That's great to hear, Tony. With work taking up more and more time lately, I'm dropping every hobby except shooting and trying to make the that take less time than it currently does so I have more time to spend with my family. Since I don't want to reduce the time that I'm actually shooting, I am hoping to reduce the time it takes for supporting activities like cleaning guns, reloading, etc. If this could save me the step of primer pocket cleaning and get the inside of the brass clean, too, it would be a win for time saving and for brass consistency. If this works out well for you, I'll probably buy a setup for this, also.

Also, a media separator like this is what I use now and what I would use to separate brass from media with the stainless steel media system. Mine happens to be green because I got it on sale from Cabelas but you can get this exact same design from 10+ places that only differ in color. I assume the same place molds them in whatever color is requested by the company that buys them. It works a lot better than the bucket and sifter that I got with the tumbler kit from MidwayUSA. By the time I get a stainless steel media setup, I need to figure out the best setup to dump the brass and media through to get rid of the water before I use this to separate them. Some sort of big cooking sifter that's just a bowl made out of metal screen would do the job nicely, especially if it's big enough to sit on the bucket I already have.

Double Action Rotary Sifter
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/i ... 0038502023

Here's a link to the Lortone 40# rock tumbler. I would believe theirs maybe made by them, but this one maybe easier to get replacement parts if ever needed seeing it is a commercially available unit.

http://www.rocktumblers.com/rock-tumble ... pacity.cfm

not to steal Jasons thread , but have any of you guys every experimented with any of the ultrasonic cleaners out on the market. I've looked into the stainless steel media as well but recently have been wondering about how well and any drawbacks there are to ultrasonic.
It seems to get the primer pockets clean as well.

The ultrasonic cleaning method is what I was researching when I found out about the stainless media method. The stainless supposedly works much better for brass cleaning where the media can get to everything and ultrasonic cleaning works better for small, greasy/dirty parts, especially assemblies that have not been disassembled.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner that I bought for my .204 Ruger. The neck on that rifle is small enough that once the cases are full of media they kind of get packed full. It makes them a PITA to empty them when removing from the tumbler. The ultra sonic cleaner does a very good job of cleaning, just don't expect it to do any polishing. I would say, the cases get clean enough. Then again, I've never heard of anyone losing a match and blaming it on dirty brass. I'm not sure all this extra time invested in brass cleaning and polishing is beneficial. Heck, McAlice never cleans his brass and it doesn't seem to affect him.

Bob259 wrote:Here's a link to the Lortone 40# rock tumbler. I would believe theirs maybe made by them, but this one maybe easier to get replacement parts if ever needed seeing it is a commercially available unit.

http://www.rocktumblers.com/rock-tumble ... pacity.cfm

Holy crap!! For that price you could just throw your dirty brass away and shoot new brass every time!! Whoa.

Trent wrote:

Bob259 wrote:Here's a link to the Lortone 40# rock tumbler. I would believe theirs maybe made by them, but this one maybe easier to get replacement parts if ever needed seeing it is a commercially available unit.

http://www.rocktumblers.com/rock-tumble ... pacity.cfm

Holy crap!! For that price you could just throw your dirty brass away and shoot new brass every time!! Whoa.

I know ... but it's within a few dollars of their 40# unit was well.

Just think Trent... McAlice will see this and start production on a better model cheaper that we can all buy from him.

I haven't heard a bad thing about the stainless media either. I'd probably still keep the vibratory tumbler around for the little stuff when you just want a quick polish and don't want to deal wet cases and everything but it sure would be nice for the larger batches. I'm surprised there isn't any synthetic media being used in standard tumblers. Walnut works fine but there's a lot of different medias out there.

My friend told me he uses distilled water to avoid spotting when he rinses and allows one day for the brass to get dry. I guess it helps that he lives in Phoenix where there are more sunny days per year than any other city in the US.

I've been leaving mine on top of the furnace to dry in a colander. Works well if you have the time or I blow them off with an air hose from the garage.

I'm in love with the stuff! I'll never again put up with dust and media stuck in unclean primer pockets.

Before:


After:

I would hope that he uses a press to punch the primers out, but if he's doing it by hand that's pretty impressive!

On a side note, my routine is to deprime all my brass with a Lee decapping die and toss them into the tumbler before they go into my dies. For most rifle loads, I usually only neck size after the first firing and if I do that with the dies with carbide bushings, I never have to have sizing lube touch the brass so there's no need to tumble again.

Jason wrote:I would hope that he uses a press to punch the primers out, but if he's doing it by hand that's pretty impressive!

I use my teeth

I have seen Black Powder shooters remove their primers with some hand held tool before putting their dirty brass on a jar with soapy water.