Daisy BB's for wet tumbling

[murf205]

I've been dry tumbling for 30 yrs but I have just started to wet tumble and really impressed with the results...but, the pins are a pain to separate with a hand held magnet. Has anyone tried BB's or something a bit easier to separate from the brass? Do the magnetic pin separators work well. thanks, Murf

[elmacgyver0]

I would think you may have a rust problem with BBs, unless you can find stainless steel ones.

[NY_Treeguy]

Definitely rusting issues with bb’s. Also don’t do as good a job.

[duhbob]

Dillon media-separator and tray & magnets works well.
Go with 5 pounds of pins!
The pins chip away at the corners and crevices of the primer pocket and rim where bb's can't go.

[high standard 40]

I've been dry tumbling for 30 yrs but I have just started to wet tumble and really impressed with the results...but, the pins are a pain to separate with a hand held magnet. Has anyone tried BB's or something a bit easier to separate from the brass? Do the magnetic pin separators work well. thanks, Murf

After dry tumbling for years I switched to wet tumbling with S/S pins. I get far better results with wet tumbling. Separating the pins from the brass is super easy if you have a media separator, the type that has a vented drum that you turn by hand, like the RCBS offering.
Fill the tub (that usually catches the dry media) with water. Set the open drum on the tub and pour the brass and pins into the drum. Close the drum and give it several turns. All the pins will settle to the bottom of the tub.

[rockshooter]

I've found that I don't need the pins- just the lemishine and car wash/wax. Try it sometime!
Loren

[Outer Rondacker]

I've found that I don't need the pins- just the lemishine and car wash/wax. Try it sometime!
Loren

been doing it this way for years. Mix brass sizes so it cleans the insides.

[rockshooter]

mixing brass sizes has its own issues- a .32 that gets stuck inside a case doesn't get cleaned on the outside. Just easier for me to separate brass specifically to prevent that.
Loren

[murf205]

I've found that I don't need the pins- just the lemishine and car wash/wax. Try it sometime!
Loren

How long do you tumble without the pins? I really like the way the pins clean the primer pockets but I've been using a hand held magnet to get the pins picked up after separating them from the cases.

[megasupermagnum]

This is the main problem with any tumbling. I started dry tumbling, then went to an ultrasonic, and now wet tumble. The best thing I've found for a wet tumbler is a media separator. The problem being all the ones sold are rather expensive for what they are, and are still plastic garbage. I made a cage with some of that gardening wire, kind of a coarse wire mesh. It does a good job, but I made it too small so it will fit in a 5 gallon bucket. I'm going to make a bigger one for a small plastic tote. What I found is that you want to spin them and separate what you can, then dunk that cage in water, shake it around, and separate a second time. I'm using stainless steel pins, and unfortunately they are about the perfect length to get stuck in 30 caliber case necks sideways. I'm going to be going to the stainless steel chips. I would not bother with BB's. Tumbling without media does work somewhat too, at least the outsides. The inside, and primer pockets will be untouched. I doubt BB's would help, and would definitely not be as fast as pins or chips, which are already kind of slow compared to ultrasonic. Honestly I'm not super impressed with wet tumbling. It's not all it's cracked up to be. There's plenty of room for improvement in the media and separating departments.

[Outer Rondacker]

How long do you tumble without the pins? I really like the way the pins clean the primer pockets but I've been using a hand held magnet to get the pins picked up after separating them from the cases.

15 mins

Edit; I use hot tap water with a dash of DAWN dish shop, sometimes a little lemmishine and if I don't have any I will splash some lemon juice in. My brass looks good and clean.

Rockshooter you have to use some common sense. Put what will work well together. Like 45-70 and 9mm. I am sure you have figured that out. I do runs of just 357mag brass and it is nice and clean. I do decap before I wash for the most part. Not 9mm as that goes in the progressive. Same with 45 gap as I shoot a lot of that when I can find brass.

[megasupermagnum]

15 mins

Can you post a picture? I'm tumbling with media, and I'm not really happy until they have been going for about 2 hours. 1 hour is functionally just fine. Less than that and I may as well just rinse bass off under a faucet.

[murf205]

Very true about separating the media but I really appreciate the clean primer pockets. Next to trimming , that's one step I am not fond of.295319 The results speak for themselves. I guess the labor intensive steps are designed for us retired guys with time to do it. Granted, these 450 Bushmaster cases were not terribly dirty but the 45 Colt cases were filthy.

[Outer Rondacker]

Can you post a picture? I'm tumbling with media, and I'm not really happy until they have been going for about 2 hours. 1 hour is functionally just fine. Less than that and I may as well just rinse bass off under a faucet.

Crud you are going to make me learn how to post pictures after all these years. Sure for you megasupermagnum I will give it a go. Be right back.I hope.

[megasupermagnum]

My favorite is imgbb.com They haven't held my photo's hostage yet. Just upload there, copy their thumbnail BB code, and post that.

[Outer Rondacker]

295323 The 38s I washed last week. The 9s where washed three years ago in the coffee can. 295324 I used dawn and hot water on these. Didnt have any lemishine or dollar store lemon juice. Hope this helps.

[Outer Rondacker]

They are cleaner then the picture looks. Most primer pockets are totally clean. Some have a bit of stuff but still less then if you dry tumble it with primers in.

[fastdadio]

The wet tumbling thing never appealed to me, but I still wanted a more aggressive cleaner. So I added about 30% medium coarse sand blast media to my walnut shells. Works pretty good. Now I'm thinking about adding a bit more to the mix.

[megasupermagnum]

Those definitely look good Outer, but I have not had such good luck. I tried a few chemicals, but it seems dawn works best, same as you. I'm using pin media in a Thumler tumbler, and it takes about 2 hours for mine to look like that.

[murf205]

The wet tumbling thing never appealed to me, but I still wanted a more aggressive cleaner. So I added about 30% medium coarse sand blast media to my walnut shells. Works pretty good. Now I'm thinking about adding a bit more to the mix.

I did the same thing and when I upped the coarseness, I got a burnished look. They were clean but not shiney like I wanted. Went back to a straight corn cob media and got the shine back. It all depends on how much glitz you want I guess.

[dverna]

The wet tumbling thing never appealed to me, but I still wanted a more aggressive cleaner. So I added about 30% medium coarse sand blast media to my walnut shells. Works pretty good. Now I'm thinking about adding a bit more to the mix.

I am in the same boat. Wet tumbling is the last thing I would ever use to clean cases. "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." And I do not have water where I clean brass. Then need to dry the damn things. Been using dry media for 50 years...it has issues too, but I am used to them.

Thankfully, I have no need for clean primer pockets. My presses work OK with the bit of crude that comes out after depriming. And I do not shoot well enough to need clean primer pockets. Mediocrity and low expectations have some small blessings.

[Outer Rondacker]

Ok, this is my process. Decap when I can. Like I said not if its going into the progressive for pistol training ammo. Put 1/4 to 1/3 the thumler's tumbler full with brass. The key is not to make it so heavy it does not run at full speed. Then I add a small amount of dawn original blue stuff.
If I have some Lemi=shine it put in a teaspoon or less. Then add hot water to just over the brass by about half inch. The container is now under half full. Close and run for 15 min. Sometimes I forget it and it runs for half an hour no big deal. Rinse with hot water and dump on a towel in the summer to set outside. In winter I was brass after the little woman bakes in the oven. I put it on cookie sheets and set it in the warm oven for a while.

In the past I have used cold water and what I found was the brass had like a oily residue on it. I found this out by using a while towel to dump it on. I would rub it around on the towel the towel was getting dirty. After that hot water solved this issue.

On brass that is going to be stored or I have to use my hands to touch like 9mm sometimes after rinsing I will drop a small drip of liquid car wax in hot water and give them a run for five mins again. Rinse and dry. For some reason keeps from getting so tarnished over time or from touching.

Here are some pictures of primer pockets. Not perfect but good enough. I hope this helps somebody out. 295339
295340
295341

[bedbugbilly]

I use SS pins and use one of the Frankford Arsenal magnets to separate and get the subs ince I lay out the brass on an old bath towel and they dry,. Just tip the casings mouth down and once brass is picked up, use the magnet, hold it in the Frankford Arsenal tumbler and pull the handle - drops the pins back in - easy peasy.

BBs will rust - but even if you could use them, I don't think they would clean the primer pockets very well - not like the SS pins.

I should add that my FA tumbler has a screen/filter that I can put into the screw on lid that allows me to drain the water out of the container and not lose casings/pins. Also allows me to rinse as many times as I need to. Then I just reaching and pull the brass out by hand and put on a towel to dry.

[beagle]

I don't know what BBs are made from these days. Maybe SS. Bought the GS a Daisy last summer and a couple of boxes of BBs. Before long, I had BBs all over the back patio. Thought of the magnet but it didn't pick them up. Don't know what they're made of these days but it's not magnetic. Noticed one a few days ago. Little corroded from the snow but no rust. Kind of wonder what they're made of. Maybe zinc?/beagle

[beagle]

On further investigation, the net says BBs are now made of steel and coated in either copper or zinc. Must be SS as the magnet wouldn't touch them. These are bright so the coating must be zinc./beagle

[murf205]

I should have bought the Frankford Arsenal magnetic pin picker upper when I bought the tumbler. I thought I could get the pins with the hand held magnet I have but I gather it is a lot simpler to use their tool. Oh well, here goes some more $ in Larry Potterfield's pocket.

[megasupermagnum]

Outer, those primer pockets look fine to me. If I got those kinds of results, I'd be happy. I'm going to try without pins again. If I can make that work, I'd be way happier.

Everyone always brings up drying, but that's such a small issue as to be pointless. You can either do nothing, and they will air dry indoors fine in a day or two. Or if you need them immediately, you can bake them in the oven at your lowest setting, and they are dry in about 1/2 hour. Water is nothing, its the media they sucks to deal with, corn cob, or stainless pins.

[Outer Rondacker]

Without primers they dry very quickly. The HOT water helps with this also. Good luck hope it works for you as good as I feel it works for me.

[rockshooter]

In winter, for drying, I bought a couple of food dehydrators from a thrift store. Around here they run less than $10 each. I put them on a timer and let them go for a couple of hours at 135 degrees. In the summer, I put the dryer trays on a table on the back patio until they are dry. Really, a simple process. I don't need spotless primer pockets. I started this whole wet cleaning process because my doc didn't like my lead levels. After I switched from dry tumbling, the levels did drop. I leave the fired deprimed cases in the wet tumbler for a couple of hours- on a timer overnight, usually. This whole process is really simple- it does take more time than dry tumbling, but I'm retired and I let cheap timers do the waiting.

[murf205]

I just got back from my LGS which carries an ever increasing amount of case cleaning and casting goodies. They had a Frankford Arsenal pin magnet so I will post my results when the next batch goes swimming.

[Dusty Bannister]

I would think that the BB in the solution would be harder on the brass cases because of the individual weight over the smaller SS pins. I only use the pins for heavily darkened brass. The rest just take a cycle in the Lyman cyclone unit for about 3 hours. Drain, rinse a few times in the provided strainer basket with hot water, spin in the rotating media separator with several dry rags and then in baskets over a heat register. Warm hot air, leave over night or as long as you like.

Dry cases, no media in the clean flash holes, clean cases ready to store or use. Works for me anyway.

[murf205]

I would think that the BB in the solution would be harder on the brass cases because of the individual weight over the smaller SS pins. I only use the pins for heavily darkened brass. The rest just take a cycle in the Lyman cyclone unit for about 3 hours. Drain, rinse a few times in the provided strainer basket with hot water, spin in the rotating media separator with several dry rags and then in baskets over a heat register. Warm hot air, leave over night or as long as you like.

Dry cases, no media in the clean flash holes, clean cases ready to store or use. Works for me anyway.

Dusty, you're right, after finding a BB, and trying it, it would not clean a primer pocket very well. I think I'll stick with pins.

[murf205]

I have read some reviews with people complaining that the magnet on the FA unit was not very strong. Here is the one I bought yesterday picking up a bag of ALMOST 2 lbs of pins. That's plenty for what I am going to do. Should had this to start with!295456

[Huskerguy]

I read several articles/posts and developed my own system that works for me.

I did dry for years, works OK, I can get them shiny but the dust was too much for me. So I wanted to try wet and will never go back. But going wet, you need to find a way to simplify. I also tried wet only w/o pins and it was better than dry but not as good as pins.

To empty and remove pins I do this.
1. Pour off as much of the waste water after you run a batch, being sure to keep the pins in without going down a drain.
2. Buy some cloth paint strainers at your local paint store, they are like $3 for 3-4, I am still using the first one. The strainer is made to fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
3. I picked up a plastic separator that is made to fit in the bucket. You don't need all the sizes, get the smallest one that keeps brass from falling through. I use one by Lyman for 9mm.
4. Dump the brass and pins into the separator that sits on/in the five gallon bucket with the strainer in it.
5. I don't always pour all the pins out, I pick the last few pieces of brass it while keeping some of the pins in the tumbler.
6. I shake the separator with my hands and bounce it to get pins to fall out. I don't worry about getting all of them. I pick out the separator and put it in my wash tub and spray it down to rinse. It is important to put a stainless, fine strainer over the drain as it will catch any pins.
7. Take the rinsed brass and dump it on a towel and move it around to get pins to drop out.
8. The majority of the pins are in the cloth paint strainer. Pull it up out of the bucket and I like to rinse them off as well and keep them in the strainer and spread them on the same towel to dry (note they are still in the strainer and easy to handle.)
9. I usually let my brass set to dry at least over night. I occasionally run my hand over the brass and move it all around on the towel while holding a small hand held magnet to pick up pins that remain. I have bigger magnet but don't find I need them.

The smaller the rifle caliber, the more likely the pins will lodge inside so I check them. Running the magnet around in your brass will find the pins, just keep moving it around.

May sound like a lot but it's not. Just think it through and develop your system. I didn't want another piece of equipment sitting around in a separator.

Best of luck.

[bobthenailer]

I used BB gun BBs for decades ive been using SS pins for about 10 years now and they do a much better job.

[murf205]

I have 77 pcs of 45-70 brass in the tumbler with pins, Lemi shine and Dawn. Might have to get sun glasses to get them out,LOL.295528295529295530

Just like I was hoping for. Pins laid out to dry. Thanks for all the help brothers. Got dirty brass to wash, I'm on a tear now!

[Outer Rondacker]

Looks great! I have one more piece of advice, After the brass is good and dry put it in a plastic container like a clean coffee can. Give it a good shake. If any of the pins got stuck to the inside of the brass this will most of the time brake them free and they will fall out of the brass. Nothing like going to decap brass and hitting a pin. Dont ask how I know.

Looks great and even better if you are happy with the process and outcome.

[Hanzy4200]

BB's will rust. I got my pins from Midway, and they were really reasonable. I also tried that magnet crap. NO WAY! Get yourself either the Lyman sifter screen, or one of the round turning media separators. Stick with the SS pins. They are what is used for a reason.

[Walter Laich]

the putting in a media separator sitting is water takes 5 min to separate if that long. Lay them out in Texas Sun to dry or overnight in house with ceiling fan

Another idea is to use SS chips. like small fingernail clippings. don't get stuck in necks or flash holes
I have no association with the seller other than a satisfied customer.

https://www.facebook.com/southernshinemedia/

[high standard 40]

the putting in a media separator sitting is water takes 5 min to separate if that long. Lay them out in Texas Sun to dry or overnight in house with ceiling fan



https://www.facebook.com/southernshinemedia/
This is the method I use. I can't see how a magnet could possibly work better.

[dondiego]

If you are using pins then you NEED a hand release magnet. Harbor Freight has a cheap one. It is great for MG links, steel cases, and nails from the new roof.

[murf205]

I bought the FA hand release magnet and id is indeed a time saver and don't loose pins either. Thanks for the tip on running them through the separator. Even if I didn't break a decapping pin I still would not want to send one down the barrel. I am really liking the clean primer pockets and when I was dry media tumbling, I got a bunch of corn bob and walnut particles in the primer hole every time. So far I have tapped the case mouths on the drying towel and only got a couple of pins after the initial wash.

[elmacgyver0]

I made my own Wet tumbler and Separator.
The separator is made of two Kitty litter buckets, the rectangular ones and some hardware cloth. Works great.
Pins and wet tumbling are the only way to go.
I will never go back to dry tumbling.

[Outer Rondacker]

Ya you will not get many pins but that is what we as reloaders do right. We double check things and so on. Everyone has a method that works as they need. Sounds like you found one. I remember the few times I did use dry media. I used my air compressor and blow the media out of the primer pockets.

I do wish I had a vibrator style polisher to run dry media in but we cannot have it all.

[murf205]

i think I will dump my old corncob media since it is pretty stained and replace it with a batch of new that I have and put a couple table spoons of mineral spirits or liquid car polish to protect the brass from tarnishing and give it the slick feeling. That small amount in a Lyman /turbo tumbler shouldn't affect primer function if it is allowed to set awhile before storing it in zip loc bags. I know that this is actually doing the job twice but as I said before, I am on a tear for good looking brass.