SS pin tumbling with HF tumbler

[Mauser48]

I would look to start tumbling some of my brass with a harbor freight dual drum tumbler. Im looking to use it for my larger caliber brass and my precision rifle brass, or anything that is just really dirty. Im currently using a thumlers tumbler with corncob and walnut media. It works good but I want to be able to clean the inside of the cases well. Some of my brass gets a lot of carbon build up in the case neck making it very hard to size. Im only tumbling about 50 or so 30-06 size cases at a time. What are some of your guys favorite recipes? It looks like dawn and lemishine are some favorites. If you use lemishine, how do you keep the cases from corroding? What is the ratio of water to cases to media? Is the media a standard size? If not, what size do you prefer? Whats the best way to separate the media? Any info is greatly appreciated. Pics are always great too!

[Smoke4320]

I use a Thumbler B put 100 or so 308 cases a squirt of Dawn and a teaspoon of lemonshine fill 3/4 full of water and 2 hours later have like new brass
rise in hot water or in summer cold water and sit in sun to dry
never had lemonshine corrode a case

[gunarea]

Hey Mauser48
Add in a couple capfuls of some cheap automotive wash-n-wax to keep the tarnish slowed down. The ones which state they have carnuba wax do best. Just now I am using the Dollar General brand with good results. Don't mix calibers that can nest into each other. A regular size bath towel folded in half with the sides sewn together makes a great sack for drying brass in. Either hand agitation or tying the top closed and thrown into the dryer with a load of clothes.
Roy

[ncbearman]

I did a beginner thread on this once but can't find it. Smoke is spot on. Only thing I do different is lay out my brass on a towel with a hair dryer at the end. I open it up a couple times and rotate brass front to back and in 3 minutes or less the brass is too hot to pick up and it's dry. The other thing is I now buy citric acid in bulk from here http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=citric instead of Lemishine. Much cheaper. I also modified my HF tumbler to use one tub rather than two. Not my original idea, (got it from a member here). Oh yeah and go here http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.co...cts/media.html for media. The 2# refresh kit is enough to fill HF tumbler. A vendor sponsor on the first page.

[Walter Laich]

Instead of Dawn I use Armor-All Wash and Wax. After a year by 38 Sp brass has darkened slightly but still is shiny. Everything else is the same

[OS OK]

Keep a small magnet around to pick up those 'pesky' pins…my fat paws have a hard time of it with short fingernails. There are brass tumblers that separate media from cases over a small 3 gallon bucket, Frankfort Arsenal is one…Fill the bucket with water and empty your tumbler into the rotating basket and as the brass flips over in the tub water they get all the pins washed out easy. A few pins always splash out on pavement with the water but that is what the magnet is for.
Roll the wet brass in a towel and agitate back and forth to get the majority of the water off…sun dry or oven dry at lowest setting to make darn sure there is no water left in the cases. Daddah…beautiful new looking cases with primer pockets, flash holes and inside cases looking like the outside!

OS OK

[Bayou52]

I also use auto wash and wax (Blue Coral or Armor-All work equally well). I'm using a Thumlers Model B high-speed. The recipe is 1 ounce of wash and wax and 1/4 TSP of Lemi-Shine. Tumbling times vary between 2 and 4 hours depending on the severity of the tarnish on the brasses.

Pic of typical results:



Happy Tumbling -

Bayou52

[Mauser48]

Do you guys take a lee universal decapping die to the brass first? Im going to dry the brass off in the toaster at 200 for about 15 minutes to get them dry. I have done that with the ultrasonic and it works fine. The ultrasonic has proven to be great for gun parts but I haven't had good results with it for brass.

[Bayou52]

Do you guys take a lee universal decapping die to the brass first?

Yes, decap before wet tumbling as the SS pins will clean the primer pockets.

[C. Latch]

I just finished off a jug of Armor All Wash N Wax and will grab another jug next time I'm at walmart. It works great. Maybe a teaspoon per drum (I also have a HF dual drum tumbler) plus 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid, one pound of pins, fill the drum 2/3 full of brass then add HOT water. If you can tumble outside on a sunny day to keep the water hot, that's even better.

Rinse COLD to 'set' the wax on the brass, then dry using air, warm air, a towel, or some combination of the three. I usually start by towel-drying then let a fan blow over the brass, still on the towel.

I strongly suggest decapping and/or resizing before tumbling, so you can have clean primer pockets. Also, it is possible for the primers to corrode into the pockets if you don't decap soon after tumbling. I've picked up older range brass before that had been wet for a while and the primer base popped off leaving the outside of the primer in the brass, rendering it useless. I'm not sure exactly how/why this happens but because of that I do not like tumbling brass that hasn't been deprimed.

I've found that an hour will get brass clean enough to use, four hours will make primer pockets very clean.

[dbmet]

Do you have any more information on the tub you use ?

D

I did a beginner thread on this once but can't find it. Smoke is spot on. Only thing I do different is lay out my brass on a towel with a hair dryer at the end. I open it up a couple times and rotate brass front to back and in 3 minutes or less the brass is too hot to pick up and it's dry. The other thing is I now buy citric acid in bulk from here http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=citric instead of Lemishine. Much cheaper. I also modified my HF tumbler to use one tub rather than two. Not my original idea, (got it from a member here). Oh yeah and go here http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.co...cts/media.html for media. The 2# refresh kit is enough to fill HF tumbler. A vendor sponsor on the first page.

[ncbearman]

All materials from a box store Lowes or Home Depot...........

4" PVC cut to 9" long
Attachment 164897

Cap glued to bottom
Stair tread tape wrapped around the bottom to help turn in tumbler
Attachment 164898


Oatey 4" gripper cap
Attachment 164899

[dbmet]

Awesome. Thanks!!

[MrWolf]

Use the dual HF tumbler also. Deprime with Harvey Deprimer, same basic recipe, use a magnet, and dry with an old food dehydrator. Put it on about 100 degrees and forget it. Next morning nice dry brass.

[Mauser48]

I have been putting off getting this because of other projects. I realized yesterday that I could really use one. Today I printed out a 20% off coupon and headed to harbor freight. I got the dual drum one so I could tumble about 50 30-06 at once no problem. Now I need a lee universal decapping die and some pins. Anyone know where I can get 2 pounds of pins for cheap? I saw a place online had 1 pound packs for 6.50 but they wanted $13 for shipping!

[Rebel Dave]

Mauser
I just got the HF dual drum also Used it once, as stock. I got 5lbs of SS pins from E-Bay from guntap.com@eBay $32.99 shipped, from Texas. Google stainles pin tumbling media, and you should be able to find it. I have used it once, and it did areal nice job on 100 rds of .357 brass.
I'm going to convert the two drums to a single PVC pipe unit also.

Rebel Dave

[ncbearman]

I have been putting off getting this because of other projects. I realized yesterday that I could really use one. Today I printed out a 20% off coupon and headed to harbor freight. I got the dual drum one so I could tumble about 50 30-06 at once no problem. Now I need a lee universal decapping die and some pins. Anyone know where I can get 2 pounds of pins for cheap? I saw a place online had 1 pound packs for 6.50 but they wanted $13 for shipping!

See post #4 and#12 of this thread.

[mold maker]

It's a one-time investment until ya wind up with buckets of brass and several big tumblers. I know it's hard to pay silver spot price for cut-offs of SS wire but bite the bullet. Whan Ya realize the time savings and see the like new brass it's addictive. I now have 2 Thumblers and a Rebel 17.
I went back and redid all my brass inventory.
Be sire to have one of those quick release magnets to pick up the stray pins.

[John Boy]

What are some of your guys favorite recipes?

Any of the 3 rotaries: 2mm Kramer K-Polish media - Strat-O-Sheen burnishing solution (3oz powder in 1 gallon distilled water and 1oz of Scrubbing Bubbles!


Also use the formula for derusting, in this case nuts & bolt parts that were in Super Storm Sandy

[Bayou52]

"Anyone know where I can get 2 pounds of pins for cheap? "

Here you go:

​http://www.bullseye-reloading.com/Pe...ing-Media.html