Stainless pins and 6.5mm Necks

[Rootshot]

Folks,

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before or if I'm the only one with this issue. I love my stainless pin tumble for case cleaning. I generally tumble after sizing and find that 20% or so of my 6.5mm Grendel / 6.5 Creedmoor / 6.5 SAUM cases have stainless pins wedged hard across the inside of the necks. This is truly annoying because I have to manually knock them out thereby slowing down the process.

I bought the kit, including pins, from stainlesstumblingmedia.com. Has anyone found tumbling media that doesn't exhibit this problem?

 

[padom]

I'll have to look at my emails when I get back from vacation on where I bought my last batch of pins for 6.5mm cases but they dont get stuck like my other pins used to.

 

[MarinePMI]

What padom said, there's pins offered specifically for 6.5 mm cases to avoid this annoyance.

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

I have the same problem Rootshot. I too have the STM tumbler and media. When I rinse mine, I just keep a bamboo chopstick handy for knocking them out of the necks. I don't know if another brand of SS media would fix that or not. I haven't looked that deeply into it.

 

[mdmp5]

Folks,

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before or if I'm the only one with this issue. I love my stainless pin tumble for case cleaning. I generally tumble after sizing and find that 20% or so of my 6.5mm Grendel / 6.5 Creedmoor / 6.5 SAUM cases have stainless pins wedged hard across the inside of the necks. This is truly annoying because I have to manually knock them out thereby slowing down the process.

I bought the kit, including pins, from stainlesstumblingmedia.com. Has anyone found tumbling media that doesn't exhibit this problem?

I've been tumbling with stainless since 2009, when suasponte introduced it to the hide. Never had pins stuck in the mouth with 6.5, but maybe my pin length is different than yours

 

[skotydontno]

I had the same problem, so I found some diagonal ss media on amazon that works good. Only problem was it took almost a month to get as it shipped from germany

 

[MarinePMI]

You can probably get the diagonal media from Rio Grande (jeweler's supply place). In fact, they have several shapes and sizes now that I think about it (yes, another hobby of mine...making bling for the wife).

Edit: Yep, they have it.

https://www.riogrande.com/product/stainless-steel-shot-1-8-diagonal/339092gp

 

[Rootshot]

Thanks for the good lead on the diagonal cut SS media. How many pounds are you using in your tumbler?

 

[MarinePMI]

5lbs I believe is what the older Thumler B uses. I haven't used the diagonal stuff yet, since I have the earlier media which had better size control, and ended up just tossing the pins that got stuck, leaving only the shorter ones in the 5lbs of media I have. I do need a recharge though, so may very well go with a mix of diagonal and steel pins.

 

[Dooby]

You can wet tumble without any media, except soap and water. won't be as clean but it'll work. I have the same issue with SS pins getting stuck in the neck, but it doesn't happen that often. I've since switched to a Ultrasonic cleaner. I only use SS tumbling if the cases need trimming. reason is that with SS pins, it can "peen" over the neck/mouth. Then you get rough seating in the bullet.