tumbler or sonic cleaner?

tumbler or sonic cleaner???

If I go with a tumbler, do I need to get a rotary case/media separator or can I just use a typical stranger you buy at walmart?

never seen a sonic cleaner but sound interesting!

Unless you are looking into competing and demand that most accuracy you can get to win a match, I would go with a tumbler. I have an ultrasonic cleaner but mostly use it now to get my annealed cases I use for jackets super clean for a better core bonding.

I have bought a plastic collander at wally world, took a drill bit and opened the holes up pretty big yet not big enough to let brass fall through and I got a small bucket. I sit my collander on the mouth of the bucket (well it is bolted on one end) and use that to seperate the brass and media.. then I can just pour the media back into the tumbler...

I have the Lyman Turbo 2500 mag. I can still think while the tumbler is running and I will never have to upgrade to a bigger one if I get more brass..

thanks Day ive been chewing on a ultrasonic for a while now I have a Huge midway vibrator tumbler that i use for everything. What I did for a cheep brass separator was I took 2 five gallon buckets and drilled a bunch of i guess it was 5/16 holes in it or maybe it was 1/4 i dont remember. but what I do is set one bucket on top of the other and then pour the contents of my tumbler in the top bucket and shake it a bit then just pick up the brass and dump whats in the brass if i think about it i'll take some pics and post em

Would like to see your setup. I think it would really help Victor out. Like wise, I will add some pics of mine. Would actually be cool to see everyone elses to see how they do it.

The ultrasonic cleaner does an excellent job of cleaning. PRoblem is, you can not do a large batch at one time. Especially the size Midway has on sale. Which btw, bones and I got the same thing off ebay for around 60 something.

Then finding the right solution which I changed to Lemishine, and you will have to run 2 maybe 3 cycles...

They are worth it don't get me wrong, depends on your intentions... I love mine, it really takes the burned spots on my annealed cases completely off.

I recommend the tumbler kit from Cabelas for the money. I use the sifter that came with the kit and poor contents back and forth between it and a cheap collander from Walmart. That gets the media out pretty quick.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Case-Tumbler-Kit/731769.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=/catalog/search/%3FN%3D4294967225%26Ne%3D4294967225%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dtumbler%26Ntx%3Dmode%252Bmatchall%26WTz_st%3DSearchRefinements%26form_state%3DsearchForm%26search%3Dtumbler%26x%3D0%26y%3D0&Ntt=tumbler

i need a collander myself i always dump the cases out one at a time gets old on rifle brass exspcaly small necks like 243 and 223

Lyman 1200 vibratory tumbler and plastic collander from Dollar Store for about $2 bucks. Works excellent.
Lyman Tuff Nut media treated with red rouge, still on my original jug purchased about 2 years ago.

Reload3006 wrote:thanks Day ive been chewing on a ultrasonic for a while now I have a Huge midway vibrator tumbler that i use for everything. What I did for a cheep brass separator was I took 2 five gallon buckets and drilled a bunch of i guess it was 5/16 holes in it or maybe it was 1/4 i dont remember. but what I do is set one bucket on top of the other and then pour the contents of my tumbler in the top bucket and shake it a bit then just pick up the brass and dump whats in the brass if i think about it i'll take some pics and post em

Good post this is exactly what I did.... I used 2.5 gallon buckets you can get for free at any wal-mart bakery....
drilled the holes... in the bottom of one... dump brass and media in top bucket and stack on the other bucket pop the lid on and give it a little crank I used an old butter churm paddle setup I got from lehmans non electric for like $14.00 and drilled through the lid and mounted the paddle setup..... it works well and the tall bucket sides does not allow the meadia to go all over the place ..... unlike the medai spin type seperators..... I had one of dillons and I sold it, it was faster and better I guess but having to sweep up all the media that gets sloshed out kinda canceled out the time saved from the seperator in the first place.... As for ultra sonic I got the 2.5 liter on from Harbor freight on sale for like $19.00 but I only use it on special cases and loads..... But the big old Dillon tumbler is still king for me.... besides I got it at an estate sale for next to nothing....

Mohunter wrote:Lyman 1200 vibratory tumbler and plastic collander from Dollar Store for about $2 bucks. Works excellent.
Lyman Tuff Nut media treated with red rouge, still on my original jug purchased about 2 years ago.

did you treat with rouge yourself or did you buy it this way???? If you did a little post with a rouge media lesson would be awesome....

I have always used brass-o with my media and I do not get much mileage out of it....

+1 Lyman 1200 tumbler.

I also have an Ultrasonic cleaner and while I like it, just doesn't do large quantities of brass. I want to try Daywalker's Lemishine method.

The Lemishine as well as don't even bother to use the white basket. I was given this tip from someone on youtube and Can not remember who it was. So I tried it and yes, I have gotten alot better results and alot less run time.

Usually the first batch gets 2 full cycles and then all others just one cycle. I also start off with really hot water so the heater does not have to take so long to warm up. This hot water usually lasts. Without the basket, the solution also has been staying hot. I am talking to the point that I can still stick my hand in to get my brass, yet I do not want to keep it in there for too long of a time. But man, those are some of the scale free and cleanest annealed brass I ever had. I will do some with this method with regular brass and vid the results...

So much info! I was cleaning my brass with brass cleaning liquid I picked up at a gun show. Just poured into a five gallon bucket added near bowling water and stirred for a few minutes. Did a decent job, but when sitting them outside to dry they would get rusty, so I had to blow dry them which took way too much effort. Tumbler looks like the method I'm going to go with.

When using the tumbler do I just toss the spent brass into the tumbler and deprime afterwards, or deprime and then tumble?

deprime afterwards, tumblers dont clean the primer pockey anyways.

if you deprime first, you'll get media stuck in the flash hole which is a pain in the butt to clean out.

victor8881 wrote:So much info! I was cleaning my brass with brass cleaning liquid I picked up at a gun show. Just poured into a five gallon bucket added near bowling water and stirred for a few minutes. Did a decent job, but when sitting them outside to dry they would get rusty, so I had to blow dry them which took way too much effort. Tumbler looks like the method I'm going to go with.

When using the tumbler do I just toss the spent brass into the tumbler and deprime afterwards, or deprime and then tumble?

some people do both. lot of folks my self among them have two buckets of cleaning media. I personally like crushed walnut hulls but others have good results with corncob. I tumble in my "dirty media" first it helps get the debris off my brass so i dont scratch up my sizing die. but you could get one of those depriming dies too I suppose I have been too cheap to buy one yet. after I resize and deprime my brass i tumble it again in "clean media" with rouge in it before I reprime and finish loading. I do this to remove the case sizing lube. when it starts getting pretty bad i trow out the "dirty Media" and replace it with my now dirty clean media. If this makes any sense? and buy new for my "clean". I still use a primer pocket brush before i seat new primers etc. Is this the only correct way to do it? of course it isnt but it has worked pretty good for me thus far.

Both Bone and Reload it right with this. I myself follow Reload with the 2 time method. The corncob is not rifle friendly for the most part. Especially the .223's Oy Vay what a nightmare I wish not to visit again. I had to use a pick and sit there and pick out quite a few corncob as the neck is pretty small. Now you could toss them in without media and put on earmuffs so that you don't go deaf LOL.

I love the crushed walnut. Petsmart special. It is not treated but you can treat it yourself and have enough media to last you a while. Not to mention how easy it is on the wallet. Just ask for lizzard bedding.

You can use car polish to treat it with. Just check to make sure it does not have amonia in it. If it does, just place 2-3 drops and let the bucket stay open to air out over night. Then you will be good to go.

I just load my tumbler and switch in on.... go inside go to bed and have beautiful brass the next morning.... I use corncob media with brass-o but I am curious about the rouge method....

then load ammo and tumble for about 15 min to clean the loaded ammo.... then vacuum seal them in bags.... so they never tarnish, or air does not get to them to degrade them..... works for me.... it is how my dad taught me.... and has worked for him for the last 60yrs or so.... funny thing though when my dad loads large amounts for contracts and such he tumbles his brass in an old concrete drum mixer..... talk about noisy.....

Rouge is just a polishing agent you add to your media. not really a method just something to shine up the brass. Funny that you tumble your loaded rounds lots of manuals warn you not to do that for fear a primer may get set off and you have an interesting explosion in your tumbler.

yea i messed up on some 243s i got some pet bedding (corn cob) it worked great for 3006 40 and 35 but i used them on 243s now i cant get it out all the shaking in the world want get it out im gonna try tumbling it again with no media and see if that will pry it loose

dartfreak75 wrote:yea i messed up on some 243s i got some pet bedding (corn cob) it worked great for 3006 40 and 35 but i used them on 243s now i cant get it out all the shaking in the world want get it out im gonna try tumbling it again with no media and see if that will pry it loose

have you deprimed it? if so and you have access to an air compressor try blowing it out may or may not work. worth a shot.

oh yea another reason you may want to seriously consider tumbling your loaded rounds and I know maybe i'm just being paranoid and all. But you could change the burning properties of your powder and drastically raise pressures in your gun. Something to think about anyway.

Reload3006 wrote:oh yea another reason you may want to seriously consider tumbling your loaded rounds and I know maybe i'm just being paranoid and all. But you could change the burning properties of your powder and drastically raise pressures in your gun. Something to think about anyway.

I know it sounds scary but my dad has done it for over 65 years... and he loaded commercially for Remington UMC, Hornady, Norma etc.... up until about three years ago when he decided he was going to retire and give up his FFL class 6 license and semi-retire, he still loads for private contracts like about 60 of the 77 county sheriffs offices in Oklahoma and a bunch in kansas and texas.... The BATF allowed him to load the primers he had on hand then he was out of business..... but he still has about 4 million primers, and this is after three years of loading..... but no primers for me, he has to account for everyone of them.... yeah even ammo manufacturers sub contract there work....
It is perfectly safe.... I am not tumbling long enough to effect the powder, the ammo never gets even warm.... the primers I guess could go off but primers are not a fragile as people think.... it takes a very precise blow on the right spot for one to fire.... your primers in your loader are more likely to go off when you are setting them....

All the manufacturers tumble completed loads for a final cleaning.... you only tumble about 10 to 15 minutes max.... just to clean excess oils and junk.... then I handle them with latex gloves while vacuum sealing them.... to keep my greasy, sticky fingers off of them....

Do not try this at home..... we are trained professionals.....hahahaha

corncob works great, crushed corncob works even better. Walnut is great for cleaning, corncob for polishing

But when you want squeaky clean, ultrasonic is the way.

Reload3006 wrote:

dartfreak75 wrote:yea i messed up on some 243s i got some pet bedding (corn cob) it worked great for 3006 40 and 35 but i used them on 243s now i cant get it out all the shaking in the world want get it out im gonna try tumbling it again with no media and see if that will pry it loose

have you deprimed it? if so and you have access to an air compressor try blowing it out may or may not work. worth a shot.

no they are not deprimed unfotunatly im not sure what im gonna do!

If you hold the cases upside down, then take a small pick or something that you can run it inside, just move it in and out till the stuff falls out. Might take a bit, but thats what I had to do with my .223's