SS pin tumbler and media setup...what do you use?

[FISH4BUGS]

OK...I am one step closer to starting to tumble with SS pins.
My 30+ year old RCBS vibratory tumbler cleans 'em up sure....but even with NEW media it gives me a ho-hum kinda shine. It does an ADEQUATE job but certainly not as good as SS pins do.
Yes, I know they don't shoot any better but it is a "pride in your work" kinda thing for me. It also allows a better way to catch imperfections and damage in the brass when it is shiny.
What is the hot setup? What kind of tumbler do you guys recommend? Where do you get the SS pins? How long do they last? How much do they cost?
I am at the point after 40 years where I have everything I need to cast and reload thousands of rounds per caliber.....which I do in my manic casting and reloading sessions.
Kindly opine if you polish your brass with SS pins. I need to learn more.
Thank you.

[rancher1913]

done it both ways and for me the pins are a a lot more work for a little bit of return, I am not going for aesthetic competitions at the range so brass that is a little dull is ok. the magnet would be a big help but you still have to make sure a pin does not get left in the brass. dry you can use a sifter and separate them fairly easy but wet those little buggers stick to everything.

[salpal48]

If you decide to Buy a new Rotary tumbler. . You should Look @ two. Lortone QT 12 or Thumler Model B. Both are well Made. Made in USA. all steel . Good motors . will last forever.
I will not Advise using Pins stopped Years ago. People use them . I don't . prefer dry tumble.
You can Look at Frankford . But there all Plastic and Poor choice. Lyman same as Frankford. Not for me

[MyFlatline]

I have been doing it wet for a few years now. Started with the Thumlers unit, does well. IMO, it is cheaply made, I made several modifications to it and it works well. For me it didn't hold enough brass, so with the help of some here and other places on the web I built a larger one.
205451

Separating the pins is not all that bad, keep the brass in the water as you "fluff" it. I have one bucket with the bottom cut out and hardware cloth in the bottom which sits inside another bucket of water. As I fluff the brass the pins fall to the bottom. Some people have used the 5 gallon media separator in a bucket of water with success also. I am very happy with my results, an hour and a half max and they are super clean.

I got my pins off ebay I think, they were quite reasonable. I add a squirt of Dawn dish soap and a shake of lemon shine to the water, recently heard of adding Cream of Tarter to help also. Haven't ran any in a while. Hope my ramblings helped.

[Eddie17]

My Frankford Arsnel Rotary Tumbler has been running strong for 3 years with over 50,000 cases processed. Still using the included SS pins included, I don’t think they will wear out. Will loose them faster!
My 2 cents. Also sits on a very small foot print.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Home built unit here, made all myself and it cleans immensely well and does large batches, about 2500-3000 pieces of 9mm per load. The pins I got from Bullseye reloading? They are of the Ultra .047 variety that won't stick in flash holes. I don't think I'll be alive long enough to wear them out! Lose them on the other hand...

[Geezer in NH]

My Frankford Arsnel Rotary Tumbler has been running strong for 3 years with over 50,000 cases processed. Still using the included SS pins included, I don’t think they will wear out. Will loose them faster!
My 2 cents. Also sits on a very small foot print.Yep got one 2 years ago and never had so much clean brass!!!

[lightman]

I use a unit made by "Big Dawg" with their large drum. I have a 15# Thumblers drum that I use on smaller batches of brass, on the same tumbler. It's a large, heavy duty and expensive machine. The pins sell for around $5 per pound and a 15# capacity tumbler needs 5 #. They don't wear out but it's easy to loose a few. You can buy them from places like Midway or from the SSM folks that advertise at the top of the page. If you deprime the cases before tumbling this method will clean the primer pockets and it aids in drying.
A favorite formula to use is LemiShine and Dawn. You can substitute an automotive wash and wax for the Dawn and have a protective coating on the brass.
About 1-1/2 hours will clean once fired brass and 4 hours will clean even the worst looking brass.
The hardness of your water will determine the amount of LemiShine needed but a 9mm case full is a good place to start, and about a table spoon of wash and wax.
You'll have to experiment with drying methods because some types of water leaves spots worse than others.

[crowbuster]

My Frankford Arsnel Rotary Tumbler has been running strong for 3 years with over 50,000 cases processed. Still using the included SS pins included, I don’t think they will wear out. Will loose them faster!
My 2 cents. Also sits on a very small foot print.

Same here. 3yr and a truck load of brass processed. Bought the bigger pins from orloso here on the site. Got tired of the death dust and dull brass from my vibratory units. Just have to plan ahead a bit more with the pins. extra time to deprime and drying time.

[jdfoxinc]

Beware tumbling military 5.56. They have a thicker web at the base and pins get stuck crosswise over the flash hole. I bought a 5 gal bucket of mixed from a local range I trust, and roundup bending 6 Lee decapper pins before discovering the cases with SS pins stuck in them.

[Eddie17]

Have not had this problem myself!

[sqlbullet]

Another Frankford arsenal user that is very happy. Two or three years and probably about 40K rounds. Still on the original pins and the are still workin great.

[osteodoc08]

Just bought the Lyman unit as it was on sale and had an additional % off coupon. Just over $120 for me to give it a whirl. I have some old dusty 30-06 casings in there now

[NyFirefighter357]

I love my Frankford Arsenal Planetary Tumbler. It comes with 5lb pins, separators that mount in tumbler & sample cleaning solution. I bought another 5lbs pins, I use 1/4tsp citric acid and 2 drops Dawn. Some people use concentrated car wash with wax, I'm about to try that myself. If the brass is very dirty I tumble for an hour and replace the cleaning solution. After the tumbling is done, I pour off the solution then I put the separator on one side and dump the pins into a 2.5gal pail. I shake as much water/pins out and Refill barrel with water & add a high strength magnet. I tumble for a few minutes to rinse and catch any left over pins. I pour off the water and pull out the magnet & pins. I shake the tumbler dry into the bucket with the separator then add a few dry strips of car chamois I tumble for a few minutes and the brass is pretty much dry. Dump out on brass onto a terry cloth towel and let air dry. I also suggest the F/A magnet to pick up the pins. Good luck, Jay

[DerekP Houston]

Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler here (FART!). Still using the SS pins that came with it, I use a squirt of dawn + lemishine for my mix. I spin it in a dillon media separator full of water to get the suds out and pins. I've just started using the oven to drive them to avoid waiting, I towel dry first then pop them in the oven for a quick heat/dry.

Transitioned the old tumbler with walnut media to my "preclean" cycle. Once through that, then deprime, and off to the SS pins. Working on getting 100% reliable function on my 380 so I'm going a bit slower and cleaning more thoroughly.

[varmintpopper]

This is My home made pin tumbler. 25 Lbs of SS pins 3 to 4 Thousand 9mm cases. About 1-1/2 hours of run time makes cases look like jewlery inside and out. (cases sized and primer punched before tumbleing)
Expensive to build but worth the effort. 5 Gal. bucket slides in and out of a five gallon bucket. The bucket has a water tight screw-on lid.
Good Shooting
Lindy





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[Shepherd2]

I bought one of the Frankford Arsenal units about a year ago and I really like the results I get from it. Using it is more work than using a vibrating tumbler but the cases being clean inside and out with clean primer pockets is worth it to me.

[rototerrier]

Another vote for the FART. 2 years and not a single issue. Clean and Purdy brass. Having clean primer pockets is the nicest thing. Primers all seat consistently.

[snowwolfe]

My Frankford Arsnel Rotary Tumbler has been running strong for 3 years with over 50,000 cases processed. Still using the included SS pins included, I don’t think they will wear out. Will loose them faster!
My 2 cents. Also sits on a very small foot print.

Same one I purchased last month. They include 5 pounds of stainless pins with it. I found mine for $156 shipped on Ebay NIB.

[mold maker]

I still use the Thumblers Tumbler bought in the "70s and pins from STM. At one period I bought an additional STM unit due to volume processing.
I always De-prime first, to avoid Berdan primers, and nested cases. 1/2-1 ts of Citric acid and two drops of dawn cleans even the worst brass. separating under water rids the brass of pins. Use a magnet to collect any errant pins.
A turn in CC yields brilliant brass inside and out without dangerous dust. Polished brass is easier to size with less wear and tear on your dies. It also makes inspecting easy.

[Reddirt62]

I too have a F.A.R.T. and it works very well.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[D Crockett]

I made mine out of a copping machine I got out of a print shop and for the drum to put the pins and brass in I used a piece of 4in pvc with a screw on end cap works like a charm D Crockett

[FISH4BUGS]

Well gang, I learned something from these posts.
1) I think i am just simply TOO impressed with ridiculously shiny brass. They DO shine and they DO look nicer, that much is for sure.
2) It is not cheap to get into this. I can't see spending the money to get into SS pin tumbling particularly since I already have a tumbler. In a similar vein, I have resisted purchasing a Dillon Power Trimmer for exactly the same reason. $400 is a lot to do something that my Forster trimmer does, albeit much faster.
3) I can paint interior/exterior, work with computers, do yard work and garden with the best of them, but any mechanical capabilities and I fail miserably. I couldn't build one of these contraptions like you guys did if my life depended on it. As Dirty Harry said "...a man's got to know his limitations".
4) It seems like a lot of work to get that new brass shine.
5) This site is the center of the casting universe. I thank each of you for your input. Now I can make my decision with facts and not speculation.
The Forster is fine. The 30 year old RCBS vibratory tumbler is fine.
Winters are long here in NH. What else am I gonna do?
Thanks to all.

[bstone5]

I have a Lortone with two rubber drums. Used the Lortone to moly coat jacketed bullets for a long time. For me all that was required to purchase the stainless steel pins. The Lortone is over 40 years old and had to change the rubber drive belt one time about five years ago.
At one time we tumbled broken class to polish and round off the sharp edges, the Lortone would run for two days polishing the glass. We polished a lot of glass with the Lortone.
The Lortone has had a lot of hours of operation.

[edp2k]

> I spin it in a dillon media separator full of water to get the suds out and pins.

This is the key to quickly and cleanly separate the brass from the pins.
Get the Dillon large media seperator.
It's a 2 piece squirrel cage and a sturdy plastic tub.
Take everything outside and fill tub with water.
Uncork SS tumbler vessel and pour off most of the dirty water until just before you start spilling pins.
Fill vessel with COLD water to top and pour off again.
Now dump entire contents into open squirrel cage while it's straddling the water filled tub.
Close cage, turn cage crank for about a minute, and 100% of all the pins are out of the brass and in the bottom
of the tub.
Remove cage, pour off 99% of water from tub, and pour wet pins back into vessel.
Cap vessel until next load.
Dump cage onto towel and perform hammock/shoe shine.
Then dump brass onto home made drying table made of scrap 2x2 lumber with a fine mesh screen stretched and stapled
on the top. Point fan at brass and it will be dry in a few hours.
You need air moving for brass, especially rifle brass, to dry inside.

[FISH4BUGS]

> I spin it in a dillon media separator full of water to get the suds out and pins.

This is the key to quickly and cleanly separate the brass from the pins.
Get the Dillon large media seperator.
It's a 2 piece squirrel cage and a sturdy plastic tub.
Take everything outside and fill tub with water.
Uncork SS tumbler vessel and pour off most of the dirty water until just before you start spilling pins.
Fill vessel with COLD water to top and pour off again.
Now dump entire contents into open squirrel cage while it's straddling the water filled tub.
Close cage, turn cage crank for about a minute, and 100% of all the pins are out of the brass and in the bottom
of the tub.
Remove cage, pour off 99% of water from tub, and pour wet pins back into vessel.
Cap vessel until next load.
Dump cage onto towel and perform hammock/shoe shine.
Then dump brass onto home made drying table made of scrap 2x2 lumber with a fine mesh screen stretched and stapled
on the top. Point fan at brass and it will be dry in a few hours.
You need air moving for brass, especially rifle brass, to dry inside.

Which illustrates my point #4 perfectly.
I use the Dillon large separator anyway, so I get what you are saying.

[jbutts6785]

I use an 80s vintage Thumlers. I have tried both ceramic and steel pins, and the pins seem to do better. Just a few drops of Dawn in the water does the trick.

[Dpmsman]

I also have a Frankfurt. It's been great! Went on a week long brass cleaning binge after I got it. I use dish soap and lemi shine to get the brass nice and clean. Don't spend the extra money on the fancy cleaners. It comes with a case separator as well. I just unscrew one side put on the case separator and dump out the pins and water into a bucket. Just refill with water, dump and Shake. If you do that 3 times the brass will be sparkling clean with no residue on them. Good luck with your choice.

[NyFirefighter357]

This is a capacity chart for F.A.R.T Media and brass for different cals.
https://i.imgur.com/5k54jx0.jpg