Stainless steel pin case polisher

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D. Taylor Sapergia
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Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by D. Taylor Sapergia »

I'm sorry if this is a duplicate post.

I have a Lyman media polisher and it's fine for smokeless loaded cases, but inadequate for cases in which Holy Black has been fired. So, can someone point me in the direction of a good stainless steel pin polishing system?
BFD
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by BFD »

I use a large Lortone tumber, which I bought new on Ebay, and stainless pins from BACO.
gunlaker
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by gunlaker »

The low speed Thumbler's Tumbler with stainless pins is what I use. I'm very happy with it. I use a squirt of dishwashing soap and 1/2 teaspoon of Lemishine dish detergent booster. For all intents and purposes it is just citric acid. If you can get cheap citric acid powder it will also work very well.

BTW, I started with a high speed tumbler made my Lyman and it was terrible. It went at about 100 - 120 RPM and sounded like a cement mixer. It peened all of my cases. The low speed Thumblers is far superior.

Chris.
BFD
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by BFD »

Chris, how many 4570 cases do you do in that machine? Usually do around a 130 and could probably do 150 if I wanted.
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kenny s
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by kenny s »

Frankfort arsenal wet tumbler using CERAMIC not steel pins. the steel pins bend the case mouth inside and damage them. you have to expand the cases after cleaning. the Ceramic does not. nice and clean, wash off, use a hundred times....ez
as said, squirt of soap and lemony shine , it works, but I used an idea I got from the guys here.
one cup of simple green, one cup of white vinegar. two hours of tumble. clean, inside and out, no damage to the cases.

I made a rack with a square foot of 1/2 plywood, 3 inch finishing nails, mark off like a checker board, drill pilot holes, then just put the wet cases upside down on the nails to dry.....I made two to keep cases separated....brand, need to be trimmed, etc.

trick. get a steel colander from Wall Mart....dump the cleaned cases and ceramic in it..rinse off, let dry and you're done...again..ez.

my go to from now on....Ken
gunlaker
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by gunlaker »

Brent all of my brass is sorted into 50 piece batches so that's all I put into the drum.

I'm not sure how many you could put into there, but I have a feeling that the little motor might not be able to handle as many as you are doing.

Chris.
BFD
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by BFD »

steel pins do not bend anything. I don't know where that comes from but it doesn't happen in my tumbler, never has. Even if I forget about it and let ir run overnight or longer.

How could it? and why would steel bend and ceramic not? Makes no sense.
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kenny s
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by kenny s »

HI BFD, I had heard about the pins peening case mouths but bought them anyway.
then it happened to me....40 70 SS cases , fired, but the PP bullets would not hand seat.
I inspected the cases and noticed the mouths were peened over. I had to expand them to fit the usual PP bullet.

so, I went to ceramic a year ago....never had it happen again...
the peened ends were visible, not just tight but bent over.
my story.....lets hear from others too....Ken
ian45662
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by ian45662 »

I have had peened cases from ceramic but I still like and use it. I used to tumble them for 4 or 5 hours which was a long time. These days I will go 90-120 min. I just bevel and chamfer the mouths every time just because it helPs me sleep at night
BFD
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by BFD »

I don't bevel or chamfer unless I trim - which is about once every 3 yrs.

I have never had peening with anything including
.45-100 stretched from .348
.45-90 Starline
.45-70 Starline and Winchester, freshly annealed or not annealed.
.38-72 from Hornady .405 annealed or not
.38-55 Starline or Winchester
.38-40 Starline (which is super thin)
.30-40 Remington

And probably others that I just don't recall right now.

If you had case mouths that turned inwards, it was probably not annealing but stretching. There really is no way that steel pins are going to cause peening that ceramics won't do even worse. I think is mostly a misconception that started with an internet fable and is now the go-to cause for anytime case mouths look a bit odd. If it happened with one person's brass it should happen with everyone's and that is not the case (pun?).
ian45662
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by ian45662 »

When I first got my I got my thumblers tumbler when I bought my Highwall. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I shot it cleaned the cases..... shot it..... reload the brass..... shoot it some more .... everything was fine. Then after a while I was not able to seat a greaser in the case without expanding the mouth even though I didn’t size the cases at all. Extraction started to get a little sticky as well. Oh well I thought. I kept on keeepin on. One day at a match I couldn’t load my ammo. It was so tight it wouldn’t chamber. I got home and went over things. Felt a hell of a burr on the mouth of the case. It was on the outside and the inside. Mind you the cases had not stretched at this point. There was just a healthy burr on them. So I got out my tool and worked on the mouth. Never did trim them just de burred and chamfered them. Presto!! no longer did I have to expand the case mouths to seat a groove diameter bullet after firing. Extraction was back to normal and the all chambered easy. Of course since then I have have started shooting bore diameter bullets but I am still very paranoid about that peening.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by CaptnJack »

kenny s wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:25 pm HI BFD, I had heard about the pins peening case mouths but bought them anyway.
then it happened to me....40 70 SS cases , fired, but the PP bullets would not hand seat.
I inspected the cases and noticed the mouths were peened over. I had to expand them to fit the usual PP bullet.

so, I went to ceramic a year ago....never had it happen again...
the peened ends were visible, not just tight but bent over.
my story.....lets hear from others too....Ken
Had it also happened on my 45-70 and 45-110 PP not all of them but say 2-3 out of a 50 batch cleaning. And yes sometimes none. I actually notice it more with my 30-06 cases for my M1 also. I think I was doing 50-75 at a time running it for 3 hr. Switch over to the ceramic cut back on the amount, no problems anymore.
BFD
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by BFD »

Magic I guess.
Aviator
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by Aviator »

Count me among the ones who are not as lucky as Brent!

I use ceramic media in a low-speed tumbler, and get a little peening of the case mouths. It is something you could ignore for several firings, but eventually would cause a problem. It is something that would be difficult to see without magnification, until several firing cycles have occurred. The cases are NOT stretching, and are NOT too long.
I don't view it as a big issue, and have no plans to dis-continue tumbling with ceramic media. It does a good job of cleaning. The slight peening is easy to deal with. I would not call the slight peening "bending" of the case mouths. It is just a very slight raised burr due to the brass flowing a little, resulting from repeated impact/pressure with the ceramic media and other cases. Perhaps it happens more when the cases are annealed.
Woody
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Re: Stainless steel pin case polisher

Post by Woody »

I have never used the pins, but do use ceramic in both a fast speed thumbler and a RCBS tumbler. Both turn about the same rpm. Yes I have experienced peening with ceramic. I eliminated almost all of it by reducing the amount of water added. Dan T. had a theory that the excess water allowed the brass to bang into each other. I don't know. I reduced the water to just cover the brass and the peening went away. Time was not important. I have forgotten, and let it run for many hours with no peening. Maybe there was something to what Dan said. I don't know, don't care, it worked.

Woody
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