Keeping the shine after ss pin tumbling

[Mohavedog]

Hello good folks-

After years of tumbling with corncob or walnut shell media in a vibrator I decided to go with ss pins in a tumbler with water, Lemishine and liquid detergent. One thing I noticed right away was that the beautiful super shiny results after tumbling didn't last too long. After a few hours the bright golden color oxidized to a less shiny color that wasn't much better than usually obtained with cc or walnut shell. I will say that the initial results were quite a bit faster than cc.
So I tried the recommendations of several contributors here to do a quick tumble in a vibrator with cc using Nufinish. While the Nufinish coated the casings nicely and kept them from oxidizing I was less than happy that I had to tediously remove the media from the primer pockets. (one of the reasons I went to the ss pins to begin with).

So here is my question. Have any here discovered a way to recoat the cases after tumbling with ss pins to keep the nice sheen without adversely affecting the primer pockets and functioning of the case?

[40Super]

For me I use as little lemonshine as possible, plus plenty of Dawn soap and I have to rinse the cases completely. Any soap left on them will tarnish them. I usually pick the cases out of the machine and throw them into a container of clean,warm water. Them dump that water out and run warm water into the container while mixing with my hand, letting the water overflow till I don't feel any "slime" from the soap (I run A LOT of soap).Them dump on a towel and spread out with another towel to somewhat dry off, let them air dry overnight.

[dbarnhart]

I know it doesn't answer your question, but this corn cob media is fine enough that it won't get trapped in the flash hole:

http://www.drillspot.com/products/521055/econoline_526040g-40_40_lbs_blast_media

[GRUMPA]

When I got mine I tried out different things in as many ways as I could to find the best results I could find. Seems from the start that the quality of the water has a lot to do with it, I could give you my results but with the untold variables you have to find what works for you with what you have.

For me the end result was rewarding enough to make people very happy with that brand new look when they open the box of that brass they ordered. I ended up using very hot water, 1/4 tsp of Lemi-Shine and a couple squirts of Dawn. For me this was the clincher, I use a colander setting inside a large stainless steel bowl and pour the contents of the tumbler into the colander and shake all the media into the bowl while the colander is submerged under the water. I get the water as hot as I can and I rinse and shake the brass rinsing all of it down real well. I immediately put them on a towel in direct sunlight and dry them off with another towel as best I can and let the sun do the rest, I seem to have a lot of wind here so it dries up in about 1/2hr.

I have had brass sitting in baggies for a better part of 3mo at a time and they look the same as they did when I first did them. I still have brass in baggies that I did over 6mo ago, they do show slight dulling but after 6mo I don't consider it news worthy, when I get an order for that particular brass I'll tumble it for an hour and it'll be as good as new.

I do an average of 10k pcs a month with that process and it works just fine for me.

EDIT: I use well water, I have no choice, if your on city water it may be heavily chlorinated.

[Longwood]

Some people say that the shine has no purpose.
I beg to differ.
I loaded 300+ rounds of 45 colt today and the shine sure does help me to eyeball for powder before seating my bullet.
it was my first long run after modifying my press, and during the set-up, I saw two cases that did not have powder. With no powder,,,, the light reflected from the bottom of the case,,, caused the inside of the case to literally light up, if no powder was present.
My brass is not be done now, unless it shines, and will stay that way.

[blikseme300]

Some people say that the shine has no purpose.
I beg to differ.
I loaded 300+ rounds of 45 colt today and the shine sure does help me to eyeball for powder before seating my bullet.
it was my first long run after modifying my press, and during the set-up, I saw two cases that did not have powder. With no powder,,,, the light reflected from the bottom of the case,,, caused the inside of the case to literally light up, if no powder was present.
My brass is not be done now, unless it shines, and will stay that way.

+1 on this. The ability to really see the level of the charge increases the safety factor.


Bliksem
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[runfiverun]

you could try some white rice instead of walnut.

[fcvan]

Lately, I have been washing deprimed brass in dawn with a little lemon juice. I rinse the brass with very hot water and throw them in the tumbler. I was able to shine up a 5 gallon bucket full of dark .223 brass using the same soapy lemon juice over and over again. The brass shined up nicely but can still oxidize.

I started adding about 2 tablespoons of Turtle Zip Wash to the polishing media. This left a really thin coating on the brass which prevented oxidization and keeps the brassy shiny. For pistol brass the polishing media gets cleared from the flash hole upon resizing. On the rifle brass I tend to do my polishing after resizing to remove the oil from resizing. I still get media stuck in about %10 of the cases which is a pain.

I have been tempted to start using SS media to clean and the turtle zip wash trick using plain white rice. For now, ground walnut has been working really well. I have even taking to washing and reusing the ground walnut by putting it in a small burlap bag that has a zippered opening. The bags have handles and originally contained plain rice - go figure. The bag of media drys out in the sun in a few hours. The media is stained some but comes out pretty course after being smoothed out some in heavy use.

Brass that has already been shined up I have just been depriming and washing in turtle zip wash, straining in the colander, and putting into the tumbler without rinsing. I still get the nice shiny finish with a thin coating which seals the brass from oxidizing. This brass is usually done in an hour which is about how long it takes for the moisture to evaporate while tumbling with the lid off. Tumbling clean brass makes the media last longer and has eliminated the dust that usually settled around the tumbler after operation. Frank

[Mohavedog]

OK, you guys have come up with some really good suggestions. I am going to do a little experimentation with the Turtle Zip Wax. I think the answer will be in a short rinse in a weak wax/water solution immediately after tumbling in the pins. I'll let you know how successful I am. Mohavedog

[Cadillo]

Hello good folks-


........So here is my question. Have any here discovered a way to recoat the cases after tumbling with ss pins to keep the nice sheen without adversely affecting the primer pockets and functioning of the case?

Try giving them a final rinse in about a gallon of water with about a 9mm case full of lemishine. It brightens mine up some more, and seems to keep them nice longer. I think that water composition has a lot to do with this sort of thing.

[MikeS]

I recently bought an ultrasonic cleaner to replace my vibratory tumbler, and very quickly realized that no matter how much rinsing I did the brass always dulled once it was dry. So I decided to use my tumbler on the brass after it's nice and clean from the ultrasonic cleaner, and so far it's been working very nicely for me. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 5lb bottle of their plastic blasting media, and mixed it 50/50 with clean ground walnut shells (without any type of treatment), and now when I'm done cleaning the brass in the ultrasonic cleaner (I usually do 5-6 480 second runs using Hornady's One Shot cleaner) I roll the cases around on a towel to get most of the water off of them, then throw them into the tumbler and let it run for a couple of hours. When it's done I end up with brass that's not super shiny, but rather has a nice satiny finish to it, sort of like brand new brass has.

Sure, I could probably not bother with the ultrasonic cleaner, but it does 2 important things for me, 1. as it's a wet process there's little chance of getting any lead dust (from the primers) into the air, or into me, and 2. it cleans out the insides of the cases, as well as the primer pockets (I forgot to mention I decap the brass first) so it makes it easier to see into the cases to check powder levels, and also makes seating primers easier. I was actually surprised that it would make a difference seating primers, but after the first time I reloaded cases cleaned this way I noticed that it took quite a bit less pressure to seat primers than it used to (using a Lee hand primer). To verify this I took a batch of brass I had just tumbled in walnut shells and primed about 25 of them, then primed 25 of the cases that had been processed as I laid out above, and sure enough there was a difference in how the primers seated. Another benefit of cleaning the brass to a satin finish rather than high gloss is that because the lettering in the headstamp stays fairly shiny, it's easier to read against a satin background. This might sound silly, but I have some cases where the headstamp is so worn that it's hard to read otherwise.