Anyone have some really NASTY brass they want cleaned?

[csmsss]

Well, I'm sold. Just put in my order to Midway yesterday. The Hornady ultrasonic is just going to have to deal with being second seat.

Now to find some really, truly, despicably dirty brass to play with.

[kilimanjaro]

Solved the squeaky shafts with a little sewing machine oil, you can get a little squeeze can at a sewing/craft store. A couple of drops seems to quiet things down for several hours of operation so far.

[zplinker]

After quickly scanning through this lengthy thread, there are a couple things I think are worth commenting on. To eliminate the issue of pins stuck in flash holes, I recently purchased 30# of ss pins in .047" diameter from Pellets, LLC. Cost was $7.40/lb., shipped, as I recall. Kathy, at Pellets, LLC, (800-336-6017) said that they no longer ship 5# units, as it "got too crazy". Current minimum order is 25#, so you might need to line up some friends to share an order. She also said that "all of our re-sellers are selling the smaller (.040") pins", which surprises me.

On the idea of changing solutions, in the 2-3 years that I've been cleaning with ss pins, I've never done that, and my results have been consistently incredible. Pistol brass is run 4-6 hrs. depending on volume and condition, rifle brass 2 hrs., since it is always polished in dry media after sizing.

[ScottRiqui]

On the idea of changing solutions, in the 2-3 years that I've been cleaning with ss pins, I've never done that, and my results have been consistently incredible. Pistol brass is run 4-6 hrs. depending on volume and condition

It may have been because I was purposely using the ugliest brass I could find, but the brass I cleaned simply did NOT look its best unless I changed out the solution.

Look at posts #28 and #29 in this thread; even after tumbling the brass for twelve hours straight, it wasn't until I changed out the solution that the brass went from "pretty good" to "amazing".

Of course, this may depend on what concentrations you're using for soap and Lemishine, as well.

[jib]

Here is my homebuilt tumbler. I need to find a fan cooled motor. Since this picture was taken, we've build three 6 inch diameter PVC barrels to replace the small commercial ones. One for rocks and two for brass (large and small).

I’ve been tumbling with SS pins for about a year now and have a few answers for some of the questions posed in the thread, as follows:

Work hardening: The weight of the cases or pins in water is not sufficient to work harden the brass. Personally, I suspect most of the interior cleaning action is rolling anyway, with the pins rolling inside the brass, as the brass rolls inside the tumbler. The outsides are cleaned by both pins and other cases.

RPM: I build my own tumbler and played around with RPM. Around 60 RPM was the fastest I tested and it works great. Because this is mostly a mechanical process, 60 will clean twice as fast as 30. That is why the better Thumblers are higher RPM. I think going much over 70 will not allow sufficient time for the cases to come off the wall at the top of the rotation and tumbling will not occur.

Load of cases: Overloading the tumbler will slow the process down dramatically. As someone mentioned, about 2/3 or 3/4 full of brass is about the most that should be run. I’ve done more, but it’s not worth it, as it’ll need more time.

Drying: Heat from an oven will definitely darken the cases. I just let them air dry.

Shiny: Personally I don’t care. I like the way the SS media clean the primer pockets and flash holes of my rifle cases, as my son shoots competitively and I really like the dust free cleaning method.

I tumble 9mm, .380 ACP, 45 ACP and 5.56 and I do not mix calibers. It’s just not worth the hassle of sorting them afterwards. Without thinking I once took a days worth of range pickings and tossed them all in the tumbler. 9, 380, 40 and 45 get all cozy together. This is not something I'll do again soon, as seperating the pins was difficult, as they were all trapped within cases nestled together.

[Unclenick]

Jib,

I put a table in post #12 of this thread that shows the RPM for different drum diameters at which the contents at the inside surface of the drum can start to follow the drum around rather than falling to the bottom side.

[schmellba99]

Old thread, but I just had to brag about picking up a used (but claims to have never been used) Model B for a pretty solid $160.

Now to order my pins and rock and roll.