Why didn't someone tell me?

[berettaprofessor]

Have you been living under a rock?

Have you not ever looked at any gun/reloading catalogs?

Do you not even shop, or browse online??m

How could you NOT know??

Some of us newbies (well, me), are just a little bit slow, Reinz

And I find reloading catalogues to be a bit.....boring, so I've never entirely looked through one. Got plenty of other good john reading material.

 

[Elkins45]

I never throw anything away, so I imagine that somewhere in the dark recesses of my barn or the basement there's a half gallon plastic ice cream container with a bunch of 3/8 holes drilled in the bottom. That was my first media separator, made about 30 years ago.

I have a commercial one now and I think it does a batter job.

 

[surveyor]

Professor..
Like you, I got tired of media in cases, but I started with the sifting pan a year ago when I got started. I found it worked ok on pistol brass but still left media in rifle brass...I got tired of shaking the media out of rifle cases like a salt shaker..

The design like rcmodel has solves that nicely, like another poster mentioned I think dillon saw it as well and like the saying goes "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" so I got the small cm 500.. it handles the load from my tumbler of 38 special brass, and I have used it for 45,9, 38, 223,6mm, 308, and 10 turns in one direction then 10 turns in the other direction all the media is separated.

Yes there are less expensive ways to do it, but I wanted to solve the problem forever.

This was the last tedious aspect of loading for me to solve.

The others were trimming, rifle case prep, and weighing of charges with powder that did not meter well...

Lots of diffrent ways to get there, but they all share one common element...
They require Opening the wallet....

I ended up with this to separate media
http://www.stu-offroad.com/firearms/reloading/dillon/cv500/cv500-1.htm

This to trim cases
http://www.dayattherange.com/?p=3219

This to prep cases
http://www.locknloadblog.com/2012/03/rcbs-trim-mate-case-prep-center-review.html

And this to weigh and dispense powder
http://www.chuckhawks.com/rcbs_chargemaster1500.htm

 

[horseman1]

Cool ideas here.

I'm reduced to using a $ store colander at the moment, since the house representative has currently stopped all the funding of my executive reloading orders.

H1

 

[TexasDon]

Let me clear something up please.
I don't like shaking a colander over a 5 gallon bucket any more than anyone else...So....the full story is I have an extra 5 gallon bucket that has been cut down to about 6" tall. I then put a large hole in the bottom of it where it will sit on top of my vibrating cleaner "tumbler". ( Or I could bolt it to the main rod for the top) Then my regular 5 gallon bucket sits in the cut down one with the colander full of brass and media.
Then I turn the tumbler on for a few minutes.

So you say that a small tumbler won't vibrate very well with all that weight on it???

Well, my tumbler is not small. it's a Burr-King 200 Not exactly a small one. And NO I did not pay $900 for it, bought it at a small business that closed it's doors for $100 full of ceramic media which was worth about $100 by itself. It was a GREAT find......

It works OK to remove media, but not as good as a rotary media separator. I WILL make one soon.
I just like to make stuff that I can, and keep my money for things I can't make..




TxDoN

 

[berettaprofessor]

Surveyor, all those are perfect if you primarily reload rifle. But I maybe reload 20 rifle cartridges a year vs lots of pistol. I need numbers and speed. I promise I'll consider all this stuff if I stsrt reloading 5.56.

 

[surveyor]

BP,
I understand...pistol is less an issue as case mouths are larger and media falls out easier..
That is probabally why I upgraded the media separator last..

While I initially started loading 9 mm last year, then 38 and 45, the caliber count and die sets increased..
It is up to 10 calibers now..so I have seen my needs, processes, and equipment change over time..

Pistol loading stayed the same, the media separator helps over the pan for speed and ease..

But like you, I wish I would have known it when I started.

 

[Bongo Boy]

Wow. All I do is pull the rubber plug out of the bottom of my Lyman and in 30 seconds there's the brass--completely separated, no media inside or out. Pour the brass out into the box, plug the tumbler, put the media back in, load with brass. Repeat. It's about the coolest thing in my shop and it's run 24x7 for weeks at a time (not exactly intentionally). Had it for about 5 years now. May not work as well for bottle neck cases, that's for sure. For 40SW, 10mm and 45ACP, it's fast and easy.

Fact is though, I don't tumble brass at all any more--if I want it clean on the inside and with spotless, bright primer pockets--then it's ultrasonic for about 5 minutes with no dust in my dies, on my hands and all over the shop. Gotta let 'em dry though, so there's always a trade.

 

[jcwit]

I can do 300 cases in less than a minute, I doubt you can come anywhere close to that by hand.

Wanna bet?

 

[quartermaster]

I have 2 Lyman 2200s. They have a plug on the bottom which upon removing, all the media drains into an included pan. When the media has drained out, one can simply shuffle the cases around and most of the cases will be empty. Works great for me.

 

[thump_rrr]

Just wait till you all figure out how much better wet tumbling with stainless media is.
You'll never go back to a vibratory tumbler or ultrasonic ever again.

 

[Sport45]

I picked up a litter box with a nested strainer at the dollar store. Works great.

 

[oneounceload]

I bought a plastic colander at the dollar store for $1 to use - works great. It sits perfectly in an old round dishwasher detergent plastic pail

 

[lightman]

I use the larger rotary Dillon separator now but I started out with a tub and a worn out french fry basket. The Dillon is nice but it takes up a lot of room.

 

[CZ9shooter]

I use an old deep fryer basket my mom gave me. It fits perfectly inside a bucket and even has little hooks that grip the outer lip of the bucket. Just hook it on and dump the tumbler in. Shake it around for a minute and done.

 

[788Ham]

Rule3,
You act, or sound like dust is a bad thing, afraid to wash your hands after handling? Geez, ever been outside when the wind blows dust and dirt around? C'mon........

 

[Toprudder]

The dust is a bad thing when it has primer residue in it. Inhaling it exposes you to lead.

 

[oneounceload]

If you work the brass gently, then any dust is minimum at best. Using those tumbling devices to clean out the media raises more dust than me using a (gloved) hand to gently roll the cases in my colander. BTW, my vibratory tumbler has a solid lid so no dust from there either.

 

[kostner]

Have used these for years and make life easier.http://www.dillonprecision.com/content/p/9/pid/25434/catid/8/Shell_Sorter