SS Tumbler

[ACrowe25]

Okay, I've searched this site with as many key words as I could. Found the Citric acid cleaning thread, and searched each page for mention of Harbor Freight... No such luck. Figured I'd post here...

So is anyone using the dual drum rotaray tumbler from harbor freight?
http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html

They also have the single drum for about $10 cheaper. I plan to use their coupon etc. Should be cheap in the end.

Does it work well for our applications? I figure I'll run it with lemishine and then dry off in some plain ol' walnut for 20 minutes or so to dry off... How many can I realistically run at a time with the two bins... Two bins at 3lb each, figured I'd need 1 lb of pins, 1lb of water, and 1lb of brass?

But overall, anyone use this and works? Don't want to have to replace belts and such every 3 minutes.

Why HF? I can't afford the $300 thumblers.

[Bayou52]

I don't use the HF tumbler, but here is a link to a video, in two parts, of a man using the dual drum tumbler you describe for SS wet tumbling of brass casings:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=geAU6HLfi7w

[CGT80]

That harbor freight tumbler works great. I generally hate HF stuff, too. You are right about the 1-1-1 ratio. Use a 20 or 25% coupon from the internet. I fill mine up to about an inch or two from the top with brass (I used to weigh it) and I add a little squirt of ajax dish soap and a 9mm case full of lemishine, then I fill the tumblers with cold water to half an inch from the top. 3-6 hours works well for rifle and 460 mag pistol brass. I have run mine 10-15 times and the belt is still working. I rinse with cold water. I just dump the pins out of the brass by hand, but it works best to do it inside a bucket of water so the pins don't stick inside the cases.

I throw the brass on a terry cloth towel and then pull up the ends and tumble the brass around in the towel. After that, I put the brass on a dry towel for a few hours to let the rest of the water evaporate. Corn cob and polish would be good to keep the brass from tarnishing or changing color. I had some brass that turned a bit pink and some that shifted color as it sat, but none of that was run in corn cob. I would only run the brass in stainless pins long enough to clean the primer pockets. It seems that too much time will discolor the brass. I would get most of the water off the brass before putting it into corn cob. Wet corn cob can get packed in rifle brass like 223. I found this out when I added polish while I had brass in the tumbler. Now I add polish and let it run for at least 10 minutes so that the media doesn't clump.

[sirgknight]

One of the sellers of ss media on fleabay uses the dual tumbler from HF and he advertises this formula: "for each tumbler use 1.5 lbs of media, 1 lb of brass, fill with enough water to cover the brass. Add a couple of drops of dish soap (literally 2-3 drops) and a pinch of lemishine. Tumble for an hour, rinse and dry." In a week or so I will be able to give a first-hand report on how this tumbler works because I have one coming. The dual tumbler was listed at $49.99, but I was able to use a 20% off coupon which reduced the price to $39.99. Not a big investment for a new adventure.

[BrianC636]

I use the HF dual drum tumbler and have had great results out of it. I use a 1:1:1 ratio of everything however instead of using dish soap I used Armor All Wash and Wax. Brass seem to come out with a slight coating on them. I'm anxious to see how well they clean up the 2nd time using this method.

I also purchased a "salad spinner" at Wal-Mart the other night to use as a separator. Works great when you fill it up partially with water and use a spin/stop method a dozen times or so. Brass gets rinsed (I rinse a 2nd time in the sink in my shop) and into the toaster oven I use to dry them with. Drain the water out of the bowl the spinner sits in and pour the pins back into the bin. This way I never have to worry about making sure each tub has the same about of media in it.

[mdi]

My first tumbler was the HF single drum unit (got if for $30.00 way back when). It works. I have experimented with SS pin tumbling and it works OK, just kinda small. I used the first one for mebbe 15 years for small batches until I "improved" it and it works no more. It can be overloaded and slow down the rotation (I used about 1/2 drum water/lemoshine, a handful of SS media, and about 60, .38 Special cases (or 50, .223 or 40, 30-06). About the same with walnut/cob media. Small capacity, but I use it for cleaning other tools, parts, etc. also...

[gunoil]

This ss media is traveling at 500 RPM. Home made and i love it, runs on rare earth magnets from amazingmagnets.com

Lemi-shine from walmart and dawn and hot water, WASHES IN 15 min. BATCHES.
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k511/putt2012/7ED2D654-8DB6-455A-915F-CDAA555931DA-2281-0000032DE8007C13_zps50100baf.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k511/putt2012/E52D630F-ECBD-4346-A8A4-53AEFB476C20-210-000002398A74456C_zps0e2ce52a.mp4


http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k511/putt2012/1D65C0D9-8650-45A7-AFC4-B25A822CDA36-8679-00000AB2E3AAEC95_zpsa87a387d.mp4

Directions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_FpiTzVYP8