Re: Stainless Steel Media Testimonials
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now that I've been using this for a couple months, I've gotten a feel for how to judge how much soap is needed based on quantity of cases, and how foul they are. I've gotten pretty good at this, and always have a nice head of lather when I open her up. I don't *think* soap is the issue.
Another thing: Anyone notice 7.62 NATO brass doesn't get "gold", its more of a dark brownish "bronze".... Even after LOTS of tumbling?</div></div> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I've been using the SSM for a couple months now... My thoughts:
1. It does a beautiful job. I've done 308, 338LM, 45ACP, 30-06, and probably some others and it always comes out beautiful
2. It's a painful process. I reload in my garage, and I don't have a water source in there, so my "circular" pattern of use includes dumping some of the water from my RCBS seperator into the tumbler, decanting the rest, dumping media into the tumbler, dumping cases in, 2 or 3 shots of AJAX dish detergent and a 40 caseful of lemishine. Install 6 washers, install 6 wingnuts. It seems to take at LEAST 5 or 6 hours (yes, I have a high speed Model B). Remove 6 wingnuts, remove 6 washers, carefully open lid and wipe any media clinging to the gasket back into the tumbler. Carefully wipe media off the top of the tumbler liner, and back into the tumbler. Dump tumbler into a 2 gallon bucket, and carry that to the bathroom. Decant dirty water out of the bucket into the bathtub. Refill bucket, rake my hands around through the brass/media to rinse. Decant, fill, rake, decant, fill, rake....continue until water is clear and clean. Carry it back out to the garage. Dump bucket of water/brass/media into the seperator. Close lid, crank seperator for a minute, reversing directions every ten seconds. Open seperator, pull out squirrel cage, decant water back into the tumbler drum. Now the squirrel cage isn't half in/half out of the water. crank seperator for another minute or two, reversing directions, and spinning fast sometimes to "fling" water out. Open seperator, dump brass out of squirrel cage into a towel. I fold the towel in half the long way, grasp the ends shut, and allow the brass to tumble from one end of the towel to the other. Occassionally I "drop" the towel to the ground (while still holding the ends) to allow the brass to scatter around in the towel again. Then lay the towel out and let the brass sit for a day or two. Several times now, after this "drying" procedure, I've put the cases into a ziplock bag after at least 2 days drying time, only to notice a day later there is condensation inside the bag - obviously I didn't "dry" enough.
3. Its really easy to spill the media, and EXCEEDINGLY difficult to pick it back up. I think I read something about magnetic media - wish mine was, but of course the tradeoff is corrosion. If its got enough iron in it to be magnetic, its got enough iron in it to rust, right??
I don't know if I'd buy it over again. It sure does a nice job, but its such a pain.
TO VALIDATE YOUR DRYING PROCEDURE: I **HIGHLY** recommend you try the ziplock bag technique. When you think you're dry, dump the brass into a ziplock bag, zip it shut and let it sit for a day or two. If you see no trace of condensation, you're good. If you do - better rethink your drying process. Misfires and hangfires are no fun at the range, or at a match. </div></div>
Instead of SSM, which would you use instead?
Did the SSM get the primer pockets clean?
Slightly offtopic, but what kind of turbo 5.4 are you running? Ford modular?