ever forget your tumbling brass?

S

skizzums

New member
I have a cheap harbor freight vibratory tumbler with walnut media. I wouldn't want to subject my tumbler to this kind of regular abuse, but I forgot about the tumbler for close to 30 hours. dang it's shiny, inside and out like a SS tumble. maybe i'll do it on purpose if I am ever specifically loading up match stuff...
 
YEP !!! It's been on for a week or so several times. It has also been run for some months with each load going for twelve hours, and then the next load for twelve hours ad infinitum litterally for weeks on end.
IF YOU DO NOT BUY A TRASH tumbler you do not have to worry about " abusing" it, and when it dies you buy another GOOD one for another ten or fifteen years of constant use.
And so it goes..
 
30 hours in walnut shells isn't going to damage anything. Really dirty brass can just take that long. These SS pins might though.
Mind you, your tumbler is clearly far too quite. My old Lyman would cause a zombie apocalypse in 30 hours.
 
nah, its downstairs in the garage attached to the basement. far away to annoy no-one. I know its not gonna hurt anything, just was surprised to see how clean it was
 
sure did, I use "armor all" foaming tire cleaner now, does a great job with n residue. started using it because I like that it foams on the surface rather than sinking and clumping into the media like car wash does. I use to just use lemon juice, which also does a nice job with a great smell. the tire shine is better though and doesn't clog pockets.
 
How did the primer pockets look? I can't see any in the photo. But I have left my Lyman on for long periods before. Don't recall how long or what the result was. Just that it happened.

I finally bought one of those wall timers for it, and wired that up in an exterior outlet wall box for the timer.
 
2 hours of Walnut gets my pistol brass clean.
72 hours of Walnut did not get the inside of my bottle neck brass clean.
2 hours of SS gets the inside of my bottleneck brass clean.
72 hours of SS makes my brass shorter and needing lots of chamfering.
 
yeah, I couldn't see any amount of tumble cleaning the inside of a bottle neck, wouldn't how it'd be possible.

primer pockets are hot or miss, odd that the WIN all seem to have stayed pretty dirty, maybe rougher finish?
 
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I started running mine overnight, it works pretty good. Mine just died after a few years (harbor freight special). I know SS pins get them shiny but doesn't it shorten the life of your brass?
 
Ignore what everybody else is saying. I can tell by looking at them that they are no longer serviceable. You should mail them to me for some research I am doing on overtumbled brass:o
 
Yep, have forgotten them and have done it on purpose for days at a time before. My loading stuff is in a building across the yard from my house so noise is not a reminder. Have accidentally and once on purpose let the SS pins run over night. Caused no problems either, but water sure was filthy.
 
I have 4 different kinds of vibratory tumblers,
And I regularly tumble brass for 8 hours or a little more.

Put the brass in the tumblers, Flip the switch before I go to work,
Turn them off when I get home.

Nice clean brass...

Bottle neck brass for accuracy rifle I use the wet/SS pins.
Since that is usually in small batches, and it's pretty quick to get REALLY clean, it's the way to go.

Those large batches of 'Plinking' handgun brass, stright walled cases,
Stuff I'm not going to clean the primer pocket to SPARKLING and the media does a good job inside the case,
It's the vibrators all the way.

So very little of my time required makes it a good way to do rounds for the visitors/inlaws to shoot until they get tired of holding the firearms up and loading mags...
 
Skizzums, I'm happy you posted this message about vibratory tumblers. Last week, I pulled mine from under a shelf and used it for the first time in several years. I knew results would be good and they were so I'm using it more now. I have an ultrasonic cleaner, which I have been using.
 
I've done it and it may have been more than 30 hours-have a Lyman Big Orange. I'm half deaf and my wife finally screamed loud enough "-CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- is making that noise in the basement?". Very puzzled, I examined and discovered my folly.

.38 specials, walnut, with a bit of Dillon tumble fluid. Came out spic and span. Often I will tumble 9MM or .38's with rifle cartridges, such as my .270 or .30-.30 and separate after. Just make sure the smaller cases don't fit in the mouth of the larger. Did that once with my .45-70 and not sure of the other. Made a job separating and if I hadn't de-primed first, I wouldn't have had the flash hole available to push through!
 
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