Stainless Pins

[Jaybm]

Well the new pins arrived and as Don had mentioned they had a dull cast.


In all fairness the "old" pins sat in the drum and dried. Obviously the stainless is not
the best. I need to take a closer look at them.





Pins cleaned up nice and that brass is typical of how they look after tumbling with
the pins. There are several more buried in the pins.

Can't say enough about brass cleaning with the pins ... Jim

[dvw86]

Wow! I got to try those.

[Ohio3Wheels]

They are definitely worth it. I shoot a lot of BP and I've ner had my 40-65 and 45-70 cases as clean as the pins and dawn get them. Bottle neck cases take a little shake to clear the pins out but you have that with the other media as well and none of the other get the primer pockets clean like the pin do. They do the job in my older low speed Thumbler Model B and I understand they are faster in a higher speed tumbler.

Make smoke,

[Jaybm]

CORRECTION ! The ole eyes must be failing me. Taking a second look at
the original pins in a different light and there were no rust or discolorations.
Probably a reflection ?

Ohio ... don't you use a smidgen of Lemi Shine ? As a side note guntap included
a sample pack of " Brass Shine " powder detergent. I haven't tried it so can't
comment, 1 teaspoon for 1 quart drum, 1 tablespoon for 1 gallon drum.

Jim

[btoran]

does anyone on the site use the harbor freight rock tumbler with the ss pins? if so, anything to watch out for?

i've seen several videos on youtube and it looked promising, so i picked up the dual drum model while they had a sale and i had a 20% off coupon, so it came to $42. one thing i don't like is the mechanism to open and close the drums and don't think i'll enjoy it for 2 drums each time. i did find instructions on the internet to use a 9.5" piece of 4" pvc pipe with a test cap on one end and a test plug on the other to create a single drum that is larger than the original 2 and much easier to open / close. has anyone on here tried the pvc drum?

[Ohio3Wheels]

CORRECTION ! The ole eyes must be failing me. Taking a second look at
the original pins in a different light and there were no rust or discolorations.
Probably a reflection ?

Ohio ... don't you use a smidgen of Lemi Shine ? As a side note guntap included
a sample pack of " Brass Shine " powder detergent. I haven't tried it so can't
comment, 1 teaspoon for 1 quart drum, 1 tablespoon for 1 gallon drum.

Jim

Jim, I would say a short smidgen. It doesn't seem to take too much to boost the detergent. Too much and/or too long in the drum turns the brass "pinkish". No harm as far as I know but the cases make fun of them .

Make smoke,

[Jaybm]

btoran, I use the single drum tumbler from Harbor Freight. Three things ... the drum may have a tendency
not ( at first ) to rotate. A piece of electrical tape near each end of the driven rod will help but make sure
the drum is rotating before you walk away. A drop or two of oil by the bushings is a good idea. And finally
the owner's manual might suggest you check the drive belt alignment, I did and it was fine on my tumbler.
Now mine is the single drum and the dual drum may be different but I expect not. Usually I tumble 50 or
more brass at a time and for two hours, sometimes longer as I walk away and may not get back to it
until I notice the time.

If you're new to Lemi Shine don't buy it on line, check out the detergent aisle in your grocery chain. You'll
save money.

The tool I use to pry off the drum lid ...






Carefully work your way around the lid. Yeah, you'll make some dings !

I empty the drum into a strainer with a couple of paper towels in it. Very effective catching the pins.

While holding it over yet another strainer and container to catch the dirty liquid.


And there you have my technique, hope this is some help to you ... Jim

[donhuff]

I keep seeing mention of the Lemishine turning brass pink. That has not happened to me yet. And I put a good tablespoon of it in a batch.

Since reading about this I have shown the wife some fresh tumbled brass to see if SHE can see the pink, because I am color blind. She has not seen it yet.

The citric acid is suppose to do something for the cleaning action. But a big thing I noticed about using the lemishine is that it makes the water much wetter! After tumbling and separating pins and brass. I put the brass in a colander and give it a few downward hard shakes, to shed some of the water. This gets the brass much drier if I use the lemishine. Then pile it on a towel and I blow it with a heat gun for a few minutes till dry.


So I did this to about 300 to 350 brass the other day. It was mixed 9mm, 357, and a bunch of 360dw. I got them poured out onto the towel and started blowing with my heat gun. Rolled them around a little to expose the ones on the bottom. I noticed that one or two had live primers in them. I am always working on 5 different projects at one time so It's no to unusual for a couple of "hot" ones to get mixed in with the dirty ones.
I though "no big deal" cause they had been submerged in warm soapy, acidy water, for 2 and a half hours. And I never got the heat gun within 6 inches of the brass, and was blowing down into the open ends mostly because that's the way they tend to pile up when you roll them around suspended in a rag/towel.
Imagine my surprise when all of a sudden....POW ....one of those primers went off! Luckily, I'm wearing glasses all the time now so my eyes were ok, but I had two little spots on my forehead that stung for about an hour. I could not see anything in them and it eventually went away.

I think they are lying when they tell us how sensitive they are to contamination, and what ever you do, do not touch them or you'll surely have a bunch of DUDS!

I'm gonna take a hundred with me next time I go scuba diving and see how they do. Not so sure I'll take them volcano watching though.

[mr surveyor]

Don .... I've been using a small u/s cleaner (1983 vintage drafting pen cleaner) for 5 years and used vinegar and dawn for the first couple of years while I was looking for citric (canning) acid. Then I read about Lemi-Shine (which is mostly just citric acid) and started using it. With experimentation, I found that a very small amount (with the Dawn ... drop or two) would thoroughly clean the brass without causing "pink rust". A bit too much Lemi-Shine would result in about 10% of the brass having "pink rust" if they were all left in the solution long enough for cleaning. Bumping up from "a bit too much" to "TOO MUCH" would "pink rust" 30-40% before all the crud was cleaned off the whole batch. If you're looking for both clean (inside/out and primer/flash hole) with the stainless pins, you may want to tone down the citric acid/Lemi-Shine until you find the happy medium for both clean and shiny.

I don't think acid solutions do as much damage to brass (the "pink rust") as ammonia will do - where the Hydrogen from the NH3 will bond with the zinc and effectively leach it out of the brass making it brittle and porous. No matter how much I read about the "pink rust" as being mostly harmless, it still can't be good for brass that you wish to have a long life.

Lemi-Shine is a lot like Brylcreem ... a little dab'l do ya!



jd

[Jaybm]

Lemi-Shine is a lot like Brylcreem ... a little dab'l do ya!

That's the line I was looking for jd.

I should have mentioned I rinse the cleaned brass with tap water and air dry
on paper towels.

Jim