Lyman 2500 tumbler with auto-flo

[brantfredrickson]

I just ordered but haven't received a Lyman 2500 with Auto-Flo from Opticsplanet.com. It is 108.99 shipped. My understanding is that the tumbler has to fill at least half full to reach good effectiveness. I'm going to use crushed walnut media that I bought from Petco. The trade name is Zilla Retile Bedding. It is about 6 lbs per gallon. The tumbler has a two gallon bowl. I intend to fill the tumbler half full with 6lbs of media(~1 gallon volume) then add 500 45 ACP(~6.5 lbs) shell at a time. The instuction manual recomends 6 lbs of media with 1000 .38spl shells(~10lbs) for about a total of 16 lbs. These are just figures in my head. Anyone got some real life experiences with 45 ACP shells in a Lyman 2500 using crush walnut media?

 

[GP100man]

when ya get the media in & start addin the brass (any brass) leave it runnin & when it just starts slowing down STOP!! you`ve reached the full effectiveness of machine & media. IME.

GP100man

 

[kestak]

Greetings,

If you want to add some extra shine to your brass, add 1-2 caps of Nu-Finish (Orange bottle). It makes a good difference.

Thank you

 

[brantfredrickson]

Nu-Finish

I happen to have a bottle in the garage. It has a great chemical de-oxidizer in it.

 

[tydephan]

Also, after you've drained your media (using the auto-flow port and pan), removed your brass from the tumbler, and go to fill the tumbler back up with the media...

...Remember to plug the port back up.



Or so I've read, you see...

 

[Wilburt]

I have the 2500 Auto flow. I usually fill it half way with media, maybe a bit more. I then fill it up with brass until full. I shake it a bit to put the top on. That usually turns out to be the right amount.

I tried using the auto flo feature and gave up. The problem is that the brass is bottom heavy. So the auto-flow gets all the excessive media out but leaves a lot still in the brass. I tired stirring and a few other tricks, but no dice. To me it's easyier to use the RCBS media seperator. I think I read on this forum somewhere that you have to tilt it or something while auto-floing.

 

[brantfredrickson]

Not rocket science, but gives the appearance of magic

Filled the tumber half full of crushed walnut, 500 45 ACP cases, and a dryer sheet cut into eighths. I don't know why I was so worried about getting this right, there seems to be a lot of leeway on what will work. Below is my first load.

 

[Roccobro]

I'd get the dryer sheets stuck on the inside wing nut. Changed it to a regular nut and cut down the threaded rod to speed up top wing nut removal/replacement.

I'm on my second 2500. MUCH quieter than the first that "only" lasted tumbling about 30k pieces of brass in less than a months time.

Heard there was a motor problem in a batch around my firsts tumblers time. I never sent mine in. Guilt stopped me as I felt I got my moneys worth.

Justin