quote:

Originally posted by Fishin' Magician:
I wish someone would come up with a down side to this method or I'm going to end up with 200.00 less in my pocket!!

Fishin' Magician

You won't regret it. Some want clean brass, some don't care. I figure if I'm going to go through the effort of cleaning it, i.e.: tumbling, ultrasonic, etc... I'd like to actually get it clean.

Does it make it more accurate? Surely not.

But if you want your brass clean, this is the best way I've found, and I've tried them all.

If you do go with this setup, be sure to sell the vibratory cleaner quick before the bottom falls out of the market on them!

Regarding rusted SS pins. I've been using mine about once per week to clean brass and let it dry in the sun. It's not rusted yet. If it does rust, I would think that it would clean itslelf in the next cycle.

quote:

Originally posted by new_guy:
If it does rust, I would think that it would clean itslelf in the next cycle.

Good point. But if the Pins do Rust and self-clean, do you believe there is any chance some of it might be deposited inside the Cases?

Not arguing with you, just speculation on my part.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:

quote:

Originally posted by new_guy:
If it does rust, I would think that it would clean itslelf in the next cycle.

Good point. But if the Pins do Rust and self-clean, do you believe there is any chance some of it might be deposited inside the Cases?

Not arguing with you, just speculation on my part.

Wouldn't it rinse off?

Maybe it would. Perhaps it would remain in the solution and just rinse away without leaving any trace of the Rust behind.(Again - pure speculation on my part and not trying to toss a monkey wrench into this concept.)

For 50 dollars, I will give it a try. I already have the tumbler (but with the slow engine). I am mainly interested in the primer pockets. If this works, it will be money well spent. I might even call and see if Thumbler will sell me the h/s motor. If the rods don't work at all, I can load them by the 1/2 oz into my 410 wads and see how they shoot. thanks rc

quote:

Originally posted by RCHOUSER:
I might even call and see if Thumbler will sell me the h/s motor.

They will. It is about 50 bucks I think.

new_guy: Have you had any trouble with the SS pins becoming wedged width wise in the primer pockets after tumbling? I always seem to have 1 or 2 that I have to run a decapping pin through to knock out a pin. Even had two pins become wedged inside the flash hole after tumbling. It sure does clean the brass real well though.

Kevin

If you want to get your brass real clean real fast,get some of the grit used to polish rocks.My brother used to collect agates,and had several different grits of media to polish them like glass.
Only trouble with it is,like doc says,the media is harder than the brass,and will wear on the brass.
Even plain sand works very well and fast,but is too coarse ,and scratches brass badly.
We use corn cob or walnut shell because they are softer than brass.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Stick:
new_guy: Have you had any trouble with the SS pins becoming wedged width wise in the primer pockets after tumbling? I always seem to have 1 or 2 that I have to run a decapping pin through to knock out a pin. Even had two pins become wedged inside the flash hole after tumbling. It sure does clean the brass real well though.

Kevin

Yes, I just cleaned about 100 rounds last nigth (7x57s and 308s),and there were a couple examples of each.

But I just use a pair of tweezers to remove them. They aren't difficult to remove, just difficult to reach.

Can you post some photos of your results?

Here are a couple of photos showing what the brass looked like before and after cleaning.






Kevin

I just got my media in and havn't found the lemi shine as yet. I took 50 UGLY .223 PMC cases that had been deprimed a year ago, added a healthy squirt of AJAX Lemon dishwashing soap and about a gallon of water, bolted up the tumbler drum on my old low speed thumler. After 2 hours the brass was looking pretty good, but, still some crud in the primer pockets. I put it back on the tumbler for 2 more hours. Man, my brass is clean. I had stopped using my tumbler with walnut media, because, it wasn't cleaning primer pockets and really made more of a mess than the clean outside of the case was worth. (I am a not a "shiney guy" if shiney is too hard.
The ss media has performed as advertised. My rat .223 (ar fired) brass is as clean as new. The primer pockets are clean. I took a cotton tipped swab into the wet case and swabbed sides and bottom of case. CLEAN (no black on the swab at all.
This performs as advertised. I need to get the lemi shine (why not), but, can't really see where it can improve things much.
thanks rc

quote:

Originally posted by RCHOUSER:
This performs as advertised. I need to get the lemi shine (why not), but, can't really see where it can improve things much.
thanks rc

I haven't tried it w/out the lemishine, but apparently it does make them shine a bit more. In other words, you can get them clean without it, but they will shine brighter with it.

I just threw in a batch of brass this morning, and will be putting my new RCBS tumbler up for sale in the classifieds... I just don't see a need for it anymore.

If Lemi-shine is too hard to find, what about a citrus-based hand cleaner, like Fast Orange? Or lemon-oil cleaners? I'm sure there's something out there...

Wal-Mart is the primary source for Lemi-Shine

I found lemi-shine at Target. Still happy with the media. 2 runs (.223 then 30.30). Exactly 1 round each run with 1 media pin stuck in the primer pocket. I through the pin away each time on the theory that they are odd sized. Who knows. Clean primer pockets. I bought a fine mesh collender at a kitchen store. I just dump the media in the collender and run it under cold water to clean it. Then onto the porch to drip dry.
Use a dillen media seperator. All in all, I have never had a better way to clean primer pockets. (It also leaves your brass shiney) rc

I saw this thread a few weeks and decided to give it a try. I already had an old tumbler (the slower model), so all I needed to buy was the media.

I dumped a mixed bag (lots of .308, .338-06, .22hornet, .45acp) of probably 300 cases in with a gallon of tap water, and a tablespoon of dawn dishwashing detergent. I didn't have any Lemishine on hand and didn't want to make a trip to town just for that, so I let 'er buck.

Four hours later, after rinsing everything off and sun/air drying all the cases were really really clean, inside and out, including the primer pockets. No more cleaning pockets for me. I had a few SS pins stick side ways inside the hornet cases (easy to fix), but no stuck pins in any of the other cases. Somebody mentioned pins stuck in primer pockets, but the pins seem to be too long for that.

A few observations:

1) Without the Lemishine, the cases were not as shiny as my previous method (vibratory, corn cob media, iosso polish). Very clean, not polished. Good enough for me. I might try the Lemishine some day if I happen to think about it when I'm at a store that sells it, but I don't think it necessary.

2) After 4 hours, the water solution was beyond filthy.

3) NO DUST. I'm probably paranoid about this, but one of the problems I've always had with the vibratory cleaner is dust. I don't wanna be breathing it or ingesting it, so I always handle/separate the dirty media outdoors, etc. With this system all the residue is captured in the water. Rinse it off and it's gone (ok, it's in the sewer/septic system). For me this is a huge advantage.

4) I rinsed out the media after I was done, and drained most of the water off. I let it sit for a week or so and eventually it dried completely. I do not detect the slightest hint of rust.

5) The faster tumbler probably works faster, but the slower one does the job. If you've got the slower one or can get one on the cheap, it works fine. If my motor dies I'll try to order the faster motor from Thumblers.

-nosualc

Anyone ever use one of the foot massagers? They work really well and are much stronger than the home style sonic cleaners. Anyone know if they have a transducer like the sonic cleaners?

Is everyone still happy with this method? No downsides (other than the setup cost)?

Can someone please give me the diameter and length of the SS pins (I may already have some)?

Any shortcuts for drying the brass? I've had trouble with water spots whenever I've used wet cleaning methods.

I've had a Thumlers for a few years, put it right back in the box after trying it with corn cob--slow as christmas and didn't work very well IIRC. It also left a rubber residue on the side of the barrel, the rubber rollers seemed to be disintegrating--being ground aways by the drum itself?????

Mine is the slow motor version, but I think it's worth trying this media/solution combo--

If anyone has any further input on the operation of the Thumler itself, I would welcome it--the directions--if you could even call them that--are PATHETIC. Having said that, doesn't seem like there is a lot to it, but I do have the issue with the rubber rollers that I can't figure out.....got plenty of Lemi-Shine, I use it in my Ultrasonic potion....

I sprang for the S.S. media. Works exactly as advertised. I've been using a small rock tumbler but will soon purchase the high speed 15 lb. model soon.

I got tired of pouring rouge into the walnut media and then tumbling again with white rice (uncooked, of course) to get the polish off. And then there's still some polish residue inside the necks.

I've started the process of cleaning all my brass, mostly pistol, with S.S. media and bagging it up afterward.

A bucket, gallon of hot water, some Dawn dish soap, a cup of vineger. The hotter the water the better.
I use Lee case lube, water soluble, resize and deprime your brass. Dump in them in the bucket. Stir, let soak a few minutes, stir. Do thus a few times and the cases come out looking good, not quite new but good.
Strain out the cases from the cleaning solution, rince several times with hot water. Let dry.
Don't cost much, works good.

Glad to hear you guys are getting the same results. I'm still 110% satisfied.

quote:

Originally posted by McFox:
Reading this thread I became very curious and was finally willing to buy a full set consisting of the tumbler, separator and media.

Shortly after placing the online order I was informed that the shipping cost to Europe should by $299 via UPS!!!!

I'm not familiar with the UPS shipping charges but I have order stuff from the US before and never encountered such horrendous and prohibitive costs.

I'm a little puzzeled about who might be unwilling to do business with Europe here ...

For all of you outside the U.S. will be able to order a 240v version of the Tumbler and media straight from the stainlees tumbling media website here shortly. It should be up by this weekend so keep your eyes peeled.

I have been using this method for the last few years. I got into this when the shortage of brass came up, and had a source for once fired LC .223. It normally was pretty dirty and my Dillon cleaner was wearing me out to keep up with demand. I branched out and built a larger unit when I could not talk Thumlers into making a bigger one.



I can run 1000 .223 cases at once, (3 gallons of water, 4 tbs. of Ivory liquid, 1/2 tbs. Lemishine, 15 lbs of SS media, takes a man to handle the drum but it does a lot of cases quick). Currently looking at a modifying a plastic drum mortar mixer.

The SS pins will NOT work in a vibratory unit. The aqueous solution is the key to the method.

Any pins that bridge need to be tossed. The guy that runs the site has been a pleasure to work with, I had a batch of pins that bridged bad, he replaced them at his cost, could not ask for better than that.

Could you post some more photographs and narrative about how you built your "man-sized" machine?

That looks perfect to me.

I have used U/S for a few years, but this is the cat's ass.

Interestingly (for me anyway), I found an article in a 20 year old Handloader magazine that showed just about the same set up and stainless steel media. It was a two part article entitled "How Bright is Shiny".

I have a old rock polisher tumbler could I use this media in that.

I've just tried stainless steel media and really like it. I got cases very satisfactorily shiny with just dish soap but will try Lemishine when I can find it. The only disadvangage is that the Thumler's Tumbler won't process as many cases at once as my vibratory case cleaner will.

For stainless steel media you might try the following company. Their media is $4/lb. with a minimum $25 purchase so I got 7 lbs. of media for a little over $30 shipped.

SS Media Source

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:


Interestingly (for me anyway), I found an article in a 20 year old Handloader magazine that showed just about the same set up and stainless steel media. It was a two part article entitled "How Bright is Shiny".

As far as I can tell, it is a multi-page article in the May/June 1990 Handloader #145 by Don Krout, Jr.

That is the article. Thank you for looking it up!

I use this method as well...

Absolutely fantastic. I wont ever use another method and honestly for not much extra effort this puts the corn cob method to shame.

Brass looks like gold when it comes out:

and as for rusting...

I ran my pins the first time sometime in JULY and they sat unused, in the red drum sealed up until last week and not a single spot of rust.

The STM website now has LemiShine available for those of you having a tough time finding it!! www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com

I lightly clean brass by hand only. The brass does not need to shine to be clean enough for accurate and trouble free shooting. I do believe this method may in fact reduce the life of your brass. But i could be wrong.

Whilst the results are impressive, I have concerns about how much brass is abraded by the pins.
For that matter, will the pins wear out the tumbler drum?
Has anyone yet put the same brass through multiple cleaning cycles & if so, have they noticed any thinning of case necks, or other issues?
If brass can safely be cleaned ten or more times, then that'll do me.

I don't think there would be a lot of wear on the brass or tumbler. When you think about the force exerted on a shell by a single pin, there isn't much. It's not like you are dragging a nail along the side of the case. My brother used to use a rock tumbler with reclaimed lead shot to clean shells back in the 80's and they got clean and shiny without any additional wear and tear.

I personally don't think it's worth the trouble compared to dumping them into a vibratory tumbler, then dumping them into a sifter and spinning it a couple of times. I mainly want the soot and range dirt off. An extra hour in the tumbler for shiny outsides is good enough for me.

I'm glad the shiny primer pocket fans now have a tool to make them happy. After all, this hobby includes finding whatever it takes to make it enjoyable right?

I went to ss media and don't think I can ever go back to anything else

Here is a review of the SS system. http://www.accurateshooter.com...ith-stainless-media/

This morning I just finished my first, experimental batch of brass with this stuff. (150 rounds of mixed headstamp range pickup .223). The stuff was pretty grungy. I started by running it through my Ultrasonic Cleaner with a mixture of hot water and some dish washing soap to get the grit off so I wouldn't scratch my resizing die. I then full length resized and deprimed it with a RCBS Small Base Resizing Die. After that I ran all of them through my Dillon 600 Super Swage to remove any crimp on the primer pockets. Not all were military, but it was easier to run them all through rather than waste time separating them. Next I ran all of them through my Giraud Power Case Trimmer. It does a really nice job of trimming them to length, plus it puts a nice chamfer on both the inside, and breaks the burr on the outside of the case at the same time. It's amazing how much brass it removes from just 150 cases trimming them to minimum overall length.

After that I tossed them into the Thumlers Tumbler with 5 pounds of the Stainless Steel Media, a tablespoon of "Dawn" dish washing liquid, and 1/8th teaspoon of "Lemi-Shine". I then filled the tumbler up to within an inch of the top with luke warm water. I then installed the lid, tossed it on the tumbler, and plugged it in at 1:30 PM yesterday afternoon. I decided to let it run overnight because the brass was really dull and dirty, and also because my Thumlers Tumbler has a 1,500 RPM motor. The newer units have the 3,000 RPM motor, and give faster results. I didn't want to rush it, and I wanted the brass to be as clean as possible.

I got up at 3:30 AM this morning because I've got an early dentist appointment, (6:30 AM), and I wanted to get the brass out of the tumbler, rinsed, and drying before I left. THE BRASS CAME OUT BEAUTIFUL! Without any exaggeration the stuff is cleaner and shinier than new brass. The primer pockets and flash holes were absolutely spotless, and the cases shined inside and out. I'll try to get some pictures up later this afternoon when they're finished drying.

The only issue I had was partly my fault. The video on this stuff shows them using a Frankford Arsenal Media Separator. Cabela's has them and they're not that expensive. I was going to go pick one up yesterday, but I was too lazy. Melanie and I had a few glasses of wine each, and I wasn't going anywhere. The media separator allows you to float the Stainless Steel Media out of the cases by tumbling them partially submerged in the provided bucket you get with the separator. This is important otherwise the surface tension of the water will cause the media to stick to the sides of the case. I only had 150 cases so I just ran them under a light stream of tap water and it worked fine. I'm going to get the media separator because it would be a PITA to do that with a large batch of several hundred cases. This is the way to go if you want really nice clean brass. I'm still in the experimental stage with this stuff. Next I want to find a method and tumbler for large amounts. It all sounds more involved than it really is. The actual cleaning of the brass itself is an all but effortless process. Prepping the brass is always a pain, but you have to do it if you want good reloads. Remember, this was range pick up brass. It was filthy, dirty, and totally grungy inside and out. Even the inside of the case rims shine like new brass, and they were completely black!

This is about the best I could do with my crappy little Sony Cybershot. But it shows how well this media works.



















The photos show the cases drying in the Sun, and also show how clean the Stainless Steel Media gets the inside of the cases, as well as the primer pockets. It also shows the size of the Stainless Steel Wire Shot used in the process. I just wish I had taken some "before" photos, so you could see how bad they were before I started. If you look closely you can see it even polished the burrs on the inside of the flash hole! Bill T.

I sprang for the SS media. I used a small rock tumbler for a while and then went for the 15 lb high speed unit.

I generally run it for an hour with the dish soap and lemmie shine. Results are amazing. I'll never go back to walnut media.

Drop a silver dollar or an old penny in the next batch. Interesting.

Hey Doc: Caughr your posts of Feb. "09" & Aug.
"10" about adding baking soda to media. In what proportions? I prefer a dry approach to cleaning. The wet methods seem more involved than I deem necessary.

It seems to me that some folks make this more complicated than it needs to be. I vibrate my cases in walnut media, without additives, and they come out clean & shiny. However, they sometimes come out without all tarnish
removed. But, they still function; just a little unsightly. I will not lose sleep over it, but if there is a simple, inexpensive method of removing the tarnish I will try it.