What's the best way to separate brass from SS media?

[ehull20000]

The price on wet tumbling finally got low enough for me to justify it. I've never used one and I see three methods for separating the pins from the brass
1). Magnet
2). Rotary seperator
3). Colander and sieve

What have you found to be the best?

[runco]

Rotary separator is all that I use.  Rare to loose one and to find one in the casings.

[Guest]

While I don't wet tumble so I'm not of much help, generally stainless steels are not magnetic so that might not work.

[superduty]

I just use a fine-mesh colander.

[RED333]

If you do rifle brass, as in 7mm Rem mag, one at a time is best.

I do not care how much you shake, you aint getting all the pins out.

Pistol, shake, shake, shake you pins out.

[chances R]

Rotary separator. One with a cover preferred. Magnet to pick up strays but a lot of work to use as primary device.

[ehull20000]

Thanks y'all

[ehull20000]

Update.

I've done two loads of brass and this is a huge pain in the rear. I've got a transfer magnet on the way and if that doesn't work for me I'll order a rotary seperator.

[chances R]

Magnet is painful as primary tool and you never get all the SS pins.  Remaining pins will be found at your deprime station and that will gum up the works.  You may want to experience all of this by trial and error, but I've done a lot of that for you already.

[ehull20000]

For what it's worth I deprime prior to tumbling as well as hand prime. I'm not really finding a lot of pins in my cookie trays after drying. Getting the water, brass, and pin mixture separated is thus far proving to be the pain. Here is my process and you can tell me what I'm doing wrong.  

 

After tumbling is complete I pull a side off the drum and install a folded tee shirt with magnets inside that is held in place with a hose clamp. I then dump as much water out as possible.  The brass and pins are still contained within the drum with a minimal amount of water. From here I dump the mixed brass and pins into a plastic tray used for mixing concrete and use a magnet to sort out the pins. My current magnet is very small and takes a probably 15 minutes.  Once the brass is mostly free of pins I put the brass on cookie trays to dry in the oven set at 170 for about 15 minutes.    

 

Am I going about this all wrong?

Edited December 2, 2015 by ehull20000

[No_0ne]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KKD1TW/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ps_1?pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B004J4B2IW&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0000Y21NVCK817D7QGJK

 

This one gets good reviews, Franklin makes one that's a bit cheaper that many people use ...

[Grunt67]

I use the bucket & hand crank tumbler that came from Frankfort Arsenal with a dry tumbler kit I had before I went wet stainless.

Works for me. There are many ways you can separate tho.

[netmindr]

I just use a fine-mesh colander.

I set a colander inside of a shallow bucket full of water while keeping water running into the bucket. I then agitate the cases by hand under the water. Plenty of water keeps the pins from sticking to the brass and the pins fall right thru.

I also use a mesh strainer to remove all of the dirty water and then again to pour all of the pins in after separating. Edited December 28, 2015 by netmindr

[Two Dogs]

I use a 5 gallon bucket with a paint filter (mesh bag) and a standard plastic separator. Dump in, rinse in tub while shaking.

[quickbiscuit]

The most efficient way to do this is with a rotary separator. I like the Dillon the best. I poor out all the dirty water I can from the drum into a utility sink then I head outside. Pour the brass and pins into the basket on the separator and start rinsing with a hose pipe. Keep rinsing until the water level gets above the lowest part of the basket. Then you can start rotating the basket, and the water in the tub will quickly separate the pins and keep them from slinging out of the basket. I usually dump the brass into a kitchen strainer and do a final rinse, then sit them out to dry.