[B yond]

Or can I save a few bucks by going with a Harbor Freight rock tumbler?

[Jim Watson]

Not a lot of difference... sometimes.
Are you looking at a rotating drum or vibrating bowl type?
The cheap rotarys are usually very small and would not handle much brass.

[RustyFN]

Harbor Freight also has vibrating tumblers. I bought mine there on sale for a great price. I have had it ten months and it has worked great.
Rusty

[Smokey Joe]

B Yond--(love that handle!!)--You askIs there a differenceso I answer: A rock tumbler is normally used with a water-slurry polish, and, as Jim Watson noted, normally they are on the small side for the amounts of brass reloaders usually polish at one time. A vibratory tumbler, made to clean/polish brass, normally is used with dry ground corncob medium, or dry crushed walnut medium, and handles more cases at once. If you get your cases wet in cleaning them, you have to rinse them out and dry them--an additional and unnecessary hassle, IMHO. However if you clean/polish them dry, the cases are ready to be deprimed, resized, etc, right out of the tumbler.

Bottom line: IMHO, you oughta just get the vibratory tumbler made for the job and get on with it. You can get one for about $40; when that kind of money is at stake I for one can see no sense in mickey-mousing around trying to save a couple bucks. If the vibratory cost $400, and you could get a substitute for $200, then the substitute would be worth considering.

BTW, you CAN save $$ on polishing medium--buy ground corncob and walnut at a pet store under the name of lizard bedding. MUCH cheaper than buying the exact same thing @ a gun store under the name of polishing medium. You'll have to buy a larger amount, but it keeps.

BTW, again, get whatever vibratory tumbler you like, for whatever bargain price. They all work the same. Harbor Freight usually sells one model for cheap, if you don't mind buying Chinese. It'll do exactly the same as the most costly Lyman or RCBS.

Good luck in your quest.

[cdrt]

A rock tumbler is normally used with a water-slurry polish

I have an old Lortone rock tumbler that I bought in the '70's. It's their larger model. I use it just like everyone uses the newer vibrating tumblers, with walnut shell media and a polishing agent.

It will work with liquid cleaners, however, since it has a rubber seal, but I've only done that with really dirty cases.

Lortone still makes this particular model (12QT) but they cost around $160 to $180.

[Jim Watson]

For that matter, I have a Thumblers Tumbler rotary in a good size. I use it with wet ceramic media for cleaning black powder brass. It does a good job but what with rinsing and drying the brass is more work than a dry vibratory.

[B yond]

Thanks for the timely response guys.

Once again, THR'ers came through with the answers I needed.

[Peter M. Eick]

As a geologist when I put rocks in it it becomes a rock tumbler.

When I am a reloader it is a brass tumbler.....


Seriously I gave up polishing rocks. Why ruin the natural state of the rock with some artificial polish?