your favorite tumbler

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Win1892

Win1892

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Sep 18, 2008
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NW Florida
My 10 year old Midway 1292 croaked, never really cared for it though. I have a Cabelas that I really like. The media rolls over the top with a little more action.

Looking for more capacity in a similar type to the Cabelas unit. The Dillons look similar, as do the RCBS.

I do my heavy cleaning with a wet tumbler and just polish with my 2 dry media units.

What say you?
 
My Berry's has worked flawless, and have been using corn cob media in it with great results.
 
I've had the Cabela's tumbler for about 12 years and it is still going strong. I use corn cob. My goal isn't super clean, just enough to get the junk off. My media is pretty bad by the time I decide to throw it out. I would guess on average mine runs for 3-4 hours a week and has yet to let me down. I'm not reloading huge numbers but usually run three batches of brass a week.
 
I have two Berry's and like them.

I replaced my old Midway 1292 with a Frankfort Arsenal. I hated the Frankfort and have retired it. It was too loud and unreliable. It kept breaking the wires.

Berry supplies tumblers to several other vendors. I think Cabela's is one of them. The private label Berry units are made with different color bowls.
 
I don't have anything to compare it to, but my Lyman turbo-something has been getting the job done for many years.
 
I have two Thumler's UV-18's and one Berry's tumbler. You won't go wrong with either of those units.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
The Berry's tumbler, Graf GR400, and the Cabela's model 400 are all one and the same. All built right here in the U.S.A. bt Berry Mfg. Everything is U.S. on them except for the motor whgich there is no U.S. supplyer for that motor so it needs to be outsourced.

Need more be said!
 
I haven't found a nickles worth of effective difference with any vib. tumbler. All they are is a plastic base-bowl-lid with a small AC induction motor and a few springs. They are held together with a metal rod and a couple of nuts, most of the noise and much of the agitation is controlled by the single nut holding the bowl on.

Cheap electric motors have cheap bearings. The maker buyers have no way to know exactly how good each individual motor they buy is. When motors heat up the oil dries out and will eventually stall; that will burn the motor out. It will help - a lot - if the user puts a few drops of slow drying, non-gumming oil on the two shaft bearings when he notices the motor begins to start sluggish. The quality of small motors varies.

The whole point of a vib tumbler is to viberate and that means the electric wires are prone to break off but that's an easy repair.

I believe the Berry's and it's different versions are the best deals; they do have Chinese motors (as most others do too) but they have ball bearing motors that are superiour to simple bronze sleeve bearings used by some others. RCBS may be the worst 'deal' because of the high cost.
 
I've had a Dillon tumbler for 25 years and it's still going strong. Have no idea who made it.
 
I have no issues with my Frankford Arsenal unit. It's been running at least 20 hours per week due to an abundance of range pickups. It's not noisier than any other unit. No vibratory tumbler will be quiet. They aren't designed that way. There is nothing on it that I can't fix if it breaks.


Brought to you by TapaTalk.
 
I bought a vibrator tumbler over 15 years ago and it still works just fine. My favorite, though, is a Thumbler Tumbler Model B that I bought in 1973.
 
dragon813gt said:
No vibratory tumbler will be quiet. They aren't designed that way.
Click to expand...

Right, they all make noise. Some alot more than others.

With the Frankfort vibrating tumbler, you could be anywhere in my house and there was no doubt that the tumbler was running. With the old Midway or the new Berrys you have to stand in the room directly above the tumbler to hear them.

In two years, I repaired the wires on my Frankfort tumbler three times. In 15 years with the Midway tumbler, only once. They are meant to vibrate and some failure is to be expected, but...

I have had one Berry tumbler for three years and it has yet to need any repairs. The second Berry tumbler is less than a year old. (I run one for cleaning off range grime, the other for polishing.)

I have better things to do with my time than constantly fixing a tumbler because it fails at an inopportune time.
 
"I like the fan in my Berry's tumbler, it helps keep the motor cool. "

I like Berry's but, in fairness snd so far as I KNOW, they all have fan blades on the motor shaft. But things sometimes change and they don't always notify me --- why not, I don't know. ??

Anyone having repeated problems with power wires breaking off a tumbler motor should solder the connection and then coat the whole joint with a moderately thick layer of RTV silicon, including up over the plastic insulation a quarter inch or so. That rubbery stuff will shift viberation stresses up the wire so the strands won't work harden and snap off so easily.
 
I bought a Lyman Turbo 1200 several years ago.
It's still goin strong.

The only thing I don't like is there's no on/off switch.
So I bought a switch & made a 1 ft extension cord.
If this tumbler dies I still have the on/off extension cord for the next tumbler.
 
I have run a pair of Berry's into the ground and they still keep right on trucking, polishing tens of thousands of rounds, running 24-7 for months at a time only stopping to change the brass. I give them two thumbs up.
Trying out a Harbor Freight 18# tumbler, as much as it may seem to be a lot more capacity, it really isn't twice as much as I thought it would be. The cement mixer was a better large-capacity tumbler, wish I hadn't ruined it by mixing cement in it... :(
 
ranger335v said:
Anyone having repeated problems with power wires breaking off a tumbler motor should solder the connection and then coat the whole joint with a moderately thick layer of RTV silicon, including up over the plastic insulation a quarter inch or so. That rubbery stuff will shift viberation stresses up the wire so the strands won't work harden and snap off so easily.
Click to expand...

Right, but...

More than just the feed wires to the motor required repair in my Frankfort tumbler, but also chafed wires on the motor windings.

I should not have to disassemble a new piece of gear to fix assembly issues that should have been taken care of at the factory.
 
"I should not have to disassemble a new piece of gear to fix assembly issues that should have been taken care of at the factory."

Fully agree. But... if you're standing there with a busted tool that you need and it can be corrected in a few minutes then ... maybe...?
 
ranger335v said:
"I should not have to disassemble a new piece of gear to fix assembly issues that should have been taken care of at the factory."

Fully agree. But... if you're standing there with a busted tool that you need and it can be corrected in a few minutes then ... maybe...?
Click to expand...

Right. To fix the wires properly on a tumbler requires more than a few minutes. I do not just solder the wires back but make adjustments to get the stress off the solder joints. Also, there is the down time waiting for RTV to cure.

After the third repair in two years of use, I ordered a new tumbler from Berry Mfg. I retired the Frankfort tumbler before to quit a fourth time.

Actually, the Frankfort tumbler ran trouble free for about a year, so three repairs in a year.

My 15 plus year old Midway 1292 still works and has required wire repair once. It serves as backup should one of the Berrys stop working.
 
jcwit said:
The Berry's tumbler, Graf GR400, and the Cabela's model 400 are all one and the same. All built right here in the U.S.A. bt Berry Mfg. Everything is U.S. on them except for the motor whgich there is no U.S. supplyer for that motor so it needs to be outsourced.

Need more be said!
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was going to say. I'm using the Green one for several years now and it's a great tumbler.
 
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