Every manufacturer states capacity of tumbler/rotary for 38 spl. Is there a chart for the rest of the calibers in the world? Or is it best guess when doing 223,308, 44mag, etc.

You could weigh a batch of 38's if you hsve them and adjust according

I can run 200 or so 223s in my old Midway .

Fill it over half, but less than three quarters.

That is how we do it, and it works.

Just got a new tumbler with the steel pins.

I have not tried it yet.

I have an old Turbo 1200 I mainly use for initial cleaning before sizing. Then have a Lyman Pro Tumbler I use for final polishing. I have tried sonic cleaner and it doesn't really work well. A friend of mine uses a rotary with SS pins and it is very good. Drawback is less capacity and then have to dry the brass when done since it is immersed in water solution.

I have around 200 243's rolling in my Thumlers right now.

I never count em, i just fill it between half and three quarters full and let it rip.

I have a Harbor freight vibratory tumbler as well. It works faster, but only holds about half as much as the Thumler.

I've been using SS media in a Thumler's Tumbler for a while now. Amazing. I run a little extra SS media, almost half again as much as they suggest and stick to the following capacities:

150 .223
80 30.06
100 .308
170 .45 acp
125 44 mag
220 9mm
40 .460 WBY

45 minutes to an hour, 1/4 tsp lemishine and 2 tbspn Dawn or equivalent. I also lube the rotating points/plastic bushings with synthetic wheel bearing grease about every other load.

Nothing works better.

Downside: it takes more finesse to rinse and separate media from brass without losing media. I have a system. Also, towel dry, spread on a cookie sheet and place in the oven at 250 degrees, shut it off when it reaches temperature and let it sit in there for a while. I have some that's been in for about two hours, almost cooled off. Sparkles like jewelry.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe from So. Cal.:

Downside: it takes more finesse to rinse and separate media from brass without losing media. I have a system. Also, towel dry, spread on a cookie sheet and place in the oven at 250 degrees, shut it off when it reaches temperature and let it sit in there for a while. I have some that's been in for about two hours, almost cooled off. Sparkles like jewelry.

Got tired of separating media from brass and got the plastic RCBS media
separator. After rinsing the brass in a bucket, the brass gets tossed
into the separator and rotated a couple times per day until all is dry.
By the time the brass has dried, all media has been deposited in the bottom.
I clean my brass at least a couple weeks prior to reloading.

I was sent a new free motor for my tumbler from RCBS- that says a lot.Vibratory tumblers are fragile.Don't overload them and don't put any stress on them whether working or not.Also don't clean the hell out of your cases and leave the tumbler running for hours.A half hour the most with a 50/50 mix of red and green cob/walnut mix will clean you brass to the max and leave no residue in your cases.

I have a lot of tumblers. Dillion's, RCBS, thumblers, a gigantic thumblers replica (like 4000 9mm cases). Now my go to is the Frankford rotary tumblers. Have 3 now, run with Lemi-shine only unless really dirty then will spin with ss pins. Crazy fast, no dust and does an excellent job.