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Posted: 7/21/2015 12:59:02 PM EDT
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So I just finished building my first wet tumbler. Roughly 1.5 gallons. I have 10lb of pins in it, and tumbled roughly 200 cases of 6.5 Creedmoor for 2 hours.
4 Tablespoons of Dawn 4 45acp cases of Lemi Shine Brass came out pretty good, but the primer pockets aren't quite as clean as I get them in my ultrasonic. Time savings is worth the trade off though I guess. The brass came out a much richer, darker, golden color though, than when I use the ultrasonic. It almost has an ever so slight, iridescent pinkish hue to it. What makes the brass turn the darker color? Do I need to adjust my solution? I much prefer the brighter, lighter color I get in the ultrasonic. My solution in that is 50/50 ratio of white vinegar and water, and a drop or two of Dawn, but it only runs for 3 8 min cycles with that solution. Does anyone use vinegar it a SS tumbler? Obviously I wouldn't use as strong of a mixture, but I wonder what half a cup or a cup of vinegar would do in the SS tumbler.... I also noticed a lot of tiny knicks all over the brass this time, that I don't really remember seeing before? Maybe they were there and I just don't remember it.... |
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Quoted:
So I just finished building my first wet tumbler. Roughly 1.5 gallons. I have 10lb of pins in it, and tumbled roughly 200 cases of 6.5 Creedmoor for 2 hours. 4 Tablespoons of Dawn 4 45acp cases of Lemi Shine Brass came out pretty good, but the primer pockets aren't quite as clean as I get them in my ultrasonic. Time savings is worth the trade off though I guess. The brass came out a much richer, darker, golden color though, than when I use the ultrasonic. It almost has an ever so slight, iridescent pinkish hue to it. What makes the brass turn the darker color? Do I need to adjust my solution? I much prefer the brighter, lighter color I get in the ultrasonic. My solution in that is 50/50 ratio of white vinegar and water, and a drop or two of Dawn, but it only runs for 3 8 min cycles with that solution. Does anyone use vinegar it a SS tumbler? Obviously I wouldn't use as strong of a mixture, but I wonder what half a cup or a cup of vinegar would do in the SS tumbler.... I also noticed a lot of tiny knicks all over the brass this time, that I don't really remember seeing before? Maybe they were there and I just don't remember it.... That seems like a lot of pins. I use 5lbs in a one gallon tumbler. Maybe that's causing the nicks you're seeing (a picture would be nice to see). The time to tumble, as well as the solution, will vary with pretty much everyone. I use a little more than a 45acp case full of leminshine, and I tumbler for 3.5 to 4 hours. In my experience, the pickish hue is from too much leminshine. And the not-so-clean primer pockets indicate you can tumble for a longer time. |
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Quoted:
So I just finished building my first wet tumbler. Roughly 1.5 gallons. I have 10lb of pins in it, and tumbled roughly 200 cases of 6.5 Creedmoor for 2 hours. 4 Tablespoons of Dawn 4 45acp cases of Lemi Shine Brass came out pretty good, but the primer pockets aren't quite as clean as I get them in my ultrasonic. Time savings is worth the trade off though I guess. The brass came out a much richer, darker, golden color though, than when I use the ultrasonic. It almost has an ever so slight, iridescent pinkish hue to it. What makes the brass turn the darker color? Do I need to adjust my solution? I much prefer the brighter, lighter color I get in the ultrasonic. My solution in that is 50/50 ratio of white vinegar and water, and a drop or two of Dawn, but it only runs for 3 8 min cycles with that solution. Does anyone use vinegar it a SS tumbler? Obviously I wouldn't use as strong of a mixture, but I wonder what half a cup or a cup of vinegar would do in the SS tumbler.... I also noticed a lot of tiny knicks all over the brass this time, that I don't really remember seeing before? Maybe they were there and I just don't remember it.... I run about 250 .308 cases per drum in mine max, so your brass count is probably about right on. Pistol cases Ill run the drum over 3/4 full and it works fine. Rifle cases need a little more space it seems, about 1/2 ful is max for rifle. Ive never counted .223, but I cant probably do 500ish per 1.2 gallon drum. 9mm, I dont know, 1000 or so. Adjust your amount of Lemishine. You could cut it in half. I run a 1.2 gallon drum and I use 3 .380 Auto cases per drum. Make sure you thoroughly rinse your brass in cold water after tumbling. Toweling off the excess water probably doesnt hurt either. I would not use vinegar. Some say it will mess the brass up. Its hard to say. Half of the crowd says "yay" the rest say "nay". I just use Dawn and Lemishine. Dont sweat the amount of pins that your using. More pins generally means it gets done faster. Ive run 10lbs in my 1.2 gallon drum, and yes it seemed to work faster. For now Im back to 5lbs per drum, but will be splitting another 5lbs between the 2 drums whenever I remember to buy the dang things. The nicks are caused by the pins being very new. Did you tumble them by themselves with Dawn to remove the sharp spots from them? If not, not a big deal, the pins will wear the sharp edges down on their own. I doubt if your hurt your brass. If you really want it shiney, run for 4 hours. Ive cut my time back to 2 hours now. Its still really clean, cleaner than dry tumbling, just not perfect. |
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I'm actually using the stainless chips/flakes from Southern Shine Tumblers, not actual pins, so that may be the cause for the nicks. I did tumble them first for an hour with the same solution, and water came out black. They were nice and shiny afterwards though.
I got my pin amount, and solution ratio from the instructions on Bigg Dawg Tumblers page. My tumbler is roughly the size of his medium tumblers, or a hair smaller. This is what he quotes for them. 12lbs media up to 9lbs of cases --the higher the case to media ratio the longer it takes to get clean. Add 3-5 45 acp case of lemi-shine ( I use 4 most of the time) Fill with hot water to the neck of the reducer ( about 1.5 inches from top) add 4-5 tbs dawn dish soap (i think any dish soap will work i just like how dawn works) I did take one of the cases out of the tumbler and drop it in a cup of water with a little Lemi Shine and a couple drops of Dawn, swirl it around, and let it sit a couple minutes (2-3 min). Came out nice and bright, very different than the rest. Maybe it all just needs a quick 3 minute bath? lol As for the vinegar harming the brass, I'm not worried about that. My ultrasonic stuff is SPOTLESS and PERFECT, but I can only do about 25 cases at a time in the beaker I use for that, so this would've taken me 7-8 hours total, instead of 2-3. This is where I adopted my ultrasonic cleaning practices from. http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html |
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Your local water has to be accounted for. This is the key. So adjust the Lemishine amount down, you will have to experiment. With my water, I use a 45 ACP case for 1 gallon of water. As with most recipes, you adjust to allow for your local ingredients to get the bling. If you want the PP's cleaner, tumble longer. |
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Quoted:
So I just finished building my first wet tumbler. Roughly 1.5 gallons. I have 10lb of pins in it, and tumbled roughly 200 cases of 6.5 Creedmoor for 2 hours. 4 Tablespoons of Dawn 4 45acp cases of Lemi Shine Brass came out pretty good, but the primer pockets aren't quite as clean as I get them in my ultrasonic. Time savings is worth the trade off though I guess. The brass came out a much richer, darker, golden color though, than when I use the ultrasonic. It almost has an ever so slight, iridescent pinkish hue to it. What makes the brass turn the darker color? Do I need to adjust my solution? I much prefer the brighter, lighter color I get in the ultrasonic. My solution in that is 50/50 ratio of white vinegar and water, and a drop or two of Dawn, but it only runs for 3 8 min cycles with that solution. Does anyone use vinegar it a SS tumbler? Obviously I wouldn't use as strong of a mixture, but I wonder what half a cup or a cup of vinegar would do in the SS tumbler.... I also noticed a lot of tiny knicks all over the brass this time, that I don't really remember seeing before? Maybe they were there and I just don't remember it.... Definitely too much lemishine. I do 1tsp of Lemishine and 1-2tsp of Dawn (depending on how dirty the brass is) per gallon of water. I have 10lbs of pins and my tub holds 1 gallon of water once the brass is in there. My brass is bright and shiny, better than brand new brass! 
I find that 2 hours gets the pp "clean enough" but 3-4 hours will get it as clean as it can possibly be. Here is mine after 2 hrs: 
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OP: I looked at the before and after images of your cases, as well as reading the description of your cleaning protocol. In general, I think what you are doing is pretty close to right.
I think you may be using too much Lemishine, but not way too much. I suggest cutting the amount in half, unless you have really hard water. My early problems with pink-ish cases were due to too much Lemishine, or having one or two steel cases sneak in, or both. You may not be using enough Dawn. It's hard to use too much, really. I've found that I am using too much when it gets difficult to rinse it out. How big are the stainless steel chips and shards? If they don't fit easily into the primer pockets, they aren't going to do a good job of cleaning them. I use small diameter stainless pins. Apart from about 1 200 cases with small pockets getting two pins caught in the flash holes, they do a good job of cleaning out the pockets. (The pins are easy to remove and I catch them during case inspection.) I think the causes of your dark, rich colored cases include (1) Not tumbling long enough. Try adding an hour. (2) Not enough Dawn. Add another Tblsp. (3) Really filthy case insides. That's not always easy to see, so an intermediate pour-out (decant) and refresh with more water, Lemishine and Dawn. We have a water softener, so I use softened water in the wash in my Thumler's Tumbler. I also use much more Dawn, one to 1-1/2 .45 ACP cases of Lemishine, depending on the filth of the cases I am cleaning. I also add about 1/10 tablespoon of Boraxo powdered hand soap as a washing soda. I started having the best results when I tried the Boraxo. Then I rinse in regular tap water, not soft, and ensure that the cases will dry quickly to avoid spotting. Your mileage may vary. |
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Quoted: OP: I looked at the before and after images of your cases, as well as reading the description of your cleaning protocol. In general, I think what you are doing is pretty close to right. I think you may be using too much Lemishine, but not way too much. I suggest cutting the amount in half, unless you have really hard water. My early problems with pink-ish cases were due to too much Lemishine, or having one or two steel cases sneak in, or both. You may not be using enough Dawn. It's hard to use too much, really. I've found that I am using too much when it gets difficult to rinse it out. How big are the stainless steel chips and shards? If they don't fit easily into the primer pockets, they aren't going to do a good job of cleaning them. I use small diameter stainless pins. Apart from about 1 200 cases with small pockets getting two pins caught in the flash holes, they do a good job of cleaning out the pockets. (The pins are easy to remove and I catch them during case inspection.) I think the causes of your dark, rich colored cases include (1) Not tumbling long enough. Try adding an hour. (2) Not enough Dawn. Add another Tblsp. (3) Really filthy case insides. That's not always easy to see, so an intermediate pour-out (decant) and refresh with more water, Lemishine and Dawn. We have a water softener, so I use softened water in the wash in my Thumler's Tumbler. I also use much more Dawn, one to 1-1/2 .45 ACP cases of Lemishine, depending on the filth of the cases I am cleaning. I also add about 1/10 tablespoon of Boraxo powdered hand soap as a washing soda. I started having the best results when I tried the Boraxo. Then I rinse in regular tap water, not soft, and ensure that the cases will dry quickly to avoid spotting. Your mileage may vary. Nice post, spot on advice. (pun intended) |
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