Stainless steel pin tumbling media

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Denis
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Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Denis »

I have a *lot* of once-fired range brass that I want to prep and reload, so I just ordered a mini (65 litre / 17 gallon) cement mixer on Amazon - about 125 bucks delivered.

Then I went looking for some stainless pin tumbling media, and the prices nearly gave me a heart attack, as anything I could find was coming from the US and I would have to pay ridiculous shipping and customs charges on it, about doubling the US prices.

Would anybody who uses the stainless pin tumbling media be so kind as to measure a few of the pins for me, please? If I know the diameter and the length of the pins, I'll just order a roll of 302 stainless wire of the correct size and cut my own...

BTW, does anybody have a decent source for media separators (basically a spinning basket between two buckets)? Those are silly expensive here too...

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, here are a couple of US sources:
http://pelletsllc.com/cut-wire-pins
https://shop.guntap.com/reloading/brass ... d-cleaning
http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/r ... ducts.html
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Rumpshot
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Rumpshot »

Just measured 5 pins. Length .028-.030", diameter .003".

Uniformity, in my feeble mind, is more important than the actual size otherwise.

MAGNETIC pickup is very important. You need to use a magnet for most of the sorting, removal of the pins from the brass. Also, you will get the pins everywhere and a magnet is the only way to grab them from a smooth (floor) surface. Unless you have long fingernails...
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Rumpshot
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Rumpshot »

By the way, 5 pounds were included with my Frankford Arsenal Tumbler. I believe they will last me a long time. I really like my tumbler and the final results.

I take dirty range run brass and tumble, often just with water for about an hour to do a basic clean. I then decap, maybe resize (that is up to you), and do a "finish" tumble with with the Lemishine and dawn detergent. Rinse well and ready to sort, size and load with clean primer pockets and flash channel.
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Steamforger
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Steamforger »

I'm still using the same pins from the original pack that came with my Frankford tumbler. I have a decent-sized, plastic tote I got at Wally World. I spread the wet pins out in it and let them dry under the kitchen window. Reuse as necessary.
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HTRN
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by HTRN »

The standard size for pin media for cleaning brass is .047x .255.

STM sells it for 40 bucks for 5 lbs on Amazon.com. :ugeek:
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BDK
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by BDK »

Denis, have you talked to commercial suppliers. Its obviously not a product made specifically for shooting.
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Netpackrat
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Netpackrat »

Prices on Amazon UK seem to suck as well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Tumb ... 015OBM6MY/
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Denis
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by Denis »

BDK wrote:Denis, have you talked to commercial suppliers. Its obviously not a product made specifically for shooting.
Great minds.... I intend to call Pellets LLC and ask who their European competitors are. If there is an industrial application for this stuff in the US, there's bound to be one here too. Failing that, I'll get a quote from them for surface delivery of their minimum commecial order (50lbs of pins).

Here's at least one German industrial source of stainless polishing media: http://www.wkd.de/sPINner-Zubehoer
and a French one: http://www.gpi-tribofinition.fr/consomm ... noxydable/

so I seem to be on the right track...
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HTRN
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Re: Stainless steel pin tumbling media

Post by HTRN »

Mostly, we use ceramic media for deburring in the tumblers.
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