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Stainless Steel Tumbling Media


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  • 1 month later...

Recently my tumbler died and after some searching i found this setup, http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/ I have tried the Ultrasonic cleaners with so-so results, but this looked promising. Wow what a good cleaner! I can say this is the best system that I have found my brass looks brand new I even took some old range 223 range brass and it made it look brand new! the pics on the site are true and another benifit is there is no film from the walnut or corncob media to get on your hands! So for what its worth if you have been looking for a better way of cleaning brass give this a look see.

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SS media is not a perfect solution to cleaning brass, I do not like the lips of my rifle brass peened from the media, but that is the only bitch I have about using it, having a Giraud Trimmer makes that moot point though, a media separator is a must, and if you need to dry your brass fast a bath in rubbing alcohol leaves it ready to load in 5 minutes, I have been using the TEXAS 100+ degree weather to dry mine this summer, now that the weather is about to change I'll start using the wifes oven.

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  • 2 weeks later...

SS media is not a perfect solution to cleaning brass, I do not like the lips of my rifle brass peened from the media, but that is the only bitch I have about using it, having a Giraud Trimmer makes that moot point though, a media separator is a must, and if you need to dry your brass fast a bath in rubbing alcohol leaves it ready to load in 5 minutes, I have been using the TEXAS 100+ degree weather to dry mine this summer, now that the weather is about to change I'll start using the wifes oven.

427cobra,

Is your Stainless Steel Media .041 in diameter and .252/.255 in length? Use Dawn dish soap, and Lemi-Shine rinse agent in together as the washing media in a Thumbler's Tumbler 15 Lb model B Hi-Speed, 3000RPM motor, 40 RPM Drum Rotation for several hours or a Thumbler's Tumbler Standard Speed, it has a drum rotation of 30RPM for 4 hours or more depending upon the brass initial condition. Then the Alcohol bath to assist with the drying of the cases.

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Really, I can not understand the "need" to go to such lengths for "clean" brass.

30-60 minutes of tumbling is more than adequate. A $26 40# bag of corn has lasted me for 10 years now and it is still about half full. Just the thought of having to separate out the SS pins and dry my brass seems like such a waste.

Then, there are the $300 ultrasonic cleaners!

At least those who "waste" perfectly good car polish in their tumblers can "claim" that it makes sizing easier...

Just wondering if this is more than simply to make yourself happy with clean, shiny brass or if there is a real, on-target benefit that escapes me?

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Really, I can not understand the "need" to go to such lengths for "clean" brass.

30-60 minutes of tumbling is more than adequate. A $26 40# bag of corn has lasted me for 10 years now and it is still about half full. Just the thought of having to separate out the SS pins and dry my brass seems like such a waste.

Then, there are the $300 ultrasonic cleaners!

At least those who "waste" perfectly good car polish in their tumblers can "claim" that it makes sizing easier...

Just wondering if this is more than simply to make yourself happy with clean, shiny brass or if there is a real, on-target benefit that escapes me?

The on target benefit is huge if your are a benchrest shooter for example. I doubt other than pride that there is much value in pistol brass for a run and gun type shooting discipline...

just my .02.

Alan

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes, it must be clean. The point was there are many BR shooters that after spending hours preping a hand full of cases prefer wiping each one by hand before reloading them vs chunking their "babys" in to any tumbler to crash into one another. If your that anal rententive you have what it takes to be sucessfull in benchrest shooting.

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  • 2 months later...

I bought some (2500) once fired 223 brass from a source that I have purchased from before without any problems. This time, however, the brass had green corrosion inside and a few (hundred) had stuff stuck to the outside which looked like gum and sand.

Long story short, I bought the steel media and the Thumler's rotary tumbler and ALL the brass looks factory new. And, now I can see a few cases that show signs of head separation.

I am very pleased with my purchase although it does add a few minutes to my case prep. But, reloading has become a hobby for me so I am not concerned with rushing through the process.

Edited by wirecounter
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Really, I can not understand the "need" to go to such lengths for "clean" brass.

30-60 minutes of tumbling is more than adequate. A $26 40# bag of corn has lasted me for 10 years now and it is still about half full. Just the thought of having to separate out the SS pins and dry my brass seems like such a waste.

Then, there are the $300 ultrasonic cleaners!

At least those who "waste" perfectly good car polish in their tumblers can "claim" that it makes sizing easier...

Just wondering if this is more than simply to make yourself happy with clean, shiny brass or if there is a real, on-target benefit that escapes me?

Well you don't really need to understand the "need" for it, do what you like or what is adequate. I can adequately wash my car just spraying it off with a water hose, so why do people waste all the time to polish ? If you like you don't even really need to tumble it and i'm sure it will load up just fine.

For me this is a hobby and I like to take pride in my work and I really like working with brand new looking brass. It has actually helped me spot some defects in cases that I would have normally missed. I actually like the work it takes to get my brass to be extremely clean. If its not for you, it's not for you.

Also as far as on target benefits, I would like to think they're are some. After 10 or so firings cases can get a pretty healthy buildup if not cleaned out which has to decrease case volume, how much, I don't know. If you start with a clean case every time that variable is totally eliminated.

So personally I don't mind wasting all that time to make my ammo the way I like. If wasting all that time was the issue I would probably just buy all my ammo.

Also sometimes I even run my loaded ammo through a tumbler with corn cob and polish, to get it looking extra good.

Edit: I dont use a SS media tumbler. I use an ultrasonic cleaner and it takes 16 minutes per batch to get spotless.

Edited by Scoobb
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I shoot revolvers w/ light triggers that require Federal primers seated deep. Looks to me like 2 passes are required to get the pockets clean enough to do that. One pass to clean the case before resize / deprime and a second to get the pocket cleaned out in prep for primer seating. Seems not much is gained.

Obviously I don't spend enough time outside the box ..... Thx to The Vigilante below :cheers:

Edited by buckaroo45
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  • 3 weeks later...

If you want clean primer pockets you'll have to run them in the press twice but only tumble once. I wouldn't use a size die on dirty brass, so I would use a decapping die.

I too have revolvers with very light triggers, but have never cleaned primer pockets for them. If we are talking about 45acp revos, you will get a bigger difference using SPP brass like winchester NT or 45GAP brass than cleaning pockets. They don't seem to care if they are in a dirty hole as long as they are seated correctly in it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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