Which Tumbler for a new reloader??

Hey guys,
I'm looking for a good deal on a Dillon Square Deal "B" as we speak, but I want to go ahead an buy a tumbler and some media so I can start preemptively cleaning the cases I have collected.

What is a good one without spending a lot of coin? What media should I start with?
Midway has the Frankford Arsenal set for 64 bucks. Is it worth buying?

Frankford Arsenal makes a good tumbler and comes with all the stuff to sift and store your media. Around $75. Check Midway. I have been using mine for 3 years now.

I have been using a small one from Harbor Freight and corn cob media from walmart in the pet section.... cheap and works

Does the corn cob media from walmart work well???
Should I use polish too??

Think Im going to go with the Frankford Arsenal kit... or just get the tumbler from Harbor freight. Dont really see a point in buying a more expensive one right now.

Also, how do you get all the dust from the media off/out of the cases?

If you are really cheap there is no need to buy a tumbler. Use soap and water, rinse and dry. $0 Tumbling makes imperfections easier to see and makes the brass all purdy.

Dillon sells a good vibratory cleaner too.

ssanders224 wrote:Does the corn cob media from walmart work well???
Should I use polish too??

Think Im going to go with the Frankford Arsenal kit... or just get the tumbler from Harbor freight. Dont really see a point in buying a more expensive one right now.

Also, how do you get all the dust from the media off/out of the cases?

The best thing is go to a pet store and buy the ground up walnut they put in snake/lizard cages. Costs less than 1/2 what it costs to order from a gun site. IMHO

Pet store corn cob has no polish. I suppose that some polish might make the process faster/more efficient. Can't see it being better.
The only draw back with pet store sized corn cob is the size, its pretty large and does not get in ( and back out) of the inside of the case well. I think the corn media for guns is smaller.

Dust- toss 1/4 of a paper towel in with the cases if there is a dust problem. Generally dust is a non-issue. I dump everything on to a strainers and shift out the dust and crap.

Walnut should be a harder material and do better at getting dirt off "range brass". I only tumble my own brass that seldom hits the ground ( revo FTW!). So the tumble process meerly needs to scrub off the carbon and soot.

Doing what little I do, ( and using no polish) I have been able to get a MUCH better shine on brass than original on ammo from USAMMO. ( I dont think they do a post tumble). However to achive that, I did tumble for over 4 hours.

I have also tumbled ammo post reload. I did this due to some extra allox on the cast bullets. This did work, but I dont think I got the results I hoped for, and wont be doing it again... just not worth the bother.

Lastly, nickle plated brass, is GREAT in a tumbler! The nickle is a tad harder and does not first produce a matte finish as some brass does. Most of my nickle is 10+ years old and is holding up pretty dern well to many many reloads.

I'd go with straight corn cob that you can buy as pet litter from a pet store for the media.

For polish I use a 50/50 mix of Nu-Finish car polish and mineral spirits. Mix them together in a plastic squirt bottle (I use an old gatorade bottle with the green twist cap). A couple squirts in the media when you start the load will last you a long time.

I bought a Frankford Arsenal (it was called Midway at the time but it's the same one) tumbler about 10 years ago and it's still running strong. Figure it's seen about 50K pieces of .40 in that time and is still running strong.

JohnHeiter wrote:I'd go with straight corn cob that you can buy as pet litter from a pet store for the media.

For polish I use a 50/50 mix of Nu-Finish car polish and mineral spirits. Mix them together in a plastic squirt bottle (I use an old gatorade bottle with the green twist cap). A couple squirts in the media when you start the load will last you a long time.

+1 on the corn cob media and Nu-Finish car polish. They work great to clean and polish the brass in one step.

I picked up a Hornady tumbler at Bass Pro Shop, had a gift card so the price was right. The lid has slots cut in it big enough for the media to fall through, but not the brass. I use an old plastic flower pot the wife had, take the lid of the tumbler, place it in the opening and dump the brass onto it. After moving the brass around by hand all the media falls to the bottom of the flower pot to be reused.

To make the media last longer and cut down on lead dust, I cut old drier sheets into roughly 1 inch squares and throw them in the media when I'm cleaning brass. About one or two cleaning batches and the drier sheets will be so dirty they should be replaced.

BTW, tumbling puts lead dust into the air, so tumble in a well ventilated area, outside preferably or the garage.

Thanks for all the info guys!
Looks like I'm going to order a Rockford Arsenal set from midway. It comes with corn cob and a bottle of polish, so I guess I will just start with that and see how it works.

I'd go with the harbor freight tumbler and the crushed walnut from petsmart. Its like $15 for 25 pounds. Nu-finish and mineral spirits works. So does Flitz.

Ive been running a Rockford Ars. for about 6 years. Ive had the same old walnut shell in there for about a two years, allthough my reloading sessions are sporratic. I take old socks and cut them into 2x2 squares and saturate them in flitz.....Oh my god new brass. Replace the old socks about every 40 hours of tumbler use.

I'm still using my 1991 Frankfort tumbler. But have gone to the walnut shells, desert media from petco. 10 qts. for $12. Place 2 or 3 used dryer sheets in with load to collect dust and funk.
I saw a harbor freight tumber at dirt cheap for 50%, or $25. it was missing the lid and center bolt. I figured it would cost about $10. to fix it, so it was left behind.

Frankfort is great and cheap too! Use my one since 5 years and i´m satisfied with it.

Yes it is loud but no other probs with it. And for the super shiny polish, i add some metal polish to a older lot of the walnut media and the brass are shiny like new.