Best Case Cleaner

[Jarhead]

Mainly Rifle Brass

[Citadelgrad87]

I have a medium sized name brand vibratory tumbler. If you put all the medium brand names together and sprayed them the same color, well, let's just say they appear identical.

I'm happy with it, except for one thing. The dust is pretty nasty. So much that I handle freshly tumbled brass with latex gloves and a dust mask.

For this reason, I advise you to check out rotary tumblers that use liquid and something like stainless steel pins. No worry about toxic dust, just don't drink the water and you're pretty safe.

Problem is, the one I have was fairly expensive, and I don't want to buy another one.

I've never used the wet tumbling, and I see it involves the extra step of heating the cases to dry them, but based on threads here, people like them.

[Bastard]

pick just about any name brand vibratory tumbler and some walnut shell... unless you like spending money then go with the rotary/SS pin combo that seem to be all the rage recently.

[Jarhead]

They all clean the same, I noticed the Dillion claims to have a better motor so it cleans them faster. Is the Media all the same?

[Citadelgrad87]

They all clean the same, I noticed the Dillion claims to have a better motor so it cleans them faster. Is the Media all the same?

Two main choices are corn cob and walnut.

Not sure what the differences are.

[Bumslie]

Walnut cleans better, corn cob polishes better.

That being said, I use stainless steel
Media. I hate the dust and the noise from the vibratory tumblers.

I love my thumblers tumbler. I tumble even when I'm not loading, so I always have clean brass ready. The drying time does not affect me.

[OldShooter32]

For normal use, walnut in a vibratory tumbler, along with a couple capfuls of NuFinish Car Polish will do a great job. For the nasty, corroded range brass or Uncle Fred's bucket of WWII .30-'06 brass, get a wet tumbler and some stainless pins (they never wear out) and use a dash of Dawn, a couple gallons of water and two tablespoons of LemiShine (Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc.) and run it for a half hour or more depending on how dirty it is. I use a mini-mixer from Harbor Freight Tools. Noisy, but I live in the country. Works great!

[damndave]

Are you going for a vibratory or rotary tumbler?

[OldShooter32]

Dust

Walnut cleans better, corn cob polishes better.

That being said, I use stainless steel
Media. I hate the dust and the noise from the vibratory tumblers.

I love my thumblers tumbler. I tumble even when I'm not loading, so I always have clean brass ready. The drying time does not affect me.

Put half a dryer sheet in with the brass: It will soak up the dust.

[Bumslie]

Put half a dryer sheet in with the brass: It will soak up the dust.

Yeah I know that trick. It helps, but doesn't do much when you're seperating it.

I'll keep my stainless. Works better in an apartment setting

[23's Dad]

Walnut and suck up the dust!

I use walnut media in an old Lyman tumbler.

I stick my shop-vac hose into my benchtop vise and point it at my media separator. Any time the lid is off my tumbler, I try to keep the vacuum between my face and the media. I dump the media into the separator and then vacuum the interior of the tumbler to grab the dust in there. Then I spin the media and watch the dust flow into the vacuum tube. I pour the media back into the tumbler and then vacuum the separator tub.

Takes longer to write than do.

BTW I have the corrugated paper ShopVac air filter in my ShopVac - the one that looks like an automobile air filter. I think this method would just aerate the particulate matter if I had the basic filter. YMMV!

[bigedp51]

The competitive shooters at Accurateshooter.com do not like vibratory case cleaners that use an abrasive polish in the media. They do not like the idea of abrasive material getting in their expensive custom made barrels. These same shooters do not like the wet tumbling method and removing the carbon buildup inside the neck of the case. They say over time the bullet will bond with the ultra clean case neck and effect neck tension and bullet release.

I changed over to wet tumbling a few years back and wouldn't use any other method.

[Jarhead]

What are the drawbacks to wet tumbling?

[ejohanson]

Best Case Cleaner

Cons are extra step of depriming before tumbling and dry time. I wet tumble and wouldn't do it any other way. Nothing is better then a cheap Wally World food dehydrator for drying brass. 2 lbs of deprimed brass bone dry in 1 hr. Pros are brass that's a million times cleaner than dry tumbling including your primer pockets, less noise and NO DUST.


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[rcschummers]

Best Case Cleaner

What are the drawbacks to wet tumbling?

Corrosion. Plenty of people with more knowledge on the subject will probably tell you not to worry about it. I would tend to agree with limited knowledge.