Stainless steel tumbling setup for under 100$

[Quinc]

After reloading 200rds of .45acp I realized I needed a better method then:

Tumbling with walnut
Wiping down each piece of brass
cleaning primer pocket
cleaning inside of brass with brush

Then beginning the reloading process.

So after a bunch of research Stainless steel is a no brainer. However, it is EXPENSIVE!


So to get into it as cheaply as possible:
print out the 20% off coupon

http://slickdeals.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=987642&d=1328131775

Go buy the dual 3lb tumbler for 49.99 after coupon + 9.99 2 year replacement plan comes out to 54$

http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html

Make sure and oil it all the time as they go bad quick if you don't. Also might have to buy a hoover vacuum belt for it from wal-mart.


Next call http://www.pelletsllc.com/ and tell them you want steel media for brass. 5lbs for 40$ shipped. You only need 2#'s so you can split this with a friend and save 20$.

The brass was fairly clean to begin with and I will post up some new pics when I do my dirtier .223 brass.


1lb SS
1lb brass
1lb water
1 squirt of dish soap per tumbler
EDIT: Lemon Shine makes a huge difference in keeping the brass shinny after it drys.

Before:


After 1hr:

[Lead Waster]

I don't do anything that elaborate.

1) bring brass home from range
2) Fill bucket with water an dishsoap
3) swirl brass in soapy water with stick, rinse, repeat
4) dump wet brass into a colander and leave it outside until it's dry
5) seperate (ugh!) - This is why I wash it first, I hate seperating dirty brass by hand. yes I need a seperator
6) tumble by brass size

7) reload, letting the 550b deprime on the first stage.

[Quinc]

I don't do anything that elaborate.

1) bring brass home from range
2) Fill bucket with water an dishsoap
3) swirl brass in soapy water with stick, rinse, repeat
4) dump wet brass into a colander and leave it outside until it's dry
5) seperate (ugh!) - This is why I wash it first, I hate seperating dirty brass by hand. yes I need a seperator
6) tumble by brass size

7) reload, letting the 550b deprime on the first stage.

I am going for precision, thus the extra steps cleaning the primer pocket and brushing the inside.

[Alpha 1-4]

Looks like a good deal, really cleans the brass quickly.

[rsrocket1]

I am going for precision, thus the extra steps cleaning the primer pocket and brushing the inside.

Precision in 45ACP?

I'm happy for 2" at 10 yards, but for now, I'm satisfied if I can keep a full magazine within 4".
As long as there is no dirt to scratch the insides of my gun, I consider the cases "clean"
Kudos to you for finding a was to do it cheaper though. I was also thinking about those HF tumblers figuring that if cleaning cases with it doesn't work out for me, at least I can make some shiny rocks with it.

[SGGear]

I have a similar setup but I run a thumblers model B. If I look back now, using walnut media was so primitive. I could never go back to using that stuff again. Its so convenient to use stainless steel media. Stainless steel cleans the brass very quickly and you dont have to deal with lead and dust clouds. They can be dangerous around kids and pets. I only run it for 1-2 hr and I get better result from runnin 6-8 hrs with walnut.

Its a 1 time buy where as with other traditional media, you have to change em out once in awhile. In the long run, you will save lot of $$$.

[cgates]

I thought I read somewhere that the SS media needed to be used in a multi-sided tumbler? Those look like round ones so maybe that isnt true..

[john16443]

I thought I read somewhere that the SS media needed to be used in a multi-sided tumbler? Those look like round ones so maybe that isnt true..

I think it works in this equipment because it is full. The pins, brass and water fill up the container, so it does tumble internally. With the larger Thumler, the volume of pins and brass is much less in the larger diameter barrel, so they will tend to just roll along the sides. Looks like I will have to consider this for my 45ACP and 9mm, HF currently has them on backorder on their site.

[NotEnufGarage]

Wipe down after tumbling? Why? Mine goes from the tumbler right into the progressive.

[rsrocket1]

I think it works in this equipment because it is full. The pins, brass and water fill up the container, so it does tumble internally. With the larger Thumler, the volume of pins and brass is much less in the larger diameter barrel, so they will tend to just roll along the sides.

That's true. If this setup were not full, the cases and pins will simply roll along the bottom. If you want to run smaller batches, you might get better results by inserting tight fitting plastic cardstock with holes cut out to encourage tumbling (although it might make it a bit noisier).

A similar problem happens when using a collander to separate walnut shells from cases after vibratory tumbling. The cases tend to wind up neck up with the walnut sitting in them. I found this raffle ticket sifter at the thrift shop for $2 and it separates the media and cases very well. The paddles make a big difference. The same prinicple would work well for SS media cleaning.

[thomashoward]

Looks like a good deal, really cleans the brass quickly.

I switched to stainless and will never go back to dust tumbling

[Quinc]

Looks like it's not "perfect" ran some more .45acp for about 3.5 hrs and found a few that only had about 90% clean primer pockets and a couple that still had some carbon build up on the inside. But 95-99% of them still have a mirror finish all around.

[Quinc]

Precision in 45ACP?

I'm happy for 2" at 10 yards, but for now, I'm satisfied if I can keep a full magazine within 4".
As long as there is no dirt to scratch the insides of my gun, I consider the cases "clean"
Kudos to you for finding a was to do it cheaper though. I was also thinking about those HF tumblers figuring that if cleaning cases with it doesn't work out for me, at least I can make some shiny rocks with it.

My friends and I do games like spacing 2 liter bottles out to 100yards and shooting them with our 45s.

[Stryfe76]

I use the same HF tumbler but I've been using copper plated BB's which for the first few loads gave all the brass a copper wash.
Tumbled with the BB's on the Left, Dry walnut in the same tumbler on the right. After a few loads the copper wore off the BB's they look like the second pic.


I've been having trouble with the BB's jamming up inside of my .223 brass to here's my new idea. I just chopped up 40+ feet of 12ga solid copper wire ( $.24 per foot at Home Depot) in 1/2" - 1" bits and I'm planning on replacing the BB's with this in the next batch to see if it will work more like the SS Pins but with a copper wash so I can find my brass easier at the range.

[Quinc]

here's my new idea. I just chopped up 40+ feet of 12ga solid copper wire ( $.24 per foot at Home Depot) in 1/2" - 1" bits and I'm planning on replacing the BB's with this in the next batch to see if it will work more like the SS Pins but with a copper wash so I can find my brass easier at the range.

That is a great idea! And really brings the cost down!