Tumbler Just Died: Time to switch to stainless media?

[thump_rrr]

I got a Thumler's last month from stainlesstumblingmedia.com, and have been running all my old brass through it. It works great - cleans the insides and pockets just like new. A little messy until you get used to the new routine.

I strain about half the water out through an old towel to get rid of most of the dirty water while catching pins, then put the rest in an old wire wastebasket inside a 5gal bucket. This separates the pins from the brass very effectively.

Finally, I rinse the brass in HOT water (my water heater is in the basement next to my reloading bench), then spread the brass on a towel. The hot water rinse makes the brass dry in just a few hours, but I usually leave it all night.

I also setup a single-stage press with a universal decapping die to speed up that process. AND not having the decapper in station 1 helps keep my 550 clean and working smoothly.

I use my RCBS media separator, the one with the cover.
I fill it with water and give it a few spins and all the SS pins fall to the bottom.
It's much faster than shaking bottleneck cases a few at a time.

 

[gwalchmai]

Strange as it sounds, the wire basket seems to separate faster than my media separator. Takes about ten vigorous shakes and it's done.