The Gun Counter

Netpackrat wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2020 1:14 am 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.

Do you have an ultrasonic cleaner? If so, maybe try using that to clean the pins.

Yeah, I have one. Hadn't thought of that. I will maybe have to figure out a means of containment for the pins, and test it on a sample.

<Edit> you may be using too much lemishine, I think it's something like 5cc to a quart of hot water.

After digging around try doing a tumbler cycle with simple green and hot water with just the pins to clean them. You may have to drain, rinse and repeat a few times before they're shiny again.

Netpackrat wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2020 8:21 pm Yeah, I have one. Hadn't thought of that. I will maybe have to figure out a means of containment for the pins, and test it on a sample.

Use a plastic cup. Put your pins and cleaning solution in the cup then put the cup in the water in the ultrasonic cleaner. The vibration should pass through the cup and into the stuff inside.

Switched to the new pins tonight, tumbled a load of 300blk brass freshly converted from 5.56 Lake City for an hour. Not sure what the deal is, cases are still not getting shiny. In fact, they were shinier when I put them in than they were when they came out. They weren't as grungy as the last couple batches I did using the old nasty pins, and they probably overall have less "range rash", but they aren't at all shiny like I remember getting when I first started using the wet tumbler.

I don't necessarily care a whole lot about the level of shine in the grand scheme of things, it just bothers me that I can't get the result I did before, and which everyone else who uses this method seems to get. The main reason I wet tumble these after forming, is to knock down the burr left by the power trimmer, and to remove the resizing lube. It did accomplish those things. If I really want I can throw them in the vibratory with walnut shells after they are dry. It's stupid to have to do that, but on the other hand I just have to dump them in the CV-750, let it run for a couple hours, and spend a half a minute using the media separator on them. For case prep where I am just resizing without trimming, I have taken to just throwing the cases in the ultrasonic to remove the case lube. it doesn't do much for cleaning brass but it will take the lube off if it is run long enough.

Anyway, particulars of the process I used... After emptying all the old pins out of the drum into a ziploc bag, I cleaned out the inside of the drum, dumped in the new 5lb package of SS pins, added maybe 250-300 blk cases, about 3+ quarts of warm water, a capful and a half of car wash soap, and 3cc of lemi shine using a Lee dipper. Ran it for an hour and they came out relatively clean but not shiny. Wondering if maybe I am using too many pins for the capacity of my tumbler (12 lbs).... Grasping at straws here.

It might be your water. You might want to try with distilled water

I had some distilled water, so I tried that with the rest of the batch. No difference.