Anyone using these?

I’ve been on the fence about switching over from pins, talked to the guy on FB and he said either 5 or 10lbs for the fart.

Anyone using the fart and these?

I don’t want 5lbs to store if 10 is way to much

Update.

Ordered 10#
Received about 10days after payment.



Washed and next to the fart pins


First test batch
.357 dirty fired brass


Washing


Cleaned and rinsed

I use a Thumler tumbler, and 5 pounds of chips is "just right" in that unit.

I only use the chips with calibers that give me problems with pins, basically .30 Carbine and .32 Auto.  Pins bridge in these cases, and for some reason they like to jam in flash holes too.

I use two different types of media because I find it quite a bit more difficult to separate the chips from my brass than separating pins from the brass.  Chips stick much better due to moisture, and they are a bigger challenge for me to keep from scattering.

Those are personal preferences, and based on my personal practices - and challenged coordination.    Chips do work well for cleaning the brass inside and out.

Thanks, I’m worried the small/tiny size is going to be more work separating than it’s worth.

I've been running chips for years, and have tumbled many thousands of casings ranging from .223, 6.5CM, .30 carbine, 30-06, 9mm, .45ACP.  Here's a few things I've observed.

-I personally experienced many problems with pins, and had stow-away problems that took a lot of attention.  On average, I'd have 1 stuck by bridging in a .223 bases and .30 cal mouths every 500 casings or so, and you had to pay attention.  It is for this reason I switched to chips.

-I run a F.A.T. - I run it a lot.  
-I decap my rifle-brass prior to tumble; so the chips can clean out the primer pockets.  I don't worry about pre-decaping pistol brass, as air turn-over inside a pistol casing for normal evaporation through the flash-hole into the casing, is much better than it would be a rifle casing.
-My chemistry is tap water, ~ one .45 sized casing of Lemishine (give or take), one-two squirts of Blue Dawn, and sometimes 2 drops of TurtleWax (to simulate benefits of dry media-dust residue on surface).
-I do a water dump, and then 3 water fill/flushes and dumps, before dumping contents into the media separator.
-I have had no issues with chips sticking onto the surfaces or insides of casings - ever.  I use an RCBS manual crank separator, and crank it back and forth about 60-120 seconds, and I do it "dry" (not flooded).  In my experience, I don't have hanging chips ever inside of cases or out.
- I do this in batches, and will general run 4-5 full wet-media tumbles, because I get a lot of brass (go-go 3-gunners; they always dump their brass).  
- Brass is then dumped on a towel on the ground, rubbed around a couple times, spread out, and let lay for a few days.  Roll the pile around for a few seconds every day if able.  I don't decap pistol brass, so water retention is much higher in the flash hole, and a minimum 2 weeks of drying time (the last week can just be in-container).

But I still don't trust that alone.

-All brass is then wet-lubed and resized.
-At this point I clean out the F.A.T. drum (this works best when it's had chance to dry, and the dry media then flows like water; then run my hand in there), so it has no residual media in it.
-I then wet-tumble again to wash off the lube, and also to rinse out any hiding media (there never is any).
-dry again
-I then re-trim all the brass (Giraud makes it so easy, this takes no time), as a final way for any hiding media to fall out (there never is any - but this did sometimes catch hiding pins, when I used pins).  Also, Giraud is a good QC check in case any .223 cases snuck by without getting resized (they won't fit).

A few other tidbits
-back to pins: relying on the decapping pin to warn of a stuck bridged pin in the bottom of a casing, doesn't work.  Even worse, it will bend the stuck pin, so it's no longer visible through the flash-hole.  
-Chips do get all over the place.  Some will end up running away and hitting the floor; so you'll  be magneting up your floor from time to time (and/or vacuuming).
-Chips are not as easily picked up by the magnet as pins.  They work fine, just be sure to get a half-decent magnet made for this purpose.
-Chips are much less massive than pins, and in my opinion, if you have a fugitive that stays stuck - it's likely to cause considerably less bore damage, than a pin would.
-I suspect chips do a better job getting into the primer pocket than pins, and so will clean out the nooks therein-better.
-Mixed shell casings with chips will take an experience.  9mm and .45 ACP casings will be a nightmare, as the chips will wedge them into each other.  Occasionally a 9mm casing will stick over the mouth of a .223 casing, and .45/30-06 same thing.  This is independent of media.  Not terrible, but if you don't catch it, it will trap the two wedged casing full of wet media, and they won't dry - so you have to watch for that when running mixed casings.

How many Pounds are you using?

not sure, 5 lb i think.  could probably use a couple more

Using the chips as well as for my first foray into wet tumbling, they performed fantastic on suppressor used brass. Seperating the chips was super easy with a media seperator with water in it. I rotated the basket about 10 or so times in each direction, dry on a towel. Out of multiple batches no chips have ever made it to the towel. I save the pins for my suppressor baffles.

Looks interesting. I use the pins without any issues. May give this a try. Thanks for the information.

Ordered 10# yesterday, I’ll report back this weekend.

Thanks for the interesting post.  I've been reloading (and rotary tumbling) for decades and this is the first time I've heard anything about Stainless Steel "Chips".  Great part about this forums is that you can learn something new.

Make sure you clean them very well prior to use. If not, you'll get oil, grime embedded in your tumbler- and it will be very difficult to remove.

Will do, how long did they take to ship out?

Cleaning suggestions?

Thanks

When I get them my plan is to put them in a plastic container, squirt dawn in, run hot water, stir, and run water until dawn is gone.

Repeat until they’re clean.

I don’t want any oil in my FART.

Update in OP

My chips seemed to have “miscellaneous” debris in them; bits of non-stainless steel, some actual floor sweepings stuff, and so on.  Once they had been run a few times the dirt was cleaned out of them and the rusting non-stainless stuff was easy to identify and remove.  Basically it was like the chips themselves needed a thorough cleaning before I used them.

I separate stainless media from my brass by pouring the lot into a strainer with an old tee shirt lining it.  It catches EVERYTHING but water, and slows down the water a bit when I rinse.  I found that I needed to rinse less with the chips, or they’d stick to the cases pretty hard.  It’s the size and shape of the chips - they aren’t heavy enough to break through the water’s surface tension without some Dawn suds reducing the surface tension.

The chips also like to catch in the fabric of my old tee shirt, so getting them off and back into the tumbler isn’t quite as easy as pins, but that’s nothing to worry about.  They would definitely clog or go through any metal mesh sieve or strainer, so it’s just a factor to deal with.