Prof Young
New member
So, what happens when you tumble with SS pins but don't use the water and soap? I'm guessing it's not a good idea but thought I'd see if anyone has experience.
Life is good.
Prof Young
Life is good.
Prof Young
Stainless still pins and . . . no water?
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smoking357
New member
From what I've seen, it's the Lemi-Shine, Dawn, and water that does all the work. The pins are really just a bonus and don't seem to be strictly necessary.
Don't forget that the brass also acts as its own tumbling media. Now, the pins get the insides of the cases all shiny, but so what?
Don't forget that the brass also acts as its own tumbling media. Now, the pins get the insides of the cases all shiny, but so what?
Interesting thought , but not sure . If you're talking completely dry I'd bet it would actually work pretty good . I'd assume that would create just as much dry fouling and maybe more concentrated amounts to dispose of after tumbling though . You want/need the water to trap/contain all the contaminates and make it easier to discard those contaminates .
I've heard of a guy that did test using only water , soap & limishine with great results . I've not tried it yet but it's on my to do list .
I've heard of a guy that did test using only water , soap & limishine with great results . I've not tried it yet but it's on my to do list .
Like the previous poster said you need something to trap the dirt, either water or dry media. I just boiled my cases outside on a gas burner with water, detergent and either vinegar or lemon juice for several years. They shot just as well as they do when cleaned with either wet or dry tumbling
I suggested a reloader use pins and water, pins and no water etc. etc. And then get tested.
I also said I use vinegar and nothing for a maximum of 15 minutes once for the life of the case; basically the only answer/response I got back was "I am so confused".
I also said I could reduce the time factory by stirring, rubbing and or agitating the cases in the vinegar. I also said I only use vinegar on the worst of cases to reduce tumbling. I have know from the big inning acid had an adverse on brass cases and using acid when cleaning cases is a bad habit, for me acid is/was a trade off.
I have purchased large lots of brass that would require 5 days of tumbling, I have cleaned the worst of cases in vinegar for 15 minutes and rinsed twice in boiling water, dried and then processed the brass for loading in less than two hours; two hours beats 5 days of tumbling.
About the same time I made case spinners, for short runs.
F. Guffey
I'm sure the company's making the equipment have tested it in every way possible . All the instructions read the same . I have changed from Dawn detergent to Sun detergent after asking my wife , why aren't you using Dawn as a dish detergent . She said Sun cleaned much better , she was right .
Careful: There are times it is better to smile and agree; I was building/repairing a RCBS scale by Ohaus when my wife decided to get involved. She decided she had a better cleaning process so she disappeared with the beam. When she came back the beam was clean and blank. What ever she used was not compatible to the black ink used on the beam.
I got lucky at the next gun show, I purchased all of the scale parts I could find, I purchased two 10-10 beams for $5.00 each.
F. Guffey
I don't clean my brass to save time, I do it to clean the brass. However, the time it takes is a non-issue because my process doesn't have me waiting on the brass that's tumbling in order to reload. I pull brass out of a box of already processed brass and start reloading. After I clean some I top off the box again. The actual hands-on time is minimal to rinse the brass and spread it out to dry. Much less than boiling and stirring a batch. I go through 500-1000 rounds a week I guess. Maybe if I found a way to shoot more than that I'd worry more about time cleaning. Right now the long pole in the tent is my turret press, not my cleaning regimen.
Some of us like having bright-shiny (new looking) brass, clean interiors, and spotless primer recesses. I've held and looked at cases cleaned by boiling, and by tumbling in walnut shells or cob - including brass which has been "professionally processed." They are not as uniformly clean and certainly not as polished (inside and out) as brass done by SS media. Ultrasonic cleaned brass is as clean, walnut or cob tumbled is as shiny, but I have not seen anything else that would so thoroughly clean and shine brass inside and out as the SS pins. You are okay with your results so the comparison is moot. You can say that tumbling is not required, and certainly a lot of people do without tumbling, but I prefer the results I get when I follow that process.
Any time the subject of SS media tumbling comes up, there's a slew of people who find the need to point out they don't need to follow that process. Let me give a blanket "good for you" and get past it. Telling me I don't need to is like telling me I don't need to wash and wax my truck. Sure it will run fine if I don't do that, but to me doing it shows my pride of ownership and is what I want to do. So long as I'm not judging those who don't wash and wax their cars (and I do not) it's all good in the hood, ya know?
I do not know. I do know when I rinse a case in boiling water there is enough heat in the case (latent) to evaporate/dry the case. Again, I said cleaning cases in an acid is a bad habit, vinegar is not as bad as the acid I started with, the time factor was reduced to less than 2 minutes maximum.
And when cleaning cast iron and old tools the old stuff could not be beat,
F. Guffey
I did not say tumbling was not necessary, for those that have purchased R. Lee's book on modern reloading, and have read the book know R. Lee said tumbling was not necessary, For those that can read understand I am the one that said I purchased 3,000 30/06 cases sellers could hardly give away because they were the worst of cases, I cleaned the cases in vinegar and rinsed in boiling water to reduce the time necessary to tumble. I paid one cent each for the cases. For those that can keep up with the sum of the parts I would have no problem selling the cases for junk.
And then there were the dirt dobber cases, I waited for the little 30 cal. dobbers to hatch, when? I had help, my wife opened the garage door and claimed a black cloud left when she opened the door. I am the fan of dirt dobbers, to assure their off spring have a chance at making it out the mud hole they stuff a black widow spider in with the egg and then seal it up.
I was told by a Hawaian smith there was only one dobber that was worst than the 30 cal. dobber, he claimed Hawaii had 20 cal. dobbers, he claimed they spend a lot of time plugging small holes.
F, Guffey
FrankenMauser
New member
My father tried it, because he didn't want to have to dry his brass.
You get a horrendously nasty, dusty, mess of carbon dust, with brass that's even dirtier than when you started.
And, because there's no water to carry away the grit and nastiness, the stainless pins are much more prone to log-jamming inside cases and primer pockets.
I ended up buying that stainless tumbler from him, and the first order of business was cleaning up the black cloud in the drum, and the filth on the pins. Nasty...
Interesting and makes sense . I was just going to recommend if doing this to add another 10lbs+ of pins . Thinking you'd want the process to work similar to dry corn cob or walnut media where the media encapsulates the cases . How ever seeing how we now have someone with direct knowledge of how well this works . I'd have to say never mind
