Tumbling Advice needed

[BMCSean]

tuck your chin into your chest.

God bless.

lol!

[CJ]

It's not worth the trouble. Wet tumbling adds 2 more steps and way more time. If you don't meticulously dry every case inside and out you get water spots which tarnish the cases and they look worse. Wet tumbling is great if you do massive quantities and you need cases tumbled quickly. Even then you'll notice all the big cartridge companies use cermaic media larger than the case mouths so it doesn't get stuck inside, they only clean the outside of the cases. Stainless media cleans cases awesome but it takes a long time, and those pins have to be tumbled out and the cases dried. Not to mention it's expensive as shit and you have to rotary tumble.

I have a thumler tumbler, I've had cement mixers, and I've had shitloads of vibratory tumblers. What I've learned is vibratory is fast, it's quiet, and it works. The trick is the right media, and the right polisher in the right quantities.

Get the fine walnut media at harbor freight and flitz. I've tried car waxes and all kinds of shit and that combination right there will polish cases like they're chrome. Save yourself the hassle and money. If you're doing large quantities I would make a friend that works the oil field and ask him to grab a few 50lb sacks of walnut fraking media.





Harbor freight fine walnut, a 1 second squirt of flitz, and about 8 hours in a tumbler (overnight).

[CJ]

What model tumbler from Harbor Freight do you have, and can you wet tumble with it?

Yes you can wet tumble. You can use stainless steel media in it if you like as well. The problem with SSM is it weighs a shitload and it's VERY expensive to get in large quantities. They will cut you a deal if you buy large quantities. SSM WILL work in vibratory tumblers, but most all tumblers require more media they then are capable of vibrating (due to weight). The best method for SSM is using a thumler tumbler, but their wet tumbler setup is fucking expensive and it's really small (maybe a few hundred cases at a time) and it takes FOREVER to tumble.

[YALE]

CJ, you should have these guys build you something:

http://www.giantfinishing.com/index.html

[Boomhauer]

I just started playing with a Thumlers tumbler model B and love the way the brass shines.

[slowyellow]

It's not worth the trouble. Wet tumbling adds 2 more steps and way more time. If you don't meticulously dry every case inside and out you get water spots which tarnish the cases and they look worse. Wet tumbling is great if you do massive quantities and you need cases tumbled quickly. Even then you'll notice all the big cartridge companies use cermaic media larger than the case mouths so it doesn't get stuck inside, they only clean the outside of the cases. Stainless media cleans cases awesome but it takes a long time, and those pins have to be tumbled out and the cases dried. Not to mention it's expensive as shit and you have to rotary tumble.

I have a thumler tumbler, I've had cement mixers, and I've had shitloads of vibratory tumblers. What I've learned is vibratory is fast, it's quiet, and it works. The trick is the right media, and the right polisher in the right quantities.

Get the fine walnut media at harbor freight and flitz. I've tried car waxes and all kinds of shit and that combination right there will polish cases like they're chrome. Save yourself the hassle and money. If you're doing large quantities I would make a friend that works the oil field and ask him to grab a few 50lb sacks of walnut fraking media.





Harbor freight fine walnut, a 1 second squirt of flitz, and about 8 hours in a tumbler (overnight).

After seeing this post I ordered a bottle of flitz and did this. (I already use harbor freight walnut based on your recommendation) I just figured that I have dillon case polish and flitz couldn't make that big of a difference. BOY was I wrong. Cases came out just like yours. Absolutely no need for the wet tumbler IMO.

[CJ]

Making jewelry! Yeah I've never found anything that works as well as flitz, I've tried them all. Glad it worked for you.