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This is my first tumbler and my first attempt at case cleaning. Take that with a grain of salt.
I purchased this tumbler from Midway for just over 100 bucks
Link to info here:
*2 Gallon bowl can hold up to 1000 38 cases
*Has a plug underneath the bowl that allows you to drain the media out
http://www.cabelas.com/link-12/product/0012545215278a.shtml
When it arrived I expected something larger.
This was a more expensive unit capable of handling more brass.
After receiving it I can't imagine how someone could have one that is smaller.
1000 rds of 9mm fits in there pretty easily so I guess I had strange expectations.
Not quite sure how I feel about the auto-flo feature. If media seperation is very time consuming after tumbling then maybe it's a good thing. (I don't have a seperator) It's definitely very loud as the brass is just bouncing off each other when there is little media left in the bowl. You need to use your hand to mix and turn the brass so most of the media is out of the casings.
The media exit spout could be a bit longer. It drops some media too close to the base of the unit. Even 1 inch would have been nicer.
The bowl they give you to catch the media is too small. It'll hold maybe 4 lbs of media. I run mine with about 7lbs
The unit has been on straight: 24 hours a day since Friday night.
I'm hoping to run it straight for the next couple days to clean all the brass that I have.
I've cleaned about 6000 9mm so far. I put in about 11 pounds of cases, 7 pounds of media per tumble. I leave it on for 4-6 hours each time.
PS I thought Beede in Lowell was going out of business. Please give me some good news.
They're closed. This is an old thread that someone bumped.
I was afraid of that.
Yes - they're definitely closed. I had bought a couple of bags of that media from them back a couple of years ago. They had going out of business signs up back sometime last year.
There has to be some other place that carries the media though - just have to do some searching.
i know some people have told me that Harbor Freight has some media.
I only see walnut though. they supposedly have it in coarse and fine, but i've never been in a store to look for it
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-lbs-coarse-grade-walnut-shell-blast-media-92150.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-lbs-fine-grade-walnut-shell-blast-media-92155.html
There are plenty of places that have media, but I have yet to find any as good as the Grit-O-Cobs brand that Beede carried. I bought a bag of corn cob blast media from drillspot.com, but it's dusty, takes longer to clean, and doesn't last as long as the good stuff.
I think Grit-O-Cob has a distributor in Beverly. I might make a run up there when this bag-o-crap is used up.