Stainless Steel Chips

[Babbott213]

Anyone here using the stainless steel chips for wet tumbling rather than the stainless steel pins?

[Walter Laich]

doesn't seem like anyone has.

suggestion: give it a try and report back. Do a small test run just in case.

off the top of my head I would worry about them getting jammed in the cases but that's just a WAG

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Chips like out from under a lathe? If so, I don't see why they wouldn't work, so long as they were fairly consistent in size. Coming off a tool with a nice chipbreaker would make some nice chips. Cool idea!

[Babbott213]

I have been using them for about two weeks now. Used the pins for around 2+ years and I don't see me going back to the pins. Chips is much faster, haven't had not one to get stuck in the flash hole and with the .223 brass, the chips just slide out where the pins would get packed in and was a pain to remove. Also, with the chips the cleaning time is half that than with the pins. So far, I'm happy with them. I get them from a guy Ryan Fannin, he's in GA. His company is Southern Shine Tumblers. He's got a Facebook page but I don't think that he has a website yet.

[Babbott213]

Here's a link to his FaceBook page. https://www.facebook.com/southernshinetumblers/

Here is a picture of the chips.

[Babbott213]

Just thought I would see if anyone else was using them. I'm not a big time loader, but I load up a good bit when I do load and this has increased my cleaning time. Just thought I would pass the information along.

[jmorris]

Chips is much faster,

and this has increased my cleaning time.

How long did you run pins and how long are you running the chips?

What is the price difference?

Are the chips magnetic?

[mac60]

How long did you run pins and how long are you running the chips?

What is the price difference?

Are the chips magnetic?

jmorris - Your last question was my first. If they're not magnetic that would definitely complicate the separation of the media from the clean brass.

[Babbott213]

They are magnetic and I ran a Batch of 50 .223 cases for a half hour just to clean them up a bit for de-capping and sizing and they were good enough for final clean. I was amazed. Never that fast with the pins. Pins I'd run for a hour plus. Price I paid was $37for 5 pound and that was shipping included.

[Babbott213]

I just cleaned 60 pcs of .45acp brass for approx. 45 minutes. Here is some before and after photos just to show the end results.

[dudel]

I just cleaned 60 pcs of .45acp brass for approx. 45 minutes. Here is some before and after photos just to show the end results.

I get pretty much the same results with 15 minutes in a citric acid bath (see sticky in the cast Boolits section) and I don't use pins or chips or tumbler.

[Walter Laich]

I've got a STM tumbler and I wonder if these would damage the rubber pad between the drum and the top?

[Babbott213]

I doubt it would. I've been running them in a rubber container that came with my tumbler from harbor freight and I can't tell that it's doing anything to the container myself.

[lightman]

I use a carbide blade on my chop saw, and those look a lot like the chips that it produces. I may have to scrounge a piece of scrap stainless and make a few pounds of chips to try.

[zomby woof]

Did you have to call the SS chip guy? I can't see a way to order.

[bosterr]

Click the link in post #5 above. I sent him a PM yesterday through Facebook and he answered almost immediately.

[zomby woof]

Click the link in post #5 above. I sent him a PM yesterday through Facebook and he answered almost immediately.

OK. Do you have to call him to place an order. I see no way of placing an order on the FB page. Or, I'm blind.

[Babbott213]

He'll contact you and you tell him what you want and where to ship it to and then he will get you a price with shipping back to you. Then you can go to PayPal and send the payment to him then.

[Walter Laich]

OK, gave them a try with MIXED results

They seem to be a good substitute for the pins. Not sure if they' quicker as I ran them for same length of time as pins.

BIG problem is the cutting (?) oil that was all over mine. I had to run the brass through corn cob media to remove it.

today I tried to get the oil off with gasoline, 3 times with fresh each time. Topped it off with a trip through acetone then a bath in Dawn dishwashing as Dawn is known to cut oil, at least on ducks and geese.

I still had a coating of oil on my hands!!! not pleased (you can tell by the 3 exclamation points)

For you tool and die or metal workers out there: any idea what type it might be and more importantly what can I use to remove it?

thanks

[Outer Rondacker]

I run a thumbler's tumbler. I used to use pins. Had a friend who go into reloading and I gave him my pins as a gift. He wanted them so bad. For a few years now I have been running a shot of lemon juice from Aldi's. A dash of dawn dish soap and hot water. Five mins in the spin and then hit up a hot water rinse. For small batches like 25 223 or 75 9mm I use an empty one pound powder jug with the same method only I do it by hand. One min let it sit five then one more mins of what mos would call the powder coat swirl. Rinse and so on. You tell me how do they look. The pins you posted up look sharp to me and I do not want anything sharp rubbing on my brass. They also look like they might not sure but might get stuck in the primer pockets.