Brass Tumbling - cleaning questions

[orsogato]

Hi all,

Been reloading for about 20 years. I've never thought about cleaning brass with a tumbler. But you can teach an old dog new tricks.

What is a good setup to get? Can you use anybody's brand "media" in another brand's tumbler? My reloading equipment is all sorts of colors, RCBS green, Hornady red, Dillon Blue etc. In short, I am not loyal to any one brand.

I'm looking for the best value (not necessarily the cheapest).

Can you recommend the media and the tumbler machine to get?

Thanks.

 

[red-rider]

I use a dillon, but their are cheaper ones on the market. I reload pistol calibers, and use walnut shell media, let tumble a couple hours. I wish I bought the biggest one there was, cause I usually let it collect and dont clean it untill I need it. I can only speak for the dillon, no problems. I havent seen much difference using the media treatment either, just let it tumble for a good while.

 

[Trapper L]

I load a lot and sometimes I don't have time for a dry media type cleaning. I use an RCBS Sidewinder tumbler that can also use a liquid type cleaner/polisher. I use RCBS liquid 2 oz, 1/2 cup Iosso, and 1 cup vinegar in one gallon of water. It takes about 20 minutes to turn black military brass back to brand new, not hours as with a rouge type polish. You can cut that formula in half for just general cleaning. I also have issues with putting rouge in my chambers as it is ground into the brass- but that's me. You can get a Midway vibrating tumbler for around 50 bucks as I remember correctly. My brother has one and Midway has replaced it twice over the years at no charge. My Sidewinder is about 25 years old and I keep it clean and lubed and have had no problems with it. It has had several hundred thousand rounds thru it. Look around and see what type you want and buy a good one.

 

[DIXIEDOG]

I use the Lyman Turbo 1200 Tumblers with auto-flo bowls on them and they work great. When your brass is done tumbling you just pull a plug out of the bottom of the bowl and all the media flows out of the bowl into a container you place under the drain. It is incredibly simple and doesn't require an additional media separator. There prices are pretty reasonable as well. The tumblers I have seen all appear to be about the same but the auto-flo bowl sealed the deal for me after using a tumbler without it and having to sift the media from the brass manually.

 

[donttellthewife]

These are the 4 tumblers I use, the small orange one is dang near useless the others work equally well.
For cleaning dirty brass I use walnut media from either a pet store or a finer walnut media from Harbor Frieght that they sell for their sand blaster. For a cleaning agent in the media I have had great luck useing Nu Polish car polish. For cleaning lube off sized rifle cases I use dry croncob media. I also use a timer connected to a power strip to turn them off, no more forgetting and have them run for 2 days

 

[buckster]

Tumbling

I got the Cabela's kit which came with a clear top, small media, and a strainer that fits a five gallon bucket. 56.00 I drip some Oneida Brass and copper polish on the media after I cover up the brass, and in four hours perfect brass. Check it out. Good groups!

 

[orsogato]

Thanks for the info. Can you only use the media once, or is it re-usable to a certain extent. In other words, how often do you have to buy new media?

 

[DIXIEDOG]

You can reuse the media many times. You will need to change it when it takes longer than you consider acceptable to polish your brass or when the media starts to break down and "bond" to you casings. I usually switch mine after every 10,000 cases or so but I do add polish about every 1500 cases to "freshen" my media. I now use Lyman crushed walnut media, when I started I used Lyman treated corn cob media and needed to change it much more often. (approx 3000 case with corn cob)

 

[donttellthewife]

It all depends on how dirty the brass is, but it should last 15 to 20 cycles. You can get more life out of the media by adding 2"x2" squares of paper towels or used dryer sheets. Alot of the dirt will collect on them and you just throw them away and add new ones every each time you tumble more. I seperate the brass from the media outside because of the fine lead particles, be careful about that.

 

[donttellthewife]

Buckster,
I don't have any data to back this up but "everyone" says not to use products with ammonia in them for cleaning brass. It is supposed to leach the zinc out of the brass making it brittle.



Ingredients from MSDS/Label
Chemical CAS No / Unique ID Percent
Ammonium chloride 012125-02-9 <10
Smectite 012199-37-0 <5
Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl), alpha-(1,3-dimethyl-1-(2-methylpropyl)hexyl)-omega-hydroxy- 061702-78-1 <5
Kaolin clay (calcined) 066402-68-4 30-40

 

[buckster]

Dthw

I did not know that. Thanks for the info. I'll start using the Cabela's stuff then. Know wonder it worked quicker. Yes ammonia will make brass brittle.

 

[MADISON]

Brass Tumblers

Brass Tumblers?
All tumblers are about the same.
Size and the electric motor is the only difference.
I have heard of the motor stopping after as little as an hour.
My Lyman tumbler was bought in 1987 and is still going strong.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

All tumblers are about the same.
Size and the electric motor is the only difference.

I used to generally agree with your post, Madison. But, I must state that the new Midway, which I think it's Frankford Arsenal's tumbler, doesn't do a very fine job of tumbling. The motor itself is fine, but the new shape of the bowls are not conducive of allowing the brass to tumble well. This especially happens when you put an amount in the upper range of the designed number of brass it claims to hold. To really throw a monkey wrench in it, the older much better bowls (IMHO) cannot be used on the newer motor. I don't know first person if this is true, but that's a deal killer to me.

I've heard good reviews on the Lyman tumbler Dixiedog has professed. I don't have first hand knowledge, only by reading from other posters in the past.

 

[orsogato]

Thanks for the information. This is very helpful.

 

[amamnn]

I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler that I've had for over 10 years. I use walnut media with a dash or two of scouring powder. This gets my brass as clean as it needs to be with no second tumbling needed and no contamination from liquids. I run the brass in the tumbler first thing upon returning home from a match or practice for 4 to 8 hours depending upon the quantity, type and how dirty they are. 6mmppc from the BR rifle is a lot cleaner to start with than .223 rem from my AR. You don't need to do any more than that. In fact, your brass will load just fine and not damage dies if you only wipe the grit off. I tumble because I check concentricity often and I don't want crud on the necks giving me bad readings or grit getting in the feeler of the casemaster's depth gage. Clean cases are easier to inspect for flaws and cracks. When I used to anneal by hand I found it easier to tell when cases were done if they were clean.

 

[k8do]

Two tumblers
Dillon vibratory with dry corn cob media for a couple of hours...
Then the cases are put in a rotary tumbler with corn cob and Nu-Polish for that makes me smile shine - usually an hour or so...
This is all my own brass and it is picked up after each shooting session so it is not corroded or weathered...

There is no one way to do it... Use what you have or can scrounge up in tumblers.. Experiment with time and car polish... You will come to yyour own way of doing things..

denny

 

[Wild Bill Bucks]

I like eating nuts around christmas time,(which is about the only time I can get them here) and I save the nut hulls(pecans, walnuts,almonds, ect) I beat them into smaller peices with a hammer, and mix them into the media that comes with the tumbler. They work great, and I have not had to buy media for years.

 

[UniversalFrost]

frankford arsenal quick n ez tumblers at midway run for $30 and then get a 7lb box of the treated walnut media for around $9. Then get some flitz or frankford arsenal additive. I split the media up 50/50. I use half for cleaning and half for polishing. I put the media into seperate containers (ice cream buckets with lids work perfect). I add flitz to the polishing media. The cleaning media I leave alone. The cleaning media will have to be dumped sooner than the polishing stuff, but when i buy new media I just rotate the polishing stuff into the cleaning bucket and throw the old cleaning media. I can usually go a couple of months (3-5 thousand rounds) before I need to get new media.

I usually clean the brass in the tumbler for 2 hours (up to 5 for really dirty old range brass). then size and deprime the brass and then run for about an hour in the polishing media. I started out with 1 tumbler, but when I reload on the dillon I often times end up having brass pile up waiting to be polished while other brass is cleaning (usually fit around 300 9mm cases at a time in the tumbler). I then got another quick n ez tumbler and life is good.

Make sure to only tumble like brass. example: Don't tumble 9mm, 40 and 45 or you will have a lot of brass stuck in other brass You will also need a sifter. i got the frankford arsenal one that fits over a 3-5 gallon bucket and has really high side walls. It was around 8 bucks i think. I just bump the brass into the sifter then just shake or can use hand to sift through brass to seperate the media. You will still have to dump out the media from bottleneck cases .

Real simple, real cheap.

the only problem i had with one of the tumblers was a wire came loose on the newest tumbler after about 20 hrs of operation. I just recrimped the wire on to a new spade connector and was back tumbling in less than 10 minutes.

JOE

Also, if you run out of media you can also use lizard bedding. My neighbor just uses this and nothing else (he treats it of course with flitz). his brass looks just like mine does when cleaned.

 

[UniversalFrost]

just read tuttle9's post about the frankfor/midway tumblers and the arguement about new versus old bowl designs.

I can speak first hand about both tumblers.

no the old bowl will not fit the new tumbler.

They are however the same tumbler (almost). My neighbor has the old style and i have 2 newer style tumblers. All will tumble brass just as well in the same amount of time. I actually think the newer style bowl can hold more. I put around 300 9mm luger cases in at a time and my neighbor claims to only be able to do around 200-250. just food for thought.

 

[Eric M.]

I agree with Madison. Most tumblers are the same.
I have a Frankford Arsenal from Midway, which is cheap but works just fine.
A while back, a guy gave me a formula for tumbling that works better than any that I have used.
He told me to mix 50% walnut, and 50% corn media, with 4 tsps. of Iosso liquid brass cleaner. I normally tumble for around 8hrs.
The brass comes out more shiny than factory brass.

Eric