Stainless Steel Tumbling Media

[Guest nicemac]

I am reading more and more about tumbling with stainless steel media. Seems that for the past couple of years, this has been gaining momentum. The initial cost is a little higher than a quality traditional corn cob or walnut shell setup, but it never has to be replaced. Ever.

The pictures I am seeing and testimonials I am reading are reporting incredible results. Reports after hundreds of tumbles is that it does not harm or alter the brass in any way–it just delivers the cleanest brass you ever saw, inside and out, primer pockets included.

I ordered a Thumbler's Tumbler Model B ($169) and some SS media ($25 for 5 lb of .041"x .255") last week.

Anyone here using this solution?

[gregintenn]

Sounds good. What do you do when it gets dirty?

[Guest nicemac]

You tumble in a solution of water and dishwashing soap, The stainless steel media doesn't get dirty–just the water does. You rinse after each cleaning. The media is supposed to last lifetime… It is used commercially after manufacturing of many metallic (specifically brass) items.

[gregintenn]

I see. It does sound interesting.

[Guest nicemac]

This is the thread that piqued my interest:

media for tumbling - Sniper's Hide Forums

[Worriedman]

I have been using this system for several years, it is a little more work, but the brass is the cleanest you can get, inside and out, and primer pockets as well.

[Grunt67]

Anybody tried this in a vibrating cleaner?

[Guest nicemac]

It won't work. As it is heavier than the brass, it will just settle to the bottom and do nothing.

[BigK]

While it seems VERY effective (that brass is immaculate), it looks like a lot more work than corn cob or walnut. Call me lazy, but "shiny" isn't worth this much effort.

Edited July 8, 2011 by BigK

[Guest TackleberryTom]

It's not the "shiny" I am looking at, it's those really clean primer pockets. That is awesome. I am guessing that it gets the inside of the brass clean as well. My walnut shell does not clean the inside of the case as well as I think it should. Not that that really matters, it's gonna get dirty real quick anyway.

[BigK]

It's not the "shiny" I am looking at, it's those really clean primer pockets. That is awesome. I am guessing that it gets the inside of the brass clean as well. My walnut shell does not clean the inside of the case as well as I think it should. Not that that really matters, it's gonna get dirty real quick anyway.

True, true...I've bought new brass that didn't even look that good. If I weren't just loading cheap plinking ammo, I'd give this method a lot more thought, like if I were making high-powered hunting ammo or self-defense ammo.

[Worriedman]

The guy that turned me on to the SS media was an Armorer that specialized in Highpower. He is of the opinion that primer residue inside walnut tumbled cases was bad for throats. His thought process was that each round fired put some hardened residue down the bore coming from previous use. He had an older M14 that shot lights out with over 6K downrange.

Might be that it is all hokie, but I really like the way the brass looks, and the primer pockets are really clean, and the reloading room has a lot less dust around since I started going this way.

I deprime, load the tumbler right before I go to bed, let it run all night out in the reloading room, dump and separate the next morning. I had not picked up a separator, been doing it by hand, pistol and .308/7mm cases are easy, the .243 and smaller are a pain, just ordered the Frankford Arsenal Quick-N-EZ Rotary Media Separator Kit, will see if this cuts the time needed to get the pins out.

[Guest nicemac]

I tumbled my first brass in this thing this weekend.

Wow!

Not only did the brass look new on the outside, it looked new inside as well. Primer pockets; totally clean. I mean new clean.

I id not use any polishing agents, just a few drops of Dawn dishwashing soap and water–I wanted to see what "just clean" looked like. Awesome is the only way to describe it.

I used the same old media separator I always used with my walnut shells. You know, the $30 plastic deal… I just put water in the lower case half and spun it a few times. All of the pins fell right out into the pail. I rinsed twice to make sure all of the soap was gone and then put the wet cases on a flat baking pan with a paper towel covering it in the sun for a couple of hours. Clean and dry and ready to load.

I was afraid that the hassle factor would be high. True, I did have to rinse twice. The brass did have to dry for a bit. But that is not much hassle. I mean, this stuff is clean.

I spent $30 (delivered) for the SS media. I spent $169 for the (Thumbler's) tumbler. That is not much more of an investment than a high-quality vibratory unit and the TT unit is heavy-duty and the media never has to be replaced.

Did I say Wow!

[McAllyn]

I've been using a vibratory for several years, and tried the Hornady Sonic. Can't stand the mess of the vibratory, and the hassle of the sonic is ridiculous. Thinking about trying this SS tumbling. What about the noise factor? Would you say this is a loud and annoying as the vibratory cleaners?

Mac

[Guest nicemac]

I've been using a vibratory for several years, and tried the Hornady Sonic. Can't stand the mess of the vibratory, and the hassle of the sonic is ridiculous. Thinking about trying this SS tumbling. What about the noise factor? Would you say this is a loud and annoying as the vibratory cleaners?

Mac

Quieter than my vibratory cleaner for sure. It is more of a motor hum than anything.

[McAllyn]

Great, thanks. I'm going to give this a try.

Mac

[Guest nicemac]

Great, thanks. I'm going to give this a try.

Mac

I got my tumbler ($169) here:

Rock Tumblers, Lortone Tumbling, Thumlers, Lapidary Equipment from ERockTumbling.com.

I got five pounds of SS media ($30, delivered) here:

Stainless, Zinc, Aluminum and Copper Cut Wire Shot - Pellets, LLC

Kevin Walters

Technical Sales

Pellets LLC

63 Industrial Drive

North Tonawanda, NY 14120

P:716-693-1750

F:716-693-1880

C:716-471-5855

Kevin was very accessible. (He called me on Saturday morning after getting a web form request from me on Friday evening)

[Just2Honor]

I use a Lortone Tumbler with SS pieces (various sizes and shapes) to clean Sterling Silver after making jewelry. Removes the scale from soldering, minor scratches, and polishes--$35 per ounce Sterling so I would think you could trust it on brass empties. They make a solution but you can use water and a dishwashng soap like Dawn to 1" above the material. Do not tumble dry--will ruin the materials. As someone said, SS stays clean--just replace the soluntion.

[gregintenn]

Sounds good, but after reading further and conidering the inital investment, I think I'll just stick with my corn cobs and car polish. If I didn't already have a tumbler, however, I'd give the one you got a long, hard look.

[Grunt67]

I'll agree. If I hadn't just bought a new Frankford kit about a year ago, I'd go with the tumbler/SS

route. Can't justify changing at this point. The SS setup does an awesome job tho. I seen new brass

that didn't look that good.

[Guest nicemac]

While it seems VERY effective (that brass is immaculate), it looks like a lot more work than corn cob or walnut. Call me lazy, but "shiny" isn't worth this much effort.

I wouldn't call it "a lot more work." I would call it a little more work. If you factor the time spent checking/ cleaning walnut shells from primer pockets, I would call it a wash.

[I_Like_Pie]

I wouldn't call it "a lot more work." I would call it a little more work. If you factor the time spent checking/ cleaning walnut shells from primer pockets, I would call it a wash.

In my thousands upon thousands upon thousands of reloads over several decades I have never tumbled a cartridge without the primer still in the case. The deprime/sizing die always clears the debris and has never been a problem with blocked pocket.

No offense intended, but from a functional perspective tumbling serves the purpose of ridding material that will otherwise shorten the life of the dies....even then I have a .38 die set with over 100,000 cycles of dirty cases and it is still in spec. The weight and reduced capacity that occurs between dirty and clean brass is so minuscule that it is barely even measureable even for the most anal of benchrest shooters.

In other words - perfectly clean brass only gets you piece of mind. Nothing else. The target shooters may argue otherwise, but they argue about practically anything and have fortunately found a hobby infinitesimally toiling over insignificance - it keeps them in a basement far away from others.

[Guest nicemac]

In my thousands upon thousands upon thousands of reloads over several decades I have never tumbled a cartridge without the primer still in the case. The deprime/sizing die always clears the debris and has never been a problem with blocked pocket.

No offense intended, but from a functional perspective tumbling serves the purpose of ridding material that will otherwise shorten the life of the dies....even then I have a .38 die set with over 100,000 cycles of dirty cases and it is still in spec. The weight and reduced capacity that occurs between dirty and clean brass is so minuscule that it is barely even measureable even for the most anal of benchrest shooters.

In other words - perfectly clean brass only gets you piece of mind. Nothing else. The target shooters may argue otherwise, but they argue about practically anything and have fortunately found a hobby infinitesimally toiling over insignificance - it keeps them in a basement far away from others.

Most people re-tumble after sizing and depriming rifle cartridges to remove the lube. You have to clean the lube off somehow…

[I_Like_Pie]

Most people re-tumble after sizing and depriming rifle cartridges to remove the lube. You have to clean the lube off somehow…

They tumble it twice!? Yikes.

Wiping the brass off with a rag upon completion works just as well and does not require re-tumbling. Takes no time as you are doing a visual inspection at the same time.

[Worriedman]

I think it makes a difference how many casings one is working at the time. I normally do lots of 1000, and that ends up doing 250 cases on .223 each batch. Using a spray lube, I will get some in case mouths, wiping with a rag, while it will remove the lube from the outside, is time consuming, and tumbling them after sizing gets all the lube off the outside and out of the case mouth, where it can tend to hang powder, especially the ball variety. The after sizing/lube removing tumble does not have to run long, and it results in ready to load brass.