Vibratory tumblers question

[DoubleDuty]

Wet tumble 15 minutes dry on a towel

 

[Dermako]

I have been looking at them online and the Frankford seems to be pretty highly rated along with the Harbor Freight for the average size ones.
Do the reviews follow the real world consensus?

And I don't seem to get a good feel for the larger ones.
Any recommendations on them?

 

[vmax]

Walnut hamster bedding from the pet store. Cheaper than media, way less dust, fine enough to not block flash holes.

Yep

 

[Dawico]

I have been looking at them online and the Frankford seems to be pretty highly rated along with the Harbor Freight for the average size ones.
Do the reviews follow the real world consensus?

And I don't seem to get a good feel for the larger ones.
Any recommendations on them?

Both those seem to get good reviews.

I have a RCBS in my cart but haven't purchased yet. I think it's only a few dollars more than the Frankford.

 

[Axxe55]

I bought the cheapest one from Mid South Shooters Supply, their Reloader brand about nine years ago. Still going strong.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I have been looking at them online and the Frankford seems to be pretty highly rated along with the Harbor Freight for the average size ones.
Do the reviews follow the real world consensus?

And I don't seem to get a good feel for the larger ones.
Any recommendations on them?

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[SQLGeek]

I read on a different forum where they are using "used" dryer sheets to control the dust. I have not personally tried this, just thought I'd pass it along.

I have a friend that swears by this. He cuts the used dryer sheets into quarters and puts one piece in a batch of brass in the tumbler.

 

[Txmark]

I have been using rice and NuFinish for long time. It’s inexpensive and does a good job of cleaning/ polishing. Installed an inverted funnel in my FA vibratory, made a world of difference.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[xdmikey]

My FA tumbler came with a cover as well as a sifting lid. I'm still using a Lyman I bought 15 years ago but did borrow the lid from the FA to keep the dust down but it's only used to remove case lube from rifle brass.

 

[TexMex247]

I have zero dust issues using an old Lyman pro tumbler and walnut, corncob or mix. Of course it's tightly covered by design. It does leave some powdery residue inside of cases that has never seemed to have any noticeable negative effects. As far as flash holes, every once and a while I'll get a bit of corncob or walnut in one but I hand inspect every piece during my hand priming process.

I've considered the advantage of steel pin tumbling but as a mechanic I go back to the old if it ain't broke don't fix it mantra. Like some others, I don't bother cleaning primer pockets anymore for pistol and only use a swage tool for precision rifle.

 

[TheMailMan]

Are you a High Expert pistol shooter?

If not then don't bother cleaning pistol primer pockets. Hell, I don't clean rifle primer pockets. My shooting doesn't require that level of precision.

I broke out my wet tumbler for the first time in well over a year. I did it to clean off the lube and brass bits from the 300 Blackout brass I formed from 223/5.56 brass. It's the ONLY time that brass will go in the wet tumbler.

Also if you're loading on a progressive press that super clean pistol brass will bite you in the ass. It's really sticky on my Dillon powder funnels. I prefer to leave that thin carbon coating on the inside of the brass. It helps lube that powder funnel.

 

[rmantoo]

Are you a High Expert pistol shooter?

If not then don't bother cleaning pistol primer pockets. Hell, I don't clean rifle primer pockets. My shooting doesn't require that level of precision.

I broke out my wet tumbler for the first time in well over a year. I did it to clean off the lube and brass bits from the 300 Blackout brass I formed from 223/5.56 brass. It's the ONLY time that brass will go in the wet tumbler.

Also if you're loading on a progressive press that super clean pistol brass will bite you in the ass. It's really sticky on my Dillon powder funnels. I prefer to leave that thin carbon coating on the inside of the brass. It helps lube that powder funnel.

This!

Lots of professional pistol shooters in the 70s-90s didn't clean pistol brass, at ALL.

 

[Dermako]

I‘m going to update this.
My results from dry media tumbling and an update to wet pin tumbling.

I tried both corncob and walnut.
For me and my uses, pistol and rifle cases alternatively the walnut served me better and with less dust.
A big Con is there will be debris in some flash holes on deprimed brass.
Used dryer sheets work very well at dust control.
Tried several different brass cleaners with and without mineral spirits and all worked to about the same effect and time to clean.
The Game Changer
After more reading I found adding red rouge to the mix will increase cleaning time dramatically. It does indeed and in my experience I have never needed to run anything over 30 minutes since adding the rouge. Two hours to thirty minutes. That is pretty dramatic time difference. I was totally amazed.
2 oz. Of the stuff will last even a high volume user a lifetime and most people could split it with a friend and both have a lifetime supply. Start by adding about a quarter of a teaspoon and don’t make the mistake of thinking more is better. You will end up with red residue on your cases and go through a number of dryer sheets to remove the excess rouge. Trust me on this, a little goes a Long way….
Cheapest red rouge I found was this, northernweststuff.com. 2oz was $11.98 with free shipping.

Wet tumbling with and without pins.
Most common formula is Dawn and Lemi-Shine for an hour or two.
This works very well for most applications and is great for cleaning primer pockets.

An alternative for hard to clean or range brass is water and white vinegar. 8 oz. to your tumbler with or without pins will remove 95% of just about anything on the brass.
I recently had a batch of inherited once fired .308 that I ran through the dry tumbler and about 100 had a dark ring around the neck that would not come off after two try’s in the dry tumbler. So to the wet tumbler they went. First went with 8 oz. Of vinegar no pins for an hour and took a peek at them. To my amazement most of them still had the ring. Drained off a bit of water and added 8oz. More for a total of 16 oz. and gave it another hour. This time they were a clean and shiny.
Water and vinegar will clean without agitation, so let it soak.
Another plus is you can use the solution multiple times with no loss of cleaning ability. If cleaning a lot of range brass this could be handy.
One caveat to the vinegar cleaning is that you get a dull shiny clean vs a bright shiny clean.

Just my experiences

 

[alternative]

I‘m going to update this.
My results from dry media tumbling and an update to wet pin tumbling.

I tried both corncob and walnut.
For me and my uses, pistol and rifle cases alternatively the walnut served me better and with less dust.
A big Con is there will be debris in some flash holes on deprimed brass.
Used dryer sheets work very well at dust control.
Tried several different brass cleaners with and without mineral spirits and all worked to about the same effect and time to clean.
The Game Changer
After more reading I found adding red rouge to the mix will increase cleaning time dramatically. It does indeed and in my experience I have never needed to run anything over 30 minutes since adding the rouge. Two hours to thirty minutes. That is pretty dramatic time difference. I was totally amazed.
2 oz. Of the stuff will last even a high volume user a lifetime and most people could split it with a friend and both have a lifetime supply. Start by adding about a quarter of a teaspoon and don’t make the mistake of thinking more is better. You will end up with red residue on your cases and go through a number of dryer sheets to remove the excess rouge. Trust me on this, a little goes a Long way….
Cheapest red rouge I found was this, northernweststuff.com. 2oz was $11.98 with free shipping.

Wet tumbling with and without pins.
Most common formula is Dawn and Lemi-Shine for an hour or two.
This works very well for most applications and is great for cleaning primer pockets.

An alternative for hard to clean or range brass is water and white vinegar. 8 oz. to your tumbler with or without pins will remove 95% of just about anything on the brass.
I recently had a batch of inherited once fired .308 that I ran through the dry tumbler and about 100 had a dark ring around the neck that would not come off after two try’s in the dry tumbler. So to the wet tumbler they went. First went with 8 oz. Of vinegar no pins for an hour and took a peek at them. To my amazement most of them still had the ring. Drained off a bit of water and added 8oz. More for a total of 16 oz. and gave it another hour. This time they were a clean and shiny.
Water and vinegar will clean without agitation, so let it soak.
Another plus is you can use the solution multiple times with no loss of cleaning ability. If cleaning a lot of range brass this could be handy.
One caveat to the vinegar cleaning is that you get a dull shiny clean vs a bright shiny clean.

Just my experiences

Doesn't vinegar have a negative effect on brass? I hate to say this but I really don't care that much about how my brass looks. I have the stainless steel pins and yes the brass looks great when I use that rotary wet method but I tumble in a vibratory tumbler with corn cob media and some Cabela's polish and a dryer sheet most often and do it outdoors for a couple of hours. I check every primer pocket with a Lyman primer pocket cleaner anyhow as I make sure all of my brass is reloadable. Great looking brass doesn't shoot better than tumbler brass. Tried an ultrasonic cleaner once and drove the dog crazy.

 

[Dermako]

To my knowledge no. I researched this a number of years ago and I could find nothing that said it did.
I generally do deprimed rifle brass with 8 oz. vinegar and no pins.

 

[davek42]

The old feller that got me into reloading put it to me this way.
If you use a vibratory tumbler you are still going to have to clean primer pockets some of the cases.
These new pin tumblers do that for you on all of them in a fraction of the time.
The old feller showed me how to clean primer pockets.
I vaguely remember that learning experience.


Have used the rotary pin tumblers on rifle cartridges for years with great results.
With the lower batch numbers the drying was not really an issue.

Now doing pistol cartridges in large quantities and while the pin tumbler is very effective and cleans to expectations the drying aspect is very time consuming.

Thus my questions.
I have never used any of the vibratory tumblers and would like to know approximate run time for an appropriately sized batch?
These would all be once fired brass. No range pickups.

Corn cob:
Seems to be most popular!

Walnut hull:
For the hard to clean stuff?


TIA

3-8 hours depending on how dirty, Yes you will still need to clean primer pockets
Just buy a dehydrator at a yard sale to dry your brass after wet tumbling. I bought 1 for 3.oo Well worth the money even if you pay full price

 

[Deavis]

Walnut will remove some staining but it is really pathetic compared to what you see with wet media. Even running it overnight doesn't make a big difference compared to running corn cob in my opinion. So, media with some mineral spirits or some wax will get the job done and keep the dust down.

If you want prettier brass in volume and want to avoid the cob/walnut, you could use a cleaner like Iosso in a bucket.

 

[xkon]

For handgun ammo, I use corn cob media for about an hour and put several hundred cases in at a time. Old cabelas tumbler that has been going strong for 10+ years. Occasionally i will use polish, but find it unnecessary. Just running an hour cleans them enough that they are clean but not shiny new. Never cleaned a primer pocket once for the pistol rounds and have not had one issue. For my purposes, this process works well for bulk 9mm, 10mm, and 45 acp for the range and it shoots really well.

Now that I'm getting into reloading for rifle ammo, I am a little more particular with it.

 

[deemus]

Walnut hamster bedding from the pet store. Cheaper than media, way less dust, fine enough to not block flash holes.

This. I put a little Flitz into my walnut media and it does a great job. I squeeze a 1 1/2” dab into the media. Turn it on and it will mix into the media in about 5 minutes.

I used to buy a 20lb bag for $12. But the pet store near me now has 8 lb bags, and it’s much finer than it used to be. I just bought a 15 lb box for $25 at Harbor Freight. They have the course like I’m used to.

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Y'all must have way more free time than I do, or shoot a lot less. I tried all the different "normal" cleaning methods and they were all just too slow. I've got a small cement mixer from Northern Tool that I fabbed up a lid and mesh strainer for. I can put 2.5 gallons of brass into it with blasting media from Grainger and in an hour it is cleaned and ready to load. One afternoon of being home and taking care of chores around the house while tending to the cement mixer in the shed gets me 10-15 gallons of clean brass to reload.

Never cleaned a primer pocket, but I travel around the country shooting competitions. And not a single time have I found a dirty primer pocket to be the reason I didn't do well at a match.