Stainless Pins

[GasGuzzler]

Lemi-shine can be used in dry media too with similar results. If it's getting too pink, add some baking soda (very little).

[donhuff]

???
JD, my whole point was that I DO NOT get pink brass no matter how much lemishine I use. I don't think that it's something that I should worry about to the point that I measure how much of the acid I use. Just dump "some" in there and get on with it.

I DO, get clean brass on the outside, inside, primer pocket, and flash hole. And I DO get shiny brass on the outside,inside, etc,etc, NOW that the SS pins have dulled down their sharp edges.

I have read a good bit in the past about the ammonia thing too. After reading so many horror stories, I finally read where the percentage of zinc leached out amounts to almost nothing. That's enough for me and I scratched that topic off of my worry list. I used some brasso just last week in some walnut hull media trying to get that "looks like GOLD" finish. It did "OK" but I think that the NuFinish car polish works better.

[mr surveyor]

o.k. .... nevermind



jd

[donhuff]

?

I'm not trying to be a smart azz here JD. I'm curious as to why you all seem to have these problems, and I don't. I don't think I'm doing anything special to avoid them.

[mr surveyor]

Don

Just a guess on my part. You are using the pins that use friction to remove a super thin layer of material from the surface of the brass, i.e. tarnish, powder residue, "pink rust".

Just for grins and giggles, take the same amount of water used in your pin tumbler and dump in the same amount of lemi-shine and whatever other additives you use, put is all in a container (obviously without the "pins) and drop in a handful of brass. Let is sit for a while and occasionally shake it around. At some point, you will see a small percentage of shells with patches of discoloration forming. I've even seen it (pink rust) when using higher than 50-50 concentrations of vinegar in my old u/s cleaner. It's not the end of the world for the brass as far as I know.

As for the ammonia thing, I have no personal experience to share ... just know which side of the issue I lean to.


jd

[GasGuzzler]

If you wanna see what happens....put just a few particles of lemi-shine in a 1/2 cup of water then submerge a case. It will be pink in just a few minutes.

[donhuff]

OH, so yall are just soaking the brass in the solution?

But still, it seems like I have run the SS pin tumbler a couple of times and left it till the next day to get the brass out. I'll have to try soaking some in a glass jar, if for no other reason than to see if I can actually "SEE" the pink. I have a hard time seeing shades of red because of my color blindness, but I'll show it to the wife for confirmation.

[mr surveyor]

Don .... I didn't say I just soaked brass, but I suppose you could call an ultrasonic cleaner a "soaker" of some sorts.

Also, I suppose there could be a bit of different results depending on the pH of one's water source. Unfortunately our community water (well) has high carb/bi-carb content and the pH is around 9.0, so the amount of acid solutions I use may be more than those with a different water source (like "Rocky Mountain springs") with a pH closer to 6.0. That's the reason I mentioned before about finding just the right combination of ingredients to do the job since we're not all mixing the exact same ingredients when tap water in involved. I've had to wrestle with the water pH thing a lot in the past when I home brewed pretty often, and occasionally hauled in enough brew water from another source due to my water having a pH so high that it required all types of chemical dithering to get it close enough for beer chemistry to work.

If I ever decide to start tumbling, it will be with the pins, although the only thing I see different from a 10 minute buzz in the ultra sonic is the pins make things shiny. For the foreseeable future, I'm content with just clean.

jd

[donhuff]

Yeah, I meant soaking because there is no mechanical action going on in the US cleaner.

And I am on a city water system. No idea of the PH. I hear the wife mention it some time because she has a fish tank.

My youngest son has recently partnered with two other guys in the Huntsville Alabama beer brewing club. And they have started up a "nano brewery". They have leased a building in downtown Huntsville and are renovating it now to turn it into a brew pub. He has been brewing for several years now and has gotten quite good at it. He has come to our boat races and rocket launches with a small 3 tap "kegarator". And when the racing and launching is over he will announce "the range is closed, and the bar is open".

He makes a good copy of sierria nevada pale ale for me as that is one of my favorites. They actually got advice on modifying their recipe for that beer from the brewmaster in charge of making it . They met him at some sort of beer show.

But he too fights with the PH of the water for his beer and his fish tank. Huntsville's water has a very high limestone content even in the city water system. He has to flush his hot water heater a lot to keep the limestone from building up in it.

[btoran]

Jim - thanks for the pics. This weekend I went ahead and made up a single pvc drum for the hf dual drum machine. Will test it soon after getting pins and lemi shine. The pvc drum didn't roll well on the rollers. The guy who first posted about it used rubber bands around the pvc drum, which worked for him. I used the extra drive belts that came with the machine, after verifying my installed one was OK. Seemed to do the trick. Very easy to open/shut the new pvc drum (a 9/16 wratcheting wrench is all you need). I'll post pics tonight. Was thinking about using two colanders with different sized holes over a bucket. Idea would be dirty water to go all the way thru to the bucket and have pins pass thru first colander and get stuck in second one while brass would stay in first colander. Think that's workable?