Stainless wet tumbling nickel

[robpete]

I tumbled a batch of nickel today and it all came out dark and grayish.

I use clean cold water, with citrus Palmolive and Lemishine. Ran for two hours. I do the same with my brass, but run for 4 hours....and the brass comes out like new.

Any thoughts?

[Bayou52]

I tumbled a batch of nickel today and it all came out dark and grayish.

I use clean cold water, with citrus Palmolive and Lemishine. Ran for two hours. I do the same with my brass, but run for 4 hours....and the brass comes out like new.

Any thoughts?

I've SS wet tumbled loads of nickel cases using the exact same recipe I use for brass: 1/4 tsp of Lemi-Shine, 1 ounce of auto wash & wax and 1 gallon of cold water in a Thumler's Model B high-speed drum. I also tumble for the exact same amount of time as brass to make sure the pockets are all clean.

The nickel cases have always come out with a brilliant, shiny finish.

Bayou52

[Baja_Traveler]

I had the same results - nickel comes out dull and gray every time for me. Luckily I have very few nickel cases...

[Walter Laich]

nickel in mine come out bright
.
wonder what's going on?

[robpete]

I ran another batch for way less time(only one hour vs. four) and used very cold water. Night and day difference. I'm guessing it had more to do with the time over the water temp.

[Walter Laich]

except I run mine for 4 hours with no discoloration....

[joelitespeed]

Mine come out clean. Ill check the headstamps tonight. What type are yours?

[robpete]

all mixed. I ran one batch for three hours and they came out gray. The next batch was ran for a little over and hour.....and brand new.

[Bayou52]

all mixed. I ran one batch for three hours and they came out gray. The next batch was ran for a little over and hour.....and brand new.

Weird - I've wet tumbled nickel for 4 hours with perfect results...

[petroid]

I wet tumble deprimed brass and nickel cases with SS pins, Ivory dish soap, HOT water, and Lemi-shine. Usually only for an hour and cases are like new inside and out including primer pockets. Only time I had any discoloration was when I tried to wet tumble lubed rifle brass after resizing. Cases were grimy and gray colored. These required another tumbling run with new clean HOT water and lots of dish soap. Any chance there was lube on those cases?

[Big Z]

Hard water?

[sirgknight]

It seems that there is nowhere near a consensus on how much or what kind of material to use when tumbling with SS. One author on a youtube says to use only two drops (and he emphasizes) TWO DROPS of dish liquid detergent in a 3-gallon tumbler and add 1/4 of a teaspoon of lemishine, while another one specifically uses two full tablespoons of detergent in a 5-gallon tumbler and adds what appears to be a full teaspoon of lemishine. One of the no-nos that I have read about SS tumbling is not let the detergent get too foamy or sudsy, that only a tiny bit is all one needs, no matter what name brand. Same thing about the lemishine. Since everyone basically lives in a different area with different temperatures, different preferences on cold water, hot water, and different humidity, I think it would be prudent to start with a little bit to see what affect it has on the brass and how well it cleans, and add more if necessary on the next batch. Kinda like working up an ammo load.

[Zyvek]

Try using distilled water?

[petroid]

I use hot water and a good squirt (about a tbsp) of dish soap. I also use only a half teaspoon of lemi-shine and my tumbler is only one gallon and I fill it halfway. I have noticed too much lemi-shine turning the brass orange so I go very lightly. I can't see how too much soap would hurt. Too little doesn't seem to do the job especially with very dirty range brass. My buddy picked up several hundred .223 brass in the woods where guys had been shooting. I looked like it had been there since Vietnam, all blackened and full of dirt. One hour in the tumbler and it was clean enough to load. I usually decap before tumbling to get the primer pockets clean but these cases were filled with junk so it wasnt an option. After the first tumbling run I decapped the already clean brass and tumble again to get the primer pockets. After this round you would think it was brand new brass. Not a speck of dirt or carbon anywhere including primer pockets and inside cases. They just gleamed!

[Eddie17]

I have found if I do not decap cases before tumbling, the cases will be dull in appearance.

[Nueces]

One possibility is using new pins, straight from the package. They tend to be dirty with cutting lube and crud. My brass came out dingy until the pins had been cycled a few times. At least one supplier now recommends cleaning new pins with something like Simple Green before use.

[bobthenailer]

Was wondering ! why do you guy's wet tumble with pins for so long ? I only wet tumble for one hour, with excellent results . I use JOY dwd and 1/2 oz of lemon juice and warm water.

I have been wet tumbleing my brass for over 35 years , using BB gun bb's up until about 4 years ago and i switched to to SS pins

[jmorris]

I only run mine for an hour or so but did run one batch for 24 hours. All the (brass) cases turned OD green except where the pins couldn't touch (inside the head stamp).

[Bonz]

definitely for me, if I wet tumble nickel cases for too long, they come out gray. now I just tumble nickel for 30 minutes maximum and they are just fine.