Tumbler recommendations

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Ok Ian, I used the wet tumbler on the mass of 9mm we picked up at the range today. Brass is laying on a towel in the sun drying right now.
In the summer where I have outdoors heat to dry brass it isn't so bad but rinsing in the sink and drying in the house drives my wife nuts.
I will admit it cleans brass like no other.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
One of my pet peeves are when units like the Lyman 1200's are called tumblers. They vibrate the brass, no tumbling involved.

Just check the price of the Model B at Midway.......yikes $199, they want $99 just for a drum. IIRC, I paid around $50, for my vintage one.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Pretty much.

Getting ready to run another wet batch of brass. Might as well, the stuff is all out already.
 

Maven

Well-Known Member
"The only modification I made to it was to drop a brass sleeve over the center bolt.
Those exposed steel threads bothered me.
Wanted my brass to only rub lizard sand, plastic and brass!" ...J.W.F.


Re: the brass sleeve. Wouldn't a plastic soda straw work as well? (Better grab 'em while you can before they're banned in favor of metal ones.)

Re: tumblers. I've been using a large Midway vibratory tumbler for ~20 years and have been quite happy with it. It will clean & polish a goodly quantity of .30-06 brass in less than 3 hours. It's not the quietest thing though.
 

Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
I have two vib cleaners. An early Midway that's been working fine for 30 years (a little noisy) and a second (FA) I bought a couple years ago from Midway which has a larger bowl and is fairly quite. Both do a good job.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I have the large Thumbler's Tumbler and a smaller older blue one that was gifted to me. Are the SS pins a must for getting clean brass?
How do you separate the pins from the brass? Seems like it would be a chore...
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
I don't use SS pins in mine.............just crushed walnut shells or corn cob media. My brass does't get that grungy. When I get grungy military brass, I turn my Model B into a wet tumbler, using Lemishine and a dab of Dawn.
 

Wasalmonslayer

Well-Known Member
I have the large Thumbler's Tumbler and a smaller older blue one that was gifted to me. Are the SS pins a must for getting clean brass?
How do you separate the pins from the brass? Seems like it would be a chore...


Waco,
I use a dry media separator full of water.
It works like a champ all the pins fall to the bottom and then I just pour em back into the drum for storage.
I do two rinse cycles and never have an issue. In three years I have not lost hardly any pins and my brass is spotless.
My recipe for cleaning is two tablespoon of automotive wash and wax soap in a drum full of water.
They come out spotless and the wax keeps them from tarnishing.

Pm me for an question I would be happy to help.
 

Will

Well-Known Member
I’ve used a Frankfort Arsenal for about 6 years with no problems. Hard to beat them for the money. I’m pretty sure it’s the same tumbler that Graf and Sons and mid south shooters sells as their house brand. May find it cheaper there.

Buy anything but a smart reloader tumbler. I decided to be cheap once and try them out. About burned the house down.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I tried a lot of different things and in the end do it pretty much like Wasalmonslayer.
 

RKJ

Active Member
I've got a FA and a newer Lyman 1200. I used the FA for awhile when my old (30 plus years 1200 died) but it was too noisy (still is for that matter) I got a new1200 and it was pretty much the same except for the bowl being much thinner and a power switch on the front. I took the old bowl, put it on the new motor and haven't looked back. If this one lasts another 30 years I probably wont be here to see it give up the ghost.
 

mattw

Active Member
I have 1 lyman, 1 midway, 1 small thumblers and 1 medium thumblers. The thumblers do by far the best job and are the most quiet.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
I made mine with an old fan motor; some schedule 40 PVC pipe; and a cut up bed frame. Only thing I had to buy was some bearings. It's worked great for over 7 years now.