Steel Pin Case Cleaning

[Ranch Dog]

One of the reasons I went with a rotary tumbler with steel pins is that I thought it would do a better job of cleaning primer pockets. I'm just not seeing it, pockets are not clean despite up to a two-hour run and having tried every cleaning compound & mix under the sun. This is the best I've seen it.

primer_pocket_cleaning.jpg

[daboone]

Dang that sucks RD. I'm not having that problem with my old Tumbler's Tumbler. In fact I rarely tumbler for more than an hour and get shiny pockets and besides inside and outside sparkly cases. I'm using any cheaper carwash/wax combo and a tea spoon of granular citric acid.

[larryw]

I have never had that problem either RD. Usually 45
minutes & everything sparkles. Big old healthy squirt
of the cheapest dish detergent I can get & that's it.
For really nasty brass ( old outdoor pickup ) I have
a citric acid soak that they are put in for maybe 5
minutes before I drain them & put them in the drum.
They soak just long enough for me to empty the
previous drum.
Also, what size are your pins, how fat ? Mine are small
enough they will go through the flash hole & 2 or more
sometimes get stuck in the flash hole.
Only thing I can think of ???

[gunsmoke71]

Just a thought, it could be a ratio thing.... X lb's of pins to # of cases in the size of the tumbler...
I have 6 lb's of pins in my Frankford arsenal rotary tumbler and generally only fill it 3/4 full with cases & pins to give things room to move around... So far everything has come out looking as good or better than new.

[larryw]

Just a thought, it could be a ratio thing.... X lb's of pins to # of cases in the size of the tumbler...

Absolutely right Gunsmoke, thank you, I forgot all about this.
Happened to me with my very first batch of wet
tumble, packed it full, ran a good while & brass was still
cruddy. Lightened up the brass load & all was well..

[Ranch Dog]

Just a thought, it could be a ratio thing.... X lb's of pins to # of cases in the size of the tumbler...
I have 6 lb's of pins in my Frankford arsenal rotary tumbler and generally only fill it 3/4 full with cases & pins to give things room to move around... So far everything has come out looking as good or better than new.

That's what I'm not getting... This is the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler. It was 1/2 full, or less, of 308 Marlin Express cases, 5 lbs of pins, 2 oz of Dawn Ultra and hot water. My water in the garage is HOT on purpose. Two hours. I've washed 10K to 12K cases, 25 Auto to 450 Marlin, since I got this thing and have yet to have a clean primer pocket.

[bayou]

These were tumbled between 3-4 hours using 1 ounce of auto wash and wax and 1/4 TSP of Lemi-Shine in a Thumler's model B high-speed. Pin to brass ratio is 1 pound of pins to 1 pound of brass.

Hope this helps...

Bayou

[gunsmoke71]

Just a thought, it could be a ratio thing.... X lb's of pins to # of cases in the size of the tumbler...
I have 6 lb's of pins in my Frankford arsenal rotary tumbler and generally only fill it 3/4 full with cases & pins to give things room to move around... So far everything has come out looking as good or better than new.

That's what I'm not getting... This is the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler. It was 1/2 full, or less, of 308 Marlin Express cases, 5 lbs of pins, 2 oz of Dawn Ultra and hot water. My water in the garage is HOT on purpose. Two hours. I've washed 10K to 12K cases, 25 Auto to 450 Marlin, since I got this thing and have yet to have a clean primer pocket.

You might try giving it another hour in the tumbler, I generally run mine for 3 hours.
If that don't work I'd probably have to question the pins... For what it's worth when I bought my tumbler, a fellow reloader recommended I go ahead and buy some guntap ss pins to use in it, said I'd be much happier with them over the pins that came with the tumbler... I didn't question him as to why and I don't know his reasoning, he knows his stuff so I just bought the pins and they've been doing a fine job for me.

[Ranch Dog]

Just a thought, it could be a ratio thing.... X lb's of pins to # of cases in the size of the tumbler...
I have 6 lb's of pins in my Frankford arsenal rotary tumbler and generally only fill it 3/4 full with cases & pins to give things room to move around... So far everything has come out looking as good or better than new.

That's what I'm not getting... This is the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler. It was 1/2 full, or less, of 308 Marlin Express cases, 5 lbs of pins, 2 oz of Dawn Ultra and hot water. My water in the garage is HOT on purpose. Two hours. I've washed 10K to 12K cases, 25 Auto to 450 Marlin, since I got this thing and have yet to have a clean primer pocket.

You might try giving it another hour in the tumbler, I generally run mine for 3 hours.
If that don't work I'd probably have to question the pins... For what it's worth when I bought my tumbler, a fellow reloader recommended I go ahead and buy some guntap ss pins to use in it, said I'd be much happier with them over the pins that came with the tumbler... I didn't question him as to why and I don't know his reasoning, he knows his stuff so I just bought the pins and they've been doing a fine job for me.

That's good to hear. After my last post I bought some GunTap pins on eBay.

[Fyodor]

I got the Thumlers Tumbler rebel 17, and most of the pockets are clean after 45 minutes. But some discoloring might still be present, which is not residue, but discolored brass. To remove that, you would need to polish down the surface of the case. I don't see any need to do that. But I'm not sure about what I see on the picture above... is that actual residue?

What I found out is, that you need at least the same weight of pins as cases. More pins works better, less than 2/3 don't clean noticeably at all.

Hot water is nice, but not necessary. Be careful with LemiShine, the acid can dissolve some of the zinc from the surface, giving the cases a redish color, destroying them. None of the residue components are water soluble, so the soap is a placebo, but I also use it. One drop is more than enough. As long as you still have foam on the water, the soap was not used up. I still found foam on dark black water that has been reused for three batches, with only one drop of soap.