Wet Tumbling Media & Sources and effectiveness - Stainless Pins, crushed glass/bead

tjhaile said:
You can wet tumble without the media and get results that are probably 90% as good as with it, but without having to buy media or deal with separating it from the cases.
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This ^
I have the FA wet tumbler and rarely use the pins anymore. I'm doing mostly .40sw brass and it comes out good enough after 1 1/2 hours.
Two long squirts of Dawn dish soap, some Lyman case cleaner liquid, a dash of Lemishine and you are good to go. Dont fill the container all the way up with brass. Maybe 2/3 full at the most. Some primer pockets are not perfectly clean but they are good enough.
 
FirearmsEnthusiast said:
5lb bag of STM stainless media is $39.95 US and free shipping if you know someone with a US mailing address and US Amazon Prime account...the stuff is amazing and lasts forever. Then build your own tumbler and you’re good to go.
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There is / was a member who sold pins locally for got his name will try to look it up
 
Glenzo said:
This ^
I have the FA wet tumbler and rarely use the pins anymore. I'm doing mostly .40sw brass and it comes out good enough after 1 1/2 hours.
Two long squirts of Dawn dish soap, some Lyman case cleaner liquid, a dash of Lemishine and you are good to go. Dont fill the container all the way up with brass. Maybe 2/3 full at the most. Some primer pockets are not perfectly clean but they are good enough.
Click to expand...

Ive done it just like this as well in the past, and it works amazingly well. I have never had any problem with the primer pockets either.
 
If you decide to buy the tumbler, ask your Seattle friend to bring you the Franklin Arsenal Platinum from Amazon.com, which is currently $159.05 USD.
 
tjhaile said:
You can wet tumble without the media and get results that are probably 90% as good as with it, but without having to buy media or deal with separating it from the cases.
Click to expand...

Glenzo said:
This ^
I have the FA wet tumbler and rarely use the pins anymore. I'm doing mostly .40sw brass and it comes out good enough after 1 1/2 hours.
Two long squirts of Dawn dish soap, some Lyman case cleaner liquid, a dash of Lemishine and you are good to go. Dont fill the container all the way up with brass. Maybe 2/3 full at the most. Some primer pockets are not perfectly clean but they are good enough.
Click to expand...

Same here. No media, dish soap, lemonshine and works just fine for 223 and 9mm.
 
Buy the FA tumbler from Amazon USA, you'll never build anything as good unless you can source a clean, used cement mixer.
As for stainless steel media, don't bother. Total waste of time and more hassle than it's worth, unless, and this is a big unless, you are doing precision rifle stuff and want to clean primer pockets. If that is the case then get the stainless chips, not the pins. However if you buy the FA kit, it will come with pins, sell those to fund your purchase of chips/flakes or whatever they are called.
I use laundry detergent, works better in my opinion, than Dawn, and is cheaper in bulk too. A little bit of Lemishine, and the hottest water you can generate. One hour should clean even the worst brass.
 
I have the ultra tiny Thumler Model B. Follow the instructions with the pins, and you can clean 220 pieces of 9mm brass at a time. When I decided to skip the pins, I now clean over 600 pieces of brass at a time. Much nicer. I still wish the FA was available when I was shopping, but now I regret buying the tiny Thumler a bit less.

As mentioned in various places, the inside of the cases won't be as clean when you skip the pins, but for pistol anyway, it won't matter. Sample chrono readings for 4.0 TG with 124 Campro:

1061/1055/1061/1057/1054/1056/1065/1057/1056/1058

Not bad at all. :) My conclusion: inside of the cases, for pistol anyhow, doesn't matter one bit.
:cheers:
 
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