How many pounds SS tumbling media is right amount?

[RogerDat]

I bought a used Frankford Arsenal Reloading Tumbler and it only had 4# of stainless steel pin media. I know it had 5# when new so I ordered a 2.5# refresher pack of Guntap pins for $20 from Amazon.

My question is how much of those new pins should I add? Any reason not to dump them all in so instead of 5# I have 6.5# of pins in my FART? Seems like having a pound and a half sitting on the shelf in reserve doesn't contribute to todays tumbling. Am I giving up anything other than the additional 1.5# of brass that won't fit in a full tumbler with the additional pin weight.

I guess if the same question would apply to any of the tumblers. Any downside to adding "extra" pins? Any benefits?

[jmort]

I run 5 lbs of stainless media in my FART
But I switched to the chips
Cut cleaning time to half or less
Regardless, 5 lbs of stainless media in a FART
I too would like to hear from anyone who has used more or less than 5 lbs of stainless
I have done zero of media and it gets the external to good and the interior to so-so but functional

[RogerDat]

At 4# it was sort of fussy about the amount of brass I could do and how fast. Or so it seemed to me. More 30-06 cases I added seemed to take way longer and not do as good of job. 100 45 ACP cases were no problem, 50 30-06 did good in less than 2 hours. Up that to a hundred plus rifle cases and the brass just wasn't as well cleaned and polished inside. Primer pockets either.

[jmort]

I have not reduced the media from 5lbs
There has to be a sweet spot, 4 lbs???, with the FART
I need to experiment as you are doing
Makes sense to not numb-nut it as I have been doing

[Drew P]

0#. I gave up on the pins and life is great. No media to deal with. I don’t mind dirty pockets that much I guess.

[swamp]

I just got a new one. Ran a load of 44 mag with the 5lbs of pins. Seemed to take too long and the primer pockets not quite clean. Next batch added an extra pound of pins and it did a better job all around.
swamp

[poppy42]

Are you talking about the Frankford Arsenal bibrating Tumblr that you normally use corn cob or walnut shells? Do you just substitute SS pins for corn cob? I was thinking of trying that but I didn’t know if you could use the vibrating tumbler.

[swamp]

It is the rotating drum for wet tumbling.
swamp

[swamp]

It is the rotating drum for wet tumbling.
swamp

[RogerDat]

Had 4# because previous owner only had 4# still in it.
I think it is time for some empirical data collection. I have 4# in there. I have some brass in sufficient quantity to repeat test with increasing amounts of pins so.....

How about I run the following tests. I picked one hour because part of the point of this is to have the brass clean quickly. I could make that 1.5 hours if folks think that would be more appropriate amount of time. All of this brass was already washed with a touch of citric acid and run through the vibrating tumbler with some crushed walnut so it's not horribly dirty but also not cleaned inside or in primer pockets.


With 4# of pins for one hour.

• Bread loaf pan of 38 special.
• 250 count of 223 cases.

With 5# of pins for one hour

• Bread loaf pan of 38 special.
• 250 count of 223 cases.

With 6.5# of pins for one hour

• Bread loaf pan of 38 special.
• 250 count of 223 cases.

Maybe add some quantity of 7.62 x 39 for an hour to each test. Afraid I don't have any large necked rifle brass that needs polishing in quantity to do repeat tests. I do have enough 45.colt but I don't think that will be significantly different test than the 38 special.

Will use measured amount of dawn dishwashing soap and measured amount of lemishine. I'm thinking level table spoon of soap and teaspoon of lemishine. With drum full of water. I don't use a lot of lemishine to reduce chance of "red brass".

Comments or suggestions before I begin the testing? While people consider that question I'll go start depriming the 38 special brass. Was looking for an excuse to do that brass anyway. But being all stocked up on loaded rounds.... well now I have a reason to do it.

[RogerDat]

It is the rotating drum for wet tumbling.
swamp

Yes the rock tumbler style with water and soap.

[poppy42]

Thanks for the clarification that’s what I thought. I didn’t think ss would work in mine. But I wanted to make sure

[swamp]

I would be worried that the 223 brass would get into the 38 brass. With the pins I think that if that happened, you would never get the brass apart. Don't shoot 223. Will it fit into a 38 or 357 case?
swamp

[RogerDat]

I would be worried that the 223 brass would get into the 38 brass. With the pins I think that if that happened, you would never get the brass apart. Don't shoot 223. Will it fit into a 38 or 357 case?
swamp

The calibers would be done in own batch. I think the pins increase the chance of a wedged case if anything can fit inside anything else. Unlike corncob or crushed walnut hulls the steel pins do NOT have any give to allow you to get the stuck inner case out. I had a .22 stuck inside a 38 not too long ago. The 22 had just slipped in along the way.

[NyFirefighter357]

[lightman]

It will be interesting to see your results. In a 15# drum I run about 6# each of brass and media and enough water to cover the brass about an inch. I set the timer for 2 hours unless the brass is really grubby. It seems like more media than brass is better than more brass than media.

[Bayou52]

For me, the ratio of pounds of pins to pounds of brass is roughly 1 to 1.

Bayou52

[ChuckO]

Don't have a FART, but rather a home built one. I've found that the chemicals used are much more important than the ratio of pins to cases. I use 1 tablespoon of automotive wash/wax and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid for each gallon of water. I fill the tumbler with enough water to cover the cases and pins by about 1 inch.

Have had good results with 5# of pins down to 3# for about 8# of .45ACP cases. Tried once with no pins and found the cases to be clean, including the primer pockets, but not shiny.

[RogerDat]

I recently ran some pretty dirty brass from the 1930's and 40's and found it was taking a fairly long cleaning time. Over 2 hours. I may have been putting too much water in. Standing on end the water was a few inches above the brass and pins, nearly full. My thinking was metal is all in bottom since it sinks and water is the solvent and suspension agent. More is better, right?

Both my sample sizes will be outweighed by the pins. Unless I increase the number of cases. Wonder if I should?
250 count of 38 special weigh 2.5#
250 count of .223 weigh 3#

I have about 1250 .223 cases I could run through at one stage of processing. But these have all had primer pockets uniformed as part of removing primer crimp. I also have another batch with primer pockets not yet done that I think is around 700 or 800 cases. Won't all be the same brass but I could do 5#of .223 for all three tests.

I have around 2000 of the 38 special but would have to deprime them to get up to doing 5# (500 cnt.) cases for 3 batches of 38 special.

So two questions for sure. Less than full drum of water? And should the weight of cases be up around 5 or 6 pounds?

Secondary question from posts are the amount of lemishine? I generally use a teaspoon worth to a drum of water. I have pitchers so I can measure water but as I said before I don't currently I just fill drum up. I found table spoon of lemishine was too much if I decided to run the brass longer than a couple hours if it wasn't totally clean. The brass started shifting toward red (copper) if I ran it for a third hour.

I'm sticking with Dawn dishsoap because it is a pretty common wash agent used and suggested for wet tumbling. It is what I use and have on hand. That and dish washer detergent pods, which are low sudsing.

[NyFirefighter357]

I use several different medias in my F.A.R.T. but I use 8-10lbs of media fill the brass 1/2-2/3 of the way up tumbler, fill with water to bottom of opening add 2-3 drops dawn and 1/4 tsp of lemi-shine original. If the water is very dirty after an hr I replace the water and repeat. I have used the car wash with wax with the same results. I use SS pins, SS chips, carbon steel jewelers shot & old ball and roller bearings. I also tumble other things like wrenches and sockets cleans them up good. I even tumbled a tractor carb. in mine. If the stuff is real dirty I use hot water. Citric acid is just used to counter the hardness of water although more than needed will make an acidic bath that will clean brass it isn't needed. If you used dawn and distilled water it would work the same as adding citric acid to soften the hard water. The soap is what keeps the dirt in suspension, the media is what agitates the grime and burnishes the brass. The solution can only suspend so much dirt and will stop cleaning. This whole processes is called burnishing, jewelers have been using it for years to clean and polish jewelry. They use something called burnishing soap https://www.amazon.com/TUMBLING-POWD.../dp/B000HWNT04 and distilled water. I learned tumbling through my cousin a jeweler for almost 50 years. Burnishing soap & distilled water works for our needs as well but costs a lot more than a Dawn & tap water.