case tumblers ? Anyone have a few brands side by side

[mac1911]

OK been looking around they all seem to have a 1 year or less warrenty except RCBS has 2 years. These are tumblers in the 50-150$ range.

A lot of them look alike with most differences being in the bowl as looks go.

Any one have a selection of brands side by side and have you checked out the guts?
Any big differences ?

I did see some really heavy duty stuff in the 200+ range but feel its over kill for the few thousand rounds I will do a year.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

This one has been answered at least TWICE in the past two years:

The vibratory tumblers vibrate as a consequence of an electric motor, which has an off balance weight attached to the spindle.

The cheap ones all use a zinc or bronze BUSHING for the spindle to rotate in.

Only the very best tumblers use actual heavy duty ball bearings for the motor spindle.

The Dillon BIG ONE (CV2001) has heavy duty motor, with heavy duty ball bearings, and will last the longest.

But, for your mere thousand or so a year, buy the cheapest ass tumbler, and when the motor seizes up, toss it away, and get another. You'll probably do OK.

Mine get run round the clock, days on end....... I do thousands in a batch, many batches per day. Not bragging, just saying....

Today's run:
1) Two very full batches of 5.56 brass
2) One very full batch of 30-06 brass
3) One very full batch of .500 S&W brass
4) It's currently running a very full batch of .40 S&W, E/C's fav size.......

 

[WanMan99]

I got a cheap Frankford Arsenal tumbler and media seperator for $67.54.
http://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Quick-n-EZ-Case-Tumbler/dp/B000TTILBC
At this price I don't care what the warranty is, I consider it to be disposable.

 

[richc]

I bought this one:


The Dillon BIG ONE (CV2001)

It is likely overkill for my purposes. I'll probably reload 10K rounds or a bit more this year. But it has a large capacity and is reasonably quiet. When I buy stuff like this I want it to be something my son will still be using in 20 years.

I'm in metrowest if you'd like a look/see.

Best,

Rich

 

[Patriot]

OK been looking around they all seem to have a 1 year or less warrenty except RCBS has 2 years. These are tumblers in the 50-150$ range.

A lot of them look alike with most differences being in the bowl as looks go.

Any one have a selection of brands side by side and have you checked out the guts?
Any big differences ?

I did see some really heavy duty stuff in the 200+ range but feel its over kill for the few thousand rounds I will do a year.

I have a Lyman 1200 that is about 22 years old and is running as we speak. This is an excellent tumber
if you are not a real heavy user.

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/tumblers/1200-classic-tumbler.php

I also have one of the older small Dillons (CV500) that I picked up used for $50 and it is great (also running
as we speak).

 

[Cabin Fever]

This one has been answered at least TWICE in the past two years:

The vibratory tumblers vibrate as a consequence of an electric motor, which has an off balance weight attached to the spindle.

The cheap ones all use a zinc or bronze BUSHING for the spindle to rotate in.

Only the very best tumblers use actual heavy duty ball bearings for the motor spindle.

The Dillon BIG ONE (CV2001) has heavy duty motor, with heavy duty ball bearings, and will last the longest.

But, for your mere thousand or so a year, buy the cheapest ass tumbler, and when the motor seizes up, toss it away, and get another. You'll probably do OK.

Mine get run round the clock, days on end....... I do thousands in a batch, many batches per day. Not bragging, just saying....

Today's run:
1) Two very full batches of 5.56 brass
2) One very full batch of 30-06 brass
3) One very full batch of .500 S&W brass
4) It's currently running a very full batch of .40 S&W, E/C's fav size.......

What tumbler are you using? The Dillon that you mentioned?

 

[mac1911]

if the newer tumblers are anything like the aftermarket parts for cars, same parts different box? most of the tumblers when viewed closely have the same bases
The midway branded tumbler looks a hell of a lot like the dillon ? The hornady looks like the ones from habor freight,,,,ect etc.

 

[drgrant]

If you are low volume the frankfurter arsenal will work fine. I am expecting the motor to burn out on mine any day now, though.... it's well past paying for itself with what I've made that little thing do.

-Mike

 

[mac1911]

I decided to go with a Lyman pro 2500 from opticsplanet 80.00 shipped

 

[Mark from MA]

I'm not a high volume reloader. The cheap a$$ Cabela's is where it's at for me. When it dies, I'll buy another one....but has lasted me two years and 3000 rounds, still going good.

If I were to use it more, I'd buy a good one though.....get what you pay for I'm sure.

 

[ptanks56]

I have a Lyman 1200 that is about 22 years old and is running as we speak. This is an excellent tumber
if you are not a real heavy user.

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/tumblers/1200-classic-tumbler.php

I also have one of the older small Dillons (CV500) that I picked up used for $50 and it is great (also running
as we speak).

+1 I have two Lymans, big and biggest, work great and can't seem to kill em, (knock wood) and really good machines for the money. I would however, skip the media self seperator option on these, tried one and it is too slow.
Tank

 

[swampy]

I'm using a 20 year old Midway...1292 maybe? It has run and run and run. I have extra bowls and a small lyman 600 bowl that fits on it. I've cleaned polished and done a few experiments with it. Its like a timex. I just bought a lyman 2500. It is larger capacity which I was jonsin for. It doesn't have the same intensity as the midway but that is probably because of the size of the thing. I jammed 900 very dirty 5.56 cases in it with fresh walnut media and a bunch of hoppes a few minutes after I got it. It did in 3 hours what the midway would have taken a week to do. (I don't let them run unattended) The lyman is a bear to lift and unload. It has the drain and its okay to get most of the media out but I found it doesn't clear the cases completely and it gets loud as the media drains and the brass shakes. I prefer to just dump it into my super collander. No matter what tumbler you use, they seem to clean faster sitting on a concrete floor than on a table or slippery floor. I've never seen a tumbler fall off a floor.

I worked a half shift in a machine shop once. They had about a dozen commercial sized tumblers. OMG, one of them would be able to clean a couple 5 gallon bucket fulls of brass in about 2 hours. I didn't get to witness too much in the 4 hours I worked there (the place was a craphole). I was impressed with the difference of the looks of the parts coming out compared to when they went in. They had some sort of machine that separated the parts from the media and dumped them both into bins. Nothing like the separators we use.