Brass Prepping

I've been toying with the idea of buying some of those stainless-steel pins to use as my brass cleaning medium for a few months now but, with the holiday season coming around I really didn't have the expendable income to buy right now.

I was out cleaning up the storage shed yesterday, and I came across some brand-new stainless-steel scouring pads used for cleaning up the barbeque grill. They were still in the package, and I didn't think I'd have any need for them until closer to next summer so, I cut them up with my upholstery sheers into tiny little coiled pieces.

I did it as just an experiment to see if I really did need the more expensive 30-plus dollar stainless-steel pins or, if I could just cut up these eight-dollar scouring pads into small enough pieces to use as a sort of addition to my corncob cleaning medium I use now.

The only pitfall would be that since I cut them up into varying sizes from small coils to tiny pieces of coils, I'd have to make sure to check the inside of my cleaned cases for any of those stainless-steel pieces becoming lodged in the cases and primer pockets. I do that any ways so, what I've labeled as a "Pitfall" really isn't one. It's just one more thing to keep an eye on during the prepping process of the brass.

Anyway, I got my tumbler running right now as I write this. I had about 75 pieces of tarnished Lake City brass laying around that I've had for years. I threw them in the tumbler to see what kind of results I get and, how long it takes to get any results.
I checked it in about a half hour later to see if there's anything positive happening and darned if it seemed to be working. With the plain corncob medium, it can take up to three or four hours to really get any semblance of a shine on them. I'm too impatient to wait that long so I remove my brass when I determine that it's "Good-Enough."

I was just wondering if any of you guys had ever tried reproposing stainless-steel scouring pads for this application, or maybe you used BBs or something else as a replacement for the more expensive stainless-steel pins or beads?

HollowPoint

My experience with the pins is that they are more hassle than they are worth. The only improvement over soap/water/citric acid re: sparkle and shine might be in the primer pockets. The downside to pins in particular is making sure they are all out of the cases. I did discover that even one pin in a case will be discoverable with a strong magnet.
Loren

I'd think you'd have some issues with them getting inside and not wanting to easily drop out of small caliber bottle neck cases.
As far as patience goes, I get my tumbler going and let it run over night.

Just to see if that worked too well, I had some odd ball Weatherby case I'd picked up somewhere and left in it all the time.
After being run with everything for a couple years, it hadn't gotten soft from the walls thinning out.

I've heard that same thing from other folks on the internet.

At this point it does seem to be working as I'd hoped. I did notice that those half-inch to 3/8" stanless-steel coils tend to lock arms as they pass by one another during the tumbling process. The tinier pieces just float on by and continue to do their thing.

After this tumbling experiment I'll have to go back in and cut those stainless-steel coils into smaller pieces. I think I just saved myself a few bucks. Merry Christmas to me.

HollowPoint.

Maybe stretching them out straight might help a little too.

Or, it could end up like my experiment to use rice in the tumbler full of .223s when the humidity was high.
I did that once....... but only once.:bigsmyl2:

Mine get clean enough in my HF ultrasonic cleaner with Dawn, lemishine and hot water. Much simpler and cheaper.

I've been an avid reloader for fifty years, and STILL don't own a case cleaner. It just didn't used to be a "thing".

When I started hearing about the hassle of removing media, pins, and what-not from the "clean" cases, I started wondering how many of the duds and squibs you hear about were because of that. For me adding another inspection process to a couple thousand pistol cases is a non-starter. jd

My opinion is that you are better off giving up dry tumbling. They don't do anything except make things pretty.

An ultrasonic cleaner works wonders for small amounts of brass. No tumbling media needed, plus it is faster. 30 minutes is enough most of the time. Most ultrasonic cleaners people buy are only big enough for 50-75 308 cases at a time though.

Wet tumbling works just as well, and can do a ton of brass at once. The downside is you do need media. I've had claims that they work without, but after multiple trials, I found nothing except horrible results. Wet tumbling without media for 12 hours resulted in no real cleaning. You may as well just slosh them in a bucket with soap at that point. With media, 1-2 hours results in perfect condition brass. Stainless pins work well. Pins in flash holes is rare, but it does happen.

It seems that over time alot of the things we reloaders have heard about or the way we've done things or the methods we believed were right are eventually rendered "Old-Wives-Tales."
They may have been true at some point but, given enough time and enough advancement, various aspects of our reloading process work out well for some and not so well for others.
I've heard good and bad things about conventional brass tumbling. Same with wet-tumbling and ultrasonic cleaning.
After a while it makes me wonder if alot of us are doing our favorite brass cleaning process right and all other methods wrong.

HollowPoint

You may consider checking the bits from the SS pads and see if they are magnetic. If not, you might have trouble in the future. After I deprime the cases I use the wet cleaner. I seldom use the SS pins in the wet tumble unless really tarnished cases. Those usually get set aside for use where the cases are not going to be recovered. Three hours in the wet cleaner solution of Armorall wash and wax, Lemi-shine and hot water make them clean and shine so all I would want. No sorting out the pins, just tumble in rags, lay out in trays and let dry.

I use SS pins and don't have a problem with them at all. They seem to work fine for me with a citric acid/Dawn bath. The ones that I have are NOT magnetic and when I rinse the brass they drop out of the case necks with no problems.

You repurposed steel pads may work, but I've been using the same pins for the last 8 years and cannot detect any wear on them at all.

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Originally Posted by stubshaft

I use SS pins and don't have a problem with them at all. They seem to work fine for me with a citric acid/Dawn bath. The ones that I have are NOT magnetic and when I rinse the brass they drop out of the case necks with no problems.

Your repurposed steel pads may work, but I've been using the same pins for the last 8 years and cannot detect any wear on them at all.

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Even though my repurposed stainless-steel scouring pads seem to be working for now, eventually I may still take the plunge and pick up some stainless-steel pins or some other form of stainless tumbling medium.

HollowPoint

I tryed stainless pins they clean out the primer pocket , But like other posters said unless you check every case you might have a stuck pin or 2, I clean 1.000-1500 cases at a time 9mm, 10mm ,45acp,40S&W, 223, and 300BO. I use a large custom made trumbler drum and half horse motor to clean my cases, with dawn and lemishine and a large hand bilt screen 1/4in. and use the sun to dry, then into one of my large dillons with corncob and frankford $65.00 a Quart cleaner, sometimes newshine wax. I have 30LB of SS pin`s that I would not use again, My 2 cents

I use a FA rotary tumbler and I give my brass a wet wash with Dawn without citric acid (on range brass pick-up only) to remove initial grime. Then another wash with citric acid, Dawn, and SS pins. I use a media separator (I believe it's RCBS) to remove the pins after wet tumbling and it has worked almost flawlessly. I remove most of the wash water in my media separator and add fresh water so that when I turn the drum the cases get an additional wash with the fresh water. that helps in removing the pins IMO. I dump most of the water and spin again. I then put the brass in a dehydrator for several hours until completely dry. Any, if there are any pins, they easily fall out, even with bottleneck cases. Sometimes I turn the cases neck down and give them a slight tap just in case but have rarely found any pins. I have found it to be a non-issue as I check inside my cases upon trimming and reloading anyway. It's a lengthy process but it works for me. YMMV.

Slim

As for case cleaning, a light vibratory tumbling in walnut grit with some mineral spirits does it for me. This is with the cartridges as they come off the range. Which can be rather gritty as many end up on the range floor or ground.

Not sure why they would need to be cleaner. They then go through resize & decap. Either in a SS or prog press. Either way any grit stuck in a flash hole is cleared.

The main reason to clean is to be sure that there isn't any particles on the case that could score a die. Or even after loading score a chamber.

45_Colt

It seems that the general consensus for using or not using stainless-steel tumbling medium is about 50/50.

HollowPoint

I love the cleverness of your experiment.
I do use the SS pins, and they are the magnetic ones, too.
I use a big salad spinner ( no joke) from a thrift shop. I just pour the tumbler into the spinner, hit it a couple times, centrifugal force yanks most pins out of cases. I do give each one a good ‘shake’ when plucking them out of the basket.
Never had a problem with them staying inside a case… even necked cases.

I use s.s. chips. small enough to get into the primer pockets, but big enough to not get stuck in the flash hole. I use an rcbs sidewinder tumblr, 45 acp case worth of dawn dish soap, let it run 2 hours, dump the sudzy water.............. which is black. then triple rinse with clean water.(20 minute cycle each) and the brass comes out looking like new.

STAY AWAY FROM THE PINS . . .THEY WILL MAKE YOU DO BAD THINGS!!!

I have a FA rotary tumbler and I ordered a box of the diagonal cut pins and the round BB type media off Amazon. These along with a couple TBS. of Dawn, Lemi Shine, and hot water your brass will be top notch!!! ASLO - stay away from the ones called spheres, they look like a cartoon planet. These will hang-up in your primer pockets!!!

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Originally Posted by OFFSHORE

STAY AWAY FROM THE PINS . . .THEY WILL MAKE YOU DO BAD THINGS!!!

I have a FA rotary tumbler and I ordered a box of the diagonal cut pins and the round BB type media off Amazon. These along with a couple TBS. of Dawn, Lemi Shine, and hot water your brass will be top notch!!! ASLO - stay away from the ones called spheres, they look like a cartoon planet. These will hang-up in your primer pockets!!!

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This seems to be the general consensus that I've come across during my search for info on the internet. Some folks like them, some folks hate them and many folks say that stainless-steel tumbling medium isn't really necessary.

HollowPoint

You have got to remember, "many people" are the reason joe is screwing up everything at the border and other places too. I go thru a full prepping for my brass before I clean them with a Thumlers tumbler (recently acquired). Before that I had several vibratory tumblers that worked out quite well but did not get the brass as clean as the wet rotary tumbler. I still have one and use it on occasion. Pick a system to suits you and use it. Too many people are free with advice that they have no experience with; only what they have read or heard. My system works for me but may or may not be something that you want to do. Pins can be a pain if you do not have a magnet to get them out of your brass but that is easily remedied at the local hardware store or Midway. Too bad you don't live close enough to me to let you come over and try out my system. By full prepping I mean this:
1. Ream the primer pocket flat and to the correct depth. 2. deburr the flashole. 3. full length or neck size the case.(if the case is dirty I will use the vibratory tumbler before sizing). 4. trim the case to the correct length. 5. champher the inside and outside of the case mouth.
Now it is ready for the cleaning process already mentioned. my way anyway and not binding on anyone, james