What is a good tumbler
- Thread starter fullbug
- Start date
- Location
- In the middle of gopher country
RCBS
Hornaday
Lee
Frankford Arsenal
in no particular order of good or bad
Hornaday
Lee
Frankford Arsenal
in no particular order of good or bad
I have what you might consider one of the best. Thumler Industrial UV-18. There are two models, a standard and an industrial with a HD motor and thicker bowl. It is intended for polishing rocks and designed to run constantly for years and will polish dry or using water and ceramic media.
Lucked out with mine, got it really cheap. However most people would gag on the price of one these days. Their standard duty model is around $200.
Lucked out with mine, got it really cheap. However most people would gag on the price of one these days. Their standard duty model is around $200.
I had the same as you and it's a POS. The motor fried recently. It's flimsy, moves around when loaded lightly. The motor is noisy and the integrated sifter is unpractical at best.
I trashed it and bought a Dillon CV750. It's extremely well build and rock solid. You have a on/off switch and no useless gadget. The motor is very quiet too!
That sucks to hear.
I can't compare with anything else since this is my first tumbler. I get clean brass after 3-4hrs. It takes a few minutes to dump most of the media out. I then scoop out the brass by hand and toss brass around with veggie strainer to get the media out of brass. I tumble mine outdoors.
How long did your 2500 last before it went kaput?
I've got the standard model and use 1mm ceramic media, wet. No more diggin away at primer pockets. Let er run over night for twinkling results. Dry my brass in less then 5 min. After recovering it from the wet media, I put it in a 14" x 14" x 6" covered plastic container 1/3 full of corn cob and do a manual shake & bake on it for about 1 min. Pick the brass out of the corn & some corn out of the brass, and presto, clean dry brass.
Thumlers Ultra Vibe 10 and Lyman Turbo Pro 1200. I think the Thumlers is better quality than the Lyman. The Thumlers is about 15 years old, no problems with it. It also has an off/on switch on the cord. No switch on the Lyman, not a great issue though. Thumlers, I believe was about 120.00 15 years ago, Lyman about 70.00 2-3 years ago. No great difference in how well they work. I run them both for about the same time, and I don't see any difference in the brass. I use Lyman corn cob media in both. I tried some crushed walnut media used for sand blasting once, but found it very dusty. Cheap though, about 25.00/100# bag.
I use a Lyman Turbo tumbler. Admittedly it is the only one I have ever used, but I honestly think one tumbler would be just as good as the next. In my opinion the major difference between units would only be capacity. Some have auto sifters, but I always pick up each case after tumbling to make sure there is no media stuck in the flash hole, and when I do do that the media falls out of the case - so the auto sifting really wouldn't be a big sell for me at all.
As for media... I used Tuffnut once and it left a 'waxy' powdery film that was very difficult to get off the cases afterwards. I ended up retumbling them with a different media to get the powder off. Someone recommended Hornady "One Shot Tumbler Media", and it worked well, so I have never used anything else. The Corn media might not be bad, but I have never used it.
As for media... I used Tuffnut once and it left a 'waxy' powdery film that was very difficult to get off the cases afterwards. I ended up retumbling them with a different media to get the powder off. Someone recommended Hornady "One Shot Tumbler Media", and it worked well, so I have never used anything else. The Corn media might not be bad, but I have never used it.
I'm using the green corn media that requires no additive (I think it's layman too). I could check the bottle but it's in the garage. Too lazy. Well, after 3000 9mm cases it's dark grey. But I use two caps full of nu finish for 2 gallons and it tumbles even cleaner now. 
Next batch, I'll do 4 caps full.
Next batch, I'll do 4 caps full.
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
get a foginator
How much and what's the lead time ??
Personally, I've got a Lyman Turbo 1200 and use crushed walnut for media. I've left it on for an entire weekend once (ooops) and I usually leave it on overnight. It's still going strong after 4 years.
Large Dillon. Can't beat their warranty.
Mine was submerged in a flooded basement for several days, called Dillon about buying a new motor, they said send it back they would send me a new one. No charge. It is still going strong 10 years later.
