Picked up a Cabelas case tumbler today....

[Mus408]

While looking over my deprimed .45 ACP brass today some of them were getting that old tarnished look that sometimes doesn't clean all up when I run them through my sonic cleaner.
So I saw where Cabelas had there tumbler kit which is made by Berry's Bullets I believe and it has some great reviews.
Brought it home and ran a load of brass through it with the ground corn media and polish.
The cases look really good and might just run them through my sonic cleaner with a mild solution just to get any crud out the primer pocket.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

Cool , nothing like shiny brass.

 

[Cholo]

I never understood sonic cleaners, too old school I guess. All tumbler media should have some proper polish. Corn cob will give you an amazing shine, but some will always get stuck in the primer holes. Walnut media will give you a great sheen and you won't have to mess with the the primer pockets at all.

When I was anal about my reloads looking great, I used corn cob media and dealt with the downsides. Now I use nothing but walnut media and it works for me.

FWIW: I wouldn't try to save $10 per year by buying media at a pet store. Buy the good stuff from Dillon.

 

[grobin]

I don't see tumblers. Sonic==clean inside and out; tumbler==shinny outside crap inside-bad loads.

 

[Mus408]

Yes I will have to run them thru my sonic cleaner to get the corn residue out the primer pockets.
With my sonic cleaner I make up my own solution using distilled water just a touch of vinegar and Dawn dish detergent. After 18 minutes of run time the brass is rinsed and goes into a baking soda/water soak for several minutes to neutralize any acid and then rinse and a cotton swap of primer pocket and into oven 150 degree to dry.
Lot of little steps but works well except older brass I may have found on my range.

 

[mikld]

I used a sonic cleaner at work. I was a heated 50 gallon capacity industrial unit used for cleaning engine parts at a heavy equipment repair shop even though I occasionally brought in some guns/gun parts (it's OK to say that now as I retired 8 years ago!). In my experimenting with tumbling media I tried everything from rice to cat litter (Good Mews, not clay), wood chips, beach sand, glass beads, ceramic media, charcoal briquettes, and a dozen others I can't remember now. Some worked OK, some were a total failure and I settled on ground corn cob blast media 14-20. I have no problems with media stick in flash holes. Cob blast media is aggressive enough to clean, and blast media is much better quality controlled than pet litter. I tried wet tumbling an found it too messy for me and have no need for pristine primer pockets or case interiors. The media I use is similar to this; https://www.walmart.com/ip/ECONOLINE-526040G-40-Blast-Media-Corn-Cob-20-to-40-Grit/40892832?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1122&adid=22222222227028436861&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=61175135049&wl4=pla-96562406169&wl5=9033039&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=101593696&wl11=online&wl12=40892832&wl13=&veh=sem

When I have some really tarnished brass or need to clean some tool or rusty parts I add some HF 3/8 hard resin pyramids, maybe 50% to my cob media. For really rusty parts/tools I'll use the resin media straight. https://www.harborfreight.com/5-lb-rust-cutting-resin-abrasive-tumbler-media-63672.html

 

[recumbent]

I use walnut shells from pet smart. It's in the reptile section is real fine and does not stick in the flash holes.
Works good and is pretty inexpensive.

 

[pleadthe2nd]

Harbor freight has good size tumblers for 49$ , got mine there, so far so good, they also have a good size sonic cleaner for just under 100$, gonna pick that up soon, been using my buddies Hornady for some time now, probably should return it someday, the one at harbor freight is twice the size anyway

 

[Skoopski]

I use walnut shells from pet smart. It's in the reptile section is real fine and does not stick in the flash holes.
Works good and is pretty inexpensive.

+1 on that. I get the lizard bedding too. I think it's a little finer than some made by the reloading companies and a whole lot cheaper to boot. That's all I use anymore, my brass shines up nicely using it- don't even need any sort of polish.

 

[gramps]

I bought a Harbor Freight tumbler, and never could get it to "tumble" in spite of adjusting the belt. Returned it!
gramps

 

[Three50seven]

I made the switch to a rotary wet tumbler a few months ago and I have been extremely happy ever since! I use a Thumler's Tumbler Model B with 2 lbs. of stainless steel pins, 1/4 cup of "totally awesome" liquid cleaner, and about 1/2 tsp. of Lemishine. Throw in the dirty brass, cover it with water, add the cleaning chemicals and turn it on. 2 hours later I have brass that looks like-new inside and out.

 

[Dave P.]

I made the switch to a rotary wet tumbler a few months ago and I have been extremely happy ever since! I use a Thumler's Tumbler Model B with 2 lbs. of stainless steel pins, 1/4 cup of "totally awesome" liquid cleaner, and about 1/2 tsp. of Lemishine. Throw in the dirty brass, cover it with water, add the cleaning chemicals and turn it on. 2 hours later I have brass that looks like-new inside and out.

Do many of the ss pins end up inside the brass ?
Do you need to check each case ?
Thanks
Dave

 

[Three50seven]

I made the switch to a rotary wet tumbler a few months ago and I have been extremely happy ever since! I use a Thumler's Tumbler Model B with 2 lbs. of stainless steel pins, 1/4 cup of "totally awesome" liquid cleaner, and about 1/2 tsp. of Lemishine. Throw in the dirty brass, cover it with water, add the cleaning chemicals and turn it on. 2 hours later I have brass that looks like-new inside and out.

Do many of the ss pins end up inside the brass ?
Do you need to check each case ?
Thanks
Dave

The short answer: no and no.

To be more specific, I have devised a sort of redneck media separator that actually works really well. I dump the contents of the tumbler (brass, pins, dirty liquid) into a mesh basket that sits inside a 5 gal bucket. The basket catches the brass but the pins and liquid pass on through. I then give the basket a few shakes to get all the extra pins out. Now I can lay the brass out on a towel to dry. The contents of the bucket are then poured through a 5 gal paint strainer (fine mesh kind of like cheese cloth, and available from Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, etc.) The strainer catches the pins and allows the liquid to pass through. I can then rinse the pins off while they're inside the strainer and then toss them back into the tumbler for the next batch.

I'm still working on a better way to dry the brass. I'm thinking about putting it in the toaster oven that I use for powder-coating bullets and letting it cook at a low temp for 30 minutes or so.