Thread: Case tumbler

Originally Posted by Simon

For the time and effort, walnut media / corn cob are far easier especially for large numbers of pistols cases.
Having to dry your cases before loading sounds like a pain in the butt.
The faster you can get them loaded back up, the faster you can get back out there and shoot them all off again.

There's loads of differing opinions, but personally speaking I've found it a lot quicker to wet tumble than dry tumble. Mainly because you only need to tumble for a shorter time, and even including drying time - it is quicker for me than vibratory tumbling. I only tumble clean by the ice cream container load, once it's full it's time to do a clean.

Originally Posted by Kscott

There's loads of differing opinions, but personally speaking I've found it a lot quicker to wet tumble than dry tumble. Mainly because you only need to tumble for a shorter time, and even including drying time - it is quicker for me than vibratory tumbling. I only tumble clean by the ice cream container load, once it's full it's time to do a clean.

For me time is worth something, so the less i have to be in the process the better,

Originally Posted by Tommy

I've always wondered how awesome a whole bunch of fine particulate corn cob/walnut shell dust, nicely laden with lead styphnate etc floating around for you to breathe in is for your health. With a wet tumble it all goes down the sink.

A side benefit of cleaning the inside of the case as well as the outside, is you can catch a few more cock-ups. Looking over a tray of dosed cases, the odd empty one sticks out like balls. Small split? Same deal.

I dont see the point in wet tumbling primed fired brass, and i'm not going to run my pistol brass through the press just to decap then wet clean, then load. Way to much time and no perceived great benefit

I add a couple of cap fulls of turps to the media, and there is no dust (also stops any corrision on the brass, and sort of lubes the case for carbide dies)



However, i have brought some once fired pistol and rifle brass in the past, and vibracleaned, then decapped/sized, and had a mate wet pin clean. Gees talk about clean.*



I need a pin cleaner for rifle, and if i get once fired brass again. *

For day to day pistol, i'll stick with shoot, vibra clean with walnut and turps, throw in 650 and then shoot....

Originally Posted by Beaker

I dont see the point in wet tumbling primed fired brass, and i'm not going to run my pistol brass through the press just to decap then wet clean, then load. Way to much time and no perceived great benefit

I add a couple of cap fulls of turps to the media, and there is no dust (also stops any corrision on the brass, and sort of lubes the case for carbide dies)



However, i have brought some once fired pistol and rifle brass in the past, and vibracleaned, then decapped/sized, and had a mate wet pin clean. Gees talk about clean.*



I need a pin cleaner for rifle, and if i get once fired brass again. *

For day to day pistol, i'll stick with shoot, vibra clean with walnut and turps, throw in 650 and then shoot....

True, up til now I only did it via a single stage, and only rifle brass, so no loss of time having a nice slosh going in the background at work. However, I still know of several people who break it down into two passes through a progressive with a wet tumble in the middle. I get a weird amount of joy from how clean they come out too

I've always wondered how awesome a whole bunch of fine particulate corn cob/walnut shell dust, nicely laden with lead styphnate etc floating around for you to breathe in is for your health. With a wet tumble it all goes down the sink.

A side benefit of cleaning the inside of the case as well as the outside, is you can catch a few more cock-ups. Looking over a tray of dosed cases, the odd empty one sticks out like balls. Small split? Same deal.

Yup stainless tumbling is easy as. Will never bother with dry tumbling again.
I do get teased on the range about all my new brass all the time as well.

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My range time doesn't finish until I deprime my brass.

Remove all other dies and primers😆 from press. Takes less than 10 mins to do around 150 cases.
Once ice cream container is full I wet tumble. 21/2 hours tops including drying.

Used to run my vibrating tumbler for 2 hours to get half the result.

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Easy as too make a wet tumblr, so long as it doesn't have to look nice.
I used a empty 2kg protein powder container, glued some agitators on the inside and rigged it up to a car wiper motor.
Works great, I do 40mins after de-capping then do my sizing and trimming then do another 40mins.

Eventually get used to to process of washing them afterwards and not losing half the pins down the sink.
Best piece of advice is to tap the pins out of the cases whilst they are under water, they fall out of the case heaps easier (not that this would be a problem with pistol brass).

Get a media separator like this :
Frankford Rotary Separator Kit

Fill the bucket with water, empty the tumbler contents into the separator and rotate a few times, all the pins fall to the bottom. The tip out 95% of the water from the bucket, then tip the bucket which has got all the pins in it back into the tumbler. You'll be able to count on one hand the number of pins you lose, if you do it this way


@12'00

Originally Posted by Kscott

Get a media separator like this :
Frankford Rotary Separator Kit

Fill the bucket with water, empty the tumbler contents into the separator and rotate a few times, all the pins fall to the bottom. The tip out 95% of the water from the bucket, then tip the bucket which has got all the pins in it back into the tumbler. You'll be able to count on one hand the number of pins you lose, if you do it this way

If the linked Frankfort one includes the bucket that is the way to go. After my first clean with SS pins I tried to use a magnet to pick up the little critters. Still was finding them days later everywhere. Brought in just the FA rotary bit, no bucket, and then had a hell of a job finding a suitable bucket. Adapted an old paint bucket (NZ plastic buckets seem different to Yankee ones) and now all good as per your procedure. Should have just bought the complete bloody thing in one go instead of trying to save money