Tumbling...

[Adam_MA]

I got my tumbler in the mail yesterday. It's a Lyman turbo 1200. I went to Four Seasons yesterday as well, and picked up some media. I got the walnut media.
So my question... How long does it usually take to tumble the cases before they are clean?


Thanks
Adam

 

[C-pher]

I use corn cob media. It's about 4 hours or so that I tumble. That seems to be pretty well.

I hear that there's this ceramic media that will do it in about 30 min. But I haven't seen it and I don't know how much it cost. I think that there was also a write up in the Cowboy Cronicle. But I don't remember if there was a link, I don't think that there was.

 

[dwarven1]

I use corn cob media. It's about 4 hours or so that I tumble. That seems to be pretty well.

I hear that there's this ceramic media that will do it in about 30 min. But I haven't seen it and I don't know how much it cost. I think that there was also a write up in the Cowboy Cronicle. But I don't remember if there was a link, I don't think that there was.

Just off the top of my head, it would seem to me that ceramic media would be more abrasive to the brass and you'd need to be more careful about times. I've never used it, I'm just thinking of the comparitive materials.

Ross

 

[jacobtowne]

I use a Lyman tumbler with Lyman walnut shell medium. It takes less than an hour to clean the shells. The medium is greenish, so I assume there is some sort of polishing compound in there.
JT

 

[C-pher]

See, that's what I thought. But I hear that it's even better and makes it more polished than regular media.

I'm now going to have to see if I can find something about this on-line now.

 

[C-pher]

Here you are..

But I'm not really finding a lot of people that have used it.

http://tinyurl.com/b3npc

 

[Len-2A Training]

See, that's what I thought. But I hear that it's even better and makes it more polished than regular media.

I'm now going to have to see if I can find something about this on-line now.

Keep in mind that the brass doesn't have to pass a USMC white glove inspection!!

It just has to be reasonably clean so as not to get jammed up in the chamber. Anything else is "window dressing".

I used to shoot hundreds of .380, 9mm, .38 each week and reload them and very rarely ever did I tumble them and certainly not each time I reloaded.

 

[Adam_MA]

I use a Lyman tumbler with Lyman walnut shell medium. It takes less than an hour to clean the shells.

Cool.. Thanks, the tumbler I just got is the Lyman turbo 1200 and I picked up the walnut shell medium on Saturday.

Adam

 

[C-pher]

See, that's what I thought. But I hear that it's even better and makes it more polished than regular media.

I'm now going to have to see if I can find something about this on-line now.

Keep in mind that the brass doesn't have to pass a USMC white glove inspection!!

It just has to be reasonably clean so as not to get jammed up in the chamber. Anything else is "window dressing".

I used to shoot hundreds of .380, 9mm, .38 each week and reload them and very rarely ever did I tumble them and certainly not each time I reloaded.

Yea, I think that I hear more about it because I'm around more people that are reloading with Black Powder.

 

[Lynne]

I only tumble when I absolutely have to...but not my brass.

[lol] [lol] [lol] [lol]

(Sorry, I couldn't help it.

 

[jacobtowne]

"White glove inspection" raises a question. Could we be discussing two things here, cleaning and polishing?
I want my cases clean enough on the outside so as not to scratch or deposit residue in the carbide sizing die. As for polishing, well, I'll leave that to someone else.
JT

 

[Nickle]

Using Walnut Shell Media, you'll start off being able to clean the brass in an hour or so. Eventually that will work up to several hours.

I tumble in Walnut Shell, them size my brass, then tumble in Corn Cob (rifle only, to remove lube), then continue loading. Since I use Carbide Pistol dies, I omit the Corn Cob tumble, since there's no lube to remove.

I agree with Len about just how clean the brass needs to be. When I started reloading, tumblers were a long way from being invented.