The Gun Counter

I know.

HTRN wrote:I know.

I feel your pain, brother

So, I finally got to use all of this stuff tonight... On the one hand, I have never had cleaner brass, but on the other hand, it's kind of a pain in the ass compared to my vibratory tumbler. With the latter, yeah it has to run for half a day and doesn't get the brass as clean, but you dump the brass in, maybe add a little polish, and then turn it on. Come back the next morning, turn it off, and dump the entire contents into the Dillon squirrel cage separator, give it a few turns, and you are pretty much done. You have maybe 5 minutes of actual involvement with it on either end.

The wet tumbler takes a little longer to set up, but separating the brass out from the stainless pin media is kind of tedious. I definitely need to get a better strainer setup (I had kind of neglected that) to go with the magnet separator, but even so it's not going to be a quick process. I ended up looking down each 300blk case since every so often a pin would get stuck sideways and would take prodding through the flash hole to get it out. Suckage.

Then you have to rinse and dry the cases... I had planned to buy one of the cheap food dehydrators on Amazon, but the Frankford Arsenal brass dryer version of same was on sale at Cabela's last year, so I bought that instead. It seems to work fine, although it would be nice if it had a built in timer. Some online reviewers have reported theirs died quickly, so we will see if it holds up.

Necro to note that I bought some gold prospecting strainers to separate out the pins, and they work pretty well. They fit over a bucket, one mesh size catches the cases and lets the pins through, and the second is a fine mesh that catches all the pins. I am however not totally enamored of the labor intensive nature of the method. I actually dug my vibratory tumbler and separator out of storage and have been using them for pistol cases, etc. The wet tumbler is good for stuff that really needs the extra cleaning, like 300 Blackout brass which tends to get filthy.

I think the case spinners actually do a better job of getting the pins out, particularly the flash holes, or so I've heard.

Yeah I have been tapping each case upside down against the lip of the strainer to be sure I get them all out. Hence the labor intensive nature of the method.

Had the thought that I should consider buying a second drum for my Thumler's A-R12, so I can keep the machine running while I am in the process of separating out pins from brass after the first load finishes. I googled one up and found that just the drum goes for more than I paid for the whole unit, on sale at Cabela's a few years ago.

If you have a powerful magnet like the ones from inside a hard drive would it be strong enough to pick up or at least move a case that has a pin wedged inside it? Not sure if the pin sifting magnet you mentioned is strong enough but those hard drive magnets are _strong_, especially the older larger ones. If it works you can just lay out the brass on a flat surface and move the magnet over them; any that move or stick need to be checked...

I think the pins are 304 stainless, so magnets won't work.

Wondering if anyone has a good method for cleaning or somehow rejuvenating the stainless pins? Mine have gotten pretty grungy and the last couple batches of brass I have wet tumbled came out grungy, I ended up sending them through the vibratory tumbler with walnut shell media once they were dried. I just ran the pins for a couple hours by themselves with water and car wash soap to no effect They are still dull gray, not shiny like they were originally. I still have a second unopened package of the pins which I am going to switch to, but if there is some technique for making the old ones work well again, I won't throw them away. Using just the Frankford Arsenal pins from Cabela's.

If this is just something that happens to the cheaper pins, I will plan on seeking out some that are better quality next time I guess. The only reason I am still wet pin tumbling at all, is because it gives a light deburring to trimmed case mouths and also it gets rid of the resizing lube.