Reply With QuoteHow many pins?
Added:
I use 1/4 tsp of Lemishine per pint of water. A dash of soap and I don't cover the cases completely with water.
i got a STM rebel 17 tumbler for Christmas and used it today to tumble 50 pieces of 260 brass...pre instructions i added 1gal cold water,3Tbs blue dawn,1/4Tsp LemiShine and tumbled for 3hrs. checked cases and insides were still kinda dirty(which i dont really care)so i ran them another hour and insides still dirty and i guess a 1/4Tsp is to much LemiShine because the case are tarnished now which i dont mind either as ive never cared what my brass looks like only that it shoots. i cleaned the drum and media and added warm water and 2Tbs dawn and put them back on for 45mins...will be done in 30mins ill post some pics when done.
so for you guys that are tumbling with stainless pins what are you using? any tips for a newbie?
How many pins?
Added:
I use 1/4 tsp of Lemishine per pint of water. A dash of soap and I don't cover the cases completely with water.
Last edited by Robinhood; 12-26-2014 at 09:04 PM.
I just started SS tumbling and my cases are really clean inside and out... Even primer pockets.. I did run my media by itself for the first hour.. I read somewhere to do that.. Regardless, hope you see better results than what you mentioned...
#3 tumbler. Shot of dawn an a sprinkle of lemishine 2 1/2 pounds of pins full of water. 1-hour clean enough for me. 2-hours you won't be able to tell if you annealed or not.
Doesn't need much dawn or lemishine unless making shaving creme.
5lbs of pins...i put 1/4tsp lemiShine in a gallon of water and it turned my cases copper color,i just spent an hour and a half with 0000 steel wool cleaning them up...they didnt look bad until dry and the insides are clean but not like new clean like ive seen pics of.Originally Posted by Robinhood
Maybe ive got to many pins in the drum?
How long did you rinse them. If you leave them in water for a few minutes to rinse them, sometimes they turn pink. I don't think too many pins are the issue. I would increase before I decrease. My setup is the double drum harbor freight and my quantities are the same as yours for a very small drum.
It's your detergent and not the Lemishine that's tarnishing your brass. Or you're not thoroughly rinsing your brass. I recommend less Dawn and adding a little more Lemishine in your 2nd to last rinse. I normally rinse my brass 4-5 times with clean water.
A couple tricks to try:
1) Use hot water for your initial cleaning. Just hot water out of the tap. Your brass will clean quicker. I usually tumble my brass for 2-3 hours.
2) If you used a lot of case lube or wax drain off the water after an hour and refill and re-add your Dawn and Lemishine.
3) If you want your brass nice and shiny, dissolve a teaspoon of Lemishine in a little warm water and put in in your second to last rinse. Honestly, you can just skip the Lemishine in your initial cleaning water and just use a little in your rinse water and you will get the same or even better results.
4) If you're necks are getting peened use more SS pins, water, put in less brass or slow down your tumbler. The SS pins are not peening your necks. It's the brass falling on and impacting other brass that causes the peening. The SS pins do not have the mass required to cause that type of damage.
they were tarnished the first time i checked them after 3 hours and worse after 4 hours as far as rinsing them i pulled them out of the drum 1 at a time dumped pins outta the cases and put them directly into a bowl with cool water running in the bowl so id say total of 10mins. it says in the instructions that to much LemiShine will tarnish cases.
the case on the right is the tarnished case...one on the left is cleaned up with steel wool...the picture isnt that great as the cases looked like old copper tubing not brass...also if you look closely at the case on the left you can see black spots on the left side of the case....there was several with black spots and some of the cases had a bluish color(like when you heat steel with a torch)on the necks.
Last edited by LongRange; 12-27-2014 at 09:30 AM.
I'm telling you, dissolve a little Lemishine in a cup of water and dunk the tarnished brass in it for just 15-30 seconds and then thoroughly rinse. My brass comes out looking better than new.
Sparky, That is how mine looks when I am done but every so often i see some dullness. Im going to give your method a try when that happens. Thanks for the tips.
thanks sparky...you posted just before i did and after i posted i logged out to go prep some brass so i missed both your posts.
ok so on the first tumble JUST use hot water? or add MORE LemiShine and LESS dawn?
I have never heard it discussed but I have extremely hard water. I wonder if soft water makes a difference?
my water is very hard as well...it leaves white spots on glass that CLR will not touch.
I normally use less Dawn and more Lemishine. However, as I mentioned above you can skip the Lemishine and just add it to your second to last rinse. The SS pins and hot water really do all the work. The Dawn helps to remove any oils or wax. The Lemishine, which is a weak acid, will make your brass shiny and keep it from tarnishing. It's also important to spin your brass in a media separator to remove as much water as possible. I rinse and spin my brass in a Dillon media separator after cleaning with SS pins. I fill the media separator tub up with clean water and slowly spin the basket. After a couple rinsing like this, draining off the dirty water and using fresh water each time, all of the pins are out of the cases and the brass is completely rinsed. In the summer I just put the garden hose in the media separator tub and let it overflow as I slowly spin the basket. I then roll the brass around on a towel to remove more water. My last step is to further dry the brass using a hair drier on them. They're pretty dry at this point and there will only be a little water left inside bolt neck cases. In the Summer I just put the towel in front of the dehumidifier down the basement and let them air dry over night after rolling them around on the towel first to remove the water from the outside of the cases.
Lately, I've been using the SS pins in combination with a vibratory cleaner with corncob. I first deprime the brass and clean them in SS pins. After the cases are clean I may anneal them if I feel it's time. I then lightly spay the clean cases with a quality case lube, I use Sharp Shoot R Royal Case Sizing Lube Aerosol, and resize(normally FL). The last step is 5-10 minutes in the vibratory cleaner just to remove the case lube.
thanks again...im going to tumble some older brass now and see how it works out...i did order the STM kit so i have the media separator and will use it this time...so i just add the LemiShine to the media separator on my second to last rinse correct?
I bought a rock tumbler from Habor Frieght. I use one lb of the small STM and clean 25 rounds of .308 per drum (comes with two) for an hour (deprime them with a Lee deprimer first), size them, trim, debur, etc and tumble again for an hour with 1/4 teaspoon of LS and dawn.
Run water directly in the drum, remove each case & rinse one at a time, set them out to dry and they always look new.
sparky your advise was dead on thanks for your help...i took some old 300 win mag brass that was loaded about 15xs and NEVER cleaned other than steel wool on the necks after annealing. i added hot water,1tbs blue dawn and 1/2tps LemiShine that i dissolved in hot water before adding to the drum and tumbled for 1hr. i then drained the dirty water,rinsed the pins,brass and drum by adding hot water to the drum and draining off until water was clean. i then added hot water 1/2tbs dawn and 1/2tsp of LemiShine(dissolved in hot water)to the drum and put it back on to tumble for another hour(its tumbling now)heres some pics....taken with an Iphone so not the best.
before....
after 1 hour....
Looks great! Nice job.
Yes. Soft water less Lemishine. Maybe a pinch. Rinsing the snot out of them makes huge difference for tarnish. Too much LS gives me rose colored brass. I air dry/anneal here in Phoenix at 110 degrees. They dry REAL fast. I also towel dry the excess off the cases leaving them on a towel on the concrete.
Greg
Something that nobody has mentioned yet, LESS garbage in your dies and press. Easier to size ultra clean brass as well...just a touch, but is noticeable. I am ANAL about clean brass - stainless media tumbling takes less time and provides a CLEAN base to build on.
thats what im getting is the rose color not the white shinny brass...im going to shoot the 50pcs of 300 brass this weekend then tumble with less LS and less dawn and see how they come out.
I had put some water softener in with mine and it came out rose colored. Stopped using softener and the shined up like they should have. I can be very liberal with the LS in my hard water but the soft water must have been the issue for me. I just know that when the water softener was used it created the pink copper color.
Anything "basic" or "alkaline" is probably causing your discoloration. Primarily, using too much detergent or not thoroughly rinsing your brass will cause it to discolor. No worries though. If your clean brass gets discolored for any reason just re-rinse it in clean water with a little dissolved Lemishine. One final rinse in clean cold water and you should be good to go. Remember that the hot water and the SS pins really do almost all of the cleaning. Detergent just helps to loosen and float off any oils or resizing lube/wax while Lemishine will help remove any tarnish and brighten the brass.
If you want shiny brass to stay shiny try this.
After SS cleaning, dry the brass, then put it in a dry vibratory tumbler with either corn cob or walnut and some liquid auto shine. Just a bit. Tumble it for ten min and this will coat your brass and it will stay bright forever.
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