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Stainless Pin Tumbler vs Ultrasonic Cleaning

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  • EZ-E

    King Turd of Shit Mountain
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    May 4, 2017
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    Since I'm new to reloading I did an experiment to see if my new pin tumbler or my Ultrasonic cleaner would work better. I've had the Ultrasonic for several years to clean fishing reel parts & it works better than scrubbing them with dawn.
    I had the pin tumbler going for a while then started the Ultrasonic. I ran the pins for 3hrs & the Ultrasonic for 40 minutes @ 150deg.
    I used a few squirts of dawn & a little bit of lemioshine in both. I think the pin tumbler works a little better even though it runs longer. The pins just seem to polish a little better.

    1st row pin tumbler & normal amount of lemishine & dawn

    2nd row pin tumbler & a little too much lemishine...notice the gold color

    3rd row Ultrasonic with normal lemishine & dawn ratios. Notice finger prints & scratches.


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    Guns International
     

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    EZ-E

    King Turd of Shit Mountain
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    I use a Frankford Arsenal magnet to remove the pins, then lay the brass on a towel to remove most water & rub them around to try to remove any remaining pins. Then put the brass in my food dehydrator @150 for 3hrs.
    Then use the magnet to pick up the remaining pins
     

    Younggun

    Certified Jackass
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    Jul 31, 2011
    53,618
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    hill co.
    I like to lay a window screen over the fan on the A/C unit. The hot hair drys them pretty quick. Thinking about building a tray so they can’t rattle off the sides as easily, haven’t lost any though.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    pbratton

    Active Member
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    Oct 21, 2011
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    Sugar Land, Tx
    I use a Frankford Arsenal magnet to remove the pins, then lay the brass on a towel to remove most water & rub them around to try to remove any remaining pins. Then put the brass in my food dehydrator @150 for 3hrs.
    Then use the magnet to pick up the remaining pins
    I switched to wet tumbling with pins this year and do the exact same routine.
     

    Younggun

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    Just throw the brass in the clothes dryer. Wives really appreciate that.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    EZ-E

    King Turd of Shit Mountain
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    I ended up with my chef buddies commercial dehydrator that he used 2 months.
    Sweet...nice score

    I got my dehydrator Xmas 17', it sat in the cabinet for over a year before I used it... & didnt even make Jerky...lol. Hhhmmm ... now I want jerky. I guess I should use it right if I'm gunna use it.
     

    baboon

    TGT Addict
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    May 6, 2008
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    Out here by the lake!
    Sweet...nice score

    I got my dehydrator Xmas 17', it sat in the cabinet for over a year before I used it... & didnt even make Jerky...lol. Hhhmmm ... now I want jerky. I guess I should use it right if I'm gunna use it.
    I never dried anything in it but brass. When I made jerky i used the oven because of the volume it held. I think there is still some brass in the dehydrator.
     

    rmantoo

    Cranky old fart: Pull my finger
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    Jan 9, 2013
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    San Angelo
    I recently bought some Brass Juice and also some Guntap Brass Shine. The Brass Juice advertises that you don't need to use pins, at all... so I tried it... it went so well that I subsequently tried no pins using the Guntap Brass Shine... bottom line for me is that except for maybe some heavily tarnished antique stuff, I'm not wet tumbling with pins anymore...

    The Brass Juice was about $20 for a quart. I used exactly 1/2 ounce in my Thumblers Tumbler and it was perfect... and the instructions say you can re-use the solution, so I tried 3 runs of brass and the 3rd came out just as shiny as the 1st.

    Dunno long-term if I'm going to go 100% Brass Juice or Brass Shine, but either way, it's about $0.10 per load, so not having to do the extra step of separating the pins from the brass is worth it for me.
     

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    rmantoo

    Cranky old fart: Pull my finger
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    Jan 9, 2013
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    San Angelo
    Well, I got some time yesterday afternoon and ran 2 batches of 9x19 cases with only water, dawn, and lemi shine. Tumbled the brass in the attached pics for 38 and 50 minutes respectively.

    I'm also going to save the Brass Juice and Brash Shine for processed, deprimed brass such as 308, 45lc, 38/357, etc...

    My final verdict is that I will only use pins for precision rifle rounds, and brass that's being processed to resell (I don't sell much brass, just noting this for posterity's sake) from now on. The insides of the cases are not as perfect as the outsides, by any means, but for high volume rounds (9mm, 40s&w, 45acp, 5.56/223) i'm no longer going to use pins at all. I know I'm only saving about 3-6 minutes of time by cutting out the pins, but I normally run anywhere from 10 to 20 loads of brass a month, and although I enjoy the actual loading process, cleaning brass is, to me, simply a pain in the butt, and anything I can do to cut down on that time/effort is a Godsend.
     

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    rmantoo

    Cranky old fart: Pull my finger
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    Jan 9, 2013
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    That's not bad. How do the primer pockets look sans pins?
    They're definitely not perfect. If someone is ocd/anal about spotless brass, inside and out, I think it would work, but you'd have to run them for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, probably.

    For me, since I don't deprime pistol or 5.56 cases before tumbling, it's moot...never cared about flash holes enough to deprime first except on precision rifle, low volume rounds.
     

    DeudeMann

    New Member
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    0   0   0
    Apr 27, 2019
    34
    11
    San Antonio
    rmantoo you have some interesting points about wet tumbling with SS pins. This is what I do, but there are a couple of things I do not like about it:
    - For small caliber rifle, like 223R or 224V, it can be a pain getting all of the pins out of the case after tumbling, even with a magnet. I find that drying them first helps quite a bit.
    - Food dehydrators work well for drying brass. There are several on Amazon for under $40 that work well.
    - Tumbling with primers in, now that is an interesting idea. I'd wondered if that would work. I may have to try that.
    - So the Brass Juice with no pins looks good. Could you comment on why you would not use it for precision rifle?
     

    rmantoo

    Cranky old fart: Pull my finger
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Jan 9, 2013
    814
    76
    San Angelo
    rmantoo you have some interesting points about wet tumbling with SS pins. This is what I do, but there are a couple of things I do not like about it:
    - For small caliber rifle, like 223R or 224V, it can be a pain getting all of the pins out of the case after tumbling, even with a magnet. I find that drying them first helps quite a bit.
    - Food dehydrators work well for drying brass. There are several on Amazon for under $40 that work well.
    - Tumbling with primers in, now that is an interesting idea. I'd wondered if that would work. I may have to try that
    - So the Brass Juice with no pins looks good. Could you comment on why you would not use it for precision rifle?
    I will still use the brass juice, but for precision rifle rounds I'll also use pins... Just because the brass juice without pins tumbling for 30 minutes doesn't quite make the insides of the cases spotless... For high volume stuff I don't deprime before tumbling, and I don't care about if cases are 100% powder residue free... Primer pockets don't matter on it, so tumbling without pins is fine, but for precision rifle I want just about perfectly clean brass, including inside and primer pockets, so I'll use pins on those.
     
    Every Day Man
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