Shiloh Rifle Forums

I’m tired of having my case mouths peened over, even just a little bit. Tried over the years using steel pins, ceramic rods and lately ceramic balls. All the above peens over the case mouth a lot or a little depending on the tumbler load and amount of water. I’m ready to try a vibrator case cleaner as I believe this method of cleaning brass won’t ding the case mouths. Interested in learning the pro and con of vibrators and the ones to stay away from. Cleaning/polishing mediums too.
Thanks for any insights you may have.
Thanks Richard

How long are you tumbling? I been using the SS pins on everything and even my thin as hell Norma 45/110 doesnt have any problems. A squirt of Dawn and about half a tsp of Lemi Shine or citric acid and Im good in about 3 hrs. I cover about a inch of water.

Maybe Flatsguide is using Hard Water⸮

MSalyards wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:08 pm How long are you tumbling? I been using the SS pins on everything and even my thin as hell Norma 45/110 doesnt have any problems. A squirt of Dawn and about half a tsp of Lemi Shine or citric acid and Im good in about 3 hrs. I cover about a inch of water.

I do exactly the same thing but stop my rotary tumbler at 1 1/2 hr. max. No issues. I have checked cases with pin gages to be sure.
kw

“Maybe Flatsguide is using Hard Water⸮” ha ha
I tumble about two hours. I have gage pins, next time I tumble I’ll see how much they peen. I’ll use a pencil point and I can feel the edge when I slide the point and it hangs up on the edge. I’ll try to use more media and water with less time. I don’t need the cases to look new. Before I tumble I’ll run a bronze brush wrapped with bronze wool in and out of the cases with the case head in the water. That removes all the fouling in the case. I’ll let you guys know what happens. I would still like to hear about vibrating though.
Cheers Richard

I used the corn cob and the walnut with a vibrater for years. Hard to keep the stuff out of the primer holes and it wouldnt clean them well. Got the pins and never looked back.

I used to use a vibratory tumbler with corn cob, or walnut shell, but too forever to clean cases. About a decade ago I got a nice wet rotary tumbler with ceramic media, and it takes an hour and my cases look super. Not having any dinged or dented necks.

flatsguide wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:30 pm I’m tired of having my case mouths peened over, even just a little bit.
Thanks for any insights you may have.
Thanks Richard

Charlie Young method works best. Skip that step altogether.

Woody's answer to peening case mouths was to lower the water level in his tumbler, until everything is "just" covered with water.

He says that it works for him, and I believe him.

I use the Shiloh ceramic setup and have never had any casemouth damage

GrumpyBear wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:09 pm Woody's answer to peening case mouths was to lower the water level in his tumbler, until everything is "just" covered with water.

He says that it works for him, and I believe him.

I was given the same advice in the 'beginning', and it was sound advice. 45-70,90 & 110.

Robert

I’ve said the following many times. If you’re using a tumbler to clean your brass case lip peening unavoidable. If you’ve convinced yourself or are under the illusion that peening is not happening than you’re not measuring the lip closely enough. Due to how you reload your cartridges peening may not be an issue – you’re fortunate in that case. There are techniques to reduce the peening but even cases tumbled in just water will peen due to the lip edge banging against other cases. One thing that makes peening even worse is to remove the peened edge with a case lip tool, leaving a sharp edge which results more peening the next time the case is tumbled & also result is case shortening. Following are a couple of links to articles on the subject

http://www.texas-mac.com/Case_Cleaning_ ... _Pins.html. Page down to the section on peening.

http://www.texas-mac.com/Removing_Case_ ... _Edge.html

Wayne

I just tumbled 90 of my 45-70 cases, and none of them have a peened lip on them.
My tumbler has the fast rpm motor, I use Dawn + Lemishine with a minimum water level and they are tumbled for 45 minutes maximum. They are cleaned somewhat before tumbling with a bottle brush.
The only time I have experienced some peening is on some cases that were chamfered too aggressively.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT

I just pulled these cases out of the tumbler and they been fired and cleaned several times with out dressing the case mouths up. You can see that they are chamfered and I cant say or see that they are peened.
I use 3mm ceramic ball media and a almost full barrel of water in the hard Frankford Tumbler that spins a lot faster than my Tumblers Tumbler. I add just a capsule of Cascade and a little Lemi shine. This makes a fairly thick foam and I think with the amount of water in the tumbler and foam dampened the cases hitting each other.
But I think the damage starts from what I see some do at the range and I suppose they most likely do it at home and that is they shake a jug with water or whatever it is to rinse the fouling some and this is what causes what they call peening of the case lips.

I used to use a mix of pins and Daves tumbler media and I could see some rolling the sharp lips so I added more media to help cushion the cases.

Made a trip to town today to Horrible Fright and bought a 18 pound capacity vibrator “tumbler”. We’ll see what happens.
Thanks Richard