Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Lets pick a Tumbler and media.

Fathers day gift card from Cabelas so lets spend it, I'm thinking it's time for a tumbler.

lyman 1200 pro for 50 bucks, RCBS for 70, and there is a Thumlers ultra vibe 10 for 145. Don't think I need to spend that much though.

Which one, and which media?

Don't think I want to deal with Sonic cleaners, but I'm swayable.

If I had to do it all over again I would buy the red metal tumbler intended for wet with stainless steel pins for the media

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Thum...ypcaytM0CFQcMaQodqOkBkQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

I bought a Cabela's tumbler just last winter.. Haven't used it a bunch, but it does a good job..

Do you want a tumbler or a vibratory cleaner, and what kind of media do you plan to use?

Maybe splitting hairs, but a tumbler rotates round and round and can be used with dry or wet-stainless media, the vibratory kind don't work with stainless steel pins.

For simple cleaning before sizing or degreasing after sizing the vibratory kind are easy to use. They will clean to a pretty decent polish depending on the media you use and you can always add a few drops of some polishing liquid if you want shinier cases. Cases and media are easy to separate with any kind of screen or sieve designed for that purpose.

For stainless pins you need a rotating tumbler. IME it's more of a job since you have to drain the dirty water while saving the pins, rinse the brass with clean water again, dry the brass and so forth - and those little pins somehow manage to get everywhere.

Again IME a rotating drum used with dry media doesn't clean quite as quickly as a vibratory cleaner so you might have to leave brass in the rotating drum maybe an extra hour to get the same level of cleaning or polishing, which is probably not a big deal overall.

Back to your question, can't say if the RCBS is better than the Lyman since I've never used the RCBS but I've had the Lyman for 8-9 years now and have been completely satisfied with it. Got it to replace a Midway model that supposedly had a recall due to some fire hazard. Even though I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler with stainless media for serious polishing I keep the Lyman around for general cleaning of range pickup or otherwise dirtied up brass.

If you want to be able to clean with dry media and still have the option of stainless then a rotating drum is the only way to go.

For media - walnut shells seem to give a higher shine but corn cob cleans a bit faster. Corn cobs tend to really stick in bottle neck cases where walnut media gets stuck in flash holes, so it's kind of a wash between the two.

Appreciate the advice Ted, but at 200 plus I'm just not feeling the love here.

Jim, simple, easy, and cheap. Likely a tumbler.

I have a Thumler's UV18 that has been used extensively for over 20 years and if it quit today I'd buy the same one again!

I don't know. I was at Cabela's and Sportsman's the other day and was admiring all the different examples myself. However, if it came right down to it I'd probably end up with the Cabela's model 400 kit for $65.00 or the frankford arsenal platinum series rotary tumbler that cleans with stainless pins and liquid solution. That one is more expensive though, at around $150.00 at cabela's. If sticking with the old tried and true tumbler with media and you want your brass to be nicely polished, try the red rouge media made by Lyman. They call it tufnut case cleaning media. I mix that media 50/50 with regular walnut media and get polished brass that looks great after a few hours of tumbling:




This was .223 rem brass I picked up at the local gravel pit. Looks pretty good after tumbling a bit:


I use an old Midway 1292. I've heard the horror stories of the 1292 burning houses down so I've been on the look out for a tumbler myself...


Lyman tufnut case cleaning media

Lyman 1200

I hear you but I own and use 4 different vibro bowls and if I had it to do over I'd go a different route in a millisecond

I've even contemplated buying a electric rotary concrete mixer to do larger volumes of brass

If a guy had a couple friends or family that handloaded then a group buy on the mixer would be the way

I have the Lyman 1200 and have been using it for years without any problems what so ever. It does a great job of cleaning and polishing brass. I use a mix of corn cob and walnut and it works well for me. If it stopped working today I'd probably just replace it with the same one.

I've used the Lyman 1200 for a number of years with great success. Mostly walnut shells, because I can get a 50# bag of it from friends working drilling rigs, throwing in a little rouge when needed.

I will tell you I burned my 1200 up recently. I overloaded it with some cast bullets that were badly oxidized. My fault. Probably will replace it with another 1200, but have been considering the tumbler with stainless steel pins.

Glad you started this thread.

The four that I run are all Frankfort Arsenal $50 units

Some are 15 years old

One is just a couple years old

I believe the issue with the Midway 1292 tumbler has been corrected some time ago, so unless you have an older model things should be fine. I had one and always ran it on the concrete garage floor well away from anything flammable, also ran it on a timer 2-3 hours only. I believe some of the fires from overheating resulted from units being forgotten and allowed to run for excessive amounts of time or overloaded as far as capacity.

Thanks gunwizzard. The recall was in '98 and I believe I bought the unit in '98. I've never had issues with the tumbler, so this may not even be an issue. However, I'm like you and err on the side of caution and run my tumbler on the garage floor away from anything that can catch fire. I also have it plugged into a GFCI. I don't know if that will help, but that's what I do. It's been a damn fine/strong tumbler, but know it will eventually give up the ghost. In a couple years, it will be 20 years old. How long will these things last anyhow??? I'm actually running mine right now as we speak. I use it very regularly and have ran it all night long before