Originally Posted by
Allen
OK, I see that you use water and some type of soap when tumbling with the SS pins. When you mentioned drying I thought you had used the ultrasonic. I suppose these pins almost last forever?
Yes, you are done buying media. I strongly suggest you purchase a magnet and a Frankfort arsenal media separator. You fill the separator with water and crank it and the pins fall to the bottom of the bucket. Before I bought the separSator I would just pick them out of the tumbler by hand and shake them out. Every now and then a pin would stay in the case so after drying I would put them in my vibratory tumbler with no media. A neat thing about this process is the cases will align themselves mouth up. I'd wait till the cases were all vertical then grab a handful then invert and hold against the inside rim and once in a while a pin would fall out. This has not happened since I started using the media separator.
I know this is starting to sound like a PITA, but if you like your cases and primer pockets spotless, it's the way to go.
My process uses my RCBS sidewinder case tumbler. RCBS thinks too much of one for me to buy one now, Thumlers is the way to go, but I work with what I have. The RCBS has a friction fit lid and if I use a sudsy soap, the lid will blow off and I'll have to break out the mop! Therefore I use about 3 tablesoons Cascade and a teaspoon of Lemi-Shine. Most often two hours are enough to clean the cases spotless unless they are black range pickups. If the brass is really dirty, I run it for an hour or so then change the solution then run it for another couple hours. After that I decant off the nasty water then run fresh water into the drum until the water is clear. Next I fill the frankford media separator bucket nearly full of water and add the contents of the drum into the separator and with just a few revolutions all the pins are at the bottom of the pail. I collect the brass in a brass bag and dry. I pour off the water out of the media separator bucket and scoop out the media with my hand and put it back in the drum then use the magnet wrapped with a plastic bag to collect the errant last few pins. I hod the magnet inside the drum, peel off the bag thereby dumping the last few pins.
I mainly shoot semi auto's that fling brass off into the sandy loamy soil and get somewhat dirty. In all honesty a soap and water bath in the sink is just as good as far as the rifle is concerned, but sometimes I like my brass to look new. This method does that, it's for vain cosmetic reasons rather than rifle function.
On edit: Use cold water for shiny cases, I figured hot may be better, but they were dull.
Last edited by PhillipM; 05-11-2014 at 06:23.
Phillip McGregor (OFC)
"I am neither a fire arms nor a ballistics expert, but I was a combat infantry officer in the Great War, and I absolutely know that the bullet from an infantry rifle has to be able to shoot through things." General Douglas MacArthur