Tumbling with Stainless pins

[DizzyJ]

That FA additive is awesome. I bought some to use after the results I got with it.

I believe AMP annealing did some testing regarding work hardening and ss tumbling and the result was minimal IIRC. Small amount of hardening on the surface.

You can read about it here: Annealing Brass For Reloading | FAQ | Annealing Made Perfect

And here: Induction Annealing Brass | Our Research | AMP

 

[Cj10488]

Well just took out all the brass and it's a dark gold color. Kinda interesting. Not sure I like the limo shine if it's gonna make my brass this dark gold color.

Left is with the lemi shine. Right is without.

Thanks for all the info
James

 

[BrandonQuixote]

Well just took out all the brass and it's a dark gold color. Kinda interesting. Not sure I like the limo shine if it's gonna make my brass this dark gold color.

Thanks for all the info
James

You probably didnt use enough. I was a little light in the hand and got the same results

 

[Member 5605]

You should see mine after sitting for a year. Brighter than yours right out of the tumbler. (Wax preserves luster).

 

[deadeye]

Comes in a can like an old Comet Cleanser can and looks like this:

View attachment 686840

I use that on my stainless pots/ pans works great just like Cameo. For my brass it's Dawn and lemon shine with about 5=6lbs pins and a tumbler full of brass. I use an old 12# rock tumbler with a rubber drum and run about an hr or so comes out clean/ shiny.

there are several threads here on the subject.

Brass Cleaning (again!)

Once upon a time I belonged to a car site. The dreaded thread there was brands of oil. A mere mention would be biblical....40 days and 40 nights of comments! Anyway, here's my brass cleaning hint and any comments would be helpful. I'm a real stickler for clean brass. My local range is insistent...

www.northwestfirearms.com

Best Wet Tumbling Brass Cleaning Solution?

For those wet tumblers out there, what cleaning solutions do you use? I use the Frankford Arsenal Brass Cleaning Solution with some mixed results. I know many of you use Lemi-Shine and Dawn dish washing soap recipe; I just found that such recipe does not give the brass that new shine that I am...

www.northwestfirearms.com

Brass tarnishing day after cleaning...

I tumbled some .223 with stainless pins that I got and came out with fantastic results: It started it's life like this: Now two days later it's all tarnished and looking like I originally did a half-arsed job. Need to protect brass after cleaning so it actually looks like I gave a damn...

www.northwestfirearms.com

Cleaning Brass with my Rock Polisher and Stainless Media

Started my first run of .223 brass in my rock tumbler.. It's a small tumbler so it's a small run. 100 rounds with 2lbs of stainless media, a 1/2 teaspoon of liquid detergent and 1/2 teaspoon of lemi-shine. Hoping for good things. I already had the tumbler so my total investment is the...

www.northwestfirearms.com

 

[RVTECH]

I like a shiny case they drop right in the cylinder.

Yep - pins take the 'rough edges' - off the brass.

They cycle smoother in lever action rifles as well. I can feel the difference.

 

[Cj10488]

So I took the dark colored brass and threw in the corn cob media last night and let it run pretty much all night. Went back to its normal color. Gonna try another load here shortly without the lemi shine and see if that was the issue.

Also ordered the media separator and the mesh screens for the FA Tumbler. I think this should help out tremendously. After this next load I will try some mequires car soap and a little lemi shine and see how things look.

As for the pins out of 500+ cases only found 2 pins that didn't come out with the final rinse that came out in the dryer so I guess that's good.

Anyways thanks again for all the help
James

 

[deadeye]

How much lemon shine are you using, don't need much. I usually just use a tsp not a tbs along with the Dawn soap. Depends on the amount of water used the more brass and media the less water that fits so need to adjust for that.

 

[Cj10488]

I just eyeballed about 1tbsp. Probably a little less than that. I will try and use less next time and see how it goes. Just experimenting as the FA pod packs are all too cheap at about 1$ per wash. Hmm maybe I try a dishwasher pod pack sometime lol.

James

 

[DizzyJ]

5 lbs pins
~15-20 lbs brass.
1 cup Meguires car wash, 2tbsp Dawn, 1tbsp lemon juice.
Tumble 90 minutes, one out looking new.

Couple of questions.
A full cup of Meguires car wash? Is it the stuff with wax in it?
If so, do you feel the wax changes the neck tension, or "pull" on the bullets? Any change in poi or accuracy?

I've contemplated using one of the "car wash" additives to the SS wet tumbling solution but have been leery it may change the load performance or characteristics.

 

[Helocat]

Best stuff to use is this:
View attachment 686901

Stainless media chips. Cuts the tumbling time down. it doesn't get stuck in the flash hole. So there will be 5lbs of pins in the classifieds very soon. lol. I finally picked some up today when I snagged 1,000 9mm rounds tonight.

This is THE soap to use. The wax stays on the brass if you don't rinse it with hot water when done, a little LemiShine as needed to neutral the pH. The wax helps in the flaring, sizing and running through the FCD at the end. Smoother product and smoother press operation.

Some agree, some disagree but no wax is sticky brass that isn't as smooth. That is a fact. Same reason you wax your car, slickens up the paint.
View attachment 686904

That's the magic combo right there. Chips chips chips.

I just eyeballed about 1tbsp. Probably a little less than that. I will try and use less next time and see how it goes. Just experimenting as the FA pod packs are all too cheap at about 1$ per wash. Hmm maybe I try a dishwasher pod pack sometime lol.

James

James,

I am in Newberg as well, ok work in Newberg live in Dundee. But the water should be about the same. $1 per wash can be moved to about 2 cents per wash. Just a little squirt of soap (Like 3 pea's worth) and a 9mm case of Citric Acid = best brass ever. I bought a 5lbs bag of food grade Citric Acid a while back, happy to give you a ziplock bag of it for free. I have a prob. 3 lifetimes worth.

Also if you're using the FA pod packs, don't add any extra limi-shine/citric acid. The pod packs will have a generic amount already in their mix. The advantage of not using the pre-made packs and using your own mix is you can dial the mix to perfect brass based on the pH of your water. Again since your water is basically my water I am sure the same combo. This is where the "generic" online "I use this mix" does not apply universally everyone's water has a different pH so you have to dial in the amount of citric acid to use. It's not like making a cocktail and you want to make it extra good so you put more bourbon in it, more is not always better. Same with the soap, too much and it will take 5+ rinses to get the water to stop bubbling like your GF's bubble bath.

PM me if you want to swing by my business in town and grab some citric acid this week. (EE's will give me crap for handing off a baggie of white powder_)

BTW Autozone in town has that orange car wash from Armor All. Where I last got mine.

 

[deadeye]

Hmm maybe I try a dishwasher pod pack sometime lol.

James

If using dishwasher pack eliminate the lemon shine as the pack will have what you need if its like the cascade complete, bonus will be the lemon fresh scent while shooting. After all lemon shine is for dishwashers to boost detergent and leaving streak free ya know.......

 

[Cj10488]

PM me if you want to swing by my business in town and grab some citric acid this week. (EE's will give me crap for handing off a baggie of white powder_)

Thanks. Appreciate the offer. I will probably take you up on it. Add an extra bag of white powder to it lol. Might be able to get brass done quicker that way hahaha..

James

 

[P7M13]

Couple of questions.
A full cup of Meguires car wash? Is it the stuff with wax in it?
If so, do you feel the wax changes the neck tension, or "pull" on the bullets? Any change in poi or accuracy?

I've contemplated using one of the "car wash" additives to the SS wet tumbling solution but have been leery it may change the load performance or characteristics.

Meguires leaves a coating of wax on the brass that vastly improves the effectiveness of lube on the rifle cases. I use so little case lube that it's an easy wipe after removing the case from the die. Haven't had a dented shoulder in years.

While I don't have an inline press for Wilson dies, complete with force gauge so I can quantify the seating tension, I have found the two most significant factors on neck tension are the brand of brass and whether it's annealed. Case in point, I just ran into this with 6.5 Swede AI, cases I was going to fire form. About 1/3 were annealed, and they were like MILFs - so little resistance that I checked whether I could push the bullet in by pressing the tip down on the table. Nope, good neck tension. There was very little difference between these cases among brass brands (Norma, S&B, PPU and R-P). The rest were snug, even tight to the point I thought they might shave copper off the bullet.
As far as affecting POI, LOL - I'm not anywhere near that skilled a shooter.
On an aside, I rejected three S&B cases because they wouldn't fit into the shell holder.

 

[Cj10488]

A cup of meguires seems like quite a lot. I don't even use that on my car in 2 or 3 washes.

James

 

[P7M13]

Add an extra bag of white powder to it lol. Might be able to get brass done quicker that way hahaha..

Boric acid looks a lot like crystal meth. I wouldn't want to smoke that - nasty way to die.

A cup of mequires seems like quite a lot. I don't even use that on my car in 2 or 3 washes.
James

Ya, prolly overkill. Then again, 4000 40S&W or 2K of 223 in a tumble and it seems to be a useful amount. I like @Helocat 's scientific approach, using pH.

 

[Cj10488]

Boric acid looks a lot like crystal meth. I wouldn't want to smoke that - nasty way to die

LOL. I'm sure it doesn't smell or taste like meth. I was joking along the lines of something a little more natural such as coke.

James

 

[P7M13]

LOL. I'm sure it doesn't smell or taste like meth. I was joking along the lines of something a little more natural such as coke.

James

I figured, but if we had enough bank to have coke for R&R, I don't think we'd be reloaders. Reloading is, after all, a geeky, fiercely independent extension of our hobby.
Nope, we'd be making movies with violence and guns, then publicly stating that people shouldn't have guns.

 

[DizzyJ]

Meguires leaves a coating of wax on the brass that vastly improves the effectiveness of lube on the rifle cases. I use so little case lube that it's an easy wipe after removing the case from the die. Haven't had a dented shoulder in years.

While I don't have an inline press for Wilson dies, complete with force gauge so I can quantify the seating tension, I have found the two most significant factors on neck tension are the brand of brass and whether it's annealed. Case in point, I just ran into this with 6.5 Swede AI, cases I was going to fire form. About 1/3 were annealed, and they were like MILFs - so little resistance that I checked whether I could push the bullet in by pressing the tip down on the table. Nope, good neck tension. There was very little difference between these cases among brass brands (Norma, S&B, PPU and R-P). The rest were snug, even tight to the point I thought they might shave copper off the bullet.
As far as affecting POI, LOL - I'm not anywhere near that skilled a shooter.
On an aside, I rejected three S&B cases because they wouldn't fit into the shell holder.

Sounds good. Appreciate the info.

And I have a feeling you're a better shooter than you let on.

Edit:
And I do have the Wilson inline dies and force gauge if you'd like to use it sometime.

 

[Cj10488]

I just tried 2tbsp of meguires and a 2x 380 cases of lemi shine. Let's see how this works.

James