tumbler recommendation

I have nothing to compare it to, but the STM I have works well. Holds about 350-400 223R cases, cleans up nice in a couple of hours. It doesn't seem too loud to me, but, with my hearing, nothing does.

I think the fart is louder is the gear drive instead of belt driven

Awesome! Once you try wet tumbling, you will never go back to dry tumbling again! (Actually, I sometimes dry tumble rifle brass to remove the sizing lubrication, but other than that...)

Congratulations, and welcome to the clean brass club!!!

I have the Lyman Cyclone and so far it has worked/is working well.
Car wash and wax and about a 9mm case full of citric acid. (citric acid is in the canning section of the supermarket)
You may need more or less acid depending on the PH of your water. High PH water = more acid.
Wet tumbling is a bit more work since you need to dry cases but worthwhile IMO.
Deprime the brass first and pockets come out spotless.

flexible, good to hear you like the method.

If you have a magnet laying around or find one in a hardware store locally you can put it in a plastic bag and use it to collect pins. The bag makes it easy to get the pins off the magnet.

Dave

flexible said:

my new STM tumbler!

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the STM is a sweet machine I have had mine for a bit now, I have found it to be quality built , it is a bit more money but it will last decades I bet plus the parts are all serviceable if ever needed I am
very happy with mine ,

My Homemade pin tumbler. 15 lbs of pins and about 25 lbs of cases. A bucket inside a bucket.

DRAINSMITH said:

I have had the new Hornady Brass tumbler on back order since 29 Oct. I am supposed to be getting it on the 17th of this month. I will be doing a side by side test with my FART. And I will let everyone know my thoughts.

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I have been looking into getting the new Hornady tumbler. But it is now four months into the year and it is still not out. I am beginning to think it is not coming out. Did you actually get yours yet?

i pickup a Thumblers Thumber UV18 in 1982. around 2005 the motor went out. i call them and they send me a new motor. the reason the motor broke was it was the type that i should have oiled every once in a while. but i did not. it had a hole in the motor that said oil here once a month. new motor has no oil hole. when i run brass in it i load it up and turn it on and walk away. sometimes times it has run 12 plus hours before i remember to turn it off. brass come out nice and clean.

flexible asked:
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Skip the expense of the store-bought models and build your own. Any suitable container with a screw-on lid will work or use sewer pipe with an end cap and a clean-out. I've also used a 1 gallon glass pickle jar and in spite of what you might assume, the brass hasn't caused it to break in several years of use. I've used a couple of material positioning rollers and the drive mechanism from a Texas Instruments printer (yes, they once made computer printers) but for heavier loads I've seen people have good luck re-purposing the drive mechanism from a treadmill. And given the number of people that buy treadmills with the best of intentions and then realize they don't want to walk in place for two miles at a time, you can usually find one for a song.

Greater volumetric capacity.
Flexibility in choice of tumbling containers.
Potentially much greater weight capacity.
Much lower cost.

I have a speaker magnet that fits the diameter of my sink - so I put that down there in case any pins escape while I am rinsing. Not cool to have them go down the drain.
I also put that magnet in a tupperware container to pick up stray pins too.
But, later I picked up a neodymium magnet with a 90 lb rating and if even 1 pin is left inside of brass - it picks up the entire shell. No leftover pins any longer - sweet.

Well, my Hornady tumbler is still on back order but my Hornady media tumbler has finally come in and will soon be shipped out to me. A review will so be coming.

JO JO said:

the STM is a sweet machine I have had mine for a bit now, I have found it to be quality built , it is a bit more money but it will last decades I bet plus the parts are all serviceable if ever needed I am
very happy with mine ,

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The STM 17 lb. tumbler looks like they took the Thumler design and did excellent improvements on it. I had to hunt around for the quick spin plastic knob replacements for the many wingnuts for my Model B. I am very happy with my Thumler, BUT if I were to buy a tumbler now I would definitely go the slightly higher price STM. Very cool to see a company make targeted improvements based on actual use.

Also nice to see the reloading companies are finally getting on board with stainless pin/wet tumblers.

I have a Thumlers for initial/power cleaning and a Dillon vibratory for removing lube. By not using corn cob to clean dirt it lasts a very long time. So now I practically have zero ongoing media expense.

DRAINSMITH said:

I have had the new Hornady Brass tumbler on back order since 29 Oct. I am supposed to be getting it on the 17th of this month. I will be doing a side by side test with my FART. And I will let everyone know my thoughts.

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Been 8 months now since it was announced. I seriously doubt now that they will ever be available.

I just spent about 1/2 hour trying to get this Thumbler 'T' (for tiny!) going, had to loosen up the shafts, then switch them, some one had the flywheel next to the motor.. I found it sitting on the tool box of my truck one day when I woke up-no one has fessed up to it. It sat in my shop all winter, boxed up, with agates half-polished in it. I had to clean all the rock polish grit out, but I finally did get it working. I wouldn't recommend necessarily going out and buying a new one, but the price was right in this case:

Update on the Hornady tumbler. Midway stated that they expected it in by May 1. When I found it to still on back order on 3 May I called Hornady and found out that they had received an order of tumblers in but R&D rejected them for not meeting standards, and wouldn't ship them out but rejected them. They are expecting a new shipment in by the end of July.

All though I am disappointed that I do not have my tumbler by now I am glad they rejected an inferior product. Because when I get mine I will give an honest review and I do want it to be all good. I will keep in contact with Hornady and pass on any updates.