Stainless Tumbling Media
- Thread starter Jefferson
- Start date
Which website is it. Try www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com Get the kit with the rebel17 tumbler as it is way nicer than the thumblers.
OR, http://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-909544-Rotary-Tumbler/dp/B00HTN4R6O/ref=sr_1_10?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1418915977&sr=1-10&keywords=case+cleaner
Joe R
Gold $$ Contributor
Baddog0302 is right on the money. I tried a couple of other tumblers. They are rock tumblers adapted to brass. The FART (Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler) ;D is the only one designed to be a brass tumbler. It is way superior to anything else out there and it is way cheaper. It isn't often that you get superior tools at lower prices.
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7stubby
Some days it doesn't pay to even get out of bed.
Joe R said:
I second everything said above. I used a Thumblers Tumbler for a year. Then the Frankford Arsenal Tumbler came out. I pick it up because the drum is plastic molded around a rubber insert. No metal drum to rust like the Tumbler. It also has a larger capacity. 28 pounds total drum weight. I use 10 pounds of pins as I only clean 100-200 pieces at the most at a time. The drive unit is gear driven not belt driven. So worries of slippage due to a wet belt. Good unit for the money.
Joe R
Gold $$ Contributor
Totally true.
Jefferson,
The instructions tell you to tumble for 3 hours. Wrong. You'll get peening. Tumble for one hour max. If you plan on tumbling more than 100 cases at the time, get an extra five pound bag of pins like 7 stubby says. That will help you avoid peening.
Peening is when the cases bang into each other resulting in a slight ridge at the case mouth. That will affect accuracy. The pins act as a buffer, they clean and they polish.
Do you anneal your cases?
Joe R
Gold $$ Contributor
If you:
1. deprime
2. tumble
3. anneal
You will notice that the bullet requires more force to seat. And its performance on target will deteriorate. Some guys resort to putting graphite for their necks, others dip the bottom of their bullets in various kinds of lubricants to mitigate this grabby effect. I theorize that the heat of the annealing process raises the grain of the brass making it grabby/rough.
However if you:
1. deprime
2. anneal
3. tumble
The tumbling process with the ss pins will clean and polish your brass inside (including the necks) and out. Making the whole seating process smooth as silk. Of course you don't have to take my word for it. Try it both ways and see.
Kindest regards,
Joe
michaelnel
Old and In The Way
I have a Thumler's Tumbler, and it is a true example of crude backyard engineering, designed for tumbling rocks, not brass. The whole top fastening thing is awkward, and being mostly steel I'm sure it will rust out before it wears out. I have only had it for a few months and the rust is already eating away at it.
It does clean the brass, but it beats up the case mouths too. I am thinking about switching to Ultrasound cleaning.
It does clean the brass, but it beats up the case mouths too. I am thinking about switching to Ultrasound cleaning.
Joe R
Gold $$ Contributor
A few years ago I gave ultrasonic cleaning a try with a couple of hundreds of cases. I found it to be a waste of time, I was using an HF unit. It did not produce good results for me and I went back to walnut tumbling. You also have to buy a special cleaning fluid, that is pretty expensive. Give it a try, it's your money.
tag
michaelnel
Old and In The Way
Great article on ultrasonic case cleaning:
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/ultrasonic-case-cleaning/
Seems to me that tap water, white vinegar and a few drops of Dawn detergent aren't a particularly expensive solution, and according to Jason's testing, that was what worked very well.
I'm gonna try it. I just ordered an ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon.
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/ultrasonic-case-cleaning/
Seems to me that tap water, white vinegar and a few drops of Dawn detergent aren't a particularly expensive solution, and according to Jason's testing, that was what worked very well.
I'm gonna try it. I just ordered an ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon.
michaelnel said:
Since you already have it try seven parts water and one part Simple Green for two hours and see how that works for you. I tried the pins and they were a pain and did not do any better. I bought one forty years ago and it still works. I replace the belt about every ten years. The rust is cosmetic since it has a heavy rubber liner.
I've been using a Thumbler Tumbler for about 40 years myself and never had any trouble with it. I had switched to a vibrating type cleaner using walnut many years back, but was able to find my old Thumbler when I wanted to try the Stainless media. I fill it about half full of water, add a little Dawn and also dishwater Rinse stuff and tumble for a few hours. Usually about 100 pieces of 308 brass at a time. So far I have not seen any case mouth damage even using a 10 power magnifier. The slow speed of the tumbling and all that water seems to keep them from being damaged. I've been doing that for the last year and have not had any corrosion problems, but I do make a point of wiping all water off the metal after each use. I de-prime, tumble and then anneal. If you anneal dirty cases, the carbon bakes onto the case I found. Maybe its different with different cartridges or powders, but that is my experience. Bullet seating is very smooth, but I use a Custom FL sizing die with no neck expander ball in it, and then run the cases over a Neck Turning mandrel before seating the bullet. Makes for very smooth and consistent seating.
michaelnel said:
There are other products now made from large diameter PVC pipe you should investigate. You might even be able to build your own if you're not adverse to "backyard engineering" a little as you put it.
I bought a Thumbler's B a couple of years ago, use my Hornady vibrator now only for cleaning bullets in corn media prior to hBN-coating in an ancient RCBS rotary.
Evident rust is cosmetic and can be supressed / eliminated by spraying a coat of common silicone lube onto the drum's inside surfaces before re-inserting the rubber liner.
I tossed the wing nuts after the first run in favor of (admittedly more costly) plastic knobs you can get in the Hillman fasteners aisle at most any hardware store:
(I think this is the item but they make larger ones that won't allow the drum to rotate so look carefully) http://wedo.hillmangroup.com/item/e-assortments-household-accessories-products-knobs/large-clamping-knobs/55400-f?&plpver=10&origin=keyword&by=prod&filter=0
Easier on old, arthritic fingers they are & they don't tend to get lost as easy.
It takes awhile to get the right proportion of solution and media + brass to avoid the minor peening some folks report seeing on case mouths, as well as attention paid not to running a batch too long. I haven't seen any mention of this from users of the PVC devices, perhaps their smaller diameter reduces tendency for cases to impact one another?
Ultrasonic has its own drawbacks. I tried it briefly, found it lacking for my needs.
Joe-R the simple solution to overcome force to seat bullets is a great American device....Lyman M Die.Really rate this especially with Barnes bullets. Great service from Lyman when we bought 4 of them for our hunting calibres. With good annealing and SSM you should size and seat like butter. If you don't already try using an LCD.Very very underrated die.No overworking of your brass and very minimal run out. 
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