thoughts on those stainless pins... magnetic or non ???

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I've heard the pins STM sells are magnetic stainless... I bought some to try off E-bay ( love my stainless pin tumbling BTW ) but mine are not magnetic

so... if the pins are magnetic, they have a higher iron content correct ??? more susceptible to rusting ???

so how I use my pins, they are always wet, & in the tumbler... ( remember I have the non magnetic ) & I never see any rust... the Citric should have passivation effect on the pins, as well as the brass, but my pins always sit in rinse water not anything with citric in it...

do you think magnetic pins would get rusty if sitting extended in rinse water ???

I would think non magnetic would be better from that standpoint, however picking spilled pins would be a lot easier if they were magnetic...

I could use some more, as I only bought 2.5 lbs to try, & have used them a lot, & lost several to the broom... just curious if anyone that has them from STM...

if in fact they are magnetic

if they are magnetic, if you keep them wet all the time, if they'll rust ???

 

[serf 'rett]

Bought my sst pins around four years ago when they were first getting noticed for tumbling. Mine are magnetic; I suspect they are a 400 something grade instead of a series 300 non-magnetic stainless.

I tumble every four to six weeks. Water is drained out of the barrel after tumbling; therefore, the damp pins are exposed to oxygen. They will dry out in a few days. I have never seen rust on the pins.

Being magnetic is a plus if you have a spill.

 

[jmorris]

Mine are magnetic also but stay wet. No rust.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

cool... as I mentioned, I only bought 2.5 lbs to start with... was pretty skeptical... that Hornady ultrasonic sits empty almost all the time on my loading bench, so I made a couple investments into case cleaning...

I think I'll pick up 5 lbs from STM, & keep my 2-2.5 lbs of non magnetic, to add as I start getting low over time with the new ones...

BTW... my tumbler is an RCBS Sidewinder, which was my FIL's, & must be 20 years old, & still works great... & works great with the pins... I doubt I'd buy one today, but would recommend one... the Thumbler is about 1/2 the price... from the comments & what I can see from pictures, the RCBS unit is much better, but does it need to be twice the cost of the other ???

 

[schmellba99]

300 series stainless are austenitic, or non-magnetic.

Once you get into the 400 series, you get into ferritic or martensitic stainless.

Ferritic is a soft-magnetic, meaning that the properties of the steel are naturally conducive to magnetic attraction, but not nearly as much as something along the lines of a true carbon steel. So they are magnetic to a degree, but still hold the properties of corrosion resistance that you typically associate with stainless.

Martensitic steels are magnetic due to the hardening process (usually higher grades of stainless versus ferritic).

Even if there is some slight surface rust developed on the magnetic pins, the action of tumbling is going to polish that rust off in short order anyway.