Stainless steel pins for media?

[Mgderf]

Saw a post the other day asking about interest in buying stainless steel pins for brass cleaning media.

I'd not heard of this practice, so I Googled it.

Now I know what people are talking about, but my question(s) is/are,
who uses them?
What are the advantages?
What are the drawbacks?

I've yet to start reloading, but the SS pin manufacturer says you never have to replace it, it won't hurt your brass, and since it's a wet cleaning process there's no dust.

So, what's NOT to like?

 

[imjammin]

It seems like a great way to go to me too. The only problem is the cost to get started is about $300 for tumbler. Also you have to dry your brass, don't know how long that takes or how to do it . Hopefully someone will post that has used this method.

 

[TaunTaun]

When I read the title of this post, I was imagining German SS lapel pins being worn by news reporters at a Whitehouse press conference....

 

[jdhaines]

I've yet to start reloading, but the SS pin manufacturer says you never have to replace it, it won't hurt your brass, and since it's a wet cleaning process there's no dust.

So, what's NOT to like?

I have that set-up. Stainless pins with the thumler's rock tumbler.

It's completely badass. You really never have to replace them, I leave water in the tumbler all the time. It doesn't hurt the brass, brass comes out of the tumbler in four hours (4 quiet hours, not loud shaking vibrating hours) looking like shiny gold. The practice came from jewelery cleaning / polishing.

The only consumables are a bottle of dish soap and some lemi-shine. I've been using mine for close to a year probably and I'm only halfway through the soap bottle and less than halfway through the lemi-shine. Both can be bought at walmart cheap.

The only drawback is that the initial starting expense is higher than the vibratory and media. Since I was starting from scratch I went to this system and it has been great. If you already have a vibratory/walnut/corn husk setup it may not be worth switching.

I will say that some guys I know who reload in the area are always begging me to clean their brass. It's been shown that you don't need shiny clean brass to function properly or have accurate quality ammo. It is fun as hell though. Also if I clean someone's brass they can use their normal media 3-4 times getting it cleaner than normal before I need to do it again. Everyone likes clean brass. My reloads are mostly indistinguishable from new ammo as far as looks.

I would do it all over again if I was starting out.

 

[Mgderf]

I have that set-up. Stainless pins with the thumler's rock tumbler.

It's completely badass. You really never have to replace them, I leave water in the tumbler all the time. It doesn't hurt the brass, brass comes out of the tumbler in four hours (4 quiet hours, not loud shaking vibrating hours) looking like shiny gold. The practice came from jewelery cleaning / polishing.

The only consumables are a bottle of dish soap and some lemi-shine. I've been using mine for close to a year probably and I'm only halfway through the soap bottle and less than halfway through the lemi-shine. Both can be bought at walmart cheap.

The only drawback is that the initial starting expense is higher than the vibratory and media. Since I was starting from scratch I went to this system and it has been great. If you already have a vibratory/walnut/corn husk setup it may not be worth switching.

I will say that some guys I know who reload in the area are always begging me to clean their brass. It's been shown that you don't need shiny clean brass to function properly or have accurate quality ammo. It is fun as hell though. Also if I clean someone's brass they can use their normal media 3-4 times getting it cleaner than normal before I need to do it again. Everyone likes clean brass. My reloads are mostly indistinguishable from new ammo as far as looks.

I would do it all over again if I was starting out.

This is what I was looking for.
It seemed like an all but ideal set-up, almost "too good to be true" type good.

I haven't yet started reloading, mainly because I'm not done reading yet. I don't get a lot of time to read.
Anyway, if this set-up is "the way to go", maybe I'll save up and buy a rock tumbler.

Rep's for the review.

 

[jdhaines]

No problem man. Let me know if you have any other questions, or post them here on INGO. There are other guys on here who have the set-up as well, even though they didn't all reply.

 

[ZbornacSVT]

I tried it. Works great, but too involved.....I am back to corn cob.

If you want to be able to turn your tumbler on and forget about it, SS is not for you. There is a time window that you must remove your brass from the tumbler or the soap begins to break down and the dirt is no longer suspended. Back on the brass it goes.

I have my 5 gallon tumbler and 15# of media that just sit around collecting dust.

 

[mospeada]

I tried it. Works great, but too involved.....I am back to corn cob.

If you want to be able to turn your tumbler on and forget about it, SS is not for you. There is a time window that you must remove your brass from the tumbler or the soap begins to break down and the dirt is no longer suspended. Back on the brass it goes.

I have my 5 gallon tumbler and 15# of media that just sit around collecting dust.

Thats what timers are for.

 

[ZbornacSVT]

Timers don't take the brass out of the tumbler, rinse everything, separate, and dry said brass.

Also, one of the main benefits of SS is it cleans out the primer pockets. That requires do decap your brass. I don't care about clean primer pockets.

I get the same results with corn cob.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I run SS media in my own homemade tumbler. I have a 5-gallon bucket tumbler that I made for about $40, the media cost me about $90 to fill up a 5 gallon bucket, and even then, it's still not full.

I eventually plan to modify my tumbler to work out some of the kinks, but for now it works.

If you don't get the brass out right away the dirt does collect back on the brass, but it's nothing a quick 1 hr tumble won't fix. I just turn the tumbler on when I get home from work then right before bed I turn it off and dump the brass out. It is a bit more labor intensive, but I can tumble in the house with risk of lead contaminated dust floating around and I can get the insides of the cases/primers pockets just as clean as the outsides.