Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Ultra sonic or stainless tumblers?

I sold my tumbler when moving and need to get set up again. If you could start from scratch would you go ultra sonic or wet stainless in a vibratory tumbler?

It has been a while but all of my cleaning in the past was a simple vib tumbler with corn cob.

The stainless pins and water don't work very well in a vibratory tumbler. You need a rotary tumbler for that.

If you do small lots <50, an ultrasonic works fine and you don't have to worry about pins in the flash holes. The SS pins can do a lot more cases at one time in a decent size tumbler. Results are similar. Pick your poison

I don't have an ultrasonic, but do have a SS setup, and am very impressed with the results.

Deprime before tumbling, and the cases come out very clean inside, outside, and also the primer pockets.

Ditto SS

How long do you guys typically tumble your cases in the SS pins? That uses a liquid medium as well, right?

I have both the ss is better . I was going to ditch the ultrasonic but found it very usefull in cleaning small parts especially trigger groups ar bolts and pistol slides. But just cleaning cases the ss is tops over every thing I have used

3 hr will do it and then some in my thumblers

The Ultrasonic is awesome for removing case lube, but not damaging carefully worked cases. For this reason alone, I feel its a mandatory addition to my bench. I never felt I could fully remove the case lube from my cases, but with the Ultrasonic it's a non issue. It definitely doesn't clean cases like a Vibratory or Rotary Tumbler though (talking brightness), so I tend to use it just for case lube and small parts as mentioned above.

The Rotary is great for cleaning cases, and in fact, is better than anything I've used, but you have to plan time for the drying cycle!

I dry the cases in the oven. Cookie sheet line with old towel or paper towels, cases on the sheet and into the oven for 20-25 minutes @ 170-190 degrees. Dries them out nicely and they are ready to go in a little over a half hour. In the summer you can set them outside on a nice sunny day.

Another vote for stainless media and a rotary tumbler. Dawn + Lemi-Shine & about 2-3 hours works awesome. I got the Frankford Arsenal unit for Christmas and have zero complaints.

Ok, seems pretty clean cut, I will give the stainless/rotary tumbler a go.

Get the larger SS pins. They won't stick in the flash holes.

Yep, good suggestion. Get the .047" ones, the .041" ones will double up in the primer flash hole.

My google fu is weak, what is the best source for the larger pins? When I pull up stainless tumbling media I dont see diameter shown.

Disregard, my google fu was strengthened by using the proper terms.

Good site for all things SS tumbling.

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/

I recently got the Frankford Arsenal tumbler and it comes with stainless media. When my brass comes out it looks almost "fake" it is so sparkling and clean

Do you guys use tap water or distilled water?

I use tap water (warm), 2 tablespoons dawn, and � teaspoon lemishine.

Do you guys always deprime? I have never been retentive about cleaning primer pockets but will the pins get trapped and damage my decap pin if I dont deprime first?

I have never tried it without depriming, but it may be possible for even the pins that are sized so as not to be trapped may do so. I don't know, just supposing.

The inexpensive Lee decapping die has worked very well for me, especially with crimped in primers, and it didn't break the bank.

I have run primed cases with the stainless pins.
I haven't had any pins stick in primed cases.

But the old primer residue will be wet. It takes longer for things to dry.

De-prime 1st and the primer pockets will be somewhat clean.

I run deprimed cases never have had a pin stuck in a flash hole , cases inside, outside, primer pockets and flash hole all come out looking brnad new !! I do belive there a like 3 sizes of pins , I don't remember what size mine are , they are bigger than the smallest so two can try to go through flash hole and hang up, but are still smalle enough to pass through , the biggest size won't pass through.

Yours are probably .047". It's the .041" ones that will stick two-at-a-time in the flash hole.

1/4 Tsp Lemi-Shine

Pick up a Lee Universal Decapping die and run your brass thru it prior to tossing in the tumbler. Then, you're good to go.

I usually set my tumbler on the bench and just as soon as the brass comes out of the decapping die, t goes immediately into the tumbler.

Here is a picture of a drying rack I made one afternoon. Usually let the brass dry overnight and it's ready to go the following day.

That's true. I ended up with 0.041" pins when I bought my kit, and I'd have two or three percent of cases with pins stuck in flash holes (.223 and 5.56 brass) when I started using it. I just tumbled 1000 cases though, and have loaded 500 of them and I have not seen a single case with pins stuck in the flash hole. I'm kinda puzzled over it but I suppose I'll be able to sleep at night even if I never know why.

Thank you again for all the help guys. I have the .047 pins, lemi-shine and a thumler tumbler on the way.

Varmints inc,
How you liking the tumbler and pins?
Tough to separate brass from pins?

Tag

I ordered a double drum tumbler from harbor freight for 44 bucks.

Is there any practical advantage of using SS case cleaning over more conventional methods?

I use a conventional tumbler and add a little white spirit and ammonia free brass cleaner to the media, and the cases come out pretty decent..Just wondering what benefits using SS would bring?

Regards,

Peter

I just bought the Rebel 17 from stainlesstumblingmedia.com. I had used a conventional tumbler up until now. Here's my $.02.

The conventional tumbler is quicker to use and works just fine. However, if you have old grungy brass that was picked up at the range or you want to remove the tasks of cleaning primer pockets from your loading process, stainless tumbling is the way to go. It's somewhat more cumbersome to separate brass from media in that you also have to deal with water. In saying all of this, I'm extremely impressed.

I'll continue to use the conventional tumbler for my long range loads as I feel the SS tumbler gets necks too clean and can create tension/cold weld issues. However, for a first cleaning on old brass, it's the way to go.

I have all three

Stainless media & rotary tumbler
Ultra Sonic
And vibrating media

Stainless media in a rotary tumbler no question.

I only use the ultra sonic for cleaning bolts and such.

I have a Hornady Ultra Sonic L&L 2L

It is a piece of junk

Waste of $90

It makes noise like an ultrasonic should but so far no mater what the liquid concoction it has totally failed to impress