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.Attachment 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]

The 38s I washed last week. The 9s where washed three years ago in the coffee can. 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.