Frankford tumbler

jmccracken1214

jmccracken1214

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how many of you guys are using this? Seems to be the cheapest tumbler I can find of its size. My harbor freight has been great for my precision brass but can only do 30 pieces with it. I’ve got a lot of 223 that needs cleaning and guess it’s time for bigger things
 
jmccracken1214 said:
how many of you guys are using this? Seems to be the cheapest tumbler I can find of its size. My harbor freight has been great for my precision brass but can only do 30 pieces with it. I’ve got a lot of 223 that needs cleaning and guess it’s time for bigger things
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I'm guessing you are asking about the rotary tumbler? I've been using one for not long after they first came out. I've had nothing but good luck with it. It can hold about 10 lbs of brass, but I have found that it does a better job if you don't fill it up full. I can do about 1000 pieces of 9mm. Not sure about 223, but it can do at least 500, maybe 600. I do my rifle brass in 2 steps, I wet tumble without pins for about 15 minutes. I lube and resize, swage the primer pockets (if needed), then tumble again with pins for about an hour.

If you are talking about the vibratory bowl tumbler, then I have one of those as well. No problems with it.

If you have a LOT of 223 brass, then consider getting a cheap cement mixer from HF.
 
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which frankford tumbler are you looking at I have the original Frankford rotary (wet) tumbler and I like mine
 
Toprudder said:
I'm guessing you are asking about the rotary tumbler? I've been using one for not long after they first came out. I've had nothing but good luck with it. It can hold about 10 lbs of brass, but I have found that it does a better job if you don't fill it up full. I can do about 1000 pieces of 9mm. Not sure about 223, but it can do at least 500, maybe 600. I do my rifle brass in 2 steps, I wet tumble without pins for about 15 minutes. I lube and resize, swage the primer pockets (if needed), then tumble again with pins for about an hour.

If you are talking about the vibratory bowl tumbler, then I have one of those as well. No problems with it.

If you have a LOT of 223 brass, then consider getting a cheap cement mixer from HF.
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vaskeet said:
which frankford tumbler are you looking at I have the original Frankford rotary (wet) tumbler and I like mine
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The wet tumbler is the one I’m talking about. They have a smaller one now that is $100
 
My full size one went on sale last black Friday $100 from Cabelas. Love it. Their large magnet to help with media separation is very nice as well, though for a long time I just "strained" them out via a small hole drilled rubbermaid. Brass comes out looking better than new. Primer pockets immaculately cleaned.
 
I have one, and it works well. Actually wish that it ran at half the speed it does, would trade more time for less noise.
 
I bought an entire kit a few months ago......The Frankford Wet Tumbler, came with pins, but I have not used the pins at all..... also got the Lyman Dryer, extremely important component to this operation in my opinion. No wet spots on the brass. I also got the Frankford cleaning solution. You can load this thing full of brass to the top, I use plain water, a cap full of the cleaning solution. Run it for two hours. Pour out the water, then rinse it a couple of times. Pour brass out on a towel and pat most of the water out. Place the brass in the dryer for either an hour or two, I forget. Go get them, and they look better than brand new................. It is great................

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degenerateJEFF said:
I'm still oven drying. Water marks look terrible. I'll look into the air dryer now!
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My OCD will not tolerate Water Marks....... I bought 4000 pieces of 300 BLK from Everglades, clean, nice brass, prepped and ready to load, but the damn stuff had water marks, I could not stand for that....... So I ran every single one through the Frankford and Lyman, 1000 or so at a time......

Before and after----Frankford left and Everglades water marks on the right................ Get that Lyman Dryer............ It is great and works fine............. I think I was doing 2 hours on both................

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@Michael458 just leave me in your will ;) I'm scraping by trying to afford a decent leather sling and you've got all the big bores and handy things I need! I'll live with the watermarks for now.
 
For the harbor freight dual tumbler model (aka Lortone 33b clone):

Build a PVC single chamber and it'll hold a hell of a lot more than 30 pieces even if they're 50BMG. I can clean 200+ pieces of 5.56 or .300blk brass and still have room. Or nearly 300+ .45acp/.40/9mm with 2lbs of pins.

Oh and use distilled water for the rinse and you'll never get water spots. Or get a water softener ;)
 
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jmccracken1214 said:
The wet tumbler is the one I’m talking about. They have a smaller one now that is $100
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Keep in mind that the smaller one does not come with pins. The large one has been on sale a few times on Amazon for $120 or so. I like the fact the larger one has openings on each end, with the additional strainers, so I can rinse straight through with the water flowing down through the brass.

I use Armorall Wash-n-Wax and Lemishine with mine. I don't have problems with water marks, even though I have hard water. I've dried the brass several different ways, but mostly I use a wooden-framed screen with a fan, a couple of hours is all it takes. I've also placed the screen on a rack I made to fit over the outside AC unit, that works REALLY fast. Toaster oven, food dehydrator, clothes dryer with the shoe rack installed, in front of the fireplace, or even just sit outside in the hot sun. Which way depends on the weather sometimes. I never take the brass straight from drying and into the reloading press (I have plenty of other brass), so I am not worried about how long it takes to dry.
 
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degenerateJEFF said:
@Michael458 just leave me in your will ;) I'm scraping by trying to afford a decent leather sling and you've got all the big bores and handy things I need! I'll live with the watermarks for now.
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Well the boys say use distilled water for no spots, or build a home made dryer too like Toprudder...... I can see that working good too.......... I don't have time for all that so I like the Lyman dryer, I think it was a $100 or so, I don't recall exactly, but well worth it to me.......

I love the way the brass comes out, and it calms my OCD with things like that, so I don't have to take a pill.... HEH.................
 
I pour all the unused bottles of drinking water laying around my house into a gallon jug and just use that water to rinse.
 
I have the larger one with the pins. I love it. The rumors are true...brass looks brand new.
Also, I just picked up a 2-pack of mesh screens that fit the ends from Amazon the other day. Apparently they are a new product. I'm hoping they keep the stray pins from going down the drain.
 
I’ve had mine for a couple years but just started using it about 6mo who and regret not doing it sooner. Works really well, I can load it up with hundreds of 9mm or .223 which is great for me.
 
I can vouched for the FA tumbler. I used mine for many years with no trouble. I recently seen a post about the internal fan coming loose from another user. If your worry about the noise level it produced you may want to run it in another room. I purchased a coffee filter form Walmart on the "Clearance" section to drain water without removing pins. Works great.

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FA wet tumblers are worth every penny they cost.
If you don't want to buy a dryer just use your food dehydrator when it is unemployed.
 
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