SS pins

[Cowguy]

Do SS pins wear out for cleaning brass? I've cleaned about 50 gallons of brass with these pins and it is taking longer it seems to clean the brass.

[Johnny_Chimpo]

Just get rid of them.  They are an unnecessary nuisance.

 

Don't believe me?  I challenge you to tumble one lot of brass without them.  Just the cases, hot water, and soap.

[Cowguy]

I did, the primer pockets were not clean.

[Tunachaser]

The ends of the pins get rounded over time, there are different profiles available but I am sticking with the pins.  There are other shapes available but I've never used them.

[Sarge]

15 hours ago, Johnny_Chimpo said:

Just get rid of them.  They are an unnecessary nuisance.

 

Don't believe me?  I challenge you to tumble one lot of brass without them.  Just the cases, hot water, and soap.

I’ve done that test. Pins are a PITA but the brass is much cleaner using them. 

[Ben53]

I like Southern Shine media.  Not pins, doesn't get stuck in flash holes, and has lasted well for me.  I haven't tumbled as much brass as many on here, though.  

[OpenshooterMclass4lyfe]

While the pins get the brass much cleaner I stopped using them after the first time.    Some dawn dish soap and a .40 caliber case full of lemishine and an hour an a half later and they’re more then good for reloading (for me anyway)  

[Farmer]

To me, with pins equals clean like new brass. Without pins equals clean brass like dry tumbling, maybe a little better. I always try to deprime before cleaning unless they are really grungy then they get dry tumbled for a while. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Farmer
Added

[looking4reloadingdeals]

I bought some of the “chips” from southern shine media and I would not get them again. If you think pins are a pia to deal with just wait till try those… they are small and light enough to get stuck in a drop of water and they cling to everything. I’m sure IV already lost a crap load of them. They also get stuck in towels and everything so much easier. They do clean at least as well as pins, and are slightly cheaper (the reason I bought them when I lost pins during a move to a new house), but totally not worth the extra trouble imo. I will be buying some more pins when I need to clean some rifle brass more than likely

[Johnny_Chimpo]

4 hours ago, Farmer said:

To me, with pins equals clean like new brass. Without pins equals clean brass like dry tumbling, maybe a little better. I always try to deprime before cleaning unless they are really grungy then they get dry tumbled for a while. 

 

My observations:

 

My test of clean enough is loading 100 rounds and looking at my fingertips.  If there is any trace of soot on them the cases are not clean enough.  Vibratory tumbling with either corn cob or walnut media was never able to pass that test unless I dumped the media every time I cleaned cases.  Not gonna happen.

 

I tumble before sizing and depriming for two reasons.

1. Keeping the inside of my dies scratch free and avoiding stuck cases is far more important to me than having clean primer pockets
2. Clean primer pockets matter absolutely not when developing loads for practical shooting.  Objectively it's a complete waste of time.  I can load 308 Winchester ammo with extreme spread below 20 and single digit standard deviation without touching the primer pockets (I wet tumble rifle cases before decapping/resizing as well).

I also don't care about cleaning the inside of the case (another waste of effort) and I don't care if my cases don't shine like a new penny. 

 

I only want undamaged dies and clean fingers.  Wet tumbling without pins is the least amount of effort that achieves both goals.

[SJBriggs]

4 hours ago, Johnny_Chimpo said:

 

My observations:

 

My test of clean enough is loading 100 rounds and looking at my fingertips.  If there is any trace of soot on them the cases are not clean enough.  Vibratory tumbling with either corn cob or walnut media was never able to pass that test unless I dumped the media every time I cleaned cases.  Not gonna happen.

 

I tumble before sizing and depriming for two reasons.

1. Keeping the inside of my dies scratch free and avoiding stuck cases is far more important to me than having clean primer pockets
2. Clean primer pockets matter absolutely not when developing loads for practical shooting.  Objectively it's a complete waste of time.  I can load 308 Winchester ammo with extreme spread below 20 and single digit standard deviation without touching the primer pockets (I wet tumble rifle cases before decapping/resizing as well).

I also don't care about cleaning the inside of the case (another waste of effort) and I don't care if my cases don't shine like a new penny. 

 

I only want undamaged dies and clean fingers.  Wet tumbling without pins is the least amount of effort that achieves both goals.

 

With my 750, the only way I can get consistently well seated primers is by loading brass with clean primer pockets. I tried wet tumbling without pins -- using only Lemishine and detergent -- but the primer pockets never got clean. The pins are unfortunately a necessary evil for me. 

[Johnnymazz]

Use a commercial ultrasonic cleaning machine. They will look like new in 10 minutes. Dawn and Lemishine

[Johnnymazz]

Infante unit. He is located in New Jersey. He sells to military and police departments. Unit holds 3 gallons of water.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Johnnymazz

[Johnny_Chimpo]

 

deleted

Edited April 21, 2022 by Johnny_Chimpo

[Furrly]

1 hour ago, Johnnymazz said:

Infante unit. He is located in New Jersey. He sells to military and police departments. Unit holds 3 gallons of water.

Which model is this 

[Sarge]

2 hours ago, Furrly said:

Which model is this 

Looks like the $1820.00 model!

[Johnnymazz]

13 hours ago, Furrly said:

Which model is this 

Its the S9, Talk to Joe the owner he will give you a discount. Its expensive but a nice quality machine, the China Ching models are worthless. I had a Honady. It comes with 2 small baskets, get the single large one also, it will clean 2,000 cases of 9mm NP

Edited April 22, 2022 by Johnnymazz

[Johnnymazz]

11 hours ago, Sarge said:

Looks like the $1820.00 model!

Yes sir !. I also have the smaller one to clean my pistols in straight MPro 7 I buy it by the gallon

[Furrly]

33 minutes ago, Johnnymazz said:

Its the S9, Talk to Joe the owner he will give you a discount. Its expensive but a nice quality machine, the China Ching models are worthless. I had a Honady. It comes with 2 small baskets, get the single large one also, it will clean 2,000 cases of 9mm NP

Thanks for the info 

[TheCaryBrassGuy]

On 4/19/2022 at 6:47 PM, Johnny_Chimpo said:

Just get rid of them.  They are an unnecessary nuisance.

 

Don't believe me?  I challenge you to tumble one lot of brass without them.  Just the cases, hot water, and soap.

 

I have tried this and can say that they in no way come out as clean as they would with the pins. 

 

The other reason I love the pins and will keep using them is that after trimming brass (Especially a cut from 5.56x45 down to .300BO), if I run them in the steel pins for 3 hours I won't have to run a deburr or camfer on the cases. thats a huge timesaver when running thousands of cases. 

 

 

[Johnny_Chimpo]

2 hours ago, TheCaryBrassGuy said:

 

I have tried this and can say that they in no way come out as clean as they would with the pins.

 

 

I don't care about maximum clean.  I care about good enough for me clean.

[ddc]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:54 PM, Johnnymazz said:

Yes sir !. I also have the smaller one to clean my pistols in straight MPro 7 I buy it by the gallon

 

Do you just lay your pistol parts in the wire basket? 

 

I'm curious if the metal-to-metal contact results in any scratching or other sort of wear or is that not an issue?

[Johnnymazz]

9 hours ago, ddc said:

 

Do you just lay your pistol parts in the wire basket? 

 

I'm curious if the metal-to-metal contact results in any scratching or other sort of wear or is that not an issue?

Yes I have the small 1 gallon tank from Infante,

[Johnnymazz]

2 minutes ago, Johnnymazz said:

Yes I have the small 1 gallon tank from Infante,

No scratches on the finish. I even put my custom A01 in there

Edited April 26, 2022 by Johnnymazz

[Johnnymazz]

I use Mpro 7 straight out of thre gallon bottle, no heat. It lasts awhile, all the dirt settles to the bottom of the tank. I use a motorcycle hand held dryer to dry the parts over a towel.