I've been using a vibratory tumbler to clean brass for quite a while. Does a pretty good job. Then came the Rotary Tumbler, and stories of used brass clean as new, even the primer pockets. However, the old tumbler is still running fine, and the rotary types are a bit spendy.
Then came one of those damned 'Clearance!' e-mails from Midway, and they had the Lyman Cyclone rotary on sale. Really on sale. And I decided to get one.
For those not used to this, a vibratory tumbler has a bowl you fill with either chopped corn cob or crushed walnut hull media, to which you can add some cleaning stuff. You dump some brass in, turn it on, the vibration causes the media and cases to work their way around in the bowl, letting the media scrub the powder fouling and such off the brass. A rotary tumbler uses a drum which you fill partway with cases, a few pounds of media made of small stainless steel pins, and enough water to cover with a little cleaner added. Seal the lid, put the drum in place and turn things on, and the drum rotates for however long you choose, and the pins help clean all the fouling off with the water and cleaner helping clean and providing a bit of polish.
The rotary comes with a sample packet of Lyman's cleaning solution(which works well), but a bit of research showed a lot of people just use a bit of Dawn dish soap and a little Lemi Shine, which is a dishwasher additive, so I decided to give a try. Loaded the drum with a bunch of .303 British brass that had been tumbled with walnut hull and some cleaner, some .30-06 in the same state, and half a dozen HXP and Lake City cases that'd been picked up at the range. These I deprimed so the pockets could be cleaned. Here's some of the .303
The half-dozen .30-06 in question looked like this(yes, I know, there's only five in the picture)
All went into the drum with the pins, water to cover, a small squirt of soap and probably about a teaspoon of Lemi Shine, then the unit was run for about an hour and a half.
NOTE: This was the mix I used when I started. Now I use the water, one or two drops of Dawn dish soap, and 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar. Can get it at the grocery store, it's cheap, and it really works. Man named Don, who was a bank of reloading knowledge, now sadly departed, who told me about it.
The unit comes with two sifters, one to separate the brass and media, the other with fine screen to catch the media. However, the manual does mention that if you have a case/media separator(mine's RCBS), you can pour the case/media/liquid from the drum into it and use it to separate the media out, then pour the water/media into the fine sifter screen to catch the pins. Works beautifully. Then after poured the mix into the screen, I poured some fresh water over the cases, tumbled again to both rinse and get any pins still hiding, and poured that through the pins to rinse them, then spread all the brass on a towel in the back of the truck in the sun to dry.
Here's how the stuff looked after:
I'm sold. If you need/want a tumbler, I'd suggest saving up for the rotary.
No, not throwing the vibratory out, it's still useful. This is the "I want it REALLY cleaned out" tool.
Pluses and Minuses
The vibratory type costs less, less to mess with, does a decent job of cleaning. You have to replace your media regularly as it gets cruddy.
The rotary is more expensive, you have water and additives to mess with, does a really good job of cleaning, including the primer pockets and flash holes. The media will last forever(except for any you lose).
6 comments:
You can pickup a magnet from amazon, harbor freight, etc. to police the stainless pins. I got one with a disconnect handle that makes getting all the pins back in one place really easy.
I’ve been rocking the same Lyman rotary tumbler about 15 months now. The only real limitation is time oriented. When you tumble a lot of brass, several hundred pieces at a time, it takes longer for the brass to get clean and you may need to tumble a couple more hours. 100-200 pieces can usually make it in 2 hours, but more may take 2-4 hours tumbling to achieve a good clean/shine. I just use Lemi-shine, and maybe some soap but you don’t need much.
The other issue is waiting for the brass to dry. Easy in the summer, just let it bake in the sun. Not so easy in winter.
Even so, I haven’t used the vibratory tumblers since.
I found getting a rotary media separator helps a lot too. I got one from Frankford Arsenal. Once done sifting the pins, I hose them down, dump in the F/A rotary separator, cover and give them about a minute or 2 to drop out the pins. Again, doing a smaller number of cases helps speed things along getting the pins out.
got one a few years ago, and never looked back. the pins will last until you lose them. or get a cheap pick up magnet to find all the ones you miss.
makes pick up range brass look brand new. pick up a spare de-primer tool for range brass to "save" your good one
What about the ultrasonic cleaners?
I have one and i'm not happy with the way it cleans. Brass still tarnished but clean.
Exile1981
I've been using an old Thumler's Tumbler two tub rotary for years.
I don't shoot thousands of rounds a month so I can afford to leave them running for several hours or overnight with regular dry media. The tumbler runs quietly enough that noise is a non-issue.
I tried the Dawn/Lemishine/pin liquid media but found that if you get busy and forget about it the chemicals can eat the brass.
Running them with regular dry media gets them clean enough inside and out my me. The biggest downside is you need to be careful when you dump them. The dust has some lead contamination from the primers so I do it outside and wear a mask.
My experience mirrors yours, right down to the Lyman Cyclone, which I have had for about two years now. Vibratory is a Thumbler's which I have had for decades. When we lived in Northern California, a buddy and I bought crushed walnut shells for media at the local feed store, IIRC about $10 for a 40lb. bag. Still have a 5 gallon bucket full.
Just curious how long your run time was on your brass. I find about an hour is enough unless the brass is really nasty. I have around 1500 military 308 cases that are range pick-ups and too cruddy to run through a sizing die. I bought a Lee de-capping die to knock out the primers before going into the Cyclone.
For the rounds I shoot, I just size the as I normally would and dump them in the Cyclone lube and all. I use RCBS lube and lube pad because I wound up with a lifetime supply of that lube.
For the soap part of the solution, I use this stuff--
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Armor-All-Ultra-Shine-Wash-and-Wax-64-FL-OZ-Bottle/16817381
--a couple capfulls (I don't measure, I just eyeball it). I find the mix is about right if you still have some "suds" in the mix when your finished.
Now and then a few steel pins will escape. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a cheap magnet. Put the magnet in an empty margarine tub and use that to sweep for pins. Hold tub over open Cyclone, remove magnet, pins fall off into Cyclone.
I have a couple of friends that pooled their $$ and bought a small cement mixer with a plastic(?) shell. They use it with large amounts of brass. Steel pins for cleaning.
They say it works great.
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