How many pounds of SS pins do you really Need?

[JimA]

I've had a Thumler's Tumbler for many years. I have used it with standard dry media (works fine just takes longer)and when I first got it, used it with warm water, Dawn dish detergent and lemon juice. My wet method was a bunch of dirty brass, up to about a quarter way or more up the sides, warm water to 3/4 full, a squirt of Dawn and a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. I let this run for a couple hours and rinsed and drained. The cases were very clean on the outside but the flash holes and insides were still somewhat dirty.
My question is concerning adding pins. If you use 5 pounds of pins it seems your case capacity is cut a lot. Has anyone tried using less pins and more brass and running it longer? The pins basically just clean the inside and flash holes better because you can get really shiny brass without them.

[C. Latch]

I'm admittedly new to SS tumbling but here's my experience thus far:

I bought the HF 2-drum rotary tumbler, each drum is supposed to hold 3 pounds (IIRC). I put ~ one pound of pins in each, fill them to ~70% full of loose brass, add my dab of citric acid and soap, and fill with water until it just covers the brass. I then seal and run.

After ~2 hours the brass is 90% or more finished on the outside, and inside, and could be shot then (ok, it could be shot dirty, too, for that matter) or considered 'clean'.

However, to really getthe primer pockets clean, it takes closer to 4 hours of tumbling. To complicate things, though, I tumbled some older 30-06 brass a few days ago and checked during the process. I noted that:

-Hornady brass, headstamp 'hornady' that was shot in the last 4-6 years, quickly cleaned up and primer pockets were shiny after ~2 hours.

-Hornady brass with the 'frontier' headstamp took 3 hours to completely clean the primer pockets
-Hornady brass with a very small-font 'hornady' headstamp took even longer. Both of the latter groups were 6-14 years old. I don't know if priming compounds were different over time or if the older brass had merely sat there and the burnt primer residue had hardened more over the years; I just know that older brass took longer to get pockets clean.

-Federal brass that was, by best recollection, 14-15 years old, cleaned up almost as quickly as the newer hornady brass, however, that loaded ammo wasn't SHOT until sometime in 2006 or 2007.

-Remington brass from the mid-90's took roughly as long to clean up the pockets as the older Hornady brass.

All of the above brass was once-fired from factory ammo I'd shot over the years. I also cleaned a good bit of newer brass that had been shot 5-10 times or more in the last year, and it took 3+ hours for the pockets to start coming completely clean.

[Moonman]

Original SS Tumbling formula for the Thumbler's Tumbler 15 pound unit was;

1 Gal Water (8 Pounds) 5 Pounds SS Pins, 2 Pounds brass=15 pound load.
Plus Dawn soap and Lemi-Shine.

For those with bigger brass demands, larger rotary tumblers are available.

You need room for the water and pins to do their job.

[JimA]

I know what the recipe is, I'm asking has anyone used less pins and more brass. The recipe came from the pin manufacturer.

[Bullshop]

Hope to not disturb this thread and I will butt out if asked but I have been wanting to know if these ss pins will work for cleaning the priming residue from inside 22 rf cases? That stuff is hard to get out and is hard on swaging pins.

[John Boy]

The pins are about 0.25" long. So during the agitation, they don't fit into the primer pockets and inside the cases as does the 2 and 3 mm triangle ceramic media. This is why I avoided using the pins.

With the ceramic media, a 6 lb drum - I put about an inch of media in. Fill the tumbler 2/3rds of the way to the top with brass. Then pour the burnishing solution to cover the tops of the brass. There has to be enough room in the tumbler for agitation of the media.

My brass,BP & smokeless, in about 1.5 hrs come out spotless & shiny bright: outside - inside and the pockets

[Hawkeye45]

I have a RCBS tumbler, fill half full of brass, teaspoonful Dawn, teaspoonful citric acid powder, 2 to 2 1/2 lbs of SS pins, fill with water to cover brass. Run for aprox 3hours. Done

Mr. Ed

[Smoke4320]

I tried it with 2.5 lbs of pins .. took too long.. 5LBs was much quicker in a thumbler B

[Guardian]

There is definitely something to the brass/pin ratio. STM and others seem to consistently recommend brass weight be 80% of the pin weight.

I've got a small drum made out of 4-in diameter PVC about 5-in long that I'm using for 22 LR cases. As pointed out above, too much water (no air space) is a bad thing. The pin:brass ratio is important as well. I don't have a set of scales for weights above 750 grams, so I was eyeballing it. I've been using approximately 2.5 lbs (based on using half a bag) of pins to a small bread pan of 22 cases. The drum is then filled to about 3/4 full with water, enough dawn to cause suds, and about 1/8 teaspoon of Lemishine. Total volume of the drum is about 2 quarts. I'm going to add more pins, as I don't think I have quite enough.

Bullshop, this seems to get the majority of the priming residue out, but I can't say it gets it all. I remember someone found a live one while derimming for swaging after it had been through a similar setup.

[Love Life]

I use 23lbs of pins to clean 25 lbs of brass. Pins in bottom, fill to neck with brass, 3 heaping spoons af citric acid, fill with hose water to 1 inch above brass. Set it and forget it. 2 hours later I dump out pieces of gold.

[Guardian]

LL just trashed my theory.

Oh well.

Love Life, how did you come to that mix? Just trial and error?

[Moonman]

Uses a cement mixer probably.
He's not a hobbyist it looks like.

[Love Life]

I don't use a cement mixer. I use a Bigg Dawg tumbler and the largest drum they have. If you can get a hold of Phil333 you can ask what his ratio is as well. I believe he used less pins than I do. Not only that but his tumblers don't use agitators and clean brass just as well as tumblers with agitators in them.

I take a mo' betta approach to SS cleaning. If 2 pounds of pins is good, then 5 lbs is mo' betta.

[Bayou52]

I know what the recipe is, I'm asking has anyone used less pins and more brass. The recipe came from the pin manufacturer.

I have a Thumlers model B with a 15 pound capacity drum. I run it at 1 pound under max: 1 gallon of water, 4 pounds of pins and 2 pounds of cases. Less stess on motor and o-ring drive belt.

Wet tumbling results are the same as with 5 pounds of pins.

[retread]

I use the 1-1-1 formula. 1 lb each pins, brass and water. Use one drop of Joy and one of the small Lee dippers of Lemishine. Tumble about 3 hours. Does a great job inside and out.

[JimA]

Thanks guys. Lots of ways to skin a cat I guess. I was thinking about trying the pins in my Model B, but it seemed like 2 pounds of brass was a pretty small payload to put up with the extra hassle. I know they come out clean inside but wonder if that is worth it.

[kbstenberg]

I hope you guys don't mind another question.
I use the standard mix 5lb pins 2lb brass 1gal water small squirt of dish soap 1/4 tsp lemishine
I first run the brass for 1 hr. Remove brass and dry them. Size them, then put them back in a new salution and tumble for another 3/4 hour.
My question. When I tumble the brass for a full 4 hrs there seems to be a lot of heavy scratches on the outside of the brass. But if I limit the cleaning time to 2 hrs a lot of the scratches are not on the brass. Is the hevally scratched surface detrimental to the brass? Kevin

[DCM]

I use 10Lb. SS ~3Gal water 2tblsp. soap, lemi-shine and a whole lotta brass in my small HF mixer.
Set the auto timer for 4 hrs. then retrieve the gold.
I put a 5 gal pail lid loosely over the hole to keep the suds in.

[rodok]

Hope to not disturb this thread and I will butt out if asked but I have been wanting to know if these ss pins will work for cleaning the priming residue from inside 22 rf cases? That stuff is hard to get out and is hard on swaging pins.

Yes it works great on 22lr I use a salad spinner to remove the pins a little quicker than dumping the cases out one at a time.