It's time for change

[aviator41]

I've been tumbling my brass in walnut media after a sonic clean for as long as I can remember. Usually in some homebrew tumbler I've concocted. Lately I've been using an ice-cream maker and it's worked pretty well. I've cleaned thousand and thousands of pieces of brass with it. So much so, that I've worn a hole in the bottom of the aluminum tub. My wife, being the wonderful woman that she is, brought home a new ice-creamer maker for me to replace the dead one with. For whatever reason, it lasted one weekend and died. I guess I got lucky with the first one. Last night, my sonic cleaner died - so now it's time to get serious about a replacement system.

I know there are two schools of though on brass cleaning. people either love the idea of super-clean brass or they don't see the point of cleaning at all. I like shiny brass. It keeps my dies clean and makes me feel like I've made a top quality piece of ammo in the end. I don't want to debate the merits of cleaning brass. I've made my mind up on that already (I like to have clean brass)

So I want to go with stainless pins and a wet tumbler set up. I've looked at the Thumblers Tumbler and I like what I'm seeing but the price seems a bit high.

What are you guys using to clean brass and why?

 

[swampratt]

I made a pin tumbler of my own ..the container is a 2 quart V8 bottle..it is not round inside so it agitates well.
Old treadmill parts were used to spin it.
GC has seen it in action.
I have some friends that use the harbour freight rock tumblers and those work just as well as a Thumblers but capacity is less.
I agree i like clean brass also.

Some debate on stainless pins..I think you can buy brass ones at H&H at least i seen them there.

I made my own pins from copper electrical wire like stranded THHN #1 or #4.

You can research homemade pin tumblers.
But if you are the go out and buy it type on the cheap Harbour freight is a good way to go.

WHY: I like clean brass and I feel less wear on my dies because of the clean.
Less steps in the cleaning process and quicker than walnut etc.
1-1.5 hours pin tumbling and 2x cleaner than vibratory that takes 2-4 times longer.

 

[aviator41]

I am typically a 'build it from junk' kinda guy, but I've so many dang projects going at the moment that I don't see me getting to this before I run out of clean brass, so It's probably going to be a buy rather than build for now.

 

[swampratt]

I will loan you mine and show you how i use it. and let you decide if this is for you.
As i have 2 i made..one from an old printer.

 

[aviator41]

From an old printer, huh? That's interesting! I have quite a few of those rolling around here. If you get the chance, take a couple photos. I'd like to see that!

Thanks for the offer of the loaner. PM me your info, we'll figure out a time to meet up.

 

[lkothe]

I got one of the Harbor Freight rock tumblers.....has worked fine so far. I experiment a lot .......soooo.........used walnut, corn cob and even trying some steel shot/wet.
Of course it doesn't do a large amount at one time but is working fine for me so far. I have time and patience (well, a little patience).

DNO

 

[turkeyrun]

AGREE with lkothe, have used the HF rock tumbler for 20 yrs with walnut media and NO PROBLEMS.

 

[RichardA76]

I would like to see some of these homemade wonders! The printer has me scratching my head lol

 

[okietom]

I bet that swampratt is using the rollers that advance the paper in the printer to turn his V8 bottle. He has shared some of his ideas with me in the past. It was very interesting.

I went ahead and just bought a Thumlers Tumbler. It is great. I was using a Lyman Turbo1200 for many years. The only drawback to the pion tumbling is drying the cases.

I also don't have a water source in my house close to where I reload. Carrying the canister back and forth to water is a minor drawback too.

It sure gets the cases clean in less time than the Lyman.

I think the best part of swampratt's method is how he makes his pins out of copper wire. I have thought about using a small cement mixer for cleaning brass and the cost of stainless pins in a higher volume is a drawback.

The stainless pins should last longer than the machine you use. Which is a plus. If you spread the cost over twenty years or longer the cost is small.

 

[okietom]

I've been tumbling my brass in walnut media after a sonic clean for as long as I can remember. Usually in some homebrew tumbler I've concocted. Lately I've been using an ice-cream maker and it's worked pretty well. I've cleaned thousand and thousands of pieces of brass with it. So much so, that I've worn a hole in the bottom of the aluminum tub. My wife, being the wonderful woman that she is, brought home a new ice-creamer maker for me to replace the dead one with. For whatever reason, it lasted one weekend and died. I guess I got lucky with the first one. Last night, my sonic cleaner died - so now it's time to get serious about a replacement system.

I know there are two schools of though on brass cleaning. people either love the idea of super-clean brass or they don't see the point of cleaning at all. I like shiny brass. It keeps my dies clean and makes me feel like I've made a top quality piece of ammo in the end. I don't want to debate the merits of cleaning brass. I've made my mind up on that already (I like to have clean brass)

So I want to go with stainless pins and a wet tumbler set up. I've looked at the Thumblers Tumbler and I like what I'm seeing but the price seems a bit high.

What are you guys using to clean brass and why?

Get someone to repair the bottom of your aluminum tub. I recently took some welding classes and we would take projects like that for free on occasion.