Stainless pin discovery??????

I've been using SS pins in a tumbler for a few years now to clean black powder cartridges. Usually I use filtered tap water and Dawn withvavfewvdropsbof Lem-Shine. Works ok but brass does not look "like new".....
Yesterday I was looking fir the bottle of Dawn and it was next to the box of Casscaid dishwashing pods. I decided to throw a pod intothe tumbler to see what happened. Amazing results! Absolutely clean...near " like new". I took a bunch of brass that I had "Dawned" a few months ago and cleaned them with the pods a second time. Beautiful results. Am I the first to discover this or am I late to the party.

I use the harbor freight double rock tumbler. Doesn't sound like you are using enough Lemishine and don't have the right mix ratio of dishwashing soap to Lemishine mix. I use a teaspoon of Lemishine and a tablespoon of any dishwashing liquid in each cylinder. Tumble for four hours and they come out bright and shiny. I had the same issue years ago and didn't use enough like you did and had dirty dull brass after tumbling. Tumble too long with your mix and it turns into shellacked green military looking brass. Too much Lemishine in the mix will turn the brass a dull pink to orange. Experiment and try.

Does the harbor freight tumbler hold a decent amount of brass? I've been wondering about getting that one.

Dose for me. Never counted my brass when I throw it in I just put enough in it to fill to about an inch and a half from the top and make sure water cover all the brass. I don't fill to the top. Walk away for 4 hours, come back and dump, and your done. If your worried about capacity buy a couple of them. The last one I bout was $44 with a coupon a few years back. You could a have three or four if them for what it costs for a name brand tumbler. They hold up as well. I've tumbled tons of brass through mine. If i had to guess it will hold close to 50, 223 casings per side with clean results.

The harbor freight tumblers have weight capacity of 3lb total cases and liquid combines. . the problem is not weight but bulk. For example 100 30/06 cases weight 2.5 lb. You can not get 100 in and clean well. Suggestion Buy a Lortone QT6 or QT12

I use one of the lemishine pods in my jug for brass at the range. works good while now agitation other than the occasional shaking it gets. when I pour it out the water is black and cases while not shinny have very little fouling on them. I then rinse several time in straight hot tap water and air dry in a screen rack for a couple hours. About 45 mins to an hour in the polisher with corn cobs and iosso brass polish and they are like new bright and shiny. When inspecting them I have a mandrels made for a scratch pads pieces that are a loght fit and I give them a turn or to to remove any thing stuck or remaining.

I add a few drops of ICE Wax car wax. Keeps the shine longer....

rbertalotto , what are you using to tumble your brass, whats it's capacity, how many # of pins are you using, how lond do you tumble them for?

Please post some pictures.

danomano After rinsing my tumbled boolits I soak them in a car wash/wax/water solution for a couple minutes, rinse lightly, towel dry the eaterior (to eliminate water spots) then put in a food dehidrator for 2 hrs

https://i.imgur.com/dx8ZpXk.png

I found that 7# of pins in a 2 gal DIY tumbler works great

Dishwasher detergent has an abrasive in it. I don’t know if it’s abrasive enough to harm brass but, I been using it fo years to clean/ scrub burnt pots including coffee pots that get left on with no coffee left in it. The liquid works the best! I’ve even used it to clean my hands and greasy car parts. It can be kinda tough on the hands. The stain remover “Shout” works real well also and it doesn’t seam to have any abrasives in it. It also works great on the tooth brushes, bore snakes, mops, nylon bore brushes, or any thing else that gets covered in carbon from the massive gun cleaning that follows my typical range day!

I have the Harbor Freight tumbler too. I did about 100 303 british cases last week, 50 in each container, that is about the limit I think. The 30-30 cases came out a little better doing the same amount. I use Dawn and Lemi-Shine but not a lot of either. Most times the cases look new but are always clean.

How many pins do you use ? I have two 1 lb. bags, only opened one so there is a half pound in each container. It seems to work so I haven't added any more.

I don't do large volumes so the double tumbler is fine for my needs.

Frankford Arsenal has larger capacity in terms of count. Bigger single drum. Same weight. Handles more longer brass in a single batch than the tumbler. However the double drum harbor freight allows you to do to sizes of brass that might tend to stick one inside the other. Say 9mm and 40 S&W for example. Single drum a lot of the 9mm will be stuck inside the 40's and possibly wedged there with pins. HF double drum they don't share a drum.

I'm afraid not the first person to use a dishwasher pod, I bought my FART used and it had some in with it. Dishwasher soap doesn't suds up like Dawn so more soap can be used. And ingredients to aid water sheeting during rinse to avoid water spots can offer an advantage to the dishwasher pods. I liked Dawn and teaspoon of Citric Acid better so wife got the pods for dishwasher.

I have the Harbor Freight double rock tumbler. Use about 2.5lbs of pins in each side. Mine will hold about 75-90 .223 per drum. Varying amounts of other cases depending on size. I experimented after being told by a guy who used one to process large amounts of brass for sale. He used it in his reloading supply store. Put in brass, fill with water to cover brass. About two 9mm case fulls of Lemi-Shine and a good squirt of Dawn. Tumble 15 minutes. Remove dirty water. Refill with water Lemi-Shine and Dawn. Tumble 1 hour. Brass looks like new.

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Originally Posted by 35isit

I have the Harbor Freight double rock tumbler. Use about 2.5lbs of pins in each side. Mine will hold about 75-90 .223 per drum. Varying amounts of other cases depending on size. I experimented after being told by a guy who used one to process large amounts of brass for sale. He used it in his reloading supply store. Put in brass, fill with water to cover brass. About two 9mm case fulls of Lemi-Shine and a good squirt of Dawn. Tumble 15 minutes. Remove dirty water. Refill with water Lemi-Shine and Dawn. Tumble 1 hour. Brass looks like new.

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You can get some of that pre-wash goodness from soaking for 15 to 30 minutes in a bucket with a bit of citric acid and soap. Soak, drain, rinse, drain then into the tumbler. I do most of my tumbling downstairs with no sink so pre-soak in garage using bucket allows me to use hose and dump outside. You can soak for 30 to 45 minutes and dry after rinsing and draining as a pre-treatment for vibrating in corncob or ground walnut hulls. Noticeably cleaner brass than vibrating in media without pre-soak.

Depending on condition one can really get away with wet tumble every couple of reloads, soak and vibrating in media is a bit less hassle and plenty clean enough for "regular" cleaning. Wet tumble is the occasional thorough cleaning in my world. Best of all is when/if brass is clean enough to just drop in the dry media to freshen up. Least hassle and mess as long as it gets things clean enough for reloading.

Thanks for all the comments, but nothing could be easier of give better results than my large Tumblers Tumbler and these dish washing pods. Easy Peasy!
I had the Harbour Freight tumbler but I burnt out two motors so bit the bullet and bought a high quality tumbler.