4-6 hours and brass will be clean(including any blackened brass) after resizing and trimming I put back in with 1 ounce of rcbs liquid sidewinder cleaner. the sidewinder liquid will hold the polish look for along time

[gzig5]

If you don't want to mess with the hair dryer, I pat the cases mostly dry in an old towel and then spread them on a paper towel lined cookie sheet. Set the oven to 170-200 and let it go for 20-30 minutes and turn it off. Let them cool for half hour or so and you get perfectly dry cases without water spots. If your oven has a convection (fan) mode, it goes a little quicker and you can use the 170 setting. 200 degrees won't hurt the brass (or paper towels) either. The paper towels stop water stains on the wife's pans and on the brass. After sizing and washing off the lube , some high-power shooters are running them in corn cob media treated with Nu Finish car wax to keep the brass real shiny.

[Atonic]

Skip the citric acid, that's the active ingredient in LemiShine. Or skip the Lemi.

I worry about your hair dryer over heating and catching fire. I use a forced air food dehydrator.

[ncbearman]

[QUOTE=I worry about your hair dryer over heating and catching fire. I use a forced air food dehydrator.[/QUOTE]

It literally only takes at the most 3 minutes to dry the brass. And as you can see the heat is escaping out the end of the towel tunnel.

Again.........2 to 3 minutes and it's dry, clean, spot free. It takes longer to cool down than it did to dry it. Why wait 20 to 30 minutes?

[rainyday]

I dump into a tumbler full of corn and run for 15 minutes.

[max range]

After my brass is tumbled in SS pins, dawn & citric acid or Lemishine I sift the pins out, and dump the brass in corncob media and NuFinish. No drying step involved. Then I put them in locking GL size sandwich bags with a little VCI paper in it. Shine lasts and the brass is clean as vigin, unprimed brass.

[SSGOldfart]

Okay guys how long does the SS pins last?? I still use a couple of sidewinders with dawn dish soap and a 1/2tsp lemon juice tumble about a hour or two, then oven dry for about 30 minutes@ 200 some time I just let them dry overnight with out using the oven.

[Bert2368]

Used on brass in a plastic tumbler barrel, SS pins last more or less longer than you will-

[Gremlin460]

my 5# of ss media has lasted 12 months, just added an extra 10# to the drum so I can do full load cleaning. once my brass is cleaned and separated from the pins I flush with clean water and add a teaspoon of the cheap spray degreaser in the water, holds the shine, removes water spots and leaves the cases slightly lubricated for loading..

I tumble 1k at a time for 80 mins.

Media will last forever, only time you need to top up media is to replenish lost pins.

[jimmyUT]

SO, I love my HF Tumblers, but hate the original Drums and how hard that flimsy metal is to open. Here is my solution

Ok, so this is a pretty easy project and you won’t use those drums that came with the tumbler after you use these


So here is a list of material all can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes

1. 4 inch wide PVC pipe you need a 9 inch piece, so depending on how many you want to make is what you need to buy. A 2 foot section is about 12 bucks, but and 8 foot section isn’t that much more if you want to make a few
2. An Oatey 4 inch Gripper Plug ( red cap in picture) – about 4 bucks this will come with a wing nut- you’ll need to replace the wing nut with a 9/16 nut – about 10 cents
3. A 4in PVC knock out test cap- about 50 cents
4. Blue goo for PVC
5. Skateboard/ grip tape – I found a roll of like 20 feet for 5 bucks on amazon, but they sell it at HD/lowes as well


The PVC pipe needs to be cut to 9 inches. You’ll need to blue goo the test cap into one end. Then remove the wing nut off the Oatey gripper and replace with the 9/16 nut so you can use a socket wrench to tighten and loosen the gripper plug for filling/draining. The wing nut will also get in the way of spinning action on the tumbler. Then take a strip of grip tape and wrap it around the entire diameter of the pipe. I place mine about 1/3 up from the bottom. This pvc is too smooth to spin on the rods without this. Load it up with brass, pins, water soap and lemi shine, and rachet down the Oatey cap until its good and snug.

Here is a Picture of the 3 I made. I have 2 tumblers, so I made a third drum so I can load one up when the other two are tumbling then just drop in on when I go to drain the other

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[ncbearman]

^^^Jimmy, that's awesome. I have been wondering a good way to do that. I'm doin that this week. This is an awesome forum! Thanks again
-Russ

[flylot]

Genius! Going to Home Depot in the morning. Many thanks for the info.

[SSGOldfart]

my 5# of ss media has lasted 12 months, just added an extra 10# to the drum so I can do full load cleaning. once my brass is cleaned and separated from the pins I flush with clean water and add a teaspoon of the cheap spray degreaser in the water, holds the shine, removes water spots and leaves the cases slightly lubricated for loading..

I tumble 1k at a time for 80 mins.

Media will last forever, only time you need to top up media is to replenish lost pins.


Thanks I'm looking into it,I guess my sidewinders will be fine with SS pins.

[Gremlin460]

I did the same thing last year but used excess PVC pipe I had laying around, also added some plastic inside paddles to stir the mix so it actually does tumble, not just slide in a single mass.
http://s881.photobucket.com/user/Gremlin460/media/DSC_00021_zps8526d049.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26

Scroll left to see more on the construction, the whole thing is just under 2 foot long.

[ncbearman]

SO, I love my HF Tumblers, but hate the original Drums and how hard that flimsy metal is to open. Here is my solution

Ok, so this is a pretty easy project and you won’t use those drums that came with the tumbler after you use these


So here is a list of material all can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes

1. 4 inch wide PVC pipe you need a 9 inch piece, so depending on how many you want to make is what you need to buy. A 2 foot section is about 12 bucks, but and 8 foot section isn’t that much more if you want to make a few
2. An Oatey 4 inch Gripper Plug ( red cap in picture) – about 4 bucks this will come with a wing nut- you’ll need to replace the wing nut with a 9/16 nut – about 10 cents
3. A 4in PVC knock out test cap- about 50 cents
4. Blue goo for PVC
5. Skateboard/ grip tape – I found a roll of like 20 feet for 5 bucks on amazon, but they sell it at HD/lowes as well


The PVC pipe needs to be cut to 9 inches. You’ll need to blue goo the test cap into one end. Then remove the wing nut off the Oatey gripper and replace with the 9/16 nut so you can use a socket wrench to tighten and loosen the gripper plug for filling/draining. The wing nut will also get in the way of spinning action on the tumbler. Then take a strip of grip tape and wrap it around the entire diameter of the pipe. I place mine about 1/3 up from the bottom. This pvc is too smooth to spin on the rods without this. Load it up with brass, pins, water soap and lemi shine, and rachet down the Oatey cap until its good and snug.

Here is a Picture of the 3 I made. I have 2 tumblers, so I made a third drum so I can load one up when the other two are tumbling then just drop in on when I go to drain the other

128485


Jimmy! I did it. This is great thanks for the update. 1 tube is easier to handle than 2. The only thing I changed was I spray glued sandpaper on my tube to get it to turn. I saw the price of that stair/tread tape and that would have made the mod cost more than the tumbler.................well not quite but almost. I think the whole thing cost $15 or less. They even had 3"x 24" PVC precut.

Great Post!

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[zuke]

I dry my brass on the heat regester's on the floor. Furnace come's on quite a bit at -30

[WarEagleEd]

I like the single barrel for larger quantities of brass. I need to make one of these. Thanks for the materials list/instructions.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Use a piece of stiff rubber tubing to attach the centre of a screw-top drum, base or lid, to any adequate geared motor. Then float the drum in a container of water.

[goofyoldfart]

guys the reason for the citric acid as well as the lemi-shine is the lemi-shine is a cleaner as well as having citric in it. But the citric acid added passivies the brass and has been proven to help keep the corrosion down for several years. God Bless to all and theirs.
Goofy aka Godfrey