New wet tumbler

[Shootest]

I just ordered a tumbler from STM, it’s the new 17 pound model. I’ve been dieing to try the SS pin tumbling thing, and it’s my birthday so here goes. Any sugestions?

[Swampman1]

Just follow instructions (don't overload), pretty simple do use. I put a drop or two of light oil where the bushings contact the rod to eliminate any friction. And rarely have I ever had to run more than 2 hours.

[Martys]

Do a follow-up and let us know how it goes.

[happymachinist]

I recently started cleaning my brass with stainless media also.

I would start by washing your pins first. Tumble just your media with hot water and dish soap. (I use dawn) The stainless pins have oil on them from the manf. process and it helps to wash it off. Let them tumble an hour or so pour out the water rinse and repeat until your water comes out nearly clean.

Tumbling just the pins also helps break them in by removing the burr on the end from when they were cut.

When it comes to your brass the consensus I've read is 2lbs more media than brass, I run more media to brass but that's just because I find it a pain to weigh it out. More media seems to speed things up.

Have a magnet and rotary media separator to help things along and you should be set.

It takes some time but boy does the brass come out purdy. When it comes to the amount of Lemi Shine don't over do it or your brass can become discolored. (more orange than whitish yellow)

[Nick_C_S]

I would start by washing your pins first. Tumble just your media with hot water and dish soap. (I use dawn) The stainless pins have oil on them from the manf. process and it helps to wash it off. Let them tumble an hour or so pour out the water rinse and repeat until your water comes out nearly clean.

^^^ Absolutely yes yes yes; do this. ^^^

It takes several washings. I know. Because I did it with brass I thought it was my brass that was so darn grimy. It was (mostly) the new pins. I read the instructions after hours of tumbling brass lol.

My first batch of pin tumbled brass looked worse coming out than it did going in.

^^ Yeah. Mine too. ^^

[Jim Watson]

I had the same problem. My first batch of pin tumbled brass looked worse coming out than it did going in. It took several cycles to clean up the pins and that lot of brass.
The strange part is, a friend who bought a supply of pins at the same time got clean bright brass from the start.

P.S. Pin tumbling is a great rust remover for anything that will fit the tumbler. I have cleaned up some really nasty magazines in it. They come out bright steel, clean to the bottom of the pits. A spray of Corrosion X has been enough to keep them from rusting again. Kind of tedious untangling four magazine springs (must tumble the mags disassembled) but they are clean, too.

[Gdawgs]

I'm jealous!! I ordered mine last year. They didn't have that model yet, so I have the old Thumler. That new model is much better built than the Thumler. When I received mine, I though that it was pretty cheesy considering how much they cost. This looks to be a huge improvement over the Thumler, and it's the same price.

[Beanie-Bean]

Congrats on the new tumbler--you won't go back to any other method unless you're just waiting on replacement parts to fix the new rig!

I used Dawn for a while, but switched over to this stuff, which leaves them a little more slippery. Got mine at wally world for less $$$, too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[schmellba99]

Among what others have said, I'll add to NOT use the Lemi-Shine rinse aid. Get the crystaline/powder that you actually put in the dishwasher in place of the soap.

The rinse aid will not make your brass nice and shiny, it will leave it very dull and almost brown. It will be clean as all get out, but not pretty.

[Shootest]

The tumbler arrived today, it was well packaged and included an extra motor mounting nut and an extra knob for the cover. My first impression was of the nice powder coat paint on the drum and base. I attached the motor to the base, the pulley to the motor shaft, and the belt to the pulleys. I then put the cover on the empty drum and the drum on the rollers. Plugged the unit in and the low and behold the thing works, nice and smooth with little/no noise from the bearings or motor. Washing the pins as per instructions now, can’t wait to get to the brass.

[Shane Tuttle]

You have a link to where you bought it?

[Shootest]

Here is the link to STM
http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/

[Shane Tuttle]

Thanks. I like my Dillon tumbler but I want to look into another type just for the heck of it.

Can the stainless media be used in a vibratory by chance? IIRC, I've seen ball type, but not the pin type...

[Shane Tuttle]

Scratch that. I just saw on their site you can't...

[Shootest]

No, it don’t work, I tried it about a year ago. I believe little I don’t see for myself. The brass just bounces around on top of the pins, no tumbling action cause the pins are too heavy.

[Peter M. Eick]

When you get it really tested post back please your thoughts.

I have looked at the same setup mostly for fun. I don't need another tumbler either, but the stainless route sure looks nice and I can always go back to dry media if needed.

I was looking at the same rebel 17 kit just a few days ago. They have it on sale for $40 off right now as the full kit.

Did you pick up any extra media or other stuff or just the kit?

[Unclenick]

Even discounted to $0.50/ounce, Lemishine is much more expensive than getting citric acid powder for under $0.16/ounce (10 lb) here. And that's with shipping paid. I don't believe the Lemishine is postage paid.

There's a lengthy thread on cleaning brass with citric acid at the castboolits forum, here. Reading the first couple or three pages is enough. It has grown to 33 pages.

[Shootest]

Did you pick up any extra media or other stuff or just the kit?

I just got the tumbler and an extra belt, I have had the media for some time now. Now I wish I had purchased the separator as well.

Even discounted to $0.50/ounce, Lemishine is much more expensive than getting citric acid powder for under $0.16/ounce (10 lb) here.

Thanks for that link Unclenick I appreciate it.

After playing with this thing for a while now, I got to say it is really true the brass looks almost new. I still have more experimenting to do, the brass seams to tarnish rather quickly, and I will need to get accustomed to the smaller quantity cleaned at a time (I have a large vibrating tumbler).
I need to come up with the magic combination of tumbling time, soap, citric acid, and so on.

[happymachinist]

When you say your brass tarnishes quickly, is it tarnishing in the tumbler or while drying?

Rinsing I find to be the most important, rinse thoroughly with cold water.

You also want to get it dry asap, I use an old food dehydrator that I traded a 12 pack for, it works OK, but I have a few water spots every now and again. I dont seem to get water spots when I dry in my oven but I like the fact that I can set my timer on the dehydrator for about 4 hours, leave and come back to shiny dry brass.

Last thing without knowing your process dont overdo your Lemi Shine or whatever you are using to obtain your shine. Too much will discolor your brass.

Edit: I use 1-1/2 45acp caps worth per gallon of water. Haven't tried any more.



This is an inside picture of some 40 I did earlier in the week.



This is the same brass right out of the tumbler. It does lose a little shine due to oxidation...just from atmospheric exposure but it is what it is. The sun really helps it pop

[FrankenMauser]

If anyone is looking for citric acid and is more of a "buy local" type of person...
Check your local kitchen supply, restaurant supply, and bakers' supply type places; and even candy makers. They're likely to have it. And if you have a shop that specializes in food preservation/canning, they're pretty much guaranteed to have it.
Kitchen/restaurant supply shops usually have larger quantities available.

If you get the "what is this person on about?" look, when you ask for it, try asking for "sour salt" instead.

You'll pay more for it than online, but it's 'local'.


Just make sure you buy food-grade citric acid. The reasons are:
A) You don't want unknown contaminants.
B) You want to be able to occasionally fill the salt shaker with citric acid, to give family members a nice surprise.

[csmsss]

Looks like STM's tumbler is exactly the same as Thumler's version (albeit in a different color), so I would expect the same results. I'd recommend replacing the wing nuts with thumb knobs, to make it easier on your hands.

[Unclenick]

Happymachinist,

If too much Lemishine is discoloring your brass, then it's got something in it other than just citric acid. I've used the 5% citric acid arsenal cleaning solution plus maybe a teaspoon per gallon of dishwashing liquid for some time in an ultrasonic. That's 50 teaspoons added to a gallon of water. After cleaning, a slight darkening of the brass yellow over time is all that results. This is why citric acid treatment of brass to be stored for long periods is used by brass manufacturers. It passivates the surface to protect it from discoloring oxidation.

Below is a .45 Auto case I found at the range and dropped into the ultrasonic with that 5% solution. It never discolored from what you see in the time I kept it this way (a couple of weeks). The pink you see is copper where the zinc in the brass had been oxidized out by exposure. That's not the citric acid's work. It appears wherever heavy oxide is removed from brass.

I should have kept that case as it was, but after a couple of weeks I polished it in a vibratory tumbler to verify the pink came off easily (it does; it's very thin), sized it, and fired it in a pressure test gun. I don't recommend that practice with cases this oxidized, especially not with high pressure rounds. Mine was a controlled experiment with appropriate safety precautions, to see if oxidation had weakened that piece of brass deeply. In that case, it had not.

[schmellba99]

After playing with this thing for a while now, I got to say it is really true the brass looks almost new. I still have more experimenting to do, the brass seams to tarnish rather quickly, and I will need to get accustomed to the smaller quantity cleaned at a time (I have a large vibrating tumbler).
I need to come up with the magic combination of tumbling time, soap, citric acid, and so on.

I've read (maybe even here, but could have been somewhere else - who knows) that instead of using dish soap, use the wash & wax you get at Autozone (Armor-All or whatever other brand there is).

It does the same job that the soap does in lifting the grime, dirt, carbon, etc. but the wax component leaves a very thin layer of wax on the brass that will protect it from the tarnish that develops from atmospheric exposure. Basically it does the same thing that putting NuFinish in vibratory media does.

I'm planning on picking some up to give it a shot myself on some .40 brass i have no use for.

[happymachinist]

Originally Posted by Unclenick

Happymachinist,

If too much Lemishine is discoloring your brass, then it's got something in it other than just citric acid. I've used the 5% citric acid arsenal cleaning solution plus maybe a teaspoon per gallon of dishwashing liquid for some time in an ultrasonic. That's 50 teaspoons added to a gallon of water. After cleaning, a slight darkening of the brass yellow over time is all that results. This is why citric acid treatment of brass to be stored for long periods is used by brass manufacturers. It passivates the surface to protect it from discoloring oxidation.

I hear ya. My brass isn't discoloring I was just saying that IF you do use too much Lemi Shine you can run into discoloring issues.

The OP said his brass was tarnishing quickly, without knowing his process, amount of cases being tumbled or how badly it was tarnishing, I just thought I'd explain my process since I've been happy with my results.

I do want to try the citric acid you mention but I will probably wait until I run out of Lemi Shine.

[Shootest]

Looks like STM's tumbler is exactly the same as Thumler's version (albeit in a different color), so I would expect the same results. I'd recommend replacing the wing nuts with thumb knobs, to make it easier on your hands.

It doesn’t even look close to the same to me. It comes with thumb knobs, has sealed bearings, better motor mount, and more.