Wet tumbling... without the SS pins

[rangeryo]

Well I ordered a Rebel 17 tumbler last week and received it a few days ago. Unfortunately, in my haste, I ordered just the tumbler, instead of the kit, complete with the Stainless pins. I called back and ordered the pins, which were supposed to arrive today, but seem to be lost in transit. So here I am, wanting to go shooting tomorrow afternoon, and have no way of cleaning my brass, or do I...

I took a short trip to my local walmart, and picked up the biggest container of .17 cal bbs that I could find. Just finished running some "test" brass (7.62 & .40) and I must say I'm impressed. The bbs do an excellent job, with the exception of the primer pockets. Have a look for yourself..

45 minutes of tumbling...

 

[Easy_E]

I have to ask for all the trouble I have with the pins getting stuck in the cases is clean primer pockets all that important ?

 

[rangeryo]

Not really to me, I run a uniforming tool through all of my rifle brass anyway...

Side note, I did notice that with the smaller 7.62x39 cases, the bb's get stuck inside as well. The pistol brass was no problem, but the bb's seemed to be wedged up in a few of the bottleneck cases. Tapping them with another case knocked them out pretty easily, but still somewhat of a bother.

Bottom line, brass is sparkly clean, just like with pins, and BBs are WAY cheaper! I'm actually considering running a blend of bb's and pins... wonder how that would turn out..

 

[arnie19]

I think the BB;s will rust if you don't dry them after use .

 

[Easy_E]

I bought some stainless steel balancing bb's for my jeep. That might work better ?
http://callieskustoms.com/CalliesKustoms-Balancing Beads.html
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I497 using Tapatalk

 

[MarshallDodge]

I built my own tumbler and used BB's. The BBs work well but like arnie19 mentioned, they will rust.

 

[rangeryo]

I figured that they would rust. I was considering coating them with a light oil for storage, but haven't really made any plans yet. I'll probably just dump them out on a towel next to my drying brass once I finish running.

 

[rangeryo]

I'm realizing one thing very quickly... One does not truly realize how much brass one has, until one starts tumbling...

 

[datguy]

The soap is a big part of what makes the wet tumblers nice. I just bought the Rebel 17 package from STM. Couldn't be happier.

I've ran all of my cob media cleaned brass through it. Crazy huge difference, on "clean" brass.

 

[rangeryo]

The soap is a big part of what makes the wet tumblers nice. I just bought the Rebel 17 package from STM. Couldn't be happier.

I've ran all of my cob media cleaned brass through it. Crazy huge difference, on "clean" brass.

There is a huge difference, although I'm finding there's no need to run most of my brass any longer than 45 minutes or so. I've also found that if I drain off the water at 45 minutes, and replace with fresh lemishine+dish soap, another 15-20 minutes finishes the job, and my brass comes out much nicer that it does if I just tumble two hours straight.

 

[Cheech]

Stainless Steel Tumbling Media Shot Balls 5 32" 12 Oz | eBay

Seller discounts for larger quantities. Also has other shaped media.

 

[Cheech]

A question for rotory tumbler owners. Thumbler lists the capacity but not the diamiter of their tumblers. what are the actual dimentions of their 15lb tumbler? thanks

 

[Cheech]

I built my own tumbler and used BB's. The BBs work well but like arnie19 mentioned, they will rust.

any pictures of your tumbler? I thinking of building one.

 

[MarshallDodge]

any pictures of your tumbler? I thinking of building one.

Unfortunately I don't. It was more of an experimental model and while it worked, I took it apart when finished.

I took a plastic coffee can and drilled a 1/4" hole in the middle of the bottom. A 1/4x20 bolt with fender washers went through the hole with the threads coming out the bottom and put a nut on it. I took an old cordless drill and tightened the chuck on to the threads. When the drill turned on the coffee can would spin. I put about 50 pieces of brass, a solution of water with Lemi-Shine crystals, and about 50 BBs in the can and clamped the drill to my workbench and let it run for 30 minutes. Brass came out great but the BBs don't do a great job of cleaning primer pockets.

Most of the cleaning action is the Lemi-Shine Solution. I make about a gallon of it and throw in my pistol brass with the old primers intact for about an hour, shaking the bucket every 20 minutes or so. It gets about 80% of the crud off the cases. Tumbler media lasts much longer and the cases come out great.

 

[Thump_rrr]

I have to ask for all the trouble I have with the pins getting stuck in the cases is clean primer pockets all that important ?

Are the pins only getting stuck in the primer pockets or in the cases also?

From what I read way back when I started using SS pins it was said that if you threw away the pins stuck in the primer pockets you would have less and less getting stuck because those pins were out of spec.
If this is true or not I couldn't tell you but I may get 2 cases out of 100 with pins stuck in the primer pockets.
I use the RCBS media separator to get the pins separated from the brass then I towel dry the outside of the brass.
For my precision brass I use compressed air to blow the cases dry and place them on loading trays with the necks pointing down to thoroughly dry overnight so I can spot any stuck pins.

 

[rangeryo]

Are the pins only getting stuck in the primer pockets or in the cases also?

From what I read way back when I started using SS pins it was said that if you threw away the pins stuck in the primer pockets you would have less and less getting stuck because those pins were out of spec.
If this is true or not I couldn't tell you but I may get 2 cases out of 100 with pins stuck in the primer pockets.
I use the RCBS media separator to get the pins separated from the brass then I towel dry the outside of the brass.
For my precision brass I use compressed air to blow the cases dry and place them on loading trays with the necks pointing down to thoroughly dry overnight so I can spot any stuck pins.

I guess I have elite pins then, because I have yet to find one stuck in a flash hole...