Wet Tumbler Recommendations ?

[Mal Paso]

I have the STM 17 pound model which is similar to Thumlers but the shafts are 1/2 inch and the bearings are sealed ball rather than plastic bushings. Also will handle more brass.

I got the kit which includes a separator. If you fill the bottom half of the separator 2/3 to 3/4 full of water and spin the cage full of brass IN THE WATER 99.9% of the pins will be out in 10 rotations.

If you spin the brass damp, not immersed, water surface tension holds the pins inside the brass.

[salpal48]

When it comes to tumblers , reloaders always get short changed. reloading tumblers are the bottom of the barrel as rotary tumbles go and junk as vibratory machines. Companies know loaders are penny wise and pound foolish.
Most rock tumbler companies compete with each other to give the customer a better product.. reloading brass is lite weight compared to rocks.. In a Lortone 12Lb machine you can only get appox 300 cases (30-06) @ 2.2 lb. per 100 that about 6.6 Lb +media. with rocks you can get 10lb of Rock and 2lb, of Slurry. to tumble.That why lortones have 1/2 " steel shafts. Thumlers use 1/4 " but there ok also. diamond Pacific use 5/8 to 3/4 steel shafts. motors range from 1/20 hp to 1/4 Hp.
Reloaders are Happy to dump them when the go . rock tumblers repair them time after time.
I have had my first lortone since the mid 1960. it has never failed.
my motto is Buy once

[Pete44mag]

Have used a Frankford Arsenal for over three years. Clean about 20,000 cases per year, never a problem. Just my 2 cents.

[tinsnips]

Lortone best price THE ROCK SHED keystone South Dakota

[Ranger 7]

Have two RCBS Sidewinders, been using for over 12 years now. Work great! Never a problem. Use for both wet & dry tumbling.
Obtained two spare drive belts, but have yet to need one!

[NyFirefighter357]

I have the large F.A.R.T. a HF double tumbler and another that I built. be aware that Frankford now sells 2 sizes don't buy the small cheaper one if you want the big one. I wouldn't buy another tumbler after I built mine in a little over an hour from stuff I had. I used a Bosch wiper motor & a lap top power supply to power it. I also have the chart for the amount of different brass that will fit in the large F.A.R.T. tumbler. Whichever one you get make sure you also get the Media Transfer Magnet.

[Mica_Hiebert]

I have a thumblers model b that I bought second hand. It works awesome but if it ever dies I will be buying the rebel 17 tumbler it looks to be a much stouter design and hold more weight. Also if you have Facebook look into Southern shine media they only sell on Facebook, but it is stainless chips instead of pins they dont get stuck in rifle case necks or primer holes and still work great. Also slightly cheaper than pins.

[Earl Brasse]

Great info guys. This is a big help.

[kevin c]

I've used my FART for about a year and like it a lot. I skip the pins; the outside of the case looking good and the inside clean enough suits me just fine without the hassle of pin recovery, which I tried exactly once.

[JeepHammer]

Depends on your volume of cases and budget limitations...

Admittedly, I'm higher volume than most...



Concrete mixers are about as 'Industrial Built' as you can buy, they are ready to hold water, dump your cases/pins like they do concrete.
I've seen them from $200 at Horror Freight or used as little as $100.
I bought the plastic drum version in the picture for $300 at Lowe's.

I started with a $10 igloo thermos with screw on lid rolling it around in the yard to see how things came out.
I used an ice cream maker for a while since it was motor driven and cost $20 off eBay.
This doesn't have to be stupid expensive for smaller volume...

A tip for the new folks,
You DO NOT need stainless pins or chips if the brass isn't corroded.
While pins will eventually remove dark corrosion, the firing crud comes off with just soap & water,
See the brass in the picture above.

Stainless CHIPS work better & faster than pins.
I think it's 'Southern Shine' that makes chips, the edges on the chips work MUCH faster on both the inside & outside of the case than pins do.

I drain water out, tumble brass and drain again to get water out of cases,
Then I throw dry polish media in with the DAMP brass and tumble to polish.
Wash in soap & water, use dry POLISH media to polish and dry the brass.

Cleaning & polishing are two separate steps, and the polish media lasts MUCH longer when the brass is washed first.
The DAMP (not holding water) brass keeps dust down,
And just the sun will dry media if it gets too wet.

Doing it this way, no separate drying step/equipment for the brass.

I use a 5 gallon bucket and saturated sponges for case lube.
Sponges keep the lube out of the inside of the cases.

Another tip,
If you intend to wash and then store brass until you use it, knock the primer out first.

Water will corrode primers into the case making them very hard to knock out and damaging primer pockets.
If you wash with primer in the case like have to, then dry, lube & process the brass in short order, getting the primer out so the pocket can dry without corrosion.

[AnthonyB]

I have Thumlers, Rebel, and FA. The FA is the only one being used now.
Tony

[Earl Brasse]

Jeephammer that looks alot like work, & if I'm reading the pallet... more than a ton of work. thanks for the info.

[durango]

I just read a similar post on savage shooters. This is my reply/comments:

When the wet tumbling first got started, I was intrigued but noticed the peening on the surface of the brass and decided not to jump into the process. Shortly afterward, I saw an ad for pins that had rounded ends instead of clipped-or sharp-ends. Later, when I got my old rock tumbler running, I couldn't find the ad for the rounded end pins. Has anyone else heard of these pins? Seems that they might be the answer to the peening of the surface of brass.

After reading this thread and the idea of 'seasoning' the new pins, I thought--how about running the pins with something like steel BBs? Or a more aggressive compound--would rock tumbling media do anything to smooth off the edges? I'm still curious--what are your thoughts?

Most importantly, does anyone know where the 'rounded end' pins can be purchased??

Lastly, RE: HF sonic cleaner-I have the small one and it does a good job on cleaning but the batches are awfully small--15 or 20 .223s at a time. The worst thing about the HF model is that the timer is factory set to 9 or 10 minutes, so you have to babysit the thing and keep resetting the timer to get a longer run time.

Thanks for your attention, Steve

I hereby submit the same comments on this site. Any responses are welcome!!

Thanks again, Steve

[XDROB]

Durango
Most importantly, does anyone know where the 'rounded end' pins can be purchased??

You could look at Southern Shine media. It is stainless chips instead of pins. I have not made the move to them yet, but going to when I start my next tumbling cycle. They only sell on FB. Easy to find them there.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[JeepHammer]

For the 'Penny Wise' folks that missed it,
I got a used ice cream maker off eBay for $20.
Over a gallon capacity, stainless drum, common 110 vac motor.
The ice bucket let me attach 'Legs' (bent angle brackets) to lean the drum over, and the ice bucket also caught slops out of the drum.

It ran about 4 days a week, for about 4 years before the motor gave up.
I hung a kitchen mixer motor (from Goodwill) on it and still use it once in a while to this day.
By the time the motor gave up, I had started using a concrete mixer since I had taken up speed rifle along with handgun, and the one thing you never do is tumble 9mm & 223 together...
Pins, chips or dry media, the cases will nest if you tumble them together.

[JeepHammer]

Durango
Most importantly, does anyone know where the 'rounded end' pins can be purchased??

You could look at Southern Shine media. It is stainless chips instead of pins. I have not made the move to them yet, but going to when I start my next tumbling cycle. They only sell on FB. Easy to find them there.

The best pins I've used came from Guntap.com , but they aren't 'Cheap'.

Tapered/rounded ends and the length don't let the pins wedge in cases, the diameter let's them pass through any flash hole.

https://shop.guntap.com/stainless-st...0-255-x-0-047/

[durango]

The best pins I've used came from Guntap.com , but they aren't 'Cheap'.

Tapered/rounded ends and the length don't let the pins wedge in cases, the diameter let's them pass through any flash hole.

https://shop.guntap.com/stainless-st...0-255-x-0-047/

Thanks for the comment/link. I perused their site and was pleased to find the answers to several questions. Unfortunately, one of my questions was about small diameter case necks since all of my rifles (and 4 handguns) are .243 and smaller and Guntap says not to use on cases smaller than .25 cal. Then, I noted your massive load of .223 brass. Are smaller necks really that much of a problem?

What is your rinse/dry procedure? Do you do a final dry tumble to insure all pins have fallen out?

[Alstep]

Built my own. Works great.

[Sig556r]

+1 on Thumler's Tumbler model B which I bought used. No SS pins, just plain old dw soap & a tad of lemishine...easy drying under hot, humid Texas summer skies...I don't decap prior either & haven't seen that bad corroded primers yet...maybe I size them soon enough...I also run my FART sparingly if too wet or too cold outside...

[25ring]

How does everyone handle the pins after tumbling?

I dump the brass into a hand turned (sifter) previously used to clean the walnut media out of the cleaned brass. That sits on a 5/6 gallon bucket. Pins and water goes to the bottom. On the side of the bucket I taped two straight magnets to the side. As I dump the water out the pins stick to the magnets. After that I just let them dry in the bucket. To move them after drying I bought the magnet handler from FA that allows you to pick them up and move them to the bag they came in.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Use a media separator for separating the brass and pins.Then dump the pins into a 5gal bucket lined with a 5gal paint strainer bag.You can rinse the pins out in the bag and hang it from the handle to dry.