Hurley's Gold

Advice and recommendations on Pin tumblers/wet tumblers

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  • thescoutranch

    TN Transplant - We love living in TX
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    OK, it looks like I’m going to be going down the road of getting a pin Tumbler or wet Tumbler for reloading.

    What would you all recommend for a reasonably priced one, if it could even be found?

    Which makes or models have worked well in your experience?

    Any recommendations on brands/models to stay away from?

    After reading some of the posts on here, sounds like I will predominantly be doing wet tumbling without pins, if it works as well as some of y’all have described it, but I still want the option to use pins.

    From some of the reading I have done on here it looks like brass juice and or lemi shine works well for wet tumbling.
    Any other recommendations for a secret sauce for wet tumbling?

    Thanks
    Epp
    Lynx Defense
     

    Younggun

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    I use a Frankfort Arsenal (with pins) hot water from the tap, and toss in a dishwasher pack. Sometimes add a touch of lemishine is the pack doesn’t have it mixed in already or if we have regular dishwasher detergent in a bottle.


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    plinkr

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    Epp, I'd never go back to dry. Wet running with pins, dawn and Lemishine gives you like new looking brass and no harmful dust. I made mine out if an old ice cream maker :)

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    thescoutranch

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    Epp, I'd never go back to dry. Wet running with pins, dawn and Lemishine gives you like new looking brass and no harmful dust. I made mine out if an old ice cream maker :)

    Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
    Pictures?

    eta: just found YouTube video on that. , but still want pictures
     

    Mike_from_Texas

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    I have the Frankford Arsenal one. I use a long squirt of Dawn and about 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine.

    Even filthy extremely tarnished range pick up brass comes out clean and shiny. I also use hot water.

    The key to keeping it looking good is to towel dry as much water as you can before drying it so you won’t get water spots. I use an old cotton T shirt, bundle the brass in it and shake and roll it by hand before putting it in the dryer on a shoe drying rack.

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    c58855f63f58be5f3d778ff44066faa6.jpg



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    Dawico

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    So let me recommend against getting the RCBS wet tumbler.

    While the molded in handle on the drum looks useful it actually hurts the unit. It creates a big flat spot inside. If the drum is too full or the wheels get wet it will stop turning when the weight inside hits that spot.

    This is a case where I wanted to step above the entry lever Frankford Arsenal but regret it.

    It works, don't get me wrong, but could be better.
     

    rotor

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    I have a Thumler tumbler but never use it. Vibratory with corn cob media is the easiest way to go. Your choice though. You will end up with beautiful brass that will probably have water spots and will be harder to run through a press than vibratory cleaned brass that has some cleaner-lube added to it with corn cob media. We all learn from our experiences and reloading is definitely a learning experience. If I had it to to do over I wouldn't have bought a SS tumbler or an ultrasonic unit.
     

    Mike_from_Texas

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    I have a Thumler tumbler but never use it. Vibratory with corn cob media is the easiest way to go. Your choice though. You will end up with beautiful brass that will probably have water spots and will be harder to run through a press than vibratory cleaned brass that has some cleaner-lube added to it with corn cob media. We all learn from our experiences and reloading is definitely a learning experience. If I had it to to do over I wouldn't have bought a SS tumbler or an ultrasonic unit.

    Right or wrong depending on what your beliefs are but I fully process the brass before cleaning. I use imperial wax for resizing and clean my die bodies after processing a backchat of brass. I just throw them in the ultrasonic cleaner while the brass is tumbling.

    I rarely use my dry media tumblers anymore.


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    thescoutranch

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    I have a Thumler tumbler but never use it. Vibratory with corn cob media is the easiest way to go. Your choice though. You will end up with beautiful brass that will probably have water spots and will be harder to run through a press than vibratory cleaned brass that has some cleaner-lube added to it with corn cob media. We all learn from our experiences and reloading is definitely a learning experience. If I had it to to do over I wouldn't have bought a SS tumbler or an ultrasonic unit.
    If you decide to get rid of your Tumblr or ultrasonic cleaner, shoot me a note. I have use the vibratory media cleaners before and I’m willing to try other techniques.
     

    andre3k

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    I have two wet tumblers. One thats based off the Thumler and and I also have a FART. Both work well but I prefer the FART for capacity. I mainly tumble 9/40/223 in large batches and The FART makes it easy and I like having the built in timer as well. Set it for 3 hrs and go about my day. I ran about 3k 9mm today through it. Im not a fan of a lot of Frankfort Arsenals stuff but their wet tumbler is worth it. I stopped using pins in mine just for my pistol brass, it makes the process go a bit quicker and the brass is clean enough.

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    thescoutranch

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    I do have an old harbor freight concrete mixer that I’ve had for about a decade. I’ve used it for cleaning car parts, nuts and bolts, fittings, just about anything I could fit in there that wouldn’t get damaged , when I was working on old internationals. Oh yeah, I have also used it to mix ~26,000 lb of concrete mix since I moved to TX (2 years ago)
    Some silica blasting media, water and Dawn dish soap did an amazing job on derusting and degreasing the parts.

    I did consider adopting it for the brass, but it is just so loud and big, it has to be run outside due to the size of it. I didn’t think my neighbors would appreciate listening to me tumbling brass in it. LOL
     

    plinkr

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    I do have an old harbor freight concrete mixer that I’ve had for about a decade. I’ve used it for cleaning car parts, nuts and bolts, fittings, just about anything I could fit in there that wouldn’t get damaged , when I was working on old internationals. Oh yeah, I have also used it to mix ~26,000 lb of concrete mix since I moved to TX (2 years ago)
    Some silica blasting media, water and Dawn dish soap did an amazing job on derusting and degreasing the parts.

    I did consider adopting it for the brass, but it is just so loud and big, it has to be run outside due to the size of it. I didn’t think my neighbors would appreciate listening to me tumbling brass in it. LOL



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    Polkwright

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    Mar 3, 2021
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    I wanted to try it as we are temporarily in an apartment and the vibratory one I have is loud and dusty. I bought the Harbor Freight 2-drum model to try it out. Pretty cheap. It works really well but lacks capacity to run big batches. I kind of like the two drums so I can do two calibers at once if I want. It's pretty quite. Quieter than the old-school dishwasher in the apartment.

    A couple of hours with hot water, pins, a pinch of Lemi Shine, and a squirt of Dawn and you've got new looking brass. You need a magnet of some type to separate the pins. Some don't like draining and drying brass but to me it's no more trouble than the vibratory tumblers, it's quicker, and it does a better job. I just lay out the brass on an old towel in front of a box fan. The wife has a food dehydrator on her thrift-store shopping list.

    I won't go back. I'll keep using the Harbor Freight one but when things settle down I'll get a bigger one for .38 brass and use the Harbor Freight one for things I don't shoot a lot of.
     
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