Just got my Thumler Tumbler

[Bradley Walker]

Got my tumbler and 5 lbs of pins. Broke in the pins by tumbling for several hours with dawn and water. They were actually pretty dirty and the water came out black, so I guess that was a good idea.

Cleaning my first 200 rounds of 223 tonight. Wish me luck!!!

By the way the Thumler is a step up from all of the tumblers I have seen... This thing is really nice.

Does anyone have any clever way to keep the drum centered on the wheels so it doesn't make that scraping sound?

 

[ryanjay11]

The black was the new rubber wearing off the drum liner. You might try turning the drum so the wingnuts face the other way. I've never it make a scraping sound, but I sprayed all of the bushings with white silicon spray.

 

[cotntop]

Put a dash of lemishine in solution. Best improvement i have seen to Thumbler is upgrade wingnuts with plastic knobs.

 

[Bradley Walker]

The black was the new rubber wearing off the drum liner. You might try turning the drum so the wingnuts face the other way. I've never it make a scraping sound, but I sprayed all of the bushings with white silicon spray.

It's not the bushings, it the pads on the axle. There are black discs that keep the drum centered on the axles. The drum sheetmetal rubs the black discs.

 

[markm87]

One trick I do to keep the unit a little quieter is to place it on a piece of carpet or a door mat. Makes a big difference.

I load mine to about 120 pieces of .223.

I'd love to get about 8 of the tumblers and spend one day knocking out all my .223 brass.

 

[Bradley Walker]

I ran my first batch of brass last night. I ran approximately 180-200 pieces of LC 223 with 5 lbs of pins. I used the standard Dawn and Lemishine recipe. I was told it would take 3 hrs but I found they were still not completely clean at 3 hrs. I had been told there would be peening of the case mouth if I let them run too long, but since it was LC 223 and I have lots and lots of this brass I just let it run all night.

Well, the brass is crazy clean now and the water came out BLACK. Peening of the case mouth was not an issue, I would say without a doubt that the peening of the neck mouth is MUCH worse using corn cob and a vibratory tumbler than anything I was seeing with the Thumler. If anything, the mouth chamfer looked very smooth, the inside ream from my VLD reamer was still intact, and the finish was very smooth and shiny.

This brass is CLEAN. WOW…. Like gleaming inside and out and the primer pocket is as shiny as the outside of the case. And the process was really quite easy and not frustrating at all. I did buy a media separator to separate the pins from the brass (it’s a Frankford Arsenal), and other than the fact that the media separator is a total POS quality wise, it did separate the pins in a matter of a few seconds without a lot of drama.

 

[amlevin]

Level, fore and aft, side to side, helps keep the drum centered so it doesn't have to rely so much on mechanical means.

From the sounds of things you are now a firm believer in the SS Media. Welcome to the club.

 

[Bradley Walker]

Level, fore and aft, side to side, helps keep the drum centered so it doesn't have to rely so much on mechanical means.

From the sounds of things you are now a firm believer in the SS Media. Welcome to the club.

Once it was loaded the pads on the axles broke in and the drum centered better.

SS media cleaning is really quite incredible...

 

[dblinden]

How clean was the inside of the brass?

Dennis L

 

[Judd]

How clean was the inside of the brass?

Dennis L

As clean as the exterior. If I had to pick the coolest "toy" I have in my reloading arsenal I would have a hard time picking between the SS Thumbler's Tumbler and my Chargemaster. I can't imagine using a vibratory tumbler. I am confident it is better than the vibratory stuff. Not a single regret here at all.

Good idea a buddy of mine had on if you get in a pinch and need your brass dried in a hurry is use a dehumidifier like you would use to make jerky. I haven't needed to use it but thought it was a good idea.

 

[amlevin]

How clean was the inside of the brass?

Dennis L

As clean as the exterior. If I had to pick the coolest "toy" I have in my reloading arsenal I would have a hard time picking between the SS Thumbler's Tumbler and my Chargemaster. I can't imagine using a vibratory tumbler. I am confident it is better than the vibratory stuff. Not a single regret here at all.

Good idea a buddy of mine had on if you get in a pinch and need your brass dried in a hurry is use a dehumidifier like you would use to make jerky. I haven't needed to use it but thought it was a good idea.

For those who haven't seen brass after cleaned with SS Pins, just think "bag of brand new brass". No matter what shape it was in before going into the "laundry" it comes out just like new.

To dry quick just rinse in the hottest water you can get from the tap, shake in a bath towel "sling" the same way one might clean a bowling ball, and then spread out and use a hair dryer. If you have compressed air, that works well too while you're doing a visual inspection.

I usually just shake vigorously in the towel. I then trim if necessary. I acquired one of those rechargeable "Air Cans" that's used to clean computer keyboards etc. I fill it from my compressor, run the tube into the case, blow out the flash hole and the rest of the case. Any droplets that remain are blown out with remaining moisture evaporating due to the heat from the rinse.

That's only if I'm in a hurry. Overnight drying also does a fine job and doesn't leave spots due to the Lemi-Shine.

 

[doc gordon]

if your compressor is oil lubricated you will get oil with the air!how much depends on quality and amount of usage of the compressor .

 

[infantrytrophy]

Re: oil from compressor, I have been using a compressor similar to the one pictured below to dry cases after wet-tumbling. I have not noticed any oil on the clean cases.

Does anyone know if this type of compressor would give off any oil with the compressed air?

Randy

 

[amlevin]

if your compressor is oil lubricated you will get oil with the air!how much depends on quality and amount of usage of the compressor .

That's what they make filters for. I used to sell compressors for about 10 years. Just take a piece of glass, clean it well, and then blow compressed air from a nozzle on it for several minutes. If your compressor is in any kind of decent shape there won't be any oil at all showing on the glass. Even a cheap filter, if you're worried, will take care of the issue.

Oil paranoia is promoted by car painters that can't keep their paint from getting "fish eyes" because they have an issue with silicone contamination in the shop or booth. FWIW, when oil from the "lube" hits the cylinder of a compressor, it's burned just like in a diesel engine. That's why really old compressors "knock" when they start using oil. Even those old beasts don't put a noticable amount of oil in the output air and what little they do ends up in the tank, floating on whatever condensate accumulates.

 

[jcline]

Use about 5 cap fulls of Simple Green and you will be very happy. When it is done tumbling take it out and then put in corn cob tumbler and this will dry it out very well.

 

[bigedp51]

New unfired Lake City case.

Now take some closeup photos of the cases "YOU" tumbled all night long.

Quality made stainless steel pins without sharp ends.

Cheaper cut pins with sharp ends.

 

[markm87]

Now take some closeup photos of the cases "YOU" tumbled all night long.

Why would one tumble brass all night long?

 

[Bradley Walker]

Dude...

Get over it already.

My brass looks awesome.

 

[Bradley Walker]

Now take some closeup photos of the cases "YOU" tumbled all night long.

Why would one tumble brass all night long?

Why not?

 

[NorCalMikie]

You may need to watch your brass real close. I've run a batch over night and seen "gold" in the wash water. That tells me that the SS pins have worn the brass. Just enough to show in the wash water. Why run a batch over might? If it didn't get clean the first time, keep after it till it does. I wouldn't recommend overnight clean "every" time. Just don't let the grud build up too much. And if you see stains on your brass, a quick run in the tumbler with corn cobb takes care of that.