ss pins

[hiram]

I have a Thumler's Tumbler. I'm thinking about switching to ss pins. How many pounds of pins to fill the tumbler halfway? How many pounds do you find sufficient? The best place to buy? I know answers depend on how many cases and what caliber you are cleaning so I am exploring.

Thanks

[gmsharps]

I also use a Thumler's Tumbler and I've found 5lb's work just fine for me. There was an advertiser at the top of the page of this site that sold them. You can get them a lot of places these days. The ones I got were very consistent in length and have not had any problems of them sticking sideways like some. I use a long stick magnet to pick up the ones that try to escape when I am separating the brass from the pins.

gmsharps

[DAFzipper]

5 pounds should be good. Might want to try Southern Shine media chips. They have greatly reduced my wet tumbling time. You can email them at. southernshinemedia1@gmail.com

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[Jsm180]

Half full of pins won't leave any room for brass, 5lbs is plenty.

[Bull-Moose]

I concur with 5 pounds of pins. 2-3 pounds brass, fill with water till 1 inch from the top. Add a big squirt of Dawn, and a 1/2 teaspoon of lemishine. Tumble for 2-4 hours, depending on how dirty the brass is. It will come out sparkling clean.

[bimus]

E bay has pins The ss pins will stick in side the 30 carbine case and will need every case checked . I tumble my cases a short time dry them lube resize remove primer and tumble them for the last time dry and reload .

[GregLaROCHE]

Half full of pins won't leave any room for brass, 5lbs is plenty.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Burnt Fingers]

The drum might not even turn if it was half full of pins.

I'll second the Southern Shine media. On the rare occasions where I wet tumble I use their chips. They work much faster than the pins.

Hiram,

You do realize that you use the metal media on conjunction with water and a cleaning agent??? You don't dry tumble with metal media.

[lesharris]

I used the pins that came with the Midway tumbler kit. They are working well.

[kevin c]

A question for you pin users: does your pin cleaned brass stick in your dies more than brass cleaned by other methods? I gave up on the pins (I still wet tumble) because of really bad sticking of pistol brass with the expander and case mouth flaring dies, to the point of spilling powder from the cases when they pulled free.

[oley55]

5 pounds should be good. Might want to try Southern Shine media chips. They have greatly reduced my wet tumbling time. You can email them at. southernshinemedia1@gmail.com

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I have looked at their media and would/will most certainly give (somebody's) chips a try, if or when my 20 pounds of pins runs out (my tumbler drum is huge). BUT, when I look at their web page pic comparing chips to pins, I gotta throw the stinky brown flag. No doubt pins come in different sizes, but those pictured are ridiculously large and it seems disingenuous to present them as the norm. Just IMO.

https://www.globuya.com/XX/Unknown/713665838693409/Southern-Shine-Media

[hiram]

I have been using ceramic media and my best results have been on 45-70 cases, but not other calibers. I put my sun glasses on when I open the drum with 45-70. I do use dawn and either sour salt or lemi-shine. When the lemi-shine is finished, I found citric cleaner on amazon.

[Walter Laich]

[QUOTE=DAFzipper;5157368]5 pounds should be good. Might want to try Southern Shine media chips. They have greatly reduced my wet tumbling time. You can email them at. southernshinemedia1@gmail.com

▲ +1 the chips do some much better than pins

[444ttd]

i use guntap ss pins.

https://shop.guntap.com/stainless-steel-tumbling-pins-media-0-255-x-0-047/

[onelight]

A question for you pin users: does your pin cleaned brass stick in your dies more than brass cleaned by other methods? I gave up on the pins (I still wet tumble) because of really bad sticking of pistol brass with the expander and case mouth flaring dies, to the point of spilling powder from the cases when they pulled free.
I know what you are talking about and this is what I do now based on advice I received here .
Place your cleaned cases in a case spinner add enough water so that the cases are submerged at least partially add a cap full of ArmorAll ultra shine wash and wax to the water this rinse will wash out 99% of the pins that may be left if you want you can rinse one more time without the wax and after drying you can feel a light coat of wax on them that gives them a bit of lubrication and slows tarnish after drying .
This makes pistol brass sizing in carbide dies run much smoother . On bottle neck cases I have always inside neck lubed those I need to try some without the additional inside lube , the light wax left on the case may be enough for the expander ball. I would still lube the outside .

[PBaholic]

Place your cleaned cases in a case spinner add enough water so that the cases are submerged at least partially add a cap full of ArmorAll ultra shine wash and wax to the water this rinse will wash out 99% of the pins that may be left if you want you can rinse one more time without the wax and after drying you can feel a light coat of wax on them that gives them a bit of lubrication and slows tarnish after drying

2nd vote on the Armor All, but I put it in with my pins.

I ultrasonic my brass with a tablespoon of Lemi Shine and a squirt of Simple Green. My goal here is to get my primer pockets perfectly clean without having to touch them.

Once they are clean, they go in my tumbler with only a pound of SS pins, Armor All Ultra Shine and enough water to cover them. Tumble for half an hour or so.

They come out so bright, that my buddies think I'm buying new brass. I have shot the same brass over and over, maybe 30 or more times. I throw them out once they split, but that doesn't happen all that much.

As for separating the SS pins from the brass I use a French Fry basket, you know like the ones at Mickey D's, with the big handle. I dump them in and bounce them around over a plastic tub.

[edp2k]

pin size matters.

too big a diameter and they wont go through the flash hole to clean it out
and they will fill up the inside of the cartridge.
if they are the wrong length (too short/too long) they will bridge inside the brass
(esp. bottleneck rifle brass)
and you will have to rattle out the pins from each piece of brass
(i.e. hundreds/thousands).

0.047" x 0.260 is what you want.
cleans primer pockets and flash holes great, doesn't bridge on any caliber pistol or rifle brass, straight or bottle necked,
with the mild exception of 30 carbine, which it bridges about 1 out of 100.
when I find a 30 carbine that got bridged I use a stiff piece of wire thru the flash hole and they come out like water.

ask me how I know.

[Burnt Fingers]

pin size matters.

too big a diameter and they wont go through the flash hole to clean it out
and they will fill up the inside of the cartridge.
if they are the wrong length (too short/too long) the will bridge inside the brass (esp. bottleneck rifle brass)
and you will have to rattle out the pins from each piece of brass
(i.e. hundreds/thousands).

0.047" x 0.260 is what you want.
cleans primer pockets and flash holes great, doesn't bridge on any caliber pistol or rifle brass, straight or bottle necked,
with the mild exception of 30 carbine, which it bridges about 1 out of 100.
when I find a 30 carbine that got bridged I use a stiff piece of wire thru the flash hole and they come out like water.

ask me how I know.

Or the chips from Southern Shine which are much smaller than any pin.

[onelight]

I have not tried the chips cause I have a hard enough time keeping up with the pins that escape , those chips look so small I don't think I could even see them :( and I don't want ceramic because I can't use a magnet on them . I can't pick up a pin off the floor without a struggle to get ahold of it. And I get the pins out of my buckets with magnets .
I am glad we have more than one choice , we can all find something we like :)

[Omega]

I just tumbled a bunch of 6.5 CM and have found at least two cases with a bridged pin in the neck. I have a bunch more to check so may find more in that larger batch. I have ordered some of the chips to try out, and while I find that the pins do real well for my straight walled cases, so will keep using them for that, but if the chips do as advertised, I'll use those exclusively for bottleneck cases.

[edp2k]

What diam and length pins?
I have tumbled a lot of 6.5 swede and 6.5 rem and never had any bridging.

[Omega]

What diam and length pins?
I have tumbled a lot of 6.5 swede and 6.5 rem and never had any bridging.
Not sure, haven't measured them, but it got stuck in the 6.5s I mentioned and a 25-06 case that was mixed in with my 30-06s (pictured). They are either STMs or the ones that came with the FART.
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