Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler 7L

[bob1285]

$122.41 on Amazon

 

[bob1285]

WOW! $119.96 Now on Amazon

 

[Demi-human]

If your batches are not terribly large, I think this is the best way to get started.

 

[JO JO]

The price is lower by the hour, I started a thread a few down from yours on this might need to get a second one at this price

 

[bob1285]

$117.46 Amazon Now, If it gets any lower I will buy a second one.

 

[mmorris]

I'm a bit confused by two threads... don't mean to be redundant

I'd like to slow the speed a little, and the gears rule out easy mechanical changes. Is this motor OK with a speed control, like for a router?

 

[2011redrider]

Just looked and seems to be 156. Is there a link?

 

[JO JO]

the sale is over its back at the normal price

 

[brewer12345]

OK, so I grabbed one on sale and it arrived today. Stupid questions:

- I mostly reload handgun rounds (38, 357, 44 mag, etc.). Do I need to tumble with the pins, or will it do a good enogh job without the pins?

- What does everyone use as a cleaner? Just buy the Frankford cleaning solution? Something else?

 

[otisrush]

I haven't done much experimenting tumbling without pins, but with them you'll get MUCH cleaner brass - including inside the case and the primer pockets. (Deprime before tumbling.)

No need for anything special cleaning material wise. Dawn dish soap and a little Lemishine is all you need.

OR

 

[brewer12345]

How much detergent and lemishine do you use?

 

[9mmepiphany]

- I mostly reload handgun rounds (38, 357, 44 mag, etc.). Do I need to tumble with the pins, or will it do a good enogh job without the pins?

For handgun brass I don't use the pins. If you aren't using the pins, you also don't need to deprime...because you don't need the flow through the length of the case

- What does everyone use as a cleaner? Just buy the Frankford cleaning solution? Something else?

I'm using Lemi-shine...about a .45ACP case full. If you aren't using pins, you'll need a bit more Lemi shine than is usually recommended

...and Armor-all Wash & Wax...just a small dollop. You'll have to adjust the amount of detergent to the hardness of your water. You don't want a lot of suds, just enough to help the loosened material slide off the case

 

[Englishmn]

The Frankford cleaning solution works very well.
Better than Dawn and lemi-shine for me.

 

[Dudedog]

I use Armor All or Formula one wash and Wax and a dab of citric acid. (available in canning supplies at the grocery store)
I would imagine most flavors of wash and wax would work.
Maybe not necessary but I deprime first and use the pins.
I like the nice clean primer pockets.
Wet tumbling is a little more work but does a much better job IMO.

 

[brewer12345]

FWIW I tried tumbling a load of 38 Special brass in my new FART today. I used the included sample of Franklin brass cleaner and chose to forgo the pins this time around. After 2 hours of tumbling I drained it and rinsed thoroughly, then spread the cases out in the sun to dry. They look clean enough to me. Outside is nice and shiny. The insides of the cases vary a bit, but none of them have any buildup. I may eventually use the pins (especially on rifle brass), but for now I think I will leave the pins out of the straight walled brass tumbling.

 

[Ruger 15151]

- I mostly reload handgun rounds (38, 357, 44 mag, etc.). Do I need to tumble with the pins, or will it do a good enogh job without the pins?

I have been using this tumbler for a while. Its awesome. Tried lots of cleaning solutions and found this to work the best:

- 2 squirts of DAWN 2x concentrate
- 1/2 tablespoon of LemiShine
and the ingredient that most people haven't discover....
- 2 heaping tablespoons of Cream of Tartar

I tumble for 30 minutes with just Dawn & LemiShine to get the dirt off before decaping and resizing ( dont want to scratch my carbide dies)
Then I tumble for 2 1/2 hours with the Dawn, LemiShine, and Cream of Tartar in HOT water. I then rinse in cold water with a 1/2 teaspoon of LemiShine to neutralize the acidic properties of the Detergent before I lay them out to dry.

You will find that the brass looks like it was brand new. However, depending how long you keep it before reloading, it will eventually start to discolor again, even in airtight containers. Therefore, I will dry tumble it in corn cob media and polish for about 15 minutes after reloading it to bring it back to that brand new shine.

Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

 

[JO JO]

I then rinse in cold water with a 1/2 teaspoon of LemiShine to neutralize the acidic properties of the Detergent before I lay them out to dry.

isn't lemishine acidic ? I thought the dawn is the cleaning agent and the lemishine is the acidic agent ?
many of us have switched from dawn to armor all wash and wax, this leaves a touch of wax/protection on the brass and it wont re-tarnish as easy or as fast as the dawn, I have brass I have wet tumble just shy of a year ago with the wash and wax and it is still looking good no dry tumbling needed, at least for me it works great

 

[Ruger 15151]

I have found that the car wash and wax doesn't get my brass as shiny. I also did a side by side test and the cases cleaned in Armorall car wash and wax started to change color just as quickly as the Dawn and LemiShine. It stays shiny of course, just not bright yellow like new brass.

 

[JO JO]

so you are using Cream of Tartar to boost the lemi shines acidity ?
never read of using cream of tarter when brass cleaning,

 

[Ruger 15151]

Just google it. You will find it used for general brass cleaning and shell cleaning in Ultrasonic and wet tumblers cleaning solutions. Its a bit expensive so if your are not anal about shine brass and perfectly clean primer pockets, it may not be worth the cost for you.

 

[Ruger 15151]

Do I need to tumble with the pins, or will it do a good enough job without the pins?

So guys say you only need the SS pins for cleaning the inside of the shell and the primer pockets. However, I get shinier brass when I use them. I would highly recommend you pick up the Franklin Magnet as well. It makes dealing with the pins MUCH easier.

for those of you that need extra pins, this website sells them for a great price:

https://rockeybrass.com/product/stainless-tumbling-media/

I add extra to my tumbler when I am processing a large number of shells. I find it cuts my cleaning time dramatically.

 

[JO JO]

highly recommend you pick up the Franklin Magnet as well

yes this makes life easier, happy with mine

 

[GBExpat]

isn't lemishine acidic

Apparently, the active ingredient in Lemishine is citric acid.

Many of us use bulk-purchase citric acid powder/granules.

 

[JO JO]

active ingredient in Lemishine is citric acid

You are correct, that's what I meant using Lemi shine to naturalize cream of tartar acid may be the cause of the brass changing color in an air tight container, I have always understood that to much acid will cause brass to change color , anyway is just my opinion

 

[maxxhavoc]

I have been using Armor All Wash and Wax/Lemishine as well. I leave the primers in. I added 2.5 lbs of pins a year or so ago, it handles larger loads of brass. From here:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IER21M6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use more Armor All than most, 3 capfuls, and about 1tsp or so of Lemishine. When I was using 1 capful, I needed to do a run with no cases every so often or the cases would start to get gray sludge on them. Increasing the soap has made this unnecessary.

After receiving 2000 dirty 38 special brass yesterday, I decided to play around with runtimes. For a quart ziplock of cases (250-300 cases):
-1 hour vs 2 hours looked the same. Shiny perfection.
-1/2 hour was 95% as shiny, insides weren't quite as clean.
-45 minutes was close enough to 1 hour that I couldn't tell them apart when mixed.

Even the 1/2 hour was leaps and bounds above my experience with dry tumblers. And I would have never been able to fully clean 2000 cases in 1 day with one either.