I want to start ss tumbling

[Cali_Ed]

Hello guys are the harbor freight rock tumblers adequate? Running about 50 bucks

Edited October 30, 2014 by Cali_Ed

[Matt.Cross]

They've got good reviews, it doesn't hurt to be smart enough to not overload them. Saves belt repair anyways. If you have a scale to keep your brass and media weights right, you should be fine with it.

[Cali_Ed]

Ok, another question I have is about lemi shine. Read it can turn your brass orange if it tumbles to long

[shibiwan]

Ok, another question I have is about lemi shine. Read it can turn your brass orange if it tumbles to long

 

Only use a tiny bit of lemi shine and do not tumble overnight. The brass tarnished when I got greedy in my experiment. 1-2 hours of tumbling in a vibratory tower worked for me.

[survivalshop]

  I use a 45ACP case full of Lemi shine & tumble for three hours & don't forget the two squirts of liquid dish soap & warm water .

[Cali_Ed]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm just deciding if I want to get a cts trimmer first or the tumbler

[shibiwan]

Tumble first. Trimming clean cartriges beats doing the same thing on dirty ones.

[Cali_Ed]

Great advice thank you sir. Is ss media only d found only or do local shops carry it

[shibiwan]

I'm using a mix of pins and jeweler's tumbling media (more pins than the jeweler's media).

 

Bought it off ebay.

 

http://stores.ebay.com/guntapcom/ (for the pins)

 

http://stores.ebay.com/jetsjewelerstoolsandsupplies/?_dmd=2&_nkw=media  (jeweler's media - get the mix)

Edited October 31, 2014 by shibiwan

[Cali_Ed]

How do you dry them brother?

I orderd two and a half pounds I figure the harbor freight tumbler probably only holds about a pound of media

Edited October 31, 2014 by Cali_Ed

[shibiwan]

On a pizza pan with paper towels on it. Then I hijack my wife's warming drawer and stick it in there for about 45 mins.

 

LIke this:

 

Done:

Edited October 31, 2014 by shibiwan

[survivalshop]

 Air dry on a towel , move them around once in a while . I'm never in a hurry to reload a tumbled batch & 24 hr's they should be dry , unless you have very high Humidity.

 

  Just remember the weight of the water in there also , so you will have to experiment on what ratios to put in there. I use two pounds of SS media in my rock tumbler & fill it 2/3's of the way with water /with brass & Media in it . My rock tumbler is at least twenty five years old  .

[Cali_Ed]

I picked up my harbor freight two drum tumbler man are those things tiny. I can fit 43 pieces(per drum) of 308 in it which amounts to about a 1lb. Probably about a pound of media then what remains water? I get my media in tomorrow already have my lemi shine and dish soap :) it's going to take a while to tumble 400 of these bad boys.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Cali_Ed

[Cali_Ed]

First batch out of the oven

primer pockets weren't super shiny as I thought it would be still some blackish around the flash hole tumbled for two hours

Edited November 5, 2014 by Cali_Ed

[98Z5V]

That's beautiful brass - seriously.  <thumbsup>

[survivalshop]

   Its clean & that's what you need for reloading. You can tumble them in normal Walnut or Corn cob type media after loading if you want to shine them up better & also remove your finger oils from them , from reloading , because the oils from your hands can discolor them with time .

 

   Clean ammo will cause less wear to chamber .

[shibiwan]

   Its clean & that's what you need for reloading. You can tumble them in normal Walnut or Corn cob type media after loading if you want to shine them up better & also remove your finger oils from them , from reloading , because the oils from your hands can discolor them with time .

 

   Clean ammo will cause less wear to chamber .

 

I seal the primer pockets and re-tumble them in SS for that final cleaning. No issues so far. :D

Edited November 7, 2014 by shibiwan

[Cali_Ed]

You guys tumble the loaded ammo?

[shibiwan]

only if I want them to look pretty....but I use a vibratory tumbler. Not the drum kind.

Edited November 7, 2014 by shibiwan

[planeflyer21]

You guys tumble the loaded ammo?

 

 

only if I want them to look pretty....but I use a vibratory tumbler. Not the drum kind.

 

 

One instructor around here does that with his good "surplus deals" he gets.

 

He's also the only that says "There was something wrong with that ammo which blew up my rifle...at first I thought it was my reloads but it was that surplus."

 

Two rifles down so far.

[survivalshop]

  I read an article from some engineer , may have been in ARFCOM , he did microscopic examination of loaded ammo ,with photo's ,of smokeless powder after different lengths of time in a tumbler & Chronograph results  & it showed none or very little difference in powder granule size or Velocity results .

  That showed me that what I was doing by tumbling live ammo , made no difference in the make up or outcome of doing so .The only ones I don't tumble after loading is most HP bullets , I hate digging that crap out of the HP cavity .