SS media vs .223 case quantity

[SheepDogAlpha]

Hey everyone! I am putting together my own wet tumbler. I am using a relatively large drum. My goal is to tumble 2k .223 cases at a time. I have been reading around and it seems like the normal amount is just about a 1lb-1lb ratio to clean with SS media. With that ratio... I am looking at 26lbs?! At $7 a pound, I am wondering if anyone has had experience using less media to clean more brass? Or does anyone use a filler to help things along? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Hawkeye45]

I would try 5 pounds of pins with a 1000 cases and run for a longer time, power is a lot less expensive than pins.
JMHO

Mr. Ed

[jgieske]

Generally speaking, less media than brass means longer tumbling time vs more media than brass. It will work either way but you'll have to experiment with the amount of media you choose to figure out the optimal tumble time. Sorry, there aren't any "fillers" besides the actual stainless media.

[OnceFired]

I just ran a large quantity this weekend, my first time with pins.

Harbor freight cement mixer, filled with roughly 4-5 gallons of water, 10 pounds (2 bags) of pins, added a couple ounces of citric acid, and a 5-gallon bucket filled with very dirty brass. Not quite black from dirt, but dark brown for sure. I had the Dawn dish soap, but forgot to add it. I had just bought the 15 pounds of pins earlier that day, but didn't think I'd need all 15, but definitely more than 5 so I settled on 10.

Within one hour I had very, very clean brass.

The sloshing from the mixer was mostly contained by the plastic garbage bag & bungee arrangement I use to cover the opening. Rarely does brass escape, but pins are far smaller & light enough to be carried out by water moving around. So, I had a few from that.

Next issue was far worse. My home built media separator is made from steel cloth & 2x4's, around a wooden dowel in the center. Despite the separator being able to accomodate an entire 5-gallon bucket of brass, the pins bounced EVERYWHERE when dumping the mixer through the separator into the large tray below.

By the time I was emptying the mixer, I was working off floodlights at night on the patio. Big mistake - couldn't see diddley. So I left those pins where they were on the ground overnight.

Next day, I only had a small refrigerator hook magnet at home at the time, and they were murder to spot against the cement patio. Took a long time to grab all I could find even in full sunlight.

Lessons learned, I picked up a 4" magnet with a long handle at HF to solve the picking-up problem. I also tried to find a large black plastic tarp there too for highest color contrast with pins, but no such luck yet. I'm going to consider than a requirement though.

Was having some trouble with my separator supports, too. While I was messing with those, the steel cloth on the separator bled tarnish onto the brass that hadn't been fully rinsed yet. At the point I was removing the brass by hand, I managed to perfectly align one steel pin directly under my fingernail, and then pushed hard. OUCH! Citric acid in a puncture wound underneath your nail does NOT make you laugh. And, that slowed me down even further. Gotta do another round of washing this time without the pins since nearly everything is clean, just some weird tiger patterns on the brass from the extended steel cloth contact.

I kept the citric acid water, in a sealed 5-gallon bucket for use again later. I also kept the pins in a separate bucket, but it was very hard to separate out all the water from that bucket. Any suggestions there?

I also bought paint strainers from HF hoping they'd help me separate the water from the pins. Those do OK, but not with any bulk, since they're built for a 1-gallon can, and far more water will go through the filter before any pins will come sloshing out of the bucket. Suggestions welcome, but I am looking at getting one of these (http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=fs5&gclid=CPuA-rDOrMACFSbl7Aod_h4AiQ) if the size of the pins vs the strainer holes works out.

OF

[Bayou52]

OnceFired -

Here's something that could possibly help you. It's a Home Depot 5 gallon paint strainer. I have used them now for some time. The mesh is very fine - much finer than a kitchen strainer. So fine, that SS pins will not pass through.

I had a problem one time when I was tumbling some 30 year old brass that had the bullets pulled. The wax from the bullet sizer had, over the years, leached into the powder, and it was caked in the brass. I didn't know this before I tumbled the brass. When I emptied the drum after wet tumbling, it was full of old Win 296 ball powder. I used the paint strainer to separate the powder granules from the pins. The mesh was fine enough to catch all of the pins, but the much smaller powder granules passed through.

On one end of the paint strainer is an elastic band. This strainer is fairly large, so I'm thinking the elatic band may fit over the mouth of your cement mixer to catch any errant pins and even escapee brass.

I'm not sure this will work for you, but perhaps it's something to consider. I use my paint strainer often to drain water out of the tumbling drum and to catch all of the pins.

Here's the link:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Trimaco-5-Gal-Elastic-Top-Strainers-2-Pack-11573-36WF/202061360

Just a $4 suggestion.........It works for me...........

Bayou52

[Handloader109]

A couple of suggestions from someone who has NOT tumbled rifle cartridges. With this amount, I would take that magnet, place it inside a plastic bag and then put inside the mixer before you dump. Collect as many pins as it will pick up. Remove magnet, place inside a clean empty bucket, and remove the bag, thereby dropping pins into the bucket. Repeat as many times as you feel like doing. Once you stop, then dump the cases. You STILL have pins inside the cases. Dump out as you can. Hopefully this will help you keep from losing too many.

[SheepDogAlpha]

I just ran a large quantity this weekend, my first time with pins.

Harbor freight cement mixer, filled with roughly 4-5 gallons of water, 10 pounds (2 bags) of pins, added a couple ounces of citric acid, and a 5-gallon bucket filled with very dirty brass. Not quite black from dirt, but dark brown for sure. I had the Dawn dish soap, but forgot to add it. I had just bought the 15 pounds of pins earlier that day, but didn't think I'd need all 15, but definitely more than 5 so I settled on 10.

Within one hour I had very, very clean brass.

The sloshing from the mixer was mostly contained by the plastic garbage bag & bungee arrangement I use to cover the opening. Rarely does brass escape, but pins are far smaller & light enough to be carried out by water moving around. So, I had a few from that.

Next issue was far worse. My home built media separator is made from steel cloth & 2x4's, around a wooden dowel in the center. Despite the separator being able to accomodate an entire 5-gallon bucket of brass, the pins bounced EVERYWHERE when dumping the mixer through the separator into the large tray below.

By the time I was emptying the mixer, I was working off floodlights at night on the patio. Big mistake - couldn't see diddley. So I left those pins where they were on the ground overnight.

Next day, I only had a small refrigerator hook magnet at home at the time, and they were murder to spot against the cement patio. Took a long time to grab all I could find even in full sunlight.

Lessons learned, I picked up a 4" magnet with a long handle at HF to solve the picking-up problem. I also tried to find a large black plastic tarp there too for highest color contrast with pins, but no such luck yet. I'm going to consider than a requirement though.

Was having some trouble with my separator supports, too. While I was messing with those, the steel cloth on the separator bled tarnish onto the brass that hadn't been fully rinsed yet. At the point I was removing the brass by hand, I managed to perfectly align one steel pin directly under my fingernail, and then pushed hard. OUCH! Citric acid in a puncture wound underneath your nail does NOT make you laugh. And, that slowed me down even further. Gotta do another round of washing this time without the pins since nearly everything is clean, just some weird tiger patterns on the brass from the extended steel cloth contact.

I kept the citric acid water, in a sealed 5-gallon bucket for use again later. I also kept the pins in a separate bucket, but it was very hard to separate out all the water from that bucket. Any suggestions there?

I also bought paint strainers from HF hoping they'd help me separate the water from the pins. Those do OK, but not with any bulk, since they're built for a 1-gallon can, and far more water will go through the filter before any pins will come sloshing out of the bucket. Suggestions welcome, but I am looking at getting one of these (http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=fs5&gclid=CPuA-rDOrMACFSbl7Aod_h4AiQ) if the size of the pins vs the strainer holes works out.

OF

Check out the plastic used as vapor barrier for wood flooring. You would put it down on the concrete before laying laminate flooring. These plastics usually come in clear or black and range between 6mma and 20mm. Probably exactly what you are looking for.

[Weaponologist]

That strainer you have a link to that fits over a bucket is a great idea. I may use that myself..
I've been using a mesh bag that is normally used for straining Wine mash through. Something I already had from another hobby. It's as fine as Cheese Cloth but made of nylon. After I separate my brass from the pins I dump the bucket of water&pins in the bag. I then dump the bag in to a bowl lined with a towel. After I get all the water out of the pins and dry the drum I put the pins back in the drum. I do this only after I've cleaned all my brass and it's going to be awhile before I tumble again. If I'm going to tumble more brass in a few days I leave the pins wet and just put them back in the drum.
The key to making all your stuff work is size, your trying to do more so everything must be bigger. start looking at Restaurant equipment. Like Bus pans big plastic containers. anything you can retro fit to your mega brass cleaning idea. sooner or later you'll come up with the parts you need to make this work. I've seen a guy on here make a double Tumbler out of 55gal drums. So what your trying to do is smaller scale than that...You'll get it..

[OnceFired]

I had looked at the paint strainer cloths on Lowes website, but wasn't certain those would hold up to the weight of ~10 lbs of pins, let alone any significant amount of brass. My guess is it won't and it'll either give way on the elastic and drop into the bucket or the fabric will tear.

That's why I was looking for something more durable - perhaps something that could be stacked vertically. The real difficulty is dumping the mixer into anything - the receiving container must be low enough to go under the mixer easily, but high-walled enough to catch most of the flyers. Unless of course I elevate the mixer instead.

But, I digress. The OP asked about ratio of cases to pins. I believe that 5-gallon bucket should be roughly 3500-4000 pieces, and 10 pounds worked great. That said, I had not deprimed, because LC brass is in demand with its crimps still in place to prove once-fired status. So, with primers out it might take a bit longer to do the bulk of the work on that end of the case. But that's an issue of time, not ratio of materials.

Good call on the black plastic suggestions. I'll look into that.

OF