Stainless steel media seperation

[asmo]

Okay so I've just finished cleaning a couple of thousand pieces of 5.56 brass. I must say the stainless steel media in a rotary tumbler is flat out awesome. Primer pockets are nice and clean - and everything is nice and shiny (I'm sold on LemiShine).

However, there is one major pain in the arse in all of this - separating the SS media from the brass. When the brass/media comes out of the tumbler they are wet and there is surface tension/static electricity holding the pins to the media. This is especially problematic when a bunch of pins get stuck inside a piece of brass. I've resorted to tapping each and every piece over my little home-made 'separator' (1/4" hardware mesh over a 5 gallon bucket - with a cloth under to catch the pins and drain the water). This is a LONG and slow tedious process and I have much work ahead of me.

Does anyone have a good way to really separate the SS media from the brass -- effectively.

Picture of my ghetto strainer (works):

http://caliban.dreamscope.com/chance/picts/2013-03-05_21-02-16_545.jpg

[rondog]

Yeah, use the Frankford Arsenal media separator. It's the one that comes with the stainless pin kits that has the Thumlers Model B tumbler.It's a round blue clamshell basket thing that fits on it's own bucket that it comes with, sits on little brackets. You fill the bucket to the top with water so that half of the basket is underwater, and gently roll the basket around and around, back and forth. The pins fall to the bottom of the bucket and the water helps to separate them from the brass and wash them away. Let the water run into the bucket to help get rid of the soapy residue.

I'm surprised you haven't seen one yet, all the videos I've watched about this wet polishing stuff use the same separator. I already have one, it came with my Frankford Arsenal tumbler that died years ago. It works great with dry media, and in the videos it works good with the pins as well.

If you're going to the trouble to use the SS pins and wet method, don't go ghetto on the separator! That's kinda counter-productive. This thing is cheap and works great. Just don't try to spin it too fast.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/183204/frankford-arsenal-quick-n-ez-rotary-media-separator-kit

Watch this video starting about 3:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtVHvMNf6tM&feature=youtu.be

[NightCat]

whats your tumbling set-up?

Looks like it worked great.

[Hoser]

Dillon separator.

[Beprepared]

I've been curious on the wet steel media as well. I have an old lortone 33B that can be brought back to life. My doubt is that it has smooth sided drums which is supposed to extend tumbling time quite a bit.

[Tim K]

Dillon separator.

Really? I tried mine and it made a huge mess. It was more like a stainless pin flinger that a separator. Do you fill the bucket with water? Maybe that's what I did wrong.

[asmo]

Watch this video starting about 3:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtVHvMNf6tM&feature=youtu.be

Holy crap. I love this guys setup. Doing 15lbs at a time would be wonderful.

I see what he is doing in the bucket. I will try that. He says he still has pins stuck inside but I think I can reduce the problem with a big arse N50 magnet in with the drying process.

Not too worried about pins in the flash hole as I am going to have to swage all of these so I'll be looking at them (at least the first time) - my bigger concern was pins left inside the case itself.

Danke for all the info!

[asmo]

whats your tumbling set-up?

Looks like it worked great.

Just a little Thumber's Tumbler. Works great. I am still experimenting with load sizes and times but 2 hours seems to be working well for me right now.

[Hoof]

Franklin Separator works great in a 2 1/2 gallon bucket that sits inside my garage sink.
Another tub/bin sure helps as well.

Since I bought the magnetic type of media, rare earth magnets are a must!