So I Thought It Was Time

[gandog56]

I finally broke out my new Thumler's Rotary Tumbler. I have enough brass to clean thanks to a few people at another website and at ammobrasstrader who knew all about my fight with cancer, and the bad bad aftereffects that stopped me from going to the range and getting more brass. They kindly donated lots of brass to me, and I thank them deeply. The instructions for the tumbler are like 95% about rock polishing, and only very little about brass cleaning. Every source I see says to get Lemi-Shine detergent booster to add to the cleaning mix, and of course, not knowing that, I had none. The rest seems pretty straightforward. 1/8 teaspoon of Lemi-Shine, couple drops of Dawn, water, and cases. When done drain the water from the drum, separate the steel media which can be re-used over and over, rinse cases and dry. I mean everywhere I look you supposedly get cases starting like this, and ending up like this. Found a place that had a big sale on the Lemi-fresh, so as soon as I get it, run the first batch. I'll keep this updated as I go.






And the primer pockets are supposed to get clean, too!

[gandog56]

And on top of that, I found a box of 10mm cases when I was dragging the tumbler out of my closet. Cases I forgot I stuck in a box and put them on my closet shelf.

[REDLINE]

It sure did a nice job.  How long did you leave them in the tumbler?

[The_Shadow]

Lookin' very nice! 

[nightal]

Those were some nasty looking cases, they really cleaned up nice.....
how long did you leave them in tumbler?

[gandog56]

Ummmm, I haven't done it yet. I had to order some of the Lemi-Shine called for in an article on using steel media and rotary wet tumbling. The pics are from that article, but the pics look so good that I am going to follow his recipe exactly. He was even using the same Thumler's tumbler I had just bought. I already have the media and cases in the drum. Just waiting for the "shine" I received notice the Lemi-Shine made it to the brown truck, yesterday.

[REDLINE]

I'll be looking forward to your own pics when the time comes.  At that point we'll know if there was any false advertising or not.  I hope it ends up working as well as their pictures suggest.

[Ramjet]

This is of interest to me as well I have both the thumbler tumbler and a vibratory tumbler.  That brass looks tough and if your system cleans it up like that I am all in.

[gandog56]

OK, here it is. The six cases on the left, my old vibratory tumbler. See how black the insides and the primer pockets are? The six on the right, rotary tumbled wet with steel media.

Me like. Grog like da shining tings!

[REDLINE]

Impressive!  No doubt the different is clear to see.

[Ramjet]

Wow I like that.

[DenStinett]

Here's what I use
It'll tumble 300 - 750 cases of three different types
Wet or dry

[gandog56]

Looks good to me. I just bought one because I have all the mechanical ability of a rotten orange. It's a wonder I can field strip my pistols to clean them and reassemble!

[DenStinett]

She's over 30 years old, but still grindes on and on
Working on its third Drive Belt, but it's still using the same three Cans (plus I got three in reserve too)

[gandog56]

Them just #10 cans, or paint cans?

The only problem I had was separating the media from the cases. But I saw a youtube video, where he used a small brass separator, held the thing over a cloth very fine mesh bag, and ran water over the brass, shaking the cases up. Media falls through the seperators holes and stay in the bag. Got some cheap cheesecloth bags from ebay on the way, and figure a kitchen colander will work.
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