Tumbler or sonic cleaner for brass?

seasley

seasley

Active member
As the title says, looking at buying which ever works best

Need your opinion on brand, style, and any other input

Using just for one caliber for right now

I want to buy once, and be done if that is possible, or do I need both?
 
i just started reloading and i use the hornady tumbler. gets you 100 free bullets. And i had 4000 rnds dirty range brass that it polished right up with lyman tuffnut and a cap full of berrys brass bright tumbled each batch for 3 hours.
 
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I have three different kinds of brass polishers. I used the sonic the least by far. More or less just wanted to try one. My Lyman vibratory (corn cob and walnut shell mix) gets the most use because I rarely do big batches. But when I got a few hundred really ugly nasty cases to do then I toss them in my Thumler's tumbler with warm water, stainless steel media, a squirt of Dawn and a pinch of Lemonshine. Let it run for 3-4 hours and...voila! Beautiful shiny brass.

For most people, an good vibratory cleaner is fine. I put a tablespoon of Nu Finish car polish in mine if I really want slick and shiny brass.
 
I also have all three and honestly I use all three of them. My decision depends on how many I plan on needing done. If it's a small batch I just put them in the ultrasonic cleaner with a final polish in the corn cob media if it's a very large batch I put them in the wet tumbler with stainless steel pins and then into the corn cob media. So I hate to tell you this but my opinion is you need to buy all three lol.

I have the Hornady ultrasonic cleaner and the Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler and Frankford Arsenal vibratory tumbler
 
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Originally Posted By: Kevinfarmer3456 I put them in the wet tumbler with stainless steel pins and then into the corn cob media.

What is the purpose of going to the corn cob media after they been in the wet tumbler?? To dry them ..But a food dehydrator works good for the dry process.. Dan
 
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Originally Posted By: dan158Originally Posted By: Kevinfarmer3456 I put them in the wet tumbler with stainless steel pins and then into the corn cob media.

What is the purpose of going to the corn cob media after they been in the wet tumbler?? To dry them ..But a food dehydrator works good for the dry process.. Dan I just like the high polish the cob media gives it.
 
The corn cob knock the water spots off and puts a nice clean shine. I was adding turtle wax rubbing compound, may try the nufinish! The ultra sonic cleaner are great for gun parts. You will be amazed at the crude that comes out of a ar bolt. And brass, really gets the crud out of the inside of the brass. Where corn cob seems to stay inside and doesn't move much. The rock tumblers and stainless pins work great on real dirty brass kind of a pre wash to me! Hope this helps! LOL They all have a special need and purpose. Probably not what you wanted to hear!
 
Got tired of picking the media out of the flash hole with the dry media tumbler. Got a STM tumbler with the steel pins. After using it a couple of times I gave my dry media tumbler away.
 
I tried the STM and hated it. HATED IT...

I felt the same way about my friend’s sonic cleaner.

I’m back using my Lyman tumbler with corn cob, and don’t intend to ever change.

Reasons:

Drying time, loss of carbon in the neck caused erratic seating force, peened case mouths, pins stuck in 6mm necks.

I know a lot of folks use dry neck lube to ease seating.
 
Originally Posted By: CZ527I tried the STM and hated it. HATED IT...

I felt the same way about my friend’s sonic cleaner.

I’m back using my Lyman tumbler with corn cob, and don’t intend to ever change.

Reasons:

Drying time, loss of carbon in the neck caused erratic seating force, peened case mouths, pins stuck in 6mm necks.

I know a lot of folks use dry neck lube to ease seating. cant be any worse than using new brass, or factory ammo
 
Originally Posted By: Kevinfarmer3456Originally Posted By: CZ527I tried the STM and hated it. HATED IT...

I felt the same way about my friend’s sonic cleaner.

I’m back using my Lyman tumbler with corn cob, and don’t intend to ever change.

Reasons:

Drying time, loss of carbon in the neck caused erratic seating force, peened case mouths, pins stuck in 6mm necks.

I know a lot of folks use dry neck lube to ease seating. cant be any worse than using new brass, or factory ammo

And I try to stray away from both of those, for more than one reason.
While I’ve shot more than a few keepers with virgin cases, the majority have come on subsequent firings for obvious reasons. As for factory ammo, well I don’t really know. I shoot it in 223 only at the moment, and almost never shoot it at paper.

I’d imagine a lot of those dimes I see on targets are covering up shots outside the group, which could be caused by the virgin brass or maybe it’s that dry neck. For whatever it’s worth, I’ve seen factory shoot better groups than finely tuned handloads more than once at close range, but rarely if ever at distance.

Sorry Seasley, you can have the thread back.
 
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Originally Posted By: seasleyAs the title says, looking at buying which ever works best

Need your opinion on brand, style, and any other input

Using just for one caliber for right now

I want to buy once, and be done if that is possible, or do I need both?

STM and Lyman tumbler with corncob for me.

I FL size, tumble overnight in corn cob with a couple ounces of denatured alcohol to remove Imperial sizing lube, trim/chamfer, prime, and load.
I do that for 2 firings.
After the third firing I deprime and STM tumble. Then I anneal, FL size, corn cob tumble overnight to remove lube, trim/chamfer again, prime, and load.

Bullets seat buttery smooth every time.
I had a few pins stick in case necks the first couple of times. I removed the offenders and threw them away and it hasn’t happened since.

*
 
Originally Posted By: CZ527Jeff I’ve read the denatured alcohol thing a few times, might have to try it out.

Give it a try, and run it overnight.
Brass comes out bone dry and shiny as STM tumbling.
 


i started with vibratory, and then jumped into the stainless bandwagon. if i could pick only one it'd be the frankford arsenal stainless kit. I have seen them on sale for around $129, which is a STEAL.

i use both, for different purposes.

on brass that has a lot of heavy debris - i run a quick 15 min dry tumble in walnut to get the big crud off. this will allow it to run thru my case feeder for depriming.

then i like to wet tumble w/ stainless to clean my brass for about 60-90 mins (depending on how grody it is). its gets the schmoo out of the primer pockets really well, and i love seeing it shiny inside my brass too. drying takes about 2 hours in a dehydrator. my dehydrator has enough trays for two batches of brass at a time, so it give me an effective ability to process up to roughly 30 lbs of brass per day this way.

then i do my brass prep work and do the final tumbling in my dry tumbler (walnut and nu-finish) to do lube removal and a quick finish polish.


i have a small ultrasonic as well, but i use that for gun parts cleaning. as mentioned earlier in the thread - you'd be amazed what comes out of an AR BCG, especially one you shoot suppressed. however with about 8 mins in the ultrasonic, you basically wipe the carbon off, instead of spending >20 mins scraping at it. i run pistol barrels and slides thru it as well. its a cheap-o HF special, but its paid for itself 3 or 4 times over with the amount of scrubbing its saved me.
 
I been using the media tumblers for years. I have two of them. I use Lyman media with rouge in it and a scoop of Mothers wheel polish. Brass looks better than new. It ain't broke so I'm not fixing it.
 


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