I am thinking about switching over to wet tumbling in my Thumbers B. How many pounds of pins do I need to order? Just doing handgun cases at least for now.

__________________
I told you not to use Lifebuoy

I bought a kit that included the Thumbler's B, a case separator, a jar of Lema-shine (citric acid) and 5 pounds of pins.

First I recommend, GET A KIT!

The instructions that come with the kit say 4 quarts HOT water, 2 pounds Brass, all 5 pounds of pins, 1/4 teaspoon citric acid, and a big squirt of Lemon Ajax dish detergent. I use 3 1/2 quarts of very hot water. that leaves a little more air space for foam to form in.

Depending on how bad the brass is and the type of powder fouling (Black Powder vs Smokeless) and how much mud, it takes as little as 1 hour and up to 5 hours. I had all brass 20 and 12 gauge shotgun hulls that were fouled with 15 years of stains; 3 hours had them looking like new, inside and out!

I always decap and usually resize before tumbling, the primer pockets look like new too and the pockets dry faster.

I had some old 30-06 cases stored in the barn. Wasps laid eggs/larva and these stained the pins purple. It took 5 to 8 uses to get them clean again!

I rinse the pins with clean hot water twice after every batch.

Ivan

I already have the tumbler, Lemishine, and dish soap. So 5lb. Of pins and I should be good.

__________________
I told you not to use Lifebuoy

The drive belt seems to die from length of time as apposed to usage. 6 to 7 years from manufacture is about it. I'm on my third belt, first was fine, third is doing great. The second was older stock at a rock shop, it only lasted 1.5 years!

Ivan

STM's kit is the one I started with. 9 years now and doing great!

Ivan

ACORN; you didn't mention a separator. On dry media you can pour the media out and get by without one. Doing wet pins without one would be enormous frustration! ITB

Had thought about a seperator. Any suggestions?

__________________
I told you not to use Lifebuoy

Yep, the limiting factor is the weight that the tumbler can handle, that's why it's important to follow the STM recipe above. If too much weight, then the belt will slip and not work as well.
mike

There are several separators on the market. The only one I have any experience with is STM's and I am very much in favor of it. It and some of the others come with a solid bottom, but you can cut that off and it fits in a standard 5 gallon bucket. I have left mine intact and just store my pins in the separator.

Ivan

I use Frankfort Arsenal wet media equipment. I have the complete set up including the hand held magnet and case dryer. This set up does a great job with even the worst looking brass. I also deprime all my brass before hand to get clean primer pockets. 5 lbs. of pins will do the job.

Ivan gave you great info as to the process and my process is identical but I bought an extra media separator just for washing the brass and collecting the pins inside the cases and primer pockets. Just put clean warm water in the bottom of the separator and fill the basket with your cleaned brass, rotate a short while, take out brass and put on towel or I use a brass dryer. Get the pins out of the bottom with a magnet and dump the water.

__________________
S&W factory revolver armorer

Drying the cases is important .
If you can find a second hand food dehydrator , the plastic trays are perfect, I have an old one I no longer use to make beef jerky , ordered some extra drying trays and it works perfectly , no fear of over cooking brass . Set dehydrator on a timer and you don't even have to watch over it .

Here in Louisiana it rains too much to depend on sun dried , dehydrator dried is just the ticket !
Gary

__________________
Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Separating can be tedious and time-consuming in light of what should be a simple and rapid procedure. I find the two most important aspects to expediently separate are immersion (in water) and agitation. Immersion helps break the surface tension and momentarily suspends the pins as they fall from the case.

I agitate brass in a wire, deep-fryer basket (clamshell enclosure) in a deep tub of water. Goes very quickly. Never a leftover pin.

Don't include too many cases while separating or pins will fall from one case into another, into another, etc. Grab one of those pin magnets for collecting/releasing pins.

I use some Armorall Wash and Wax liquid with a little Lemishine for cleaning, and the brass stays shiny. The Frankford Quik-N-Ez separator kit with water does a great job. No pins left in decapped cases yet.

__________________
The triple smoker