Tumbler - What Else?

Only brass, but ive never thought of trying anything else. Now you got my mind turning. BTW there are much easier ways to shine a penny

rusty dies..
loaded ammo for a final clean/polish...

I shave with a straight razor, and have read that a tumbler will do an excellent job of polishing a blade that has water marks or even some rust. Haven't tried it myself though.

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They work pretty good on rusty dies if the rust isn't too bad. I've bought a couple of used die sets and the tumbler cleaned them right up.

I've put in old dies that have a rusty patina to them, and L.E. Wilson case holders and cartridge gauges that are bare steel come out looking brand new. I've put in small steel tools that have corrosion on them also.

When I've got pretty well used, worn out media in there, I've tossed in some weird stuff that works pretty well... once I had a couple ounces of Hoppes #9 that I tossed in, then put in some old dies and ran them a couple of hours. They came out looking surprisingly new. I think I got the idea here on this forum a while back, but now I have a totally open mind about what to toss in the tumbler!

Lately, I have been polishing primed cases with no ill effects whatsoever.

A vibratory tumbler can do many things, but not with corncob as a media. There are quite a few different medias to choose from depending what you are trying to achieve. Google it.

Don't you guys ever watch "how its made" on science channel?

I actually just got done tumbling 100 rds of finished .45ACP.

Where I used to work we tumbled brass antenna pieces.

I've tumbled lot of live ammo that I get from the CMP. It's filthy after being in storage for decades. Corn cob media with a dollop of Mother's Aluminum Polish makes it look like brand new!

Good idea tumbling rusty dies. I just cleaned up a set last week with a wire wheel. Wish I had thought of using the tumbler.

I use a walnut shell media. I was getting it at Walmart in the pet section. I bought up the rack and haven't needed to buy any in a few years. They should still have something similar in bags. Cheap stuff and it works great. I might try some polish when i do my next batch of cases.

So far I've only tumbled brass.
But I got a set of dies that rusted for some reason.
They're kept inside right next to all my other dies.
But only one set rusted (just a bit)

For some reason I thought tumbling live ammo was a no no. I would live to shine up the HXP I have.

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That myth has been defeated by our members of the reloading forum here on THR.

TenDriver said:

For some reason I thought tumbling live ammo was a no no. I would live to shine up the HXP I have.

I switched to a 50/50 mix of corn cob and walnut shell media recently. Good results but still a little dusty.

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I'm tumbling a bunch of HXP I just got today at this very minute. And probably will be non-stop for the next 10 days....

May I present, my Tumbler From Hell. Today was the maiden voyage, results were quite good, had to stop after 2.5 hrs. because of rain. There's 25# of SS media in there and 20# of .30-06 brass. Click on pic to run video. Yeah, it slops a little foam out, gotta work on that.



Results.





Almost a full Flat Rate Box full in one load. Woulda ran more, but didn't have any more.



Next up, a mix of .45acp/.45 Colt/.44 Mag. And whatever else I can find that won't nest together.

rondog, I do mine a hundred at a time. Do they make itty, bitty ones like that?

I've thrown some Armscor FMJBT bullets in mine. They're filthy compared to Hornady bullets.

Rondog, that's impressive.

RonDog,

Is that a cement mixer? Thats engenius!!!

rondog, I do mine a hundred at a time. Do they make itty, bitty ones like that?

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That IS an itty bitty mixer! It's only waist-high, and I can pick the thing up even with my bad back. It's only 1.25 cu. ft. That's why I bought it, it was small and cheap. I caught it on sale at Harbor Freight, and used a 20% off coupon, total was $117 out the door. Now, the 25 lbs. of SS pins was another story, that was $184 for 25 lbs., minimum order.

Think about it, I ran ALL of that brass in ONE load! A 2.5 gallon bucket full of .30-06.

I use a 4 cubic foot Kobalt concrete mixer from Lowes. I would have bought a normal tumbler but I already had the mixer and an ultra sonic cleaner. Stainless pins are a little pricey for me though so I just use a few pounds of corn cob. If I really want something to shine it goes in the ultra sonic after the corn cob. Still not as good as those pins appear to be but good enough for me.

Thats a pretty ingenious idea Ron, case mouths on some look a tad bit banged up, but resizing them will take care of that. Good idea my friend!

Friend of mine and I used to use a BIG cement mixer when we had our gun shop from 06-09. I ran the gun side, he did the reloading component side. We were buying brass in bulk from government auctions and Talon, reselling it. We'd tumble thousands of cases a shot (except 50 BMG, we'd only get about 500 of those in each batch). We used corn cob media, got it from a grain silo in mount pleasant that made blasting / polishing media. Was about $4 per 50 lb bag of corn media, if I recall correctly. We used to buy it by the 1,000 lb pallet.

The only downside to running a big mixer 24/7 was electricity cost... and some jimmy-rigged soundproofing in his shed to stop neighbor complaints.

In my stainless steel media tumbler I have tumbled one of those hollow rocks ( geode?) that is hollow & sparkly on the inside. Shined it up very nice for the kids.
+1 on sticking dull loaded rounds in the vibratory. Shines up well & no unplanned kabooms. (Yet)