So I've been working up some .220 swift brass that I bought used and after depriming and getting all the other stuff done to it I threw it in my tumbler. Its an RCBS with walnut sell and rice for media. Works pretty good but dang getting all that media out of the casings is a real pain in the butt. Do the SS media tumblers have this same issue or not?

I use a SS media tumbler and it works fine. To get all the media out requires a good shake especially with bottle necked cases.

The media comes in all sizes. you need small for .22 cases. And yes,the do some times block the neck or the primer pocket.
You can also use steel BB's which are a lot cheaper to buy.
They call the "stainless steel" medial just that,but it is magnetic and will rust.

I leave mine immersed in water so no oxygen gets to it.
but yeah you gotta shake the pins out of the cases or use a media tumbler [Dillon] to get it out.
I double check the cases with a strong horseshoe magnet.

Well I think I'm going to go ahead and buy some of the pins and I plan on using them in my RCBS vibratory tumbler until I can get one made specifically for stainless steel, if thats needed. What size pins should I buy? I load everything from 20 cal up to 7mm.

So after doing some research it looks like I'll need a dedicated SS tumbler but I've also been reading up on the ultrasonic cleaners. They seem to do a good job but require more steps but probably overall less time. Will the SS media give me the same results as the ultrasonic? I dont mind if the SS takes a bit more time, I'll just turn it on and walk away for a few hours.

Yes, you will need a rotary tumbler. In a vibratory machine, the pins just sit on the bottom.
You can just start it up and forget it for a while but I have not needed to tumble anything longer than a couple hours. Use Lemishine and dish soap in it too.
Go on Craigslist and look for rock polishers. I bought mine from a rock guy and it works incredibly well.

cobrajet:

What is your purpose of cleaning brass?

a)To just have cases clean inside and outside enough for safe storage of loaded rounds and flawless functionality?

b)You want your cases shining as new or better, nicely polished etc.?

c) a+b?

For a), ultrasonic works good. I have Frankford Arsenal ultrasonic cleaner, I clean 9 times 480s cycle. (You have to wait after 3 cycles to cool electronics down). You need to replace cleaning solution batch to batch, but solution of water, citric acid and some dish washing soap works same or better as factory stuff.

For b), dry tumbling with walnut shells etc. works well. I personally use plastic media used for tumbling of jewelry. It goes easy out of large cases (.375 H&H, 45 ACP etc.). But it will not clean cases inside.

For c), just use ultrasonic and dry media tumbling (I use this) or wet stainless steel media tumbling.

Jiri

I'm anal about dirty stuff so I like my stuff clean inside and out if possible. I think the wet SS media is probably the way I'll go eventually. I'll look around for a while to try and find a tumbler on the cheap but if I cant I'll just buy a new one.

BTW outside polishing with plastic media: http://forums.accuratereloadin...341060712#5341060712

Jiri

I like the results but I can see the same issues with that as with CC, walnut hull or rice in the smaller necked cases like .222, 243. ect.

I have been using the stainless steel pins in my tumblers, (the RCBS Sidewinder Case Tumbler for small amounts of brass, and the big STM Production Tumbler for large quantities), for years. I use a solution of water, Dawn dishwashing detergent, and Lemi- Shine polishing detergent in the tumbler along with the brass and the stainless steel pins. The brass comes out as new. Very occasionally you may find 2 pins stuck in the primer hole....but this is rare This method of cleaning will make the case interior, primer pocket, etc., as clean as the day it was manufactured. A photo of my big production tumbler follows. Cheers. Chip.

I don't know if this will help or not. I use the stainless pins in a tumbler and when they are finished I take a 5 gallon bucket in the utility sink, I take one of my gold clarifiers with the 1/4 spacing, which is made to fit the top of a 5 gal bucket, and dump the cases into the clarifier and gently shake them around. A huge majority of the pins will drop through the screen into the bucket. I run water over this to wash the pins from the cases also.

Damn Skippy, it seems that cleaning brass has taken on a life of its own. When do you guys find time to do a little shooting?

quote:

Damn XXXXX, it seems that cleaning brass has taken on a life of its own .....

I agree.

The stainless steel pin tumblers (or rock cleaners) work better than anything I've ever used and alot faster as well.

Brass is "as new" both inside & outside including primer pockets.

I purchased a 12" diameter sieve from a resturant supply company and pour the dirty water with the brass into it and then rinse. Yeah, like CHIPB, you have to ensure that there's no pins remaining inside the cases but simply turning them upside down usually allows the pins to easily fall out. Any pins that fall into the sink get easily collected with a magnet.

I leave mine damp as they come from the sieve and they haven't rusted but I use them about once a week for different batches of sized brass anyway.

Yeah, it's not point & click but FWIW nothing is, as cleaning (inspecting & picking dry media outa flash holes) with corncob or walnut media residue when a vibrator cleaner was used is required too.

wasbeeman,

if you pay the price they are asking for LAPUA brass, I guarantee you'll take good care of them.

Ditto for keeping any grunge out of a set of Whidden or Redding competition dies.

Sorry, Idaho, I've sacks and sacks of LAPUA brass. I even have some sacks of Dakota brass --that's Laupa brass that is match prepped and is exact in all dims, and I still subscribe to the theory that shiny brass don't kill stuff deader nor does it score extra points. I have no problem with how people want to spend their time but IMO life is too short to waste it angsting about how shiny your brass is.

I clean brass about every 10 reloads, if that...depending on how it looks...Cleaning removes brass from the case as does any abrasive, but I think were over thinking all this..
I have loaded some cases 30 or more times in hard to get calibers without cleaning..wipe them off and run them thru the die..I would be more concerned about the resizing die than the case...Sometimes I viberate freshly annealed cases a little...

Actually its best to use the viberator or tumbler to just clean the case, not polish it bright and shiny, for one thing there are documented cases wherein bright shiny cases won't grip the chamber walls and cause pressure problems..Never had it happen that I know of but have read about it in gun mags..

I started out using walnut shell then corncob media. Some stuck in the primer holes. Then I graduated to ultrasonic wet cleaning with heated liquid. Like Jiri, it took time after time after time to get the crud off. I was not impressed. I finally bit the bullet so to speak, and ponied up for the Frankford Arsenal brand of tumbler with stainless pins. It has a mechanical timer unlike the vibrator which has none. It works much faster and better IMO. No more pins get stuck than the dry media. And I always have loads of clean brass to load so don't need to artificially dry the cases to quickly reload.

I'm not anal about spit-shined cases either. But all manner of debris gets caught in semi-auto pistol cases picked up off Mother Earth. I wouldn't bother at all if I only reloaded the occasional hunting rifle reload ammo.

Wet tumbling is less expensive than either the dry vibratory media/polish or the special chemicals used in ultrasonic cleaning. Dish detergent and Lemi-shine is all it takes. And tap water. I wish I would have found this way sooner.

I dont use the Stainless steel media...when the cooper platted BB's work just as well and cheaper.

How do you guys make 100% sure there is no water left in the cases. I live in a humid environment and unless the cases are heated they will maintain dampness is the primer pocket area for a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by srtrax:


I dont use the Stainless steel media...when the cooper platted BB's work just as well and cheaper.

I think the BB would start to rust after a few uses as the copper plating starts to wear off.

quote:

Originally posted by els:
How do you guys make 100% sure there is no water left in the cases. I live in a humid environment and unless the cases are heated they will maintain dampness is the primer pocket area for a long time.

I read that some people bake the cases in their oven at very low temerature to evaporate off the water droplets.

I shake the cases and lay them out on cotton towels to dry. Sometimes I'll use the shop vacuum to suck out that drop in the flash hole.
My house has central Air Conditioning so damp air is not a problem. A small dehumidifier in the tool room would help with humid conditions.

quote:

Originally posted by els:
How do you guys make 100% sure there is no water left in the cases. I live in a humid environment and unless the cases are heated they will maintain dampness is the primer pocket area for a long time.

After tumbling, separation, and rinsing under hot water, I lay them out on paper towels in a line and go over them with a hand held hair dryer set on high. Just blow hot air across the bottom primer pockets and then across the top inside them, just moving the dryer slowly.

Since there is absolutely no residue left on the cases, they dry quite fast. I normally go over the ends two times, done deal and cases like new. SST just plain works fantastic. Those that don't use SST don't know what they're missing. If they ever tried it they'd be sold, shiny cases or no

I dry my brass on a cookie sheet in the oven, about 10-15 mins on the lowest setting, I believe it's 200 deg.

Nothing gets brass cleaner than SS media. Don't forget to use Lemi shine but don't use more than 1/4 tsp. either. When rinsing it out you have to be careful you don't wash the pins away. It takes a little finnesse but a system can be established.

I just did about 250 .45 acp cases. Towel dry them a bit, spread them on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 200 degrees. After about 10 minutes when the temperature hits, shut the oven off and let them rest there overnight. The result is sparkling, jewelry-like brass.

A few years back, when pin size was not the best for assurance that none would be left in the flash hole, I know of a guy who shot one down the barrel of his Long range NRA match rifle ( Tubb 2K in 6XC). He noticed it after a match while cleaning-borescope showed a long gouge about 6 inches into the bore- cut the rifling diagonally and left what he called a "deep canyon". He had fired a National match record that day.... One bullet pushed a pin downrange into the X ring, or maybe one of the several tens he fired.... The barrel lasted for another few matches and gave up at around the normal life of a 6XC- 2k or so.

Watch your pins.

Now, they make the pins so they tend not to hang u in the .06 flash holes.

I’m definitely not anal about cleaning things, but some of the cases I carry week in and week out while guiding get really dark and nasty. Even green in wetter periods of the year. And I hated all the hassle with dry media. I switched to SS and love it.

Since the cleaning solution is so cheap (only soap and water - with a bit of Lemishine) I never wipe off sizing lube anymore. I just wet tumble after sizing and the lube is washed off and the cases are clean in just an hour or two of tumbling.

I’ve found the best way to remove the pins from the case is to empty about half of the water out of the tumbler (after rinsing it clean quickly by exchanging the water a few times). Then grab a handful of cases, with the mouth faced down, and shake them a bit WHILE SUBMERGED and the pins always come right out – even from .22 caliber bottle necked cases.

Then to get them completely dry, after they’ve sat in a towel for a few minutes, I dump them in a popcorn hot air popper for 20 or 30 seconds. Shake a couple handfuls around in the popper and dump them in a box. They’re completely dry with no cookie sheets or waiting around the oven.

The cases are perfectly clean and dry with way less time and hassle than dry media. And holy cow do I like not have to deal with wiping off case lube!

Pulled some brass out of the tumbler tonight and had a great idea. I put a cookie drying rack on a cookie sheet, then put the brass on it. Into the oven it went. Air could get around the cases, and it dried even better than just on a sheet. Definitely the way to go. Normally, I try to time it where I can just set the cookie sheet in the sun, and when it's 105 in the shade, it works as good as an oven. But tonight I fired up the oven and tested the new setup. I highly recommend it. It'd be even better if I could put the cases onto some kind of rack, neck down. Like a garden rake head, but smaller. Then you'd have gravity, thermodynamics, convection, hydrodynamics and conductivity working for you. I had a long drive today, with not enough to think about.

Another bit of info I found when using SS pins,
in my Model "B" tumbler

Had been using 5#'s of pins,
cleaning time run around 2 hrs or so,

Doubled the amount of pins to 10#'s,
run time is right around 1 hr or less,
depending the the amount of crud on the brass.

Tia,
Don