Thumler,s tumbler question

K

KEYBEAR

New member
Last year I bought a new Thumler,s Tumbler model B . It works well with Corn Cob Media and I added a little New- Finish Auto Polish . The brass comes out very clean . Now the problem the rubber liner in the barrel got bigger ? I ended up buying a new liner as the old one would not let me put the lid back on . The people a Thumler,s told the liner had a bad reaction to the auto polish and not use it .

It you have this Tumbler (model B ) with the rubber liner do you add anything to the media . I am using only Corn Cob now .

Please do not tell me how great wet tumbling is .
 
I see they offer a liquid brass additive on the website

Liquid Brass Pre-Cleaner (Stk #550)
This is used to clean tarnished or corroded brass in the Rotary Tumbler. It may also be used as a tumbling compound with the deburring media.
 
"...brass comes out very clean..." Comes out shiney. Brass doesn't need to be shiney. Leave out the car polish altogether and it will be fine.
 
But the NuFinish turns crap brass into not only shiny, but slippery brass, no lube required.. Even for necked brass.

image36947.jpg


image37317.jpg
 
The Nu-Finish applies a residual coating of silicone or something like that, I think. In any case, it's something that penetrated and swelled the rubber liner, apparently.

One solution is not to use it. The other is to ask Thumbler if they still make the plastic drum liners they once had for moly-plating bullets. Their rubber didn't play well with moly, and would hog it all, leaving none on the bullets.
 
"...brass comes out very clean..." Comes out shiney. Brass doesn't need to be shiney. Leave out the car polish altogether and it will be fine.


Yes if a person really does not care you can load about anything .
 
If you have the Thumbler's, just make the transition to stainless steel pins and get rid of the nonsense with corncob media. Problem solved.

And brass does not need to be shiny, only clean. That I'll agree with. But if you are going through the effort to clean the brass and it literally takes zero additional effort to get clean and shiny, why is there anything wrong with taking that much more pride in your work?
 
Switch over to crushed walnut, aka "Zilla" found at your local pet store. Run your tumbler for 2 1/2 hours at a minimum. You'll forget all about additives after that.

Good luck.
 
Walnut that is intended for use as an abrasive can people found at harbor freight. If you have to, you can use the coupons and five dollar shipping. You can also find jewellers rouge online. Do you want to see shiny?
 
BTW, funny thing,, many years ago I somehow found myself with a broken coffee cup in me tumbler. After a run with a handful of sharp ceramic shards in it, it seemed to have come out a little cleaner. After that, I smashed up a few of my wife's favorite porcelain tea cups in the internet re set of research. The sharp edges of the porcelain do seem to help. It may scrape the sides.of the cases cleaner.
 
And don't forget to put cut up dryer sheets in when you tumble. It gives the brass that nice fresh smell.:)
Or you can use used dryer sheets and it just cleans up all the dust and crap in the tumbler
 
I use corn media and nothing, I use vinegar and nothing etc., etc.. And then there is that spray in a can that cuts grease. I do not have an additive cure for everything.

I do have a Thumler 45 that is built for quite running, the rest of my tumblers are not sensitive to chemicals unless we are talking about something that melts plastic.

F. Guffey
 
Are you sure you wouldn't really like to wet tumble with that model B?;);)

Here' some 30-06 brass recently wet tumbled in my Thumlers model B:



Bayou
 
My method for decades is walnut with 2 teaspoons of mineral oil for cleaning, overnight, then corn with 2 teaspoons of NuFinish for polishing, overnight. Run the tumblers open, much less noise, and no dust. Have an old Frankfort Arsenal and Harbor Freight tumbler. Run them on an appliance timer. After all, it's an offline operation.
 
+1 on changing over to stainless steel pins and wet tumbling:

The media never gets dirty or wears out.

The primer pockets and the inside of the cases get clean too.

No lead-laced dust accumulating in your house.
 
It gets them clean, but that also makes the squeaky clean (higher friction). I think this is good in precision rifle loads where more start pressure improves ignition consistency. However, Dillon says not to do it for loading on their machines as the cases tend to stick hard enough to the powder measure's expander/drop tube/operating rod that it releases with a jerk on withdrawal, that throws powder out of the cases. So if you are loading on that or similarly use any powder-through expander, you want to watch for it or apply inside neck lube.
 
Thanks for the compliment, 9X45.

I really enjoy rotary wet tumbling. It's one of the most pleasing phases of the reloading process, for me at least. I suppose that's what a hobby is all about...


Bayou52
 
Bayou
Wet Tumbling ? Using Walnut I open the Tumbler dump in the brass place the lid on and plug in . Next morning Dump the brass out and load it .

Total time spent Maybe 5/6 Minutes . For that time I get very clean brass .
No pins no water no soap no Mess ? And the big thing NO WET BRASS
 
There is no doubt that wet tumbling is the bomb, but it is a PITA.... It's like being a domestic helper, washing, drying, sorting, etc.. In my experience my method is also the bomb, but without all the effort.
 
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