Friends-

I recently purchased some brand new walnut polishing media for my Thumbler's Tunbler brass polisher.

How long should I let them tumble and polish?

Is there a "normal" time?

Thanks in advance.

I have wondered the same thing. I have only used the Thumbler with big straight wall cases and ceremic media. My guess is that it might be pretty slow (comparred to a vibrating unit) but I would like to give it a try. Hope you get some useful replies.

Hi 30!

Although I do not have a Thumbler, most tumblers are built the same and I am guessing it is similar to my Lyman.

For my really dirty stuff that I find I will usually leave them in over night (9pm to 8am). For stuff I am just wanting resizing lube off of or stuff that is fairly shiny, the minimum time I keep them in is about 2 hours.

Takes about 4 hours in my Thumbler. Built a timer so it runs that length of time, then stops.

BTW, that is using a mixture of walnut and corn cob.

WOW !. I've never ran brass in my Dillon for more than 2 Hrs. MAX !. I've never had to I guess , I took some really old Military 06 stuff solvent cleaned them , then brush washed them with Borax and boiling water , ran them in the tumbler for 2 Hrs. Looked almost new ( They had been in a 5 gallon bucket left to the weather for several years .

My Normal reloading shooting brass I maybe do for 15 Min. if I do it at all !. It's one of the reasons I use Boeshield T-9 for lubing my brass then wiping it off . The Brass just stays cleaner and polishing only shortens the life of the brass .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

I have always tumbled my cases until they look the way I want them to look, time is not the issue.

I also use a Thumblers Tumbler for polishing my brass. The tumblers do not work as fast as the vibratory polishers. For brass that is really tarnished I may run mine a day and a half or even a couple of days. Some will polish up over night. After I have sized my brass I run it in the Thumblers for about 2 hrs (using corn cob) to remove the sizing lube. Although they are slower, the tumbler type polishers work well. You'll just have to experiment with yours--you'll soon learn how long to polish different grades of brass. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Red C.:
I also use a Thumblers Tumbler for polishing my brass. The tumblers do not work as fast as the vibratory polishers. For brass that is really tarnished I may run mine a day and a half or even a couple of days. Some will polish up over night. After I have sized my brass I run it in the Thumblers for about 2 hrs (using corn cob) to remove the sizing lube. Although they are slower, the tumbler type polishers work well. You'll just have to experiment with yours--you'll soon learn how long to polish different grades of brass. Good luck.

Same Here!!

quote:

For brass that is really tarnished I may run mine a day and a half or even a couple of days.

I've never seen any evidence that tumbling (whether rolling or vibratory) for extended periods has any detrimental effects on brass. I suspect you could leave it for days and nothing other than surface oxidation would be worn away -- at least with conventional walnut or corn cob media. I can't say what would happen with ceramic or diamond dust or some such harder material.

I dropped some tarnished .270's in last night, but forgot to add a little needed polishing compound. This morning they were acceptable, but still had some stains. I just turned the machine back on and will take them out this evening when I get home.

I have some ceramic polishing media but have never gotten it to work well, do you use it wet or with some sort of polishing compound? Would flitz work or leave the cases gunky?

I have three tumblers, one Thumlers, one humongous Dillon, and a Midway with three interchangeable bowls.

How fast they work depends on what you use in them for a cleaner.

With walnut por corncob media, I think it is safe to say that the Thumler is the slowest of the three. BUT the Thumler is the only one of the three which is purposefully designed so you can use a liquid cleaning meterial in it.

Though cleaning liquids are not found just anywhere today, some of the older ones workrd faster than any corn-cob or walnut shell media I have ever tried.

some of the cleaning media made of very small diameter ceramic or steel rods also work very quickly.

With walnut or corn cob media, I have always found it important to throw the stuff away after it has been used 8-10 times, OR to re-charge it with abrasive such as that sold by Dillon and several others.

Of course, just how dirty the brass is makes a lot of difference too.

Anyway, with aggresive liquid cleaners in the Thumler, I found half an hour or less was sufficient for almost anything that was actually going to ever come clean. With pretty much worn out corn-cob media, I could have grown old and paid for half the Bonneville Dam power plant trying to get som brass clean.

With the vibratory tumblers and freshly re-vitalized media, I clean most of my range pick-up brass a couple of hours.

Anyway, the easiest way to know when it is done is to check it, just like your wife does when she's baking a cake in the oven (NO, not with a straw! By looking at it).

I have to say I'm simply amazed that it takes so many of you that long to clean brass !. Seriously
I've Never heard of this , learn something every day as I always say .

Try polishing your vehicle for a few hours or over night over several months and tell me the paint doesn't wear !. Yes I realize Urethane paint is a little thinner than Brass but polishing anything excessively will WEAR on it or put a hole in it !. Nature of the beast . Of course I also understand the brass is going to go bye bye before that is likely to happen .

Maybe I can help you with this problem ?. My brass just Never gets so tarnished or dirty that I need to polish it like you do yours . I don't know ?. Heres something which cleans quick and slick for real dirty stuff .
http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_index.asp?cls=24445

Then again I don't need mine to look like Jewelery either , just as long as it's clean and shiny .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
...How fast they work depends on what you use in them for a cleaner.

... the easiest way to know when it is done is ...looking at it).

Agree.

A guy I buy components from at the Charlotte Gun Shows has a HUGE Vibrating Tumbler(maybe a Dillon) that has 45ACP Cases running in Corn Cob at each Show. It runs all the time he is there, at every Show.

If you reach in and take a Case out you can feel that it is smooth and slick. After questioning him about which of the numerous products he had For Sale was he using to Treat the Media, he looked around, leaned over and said, "Dupont #7" - which was not on the table.

For you youngsters, Dupont #7 is an old Car Wax.
-----

In support of Dr. K, I've got a buddy in Fla who bought a Thumbler "style" Tumbler from Harbor Freight to Polish some rocks/stones for his wife.

Loaded them up and looked after a couple of hours - no change. More hours - no change. And he then called me. Told him I had no experience with Rock Polishing and did not have the info he needed.

He added some more Polishing Compound(I don't know what it is) and let it run for two days. Opened it up and - SHA-ZAM! - he had turned the rocks into sand.
-----

I've never "worn out" Cases in my Vibrating Tumblers, but I guess it is possible "if" the right guy is doing it.

Agree with Buglemintoday. Sometimes I'll tumble to clean before resizing and than again after. It cleans up the primer pockets somewhat and I don't have to wipe off the sizing lubrication. Probably just anal on my part.

I use a homemade device based upon the Thumler's Tumbler but bigger and driven with a ¼ hp motor. I use walnut media and generally run it for two hours. It won't remove all stains but the cases come out looking like jewelry. When the media gets "tired", I shave a stick of polishing bar - white or rouge -- with a sureform rasp into the drum and it's like new again. I usually tumble the cases after sizing unless they are really dirty as picked up at the range.

Bud W

If one wants to make cases real spiffy jewelery bright shinny knock your eye sockets back blinding brilliant ?. You can use them for rescue reflectors if you become stranded or lost while hunting .

Go to a Automotive supply shop purchase polishing compound 3M makes some of the best as does Megquires line .

I'm not sure of the Exact # I use ( When I need to ) 2-3 cap fulls of 3M's Swirl Remover it's white in color . It's a final polishing compound that contains no silicone or garbage .

We used to use it for polishing composite molds prior to release agents .

Best thing you'll ever put in the hopper save maybe your cartridges !. I use it with walnut generally in the Big Dillon tumbler .


http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/search/search.aspx?keyw...KVn5ECFRsFagodtTJpPQ

Friends-

I thank you for your comments. What promted my query was, I went to the Sportsman's Warehouse location that is being eliminated here in San Antonio and loaded up on media since they had it on sale. I purchased RCBS walnut media along with Lyman corncobb media. I had not used walnut media in years as I got pretty fond of corn cobb media. I purchased a good number of .270 WSM cases from a fellow board member and I had already resized them to .264 WSM, so I deburred the flash holes and trued the primer pockets and dumped them into my Thumler's Tumbler and poured in some of the newly purchased walnut media and sent it tumbling.

Well, truth be told, I forgot about it and when I walked into the garage the next morning, I heard the tumbler tumbling away. It had gone all night. I thought to myself, Oh, s?%t!!!

I popped the O ring off the drum and I looked in and saw about the shiniest brass I have ever seen.

That was before I posted my original query. So, I was trying to find the minimum time that walnut will get brass that shiny and that was the motivation for my original post.

Well, I had plenty more of .270/.264 WSM brass yet to work, so the next weekend, same drill. This time however, I started the brass tumbling at about 11:00 a.m. and I took it off around 4:00 p.m. to take a look and the brass still had smudges so, I let this batch go all night with the same result as the first.

It seems to me, and this is based on nothing but memory that corn cobb media will get you to the same place, looks wise, quicker (i.e. less tumbling time).

Any thoughts?

Keep you life simple, take them out when they are bright and shiny...forget about the time.

Remember to check those primer pockets for media.

quote:

Originally posted by 30 Caliber Mag Fan:
Friends-

I thank you for your comments. What promted my query was, I went to the Sportsman's Warehouse location that is being eliminated here in San Antonio and loaded up on media since they had it on sale. I purchased RCBS walnut media along with Lyman corncobb media. I had not used walnut media in years as I got pretty fond of corn cobb media. I purchased a good number of .270 WSM cases from a fellow board member and I had already resized them to .264 WSM, so I deburred the flash holes and trued the primer pockets and dumped them into my Thumler's Tumbler and poured in some of the newly purchased walnut media and sent it tumbling.

Well, truth be told, I forgot about it and when I walked into the garage the next morning, I heard the tumbler tumbling away. It had gone all night. I thought to myself, Oh, s?%t!!!

Any thoughts?

Two things:
1) If you go to Walmart's pet department, they sell corncob media as pet bedding. Much cheaper than that advertised as for guns. I've heard others say that walnut media is available from Harbor Freight (have no first hand knowledge of that)
2) I put together a timer that will automatically turn off my tumbler after a certain amount of time. See: http://prickett.pbwiki.com/Reloading+Gear#TumblerTimer for a picture

Guys if your brass is tarnished there's no need to tumble it longer. Just put a teaspoon of mineral spirits in with the brass. Tumble for a couple hours and you'll be amazed at how good it looks.