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Posted: 7/29/2011 1:32:21 PM EDT
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At first I saw all the threads about it and the impressive results and didn't know what to think.
So I sucked it up and bought a tumbler and SS media from Buffalo Arms. I started with this 30-06 brass from a long time ago, all dusty, tarnished, and starting to corrode. 
Here it is loaded in the tumbler with lemi shine and dawn, only 100 cases to see how it does. 
With the brand new SS media poured in. 
Added the hot water. 
Plugged it in and walked away for 4 hours. 
HOLY SH*T!!! Can it really be that easy?? Yes it is! 
Doesn't even look like the same brass!!! Its like Christmas when I took the lid off. 
Well now I finally have a use for all this brass, been putting off tumbling it because it was so nasty. 
Time to get the old M1 out of mothballs and see if she is hungry... 
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You guys really need to quit posting pics like this because you are all guilty of tempting me to buy a new tumbler and media  Do it! I didn't believe it at first either but it works, and its so clean and easy. I really wish I had known about this before I wasted all the money on walnut media. |
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Damn you, damn you to hell. The first thread I read about this seemed too good to be true. Now because of you, I feel the need to spend more money. Damn  
Its stupid easy. Like I said, If I could have started this years ago I would have been much better off. Now I plan on buying another tumbler so I can double production, and I've only had this one for less than 12 hours. It never ends... 
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Is there a solution to doing a lot of cases at once? I like to do big batches  Is the 15 lb'er as big as you can go? And what is the capacity on it in terms of cases? Say 9mm cases and 45, how many can you stuff in and still get a reasonable result? Couple ways you can go, you can build your own large capacity tumbler, here is BIGGDAWS's thread 
Or you can get a couple of tumblers. I do about 200, 223 cases at a time in a Tumblers model B, the red tumblers in the pic. I don't count, I measure with a 2 liter pop bottle cut to 6 inches. More info on my methods in This Thread. For store bought, 15 lb tumbler is the biggest. These are quite heavy when you get them loaded. For 9mm and 45 ACP, I've never counted, just measured. I counted the 223 once, now I just measure them. 
45 ACP with some 45 Colt mixed in. 
After 
Some 9mm. |
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The biggest batch I tried so far came out great, about 300 200 30-06 cases.
What I figure is if it fits in a coffee can it will polish right up. (But it may vary by caliber) First 100 in the bag, the next load is going into the oven to dry. Time to see how it polishes a bullet in the next batch... 
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Looks nice. How do you guys that wet tumble handle large quantities of brass? How many 223 can you do at a time? I looked up my "recipe" for .223 and the SS media. SS media - 5#, 3 quarts of water - 6#, approximately 300 .223 brass - 4# and there is a pound or so leeway. Anyways with a 4 hour tumble it works great. You could increase the brass and reduce the SS media by 1/2 # to increase the amount of .223 brass tumbled by 50 or so but that's pushing it. |
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What is the minimum cost to get into this?
Anyone have links to SS media? I can get my brass as shiny (not the inside), but it takes hours. Plus my tumbler makes 1/3rd of my back patio covered in dust. The only thing that i keeping me from doing this is I hate waiting for brass to dry. |
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Just did my first batch after getting the Buffalo Arms order and cleaning/painting the interior of my fathers old Model B. Other than finding my way of getting things separated after the tumble; I am loving this.
I have been very slow to get going. In fact I have only loaded a few 9mm rounds in the couple years since I inherited my dads old Rock Chucker. I though getting a vibratory tumbler would help speed things up and get me more into things. But after my first round with the "dust" (even with dryer sheets) I kinda let things go. Now after a 2 hour tumble and no dust and shiny brass...Couldn't be happier. |
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What is the minimum cost to get into this? If you looked around it might be cheaper, but I'm into my setup for $222.20 delivered. Anyone have links to SS media? This is the SS Media I ordered from buffalo since they had the Tumbler in stock. I can get my brass as shiny (not the inside), but it takes hours. Plus my tumbler makes 1/3rd of my back patio covered in dust. Same here, it took 6 hours of dry tumbling to get it semi-shiney and I was changing media like crazy becuase the brass was so nasty. The only thing that i keeping me from doing this is I hate waiting for brass to dry. That's not that bad, I'm now looking around for an old apartment oven to keep down in the basement just to dry with. It only takes about 30 min to dry and its done. Honestly its a bigger pain to sift the media than to dry the cases. 
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Make sure you use low temps for drying, high temps may anneal the whole case and cause a KB.the next load is going into the oven to dry. Whatever the warm setting is on my oven, under 200 I know. I shake them good when they are finally rinsed and towel dry them the best I can before dumping them onto a cookie sheet. Usually leave them in the oven for 30-45 min to get things dry, less might do it but I'm not in a hurry. I have inspected them afterward and they do not have any moisture in or on them. |
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. I was checking the rifle brass after 3 hours and it was looking good, but didn't have the shine like if was able to go the full 4 hours. After 2 hours of wet tumbling they look a dull gold color, similar to 3-4 hours in a dry tumbler. After 4 hours of wet tumbling they look like 8 hours in a dry tumbler. |
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. I was checking the rifle brass after 3 hours and it was looking good, but didn't have the shine like if was able to go the full 4 hours. After 2 hours of wet tumbling they look a dull gold color, similar to 3-4 hours in a dry tumbler. After 4 hours of wet tumbling they look like 8 hours in a dry tumbler. I will totally agree with you on this as I let my second batch of rifle brass go a little longer than the first. But my overall application of this process was to get rid of the dust and skip the separate primer pocket cleaning step. I'll settle for a little darker brass than most of the pictures on here  ; as this is still the easiest way to get things clean.
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. I was checking the rifle brass after 3 hours and it was looking good, but didn't have the shine like if was able to go the full 4 hours. After 2 hours of wet tumbling they look a dull gold color, similar to 3-4 hours in a dry tumbler. After 4 hours of wet tumbling they look like 8 hours in a dry tumbler. I will totally agree with you on this as I let my second batch of rifle brass go a little longer than the first. But my overall application of this process was to get rid of the dust and skip the separate primer pocket cleaning step. I'll settle for a little darker brass than most of the pictures on here ; as this is still the easiest way to get things clean.I resize, clean the primer pocket with a couple turns, wet tumble for about 1.5 hours and the brass looks great. Wet is the way to go. I used my dry vibrating tumbler once, then saw the light.
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All the pictures of brass have the primers already removed. Are you guys cleaning the brass before resizing or only decapping? How would it turn out if you left the primers in? i use an 11 dollar lee universal decaper and decap all before cleaning. if you don't decap the primer will hold water and you will get corrosion in the pockets also when you do decap and size you will get moisture on your press. learned that the hard way. |
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The cases are decapped, not sized prior to tumbling.
I use a Lee Universal Decapper. 2 reasons; the PP gets cleaned, and it speeds drying time. You could tumble with the primers in. But once you try both ways, you will decap first. 
Some 300 Blk made from 223 Win brass, then wet tumbled. |
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Thanks, I figured you had to decap first. Cleaner/shinier cases, but more case handling. No free lunch. To me its one less step. Before I had to deprime and then brush the primer pocket if I wanted it clean, then dry tumble. Now I deprime, then wet tumble so it cleans the primer pockets better than I ever got it with a brush. |
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. You're doing something massively wrong if you're having dust problems of any significant magnitude. |
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. You're doing something massively wrong if you're having dust problems of any significant magnitude. Maybe I wrote it wrong...maybe 8 hours "then" dust...I have tried dryer sheets but I still have to sift the shells outside...maybe its cheap cob, but anytime it goes in or out of the tumbler its like a plume of cob dust. |
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. You're doing something massively wrong if you're having dust problems of any significant magnitude. Maybe I wrote it wrong...maybe 8 hours "then" dust...I have tried dryer sheets but I still have to sift the shells outside...maybe its cheap cob, but anytime it goes in or out of the tumbler its like a plume of cob dust. That's even more odd. I get no dust from corn cob media, only walnut hulls. |
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I have been playing with the idea of going this method. How are you separating the SS media & brass after tumbling? i use my frankfort separator. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/BIGGDAWG800/IMG_3484.jpg don't use the tub anymore though
i installed a new sink in the basement just for doing my brass.  Sorry, I guess that was kind of a stupid question. That makes since.
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I have been playing with the idea of going this method. How are you separating the SS media & brass after tumbling? I just use a regular cooking strainer for now, $4 at any store. I bought a new bigger one last night because the little white one kept falling into the bucket. Once I get my rotary separator back I'll be using that, if it works with dry media it will separate the SS rods. Usually I have 99.9% of the SS media out by the time I dry the cases. So far out of all the batches I did I only had one SS piece hang on in all the rifle brass, and two in a batch of 45 ACP that fell out in the cookie tray. But as Dryflash3 posted in his thread you still need to visually check the primer pockets, as they could get jammed in there. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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I have been playing with the idea of going this method. How are you separating the SS media & brass after tumbling? I used a crappy colander (need to get one with bigger holes...or make my own) It worked OK. But only used this for the pistol brass. The rifle brass I just rinsed a few times in the tumbler and after pouring the water out; just fished them out with my hand. Shook out the excess SS media and tossed em in the baking pan. Quoted:
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Working on my last batch of brass...all in one weekend. Nothing like actually feeling like things are getting done...instead of 8 hours of dust! I've been doing 2-2.5 hours for pistol and 3-3.5 for rifle and everything is looking good. You're doing something massively wrong if you're having dust problems of any significant magnitude. Maybe I wrote it wrong...maybe 8 hours "then" dust...I have tried dryer sheets but I still have to sift the shells outside...maybe its cheap cob, but anytime it goes in or out of the tumbler its like a plume of cob dust. That's even more odd. I get no dust from corn cob media, only walnut hulls. IDK brother, Its pet store cob, that's my only guess. I could probably get a lot of it out on a windy day and a couple 5gal buckets(just pour back and forth for a while and let the wind carry the lighter stuff away). I also have some RCBS walnut that is dusty but not as bad. |
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Wow! How long does this stainless steel media last? Can we just clean/wash it to reuse it? I'd imagine it lasts until it all gets lost or accidently dumped out. Stainless is harder than brass so I doubt it can "wear" and it won’t rust if dried out when not in use. I just rinse mine until it stops making suds in a bucket and then put it back in the tumbler with more brass. I haven't really given this thing much of a rest since I got it.
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