Tumbling shell holders

[abunaitoo]

Have a bunch of dirty shell holders.
Member here was looking for one I have many of.
Decided to see if they would clean up the same as shells.
Used the same car wax and lemi shine solution as for shells.
After a few hours of tumbling, they did get very clean.
BUT............................
With my pins, many got stuck in the primer hole.
Stuck good.
Had to knock them out.
No damage to both, but still a little problem to look out for.

[ReloaderFred]

I've been tumbling dirty, rusty or cruddy shell holders (along with other metal parts) in tumblers for probably close to 50 years, but I use either ground corn cob or ground walnut shells and some metal polish. Industrial tumblers have been cleaning and deburring metal parts for years, so I figured if it's good enough for the big guys, it's good enough for me.

When I toured the Leatherman plant a few years ago, I was envious of the vibrating tumblers they use for deburring and polishing parts before assembly. All I could do was wonder how many brass cases you could get into an 8' diameter vibratory tumbler? And they had several of them in operation when I was there, with different media in each one.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Winger Ed.]

With my pins, many got stuck in the primer hole. Stuck good..

In a few years, when someone asks about doing that-
You can tell 'em, "I did that once,,,,,,,,, but only once".

[abunaitoo]

Wet tumble with stainless pins.
Lemishin and some liquid car wash and wax.
They came out great.
Except for the stuck pins.

[smithnframe]

How dirty were they?

[mdi]

My "brass tumblers" have tumbled sockets, allen wrenches, nuts and bolts and anything that I want cleaned and will fit in the drum. I have no idea when someone started using a type of abrasive chunks or some sort of softer media, in a machine to clean, soften or deburr parts, but it was waaaaay before my time (I worked in a machine shop in '64 and they tumbled parts in a huge wobbler with ceramic chunks). Old technology that only in "recent history" has been used for cleaning cartridge cases...

[abunaitoo]

They were dirty.
Some black with old lube.
Most had surface rust on them.
All came out great.
Some looked almost new.

[lightman]

I'm not sure about the dirt and old lube but EvapoRust works great on rusty tools.

[trebor44]

Now you know why Harbor Freight sells 'tumblers'!

[Bayou52]

Wet tumble with stainless pins.
Lemishin and some liquid car wash and wax.
They came out great.
Except for the stuck pins.

OP -

You are getting pins stuck side-by-side in flash holes because you are likely using pins with a diameter of 0.041".

If you switch to larger pins, those having a diameter of 0.047", you will never get pins stuck side-by-side in flash holes as any two of these larger pins together is larger than the diameter of flash holes.

Just FYI -

Bayou52

[Scrounge]

I'm not sure about the dirt and old lube but EvapoRust works great on rusty tools.

I'm a fan of EvapoRust, but it wants clean metal. If you need dirty, rusty, painted metal clean, use electrolytic rust removal. One of the non-computerized battery chargers, a plastic bucket, some pieces of rebar or sheetmetal for anodes, washing soda (sodium carbonate) and the part you need cleaned as the cathode. Strips the rust, paint, and grease/oil off, and also any other non-ferrous metals. So don't use it on a Henry brass receiver, for example! https://www.qsl.net/2e0waw/rust.htm The gentleman in the link suggests you clean the stuff before you put it it to derust, but I've done quite a bit of heavy rust, paint, and grease/oil without. It can't hurt to clean it, but washing soda is used in the laundry business to saponify fat and grease. I've just spent the past 7+ years working in an industrial laundry. We use a couple of alkaline substances, including lye for that purpose in washing oil field work garments. You do NOT want to use lye in your rust removal setup. It's dangerous to handle. Though that is often what they use when hot-tanking a hot rod motor! Washing soda is a lot milder, and much less hazardous. You use about 1-2 tablespoons of washing soda per gallon of water. If you're doing delicate parts, distilled water is supposed to be better, but for the machine tools and cycles I've worked on, the hard tap water here in central Oklahoma works just fine. For big stuff fast, you want about 10amps at 12vdc. For more delicate objects and when not in much of rush, a couple of hundred milliamps still works.

[abunaitoo]

I used to do electric rust removal.
Worked good.
I've been wanting to try zinc plating some parts.
Have a bunch of zinc wheel weights.
Easy enough to cast some bars.