Pins getting stuck inside the cases.

[mikeatl]

I made a tumbler using a piece of 6 inch pvc pipe . I have 4 3/4 inch risers inside the pipe to agitate the brass . My pins are getting stuck inside the 223 cases . Not sideways but they are stacked inside long ways . I have 10 pounds of pins and am trying to clean 10 pounds of cases . What am I doing wrong?

[XDROB]

Not sure if that ratio is right. Try less next time.

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[fred2892]

What size pins are you using?

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[Dusty Bannister]

I use 5 pounds of pins, with about 10 pounds of brass. I also use a rotary sifter which seems to help dislodge pins still in cases. But I do it twice. Once when out of the rinse, and again after the cases are dry. The pins came with the Lyman cyclone. Perhaps yours are just a little too long and you need something smaller for the 223? Source of your pins?

[mikeatl]

I bought the pins off ebay. They are .060x.251. They got packed in pretty tight. It did not clean the primer pockets at all . I let them run for 3.5 hours. The outside were clean but not any cleaner than they normally are with citric acid and dawn by it's self.

[6bg6ga]

So, what size / diameter pins are needed? Where does one purchase them at a reasonable cost?

[NyFirefighter357]

I use Guntap pins which are a little smaller .255x.047 but I think you have too much brass in your container. Also it may be your riser is too high and your scooping your brass and it isn't tumbling your brass. I would first cut back on the brass, if that doesn't change anything you might want to lower your agitator and maybe add 2-3 smaller ones maybe 1" high. I use a Frankford Arsenal Planetary tumbler, 10lbs pins & fill the tumbler about 2/3 full of brass and pins, add water to 1" from the top. What is your total gal. capacity of your container?

[BUCKEYE BANDIT]

Mine measure .047x .250 , I get some stuck in the flash hole once in a while,but very seldom.I think mine came from Midway,can't remember for sure.I run 6"x12" tubes with 5 lbs. in each and run 2 hrs. with lemi shine and wash and wax car soap (don't have the tarnish problem in storage that way).Haven't cleaned a primer pocket in years,just the initial uniforming.

[OS OK]

If you want to get the brass to re-orient on axis (change position, neck to base...flop over) in the tumbler...maybe you could alternate the ribs inside. Cut them in half and alternate them from top to bottom...no agitators that run full length from top to bottom of the tumbler.

The way you have it I sorta visualize the bottleneck...longer brass and the pins sorting themselves out and rolling continuously oriented in one position. Maybe the pins wouldn't try to collect inside the cases if the brass were actually swapping ends in the pipe and having a chance to dump pins out or at least stop them from packing inside so tightly?

Just a 'WAG'...thought I'd mention it.

[mikeatl]

Thanks for all the ideas. I will try them out one at a time to see which one works . Thanks Mike

[TexasGrunt]

I use the chips from Southern Shine Tumblers. No chance they could get stacked.

[mikeatl]

My set up is the 6 inch pvc pipe 17 inches long . I have a jig I made of wood and two casters and I it is set up so I can run It on a treadmill.

[17nut]

My drum is 8".
I fill it no more than 20-25% with brass and half weith of brass in pins, then i fill almost to the top with warm water, acid and Dawn.
Once or twice a year i have 2 pins plugging a flashhole and when i tumble 4,6x30 one in 500 will have a single pin wedged inside.

[17nut]

Wet tumbling is not the same as dry, no need for the brass to be covered with pins.
Quite the opposite, less is more as they slush around and "scratch" dirt off the cases.

If you stuff a washing machine to the brim the result is sub par, the same can be said for SS pins.

[mikeatl]

I cut back on the amount of cases and it worked ok. I was told that a one to one ratio was what was recommended . Oh well , as long as it works . Thanks Mike

[Drew P]

I'm new to wet tumbling but right off the pins were annoying me. Always afraid they'd get down my drain or inside a charged case. I have been tumbling without any pins and boy, I think that's the way for me. Cases look great outside, dirty inside, and I don't care! As a bonus, you can put like 2x more cases inside the tumbler. I just dump them rinse and done. The pins only help to clean the primer pockets and maybe I'm no OCD but I don't care about primer pocket hygiene it turns out.

[Lagamor]

Too many pins. I use a tumbler as mentioned above, plus go over them with the Frankfort Arsenal magnet(worth its weight in gold). Do t have any problems

[JohnH]

I'm new to wet tumbling but right off the pins were annoying me. Always afraid they'd get down my drain or inside a charged case. I have been tumbling without any pins and boy, I think that's the way for me. Cases look great outside, dirty inside, and I don't care! As a bonus, you can put like 2x more cases inside the tumbler. I just dump them rinse and done. The pins only help to clean the primer pockets and maybe I'm no OCD but I don't care about primer pocket hygiene it turns out. You're missing the single greatest benefit of pin tumbling, the inside of the necks being squeeky clean and the reduced drag of the expander button on rifle dies and the neck expander plug on pistol dies. I believe this reduced drag has increased my case life. Since I began using the wet pin tumbling system, ive noticed a significant drop in the number of lost cases iget. I'm using a a batch of 44 Magnum cases that were given to me used and I used them prior to pin tumbling ans was used to seeing 2-4 cases lost every couple of firings. I use mild loads, 6 grains of Titegroup and 220 grain boolits. I began using the wet pin tumbling system about a year ago and I really can't remember the last time I've lost a case. I've been reloading 30+ years and I've not seen this before. I'm seeing this across the board, including rifle cases. Yeah, pin separation after cleaning is a PITA. But the benefit outweighs the hassle by a long shot

[fred2892]

You will get more drag on squeeky clean brass as the carbon on dirty inside necks acts as a lubricant.

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[JohnH]

You will get more drag on squeeky clean brass as the carbon on dirty inside necks acts as a lubricant.

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk I use Mothers Car Wash and Wax. It has a carnuba wax component and when the cases are dry have a quite slick feel to them. It is also obvious in sizing cases that the wax finish aids in reducing sizing forces. I used to not clean my cases at all. Necks would stick so hard on the expander ball and expander plug that I took to wiping a q-tip with Lee case lube and wiping the inside of the neck to reduce the friction. There is a residue fromm the wax of bullet lube being burned on firing which creates this sticking problem. Many use Dawn and Lemishine in their tumblers, I began by doing so, and that alone made a huge difference. But the Wash and Wax is by far the best

[Stilly]

Not all pins are created equal. The pins that I have been selling and using for the past 3 years are sized at .062 diameter by .49 in length.

When you run pins that are shorter like .251- you will run the risk of having them get stuck in your primer pocket and they will stack up in all kinds of shells. Not just stack too, but get lodged in there. If you had longer pins and they stacked up lengthwise, I am sure there would be no issues for the most part, but when they tumble around and get inside a case and then can tumble inside the case- it turns into a game of tetris and then you get jammed up pins and you need to inspect all of your cases.

Expect to pay about $40 per 5 lbs of pins plus shipping. That is what I sell them at and that is what a lot of folks sell them at.



You need to keep in mind that the larger/heavier the pins, the less there will be in a lb. The less pins there are, the slower they clean. I LOVED my first pins, they were teeny tiny and they cleaned great. They also got jammed inside the flash hole like two velociraptors trying to use the same door. They also got jammed up inside .45 ACP cases and somehow, also got jammed up crosswise in the primer pockets.

Then there was the .223 craze where the pins would get jammed up inside the body, and when cleaning out .308 they not only jammed up there, but they would get stuck sideways in the case mouth. Just a pita to have to inspect every shell when taking them out of the water. Moving to longer pins solved most of the issues, but you gotta have a thicker diameter to fit inside a flash hole and only one pin at a time.

In all honesty, Jeweler's shot might work well but I have never had the patience or cared enough to try it. Maybe I will now though.