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SS / wet tumbling - media preservative

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Haha, can you repeat the question?

J/K - I do not leave any preservatives in the drum between cleaning cycles. Don’t believe it is necessary.
I agree. I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler which is lined. When finished I rinse all of the brass in a bucket and the pins sink to the bottom. I drain the water out and pick up the pins with a magnet. Instead of pins they also make a wedge-style which are sized to not get stuck in the brass. Dry everything in a 200+ degree oven and bag it up. Done. But I do not leave dirty water and pins in the tumbler ever. Chances are your brown water was rust from the pins.
 
I agree. I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler which is lined. When finished I rinse all of the brass in a bucket and the pins sink to the bottom. I drain the water out and pick up the pins with a magnet. Instead of pins they also make a wedge-style which are sized to not get stuck in the brass. Dry everything in a 200+ degree oven and bag it up. Done. But I do not leave dirty water and pins in the tumbler ever. Chances are your brown water was rust from the pins.

Yea I never leave water in the tumbler either; it all gets drained. I put a few shop towels in the bottom of my sifter for the pins to dry out on. I then leave them to sit for about 5-10 minutes or so while I put the cases themselves in another bin with shop towels to air dry...Out here (Vegas), we are at <= 10% humidity pretty much year round so water evaporates nearly immediately. I use the same shop Towels for several cleanings.
 
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Yea I never leave water in the tumbler either; it all gets drained. I put a few shop towels in the bottom of my sifter for the pins to dry out on. I then leave them to sit for about ;-10 minutes or so while I put the cases themselves in another bin with shop towels to air dry...Out here (Vegas), we are at <= 10% humidity pretty much year round so water evaporates nearly immediately. I use the same shop Towels for several cleanings.
I'm in Oregon and it can be humid, hence the 200 oven. Works great for the brass and the pins.
 
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I skipped over some of this but here's what I do and I'm generally a bit lazy but have had no issues so far.

Wet tumble with pins and de-primed brass using my mix of a big dash of food grade citric acid, dish soap (my wife likes Palmolive clear unscented so that is what I use) and a small dollop of simple green "purple" which is metal safe. Do my 2 hour tumble in my Lyman unit and dump it all out. Rinse the brass (and for mister I don't like the pins and don't care about shiny brass....yeah it makes no difference but I like pretty ammo...call me vain) and collect the pins (coarse and fine basket system that comes with the tumbler). I then rinse out the tumbler which has a few pins left and then semi dry the decanted pins and then dump them back in and screw the lid back. Nothing ever gets funky and my brass comes out really clean and bright. I am no expert but this seems to work just fine and when I go to tumble brass again a couple months later (I do big batches) there is nothing wrong with the tumbler or the pins and everything seems clean and fresh.
 
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With the number of responses I'm a bit late.
I deprime and resize first
Wet tumble with stainless pins, Dawn Ultra and Lemi Shine.
I separate pins & brass with a Dillon media separator.
Rinse in hot water and then cold.
Usually spread them out on a towel to air dry.
THEN.. a bit of mineral spirits and car polish in my walnut media in a vibratory tumbler for an hour or more.
anneal if necessary and trim to length...
Yeah I know it's a bit overkill but I like it that way.
 
So... for those who do wet tumble using SS media... do you ever use any kind of preservative in the drum with the media when storing it?

It'd been a while since I'd used my wet tumbling setup, and when I cracked the lid on the drum after tumbling the first batch of brass, the water was more brown than black. No more rusty water thereafter, but there's still a pretty good rust spot/stain on the rubber liner at the bottom of the drum.
I use NuFinish car polish as a way to better lube and clean the brass.
A dry water tolerable polymer seems to do the job well.
I got this info from a world class shooter to also lube the bore after it is cleaned well first.
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So... for those who do wet tumble using SS media... do you ever use any kind of preservative in the drum with the media when storing it?

It'd been a while since I'd used my wet tumbling setup, and when I cracked the lid on the drum after tumbling the first batch of brass, the water was more brown than black. No more rusty water thereafter, but there's still a pretty good rust spot/stain on the rubber liner at the bottom of the drum.

I was always told how nice and helpful the PRS shooting community is and how they are always there to help... especially for newbies. I'm not feeling that on this blog. Maybe I am wrong and there aren't any PRS shooters on this blog. Sorry... BTW, to the guy's original question, I just throw my SS pins on a dry towel for a couple of hours and then back in a bag.
 
@milanuk honestly I drain the thumblers drum really good and leave the lid off and it dries out pretty well. After tumbling, I rinse the brass in cold water in a rotary separator. That cleans the soap and gets the pins out. After that I rinse the pins with the leftover cold water. I have always lived in dry climate so no issues with rust.

I dry the brass in a towel with an old hair dryer. No dehydrators or ovens for me.

Hope this help or gives you ideas.
 
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My friends.... you don't need to dry your stainless media between tumbles... that's why they are stainless... you just store them wet... if youre taking time to dry ss media between tumbles then you're just wasting time... I no longer use any SS media when wet tumbling but I actually have them stored away in a jar full of water and they have been in there for a year and look as good as the day I put them in there. Drain out the water, put the lid on, store away. Be done with it
 
Maybe it depends on from where the stainless pins were sourced. I got mine from SS Tumbling when I got my tumbler, but over the years various individuals peddled custom pins and chips calling them “stainless”. Some of that stuff could rust. Mine has not and I always just leave it wet in the rubber liner.

If you need to preserve your pins to keep them from rusting then maybe your pins are shit.
 
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