I had to tumble my tumbler.

[DudeRick]

After literally tens of thousands of rounds through my Thumblers Tumbler over several years, the brass was starting to come out looking worse than when it went in. Since the drum is black rubber on the tumbler, I never really noticed any build up. I ran it through a self cleaning for several hours with only the pins and a heavy cleaning solution. The water came out as black as if it had been full of dirty brass. Looks like it might be a good idea to clean our cleaners once in a while, the stainless steel pins don't show the need for attention the way that dirty ground walnut media did.

 

[Sunray]

Most likely the rubber deteriorating vs the pins. Just like a tire on pavement beating it with SS pins will do that to rubber. Mind you, rubber deteriorates all by itself. Can you change the rubber easily?

 

[mahansm]

The rubber liner on a Thumler's B pulls right out of the metal can. There's even a vent hole to allow it to be removed easily. It's available as a spare, along with the lid gasket and wingnuts/washers for around $50.

I had the opposite problem; I put my tumbler on a timer and then left it on my bench with the barrel sitting end up on the rollers. You guessed it, the barrel hit the floor when the timer tripped again, denting the barrel rim and spilling 5 pound of pins across the floor. I'm still finding the odd pin here and there.

 

[Reefinmike]

Even our cleaning stuff requires maintenance periodically. Have you ever found yourself cleaning your vacuum cleaner thinking that in that moment, you yourself are a vacuum cleaner?