Wet tumbler capacity

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MiniMe

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Hi

I just bought a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler.
The manual says nothing about capacity, only the seller's ad says it cleans about 1000 .223 brass.
So when reloading other calibers, what is the best practice?
I'm cleaning my first batch of 30-06 brass and I filled the drum half way up with dirty brass and added the pins, water and cleaning solution. Could I have added more?

Thanks
 
depends how strong the motor is. See how it works, if it seems to work too hard or get too hot.

1000 cases of 223 is around 13 pounds
so 13 pounds of brass max per load I would say.
 
If that's the Platinum series rotary tumbler you bought, I have the same (product #909544). It's advertised as having a 7 liters capacity drum. I just happened to be finishing cleaning a batch of brass, so I used a measuring cup to see what that was about. A quick fill shows that yes, the volume of the drum is 7 liters. If you fill it to capacity with water as shown in the manual, that comes to 15.4 lbs. Add 5 lbs of SS pins, you've got about 19-20 lbs of weight in there (some water volume replaced by SS pins volume). The drum itself weights what, about 3 lbs? I don't have a scale on hand to check it. So drum, water and media comes to about 22-23 lbs in all.

In the manual that came with the tumbler, on the third page it says "Total weight of the drum should not exceed 30 lbs"

That leaves you with space for 7 lbs of brass in the drum, or about 500 pieces of 223, up to 1000 for smaller brass like 9mm.

Personally, I never fill the drum to capacity with water, I like the wave action to churn things up. So I fill about half of the drum, say 8 lbs of water, add 5 lbs of pins, then up to 10 lbs of brass for a max of 26 lbs. No point in stressing the motor and gears with max weight, I intend to keep using that tumbler for a long while! :d
 
I found lemishine on amazon.ca for a decent price. I just got my F.A.R.T. yesterday, I am going to try a few different recipes starting with dish soap. Tumbled 300 .45 and about 200 22.250 in it yesterday with no issues, all came out looking new. Then I will tumble it again in a vibratory tumbler with some nu-shine to add a bit of was on the cases to keep them from tarnishing.

And as they stated above, should not exceed 30lbs.

My media separator should arrive Monday, I will wait for that to make separating much easier!!
 
Didn't think of CT
I tried longos and Walmart
I'll check the local CT tomorrow

Btw
First batch finished
Cases look better than new!!!
But separating pins from cases is a pia....
Maybe I will buy cabelas cheap media separator

Thanks again
 
Grawfr said:
If that's the Platinum series rotary tumbler you bought, I have the same (product #909544). It's advertised as having a 7 liters capacity drum. I just happened to be finishing cleaning a batch of brass, so I used a measuring cup to see what that was about. A quick fill shows that yes, the volume of the drum is 7 liters. If you fill it to capacity with water as shown in the manual, that comes to 15.4 lbs. Add 5 lbs of SS pins, you've got about 19-20 lbs of weight in there (some water volume replaced by SS pins volume). The drum itself weights what, about 3 lbs? I don't have a scale on hand to check it. So drum, water and media comes to about 22-23 lbs in all.

In the manual that came with the tumbler, on the third page it says "Total weight of the drum should not exceed 30 lbs"

That leaves you with space for 7 lbs of brass in the drum, or about 500 pieces of 223, up to 1000 for smaller brass like 9mm.

Personally, I never fill the drum to capacity with water, I like the wave action to churn things up. So I fill about half of the drum, say 8 lbs of water, add 5 lbs of pins, then up to 10 lbs of brass for a max of 26 lbs. No point in stressing the motor and gears with max weight, I intend to keep using that tumbler for a long while! :d
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I have the same unit. Weighing the brass is easier.
 
MiniMe said:
Didn't think of CT
I tried longos and Walmart
I'll check the local CT tomorrow

Btw
First batch finished
Cases look better than new!!!
But separating pins from cases is a pia....
Maybe I will buy cabelas cheap media separator

Thanks again
Click to expand...

I have one of those strong permanent magnets used in an old battery-less flashlight... I just drop it in a small plastic tupperware bowl, collect pins, then pull away the magnet to free the pins over a bowl where I store them to dry until the next use.

I haven't found lemishine yet, I'll have to go to CT and see. I've used dish soap and a bit of Oxyclean, that seems to work too, the brass came out nice and clean. Basically, i'm thinking of experimenting with pretty much anything that doesn't dissolve rubber or plastic.
 
Do Folks not read the manual, or don't understand. Seem pretty obvious to go by max 30lbs. Did exactly the same weight water and pins, rest for brass to max 25ish.

I always fill the drum to capacity and let the pins do the work instead of brass necks tumbling over each other.
Grawfr said:
If that's the Platinum series rotary tumbler you bought, I have the same (product #909544). It's advertised as having a 7 liters capacity drum. I just happened to be finishing cleaning a batch of brass, so I used a measuring cup to see what that was about. A quick fill shows that yes, the volume of the drum is 7 liters. If you fill it to capacity with water as shown in the manual, that comes to 15.4 lbs. Add 5 lbs of SS pins, you've got about 19-20 lbs of weight in there (some water volume replaced by SS pins volume). The drum itself weights what, about 3 lbs? I don't have a scale on hand to check it. So drum, water and media comes to about 22-23 lbs in all.

In the manual that came with the tumbler, on the third page it says "Total weight of the drum should not exceed 30 lbs"

That leaves you with space for 7 lbs of brass in the drum, or about 500 pieces of 223, up to 1000 for smaller brass like 9mm.

Personally, I never fill the drum to capacity with water, I like the wave action to churn things up. So I fill about half of the drum, say 8 lbs of water, add 5 lbs of pins, then up to 10 lbs of brass for a max of 26 lbs. No point in stressing the motor and gears with max weight, I intend to keep using that tumbler for a long while! :d
Click to expand...
 
Not sure about the other guys, but I don't have a scale at home other than a kitchen scale with a 2kg limit.
Nobody is overweight here and never needed one.

I'm buying a cheap one just to weigh my brass.


burnaby said:
Do Folks not read the manual, or don't understand. Seem pretty obvious to go by max 30lbs. Did exactly the same weight water and pins, rest for brass to max 25ish.

I always fill the drum to capacity and let the pins do the work instead of brass necks tumbling over each other.
Click to expand...
 
burnaby said:
Do Folks not read the manual, or don't understand. Seem pretty obvious to go by max 30lbs. Did exactly the same weight water and pins, rest for brass to max 25ish.

I always fill the drum to capacity and let the pins do the work instead of brass necks tumbling over each other.
Click to expand...

I read the manual several times. I do appreciate hearing the tips and tricks that others are using though.
 
MiniMe said:
Didn't think of CT
I tried longos and Walmart
I'll check the local CT tomorrow

Btw
First batch finished
Cases look better than new!!!
But separating pins from cases is a pia....
Maybe I will buy cabelas cheap media separator

Thanks again
Click to expand...


I have the Media separator from Cabelas with the rotary handle it works well
 
I fill my drum up to about 3/4 full of brass & pins, add soap & water, it tumbles well with that ratio regardless of calibre.
 
You will see as you experiment with it more. I find there is a balance between the volume of cases you put in an the amount of time you tumble to get the cases nice and clean without too much peening(rounding off) of the case mouths. Smaller volumes of brass clean quickly but if you leave it in there too long my case mouths get rounded off and i end up having to chamfer them inside and out to get smooth bullet seating with non-boat tail bullets. I have only really found this a bit of a pain with rifle cases, doesn't seem to effect pistol cases as much. I use the F.A. transfer magent and a F.A. media separator which works great.
 
burnaby said:
Do Folks not read the manual, or don't understand. Seem pretty obvious to go by max 30lbs. Did exactly the same weight water and pins, rest for brass to max 25ish.

I always fill the drum to capacity and let the pins do the work instead of brass necks tumbling over each other.
Click to expand...
^^^ That's what I do and should work well with any tumbler
 
MiniMe said:
Not sure about the other guys, but I don't have a scale at home other than a kitchen scale with a 2kg limit.
Nobody is overweight here and never needed one.

I'm buying a cheap one just to weigh my brass.
Click to expand...

Save your money, just guess the weight and you should be fine, after trying the machine out a couple times you will get the hang of how much it can hold to do a good job.
 
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