Looks like I'm joining the stainless pin tumbling crowd

[aviator41]

Yeah, thats a pretty slick process! I tossed in a bunch of misc brass, some of it very old and tarnished after years in the weather, and it came out pretty good. Even the steel cased stuff that got accidentally mixed in turned out great. It's almost a shame to have to toss it! I didn't deprime, this was mainly just to try out the new toy. I was surprised how warm the motor on the tumbler got. I may need to set up some cooling.

before
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after
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[swampratt]

Hey That is VERY nice!

I have pin tumbled steel 45 cases, because I reload them.
But be aware that aluminum is a NO GO in the pin tumbler with lemishine it will eat the cases.

 

[aviator41]

Yeah, aluminum cases have no place in my home. they get trashed immediatley.

Really, the steel cased 223 thats in this just slipped through. this brass was tarnished it looked like steel cases. not all came out perfect, but most did. the 45 cases all came out great.

I now have a LOT of depriming to do.

 

[OKCHunter]

Yep. De-prime first to clean-out the primer pockets. When you reload the brass the new primers will go in smooth as butter.

 

[swampratt]

AAAHHH no aluminum.
I hate loosing my 45acp brass cases in the tall grass.
I have reloaded aluminum 45acp cases 9 times that is nine reloads on 1 case.
primer pocket got loose.
I do not mind loosing aluminum and steel cases to the grass gremlins.

 

[aviator41]

yep. when we are shooting in tall grass, we use steel cases for that reason, but we rarely shoot where we can't recover. Believe it or not, this brass has been living in a field. We have a large 4 story tower that we like to shoot from. When we do, we do it with the knowledge that we will loose a lot of brass.

Occasionally, we will walk through the scrub around the tower and police up whatever we find. This is that brass. Some were packed wth mud, at least one has a spiders nest in it. most has to be dug out of the ground. All I did was a cursory wash then right into the tumbler.

 

[swampratt]

sure is amazing how clean it will make trash brass isn't it.

 

[okietom]

You should never pin tumble any brass you have.

The issue I found with pin tumbling is that I have 100's of cleaned resized trimmed cases in many sizes that were walnut or citric acid boiled clean and after I pin tumbled a batch of cases all that stash of what I called clean before is now dirty cases and I hate to even load them.

When you get it running you will clean all your "cleaned" cases.
So to help you out, keep you from going crazy, I will either take all your cleaned cases before you get your present or I will swap you a 1lb jug of mixed nuts for your tumbler and pins.
Some nuts may cause allergies just saying

Sounds like swampratt would like to give you a handful of salty nuts for that wonderful gift you more wonderful wife gave you.

 

[okietom]

My wife bought my Lyman 1200 turbo as a gift many years ago. I recently went to a Thumlers Tumbler and stainless pins.

I can clean more brass faster and cleaner than I ever could with the Lyman vibratory cleaner.

I did not have a water source close to where I reload so I took my Thumler outside by my kitchen door. I use an old deep fryer basket to dry my cases over the downdraft vent on our cooktop.

Finding a way to dry your cases will be your only problem. There are many ways to do it. I was about to order a shelf for our clothes dryer and put the in a mesh bag on the shelf. I am sure it would work. I like the way I am doing it now.

 

[aviator41]

i'm using an old food dehydrator set on low heat. I'd like to find a way put a thin cat of car polish on the brass to keep the tarnish under control.. This may become the task of the old vibratory cleaner. simple cob media with a capfull of nu finish mixed in very well. about an hour running will evenly distribute an anti-tarnish agent.