HF rock tumbler?

O

ohihunter2014

New member
Anyone use a Harbor Freight rock tumbler to wet tumble? I'm getting sick of cleaning 500 primer pockets by hand and having to dump corn cob out of each case and then poke out flash holes of media.

I'm thinking the HF rock tumbler and water and steel pins would be a better deal and a lot cleaner.
 
you'll get much better results with stainless in a shorter time than you will with dry media, however - if you're trying to process in volume, the HF rock tumbler isnt for you. the volume of the chamber(s) is just too small to do en-masse processing.

you may only get 50 or 60 rifle cases in there at a time, or less depending on the caliber.


tumbling time is 1-2 hours for good clean internals on your brass, so if you're trying to run 500 cases at a go, you could easily be looking at >10 hours of processing time for one batch of brass.


if you're a low volume reloader, its probably practical, but if you shoot in any volume - save up some more money and get the frankford aresenal kit.

it'll process 1000 223 sized cases at a time, has a built in timer (very nice bonus) and they usually come with pins too. they hit sale prices in the $160 range or so a couple times a year, so watch for them to come down and then if you can pair with a cabela's bucks deal or something and you're in like flynn.

i'm not unhappy with my thumlers at all, but if i had to do it again the frankford kit would be my choice simply due to volume and the timer. the model i currently have has a 12 lb capacity - so 5 lbs of pins, 5 lbs of brass, and a quart of water (2lbs) and i'm done. but thats still in the neighborhood of 350-400 pieces of 223 per batch.


hth
 
FWIW, I've found that an ultrasonic cleaner using no tumbling & no media cleans primer pockets, as well as the inside of the cases it looks like.

It's still wet, so they have to be rinsed & dried, but there's no media separation to do.
 
that said, I have been looking at the SS tumbling and so far i haven't seen anything better than the Franford Arsenal tumbler for that. All the other tumblers I've found are much smaller.
 
here are my considerations:

I already have a vibratory cleaner for dry media.

I already have an US cleaner that is big enough to do a reasonable amount of brass. The basket holds 250 .223 rem cases.

That US cleaner costs about $179 on amazon now (I paid about $160 a year ago) and think they likely have a new version of it now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ET4PPU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There is no media to buy but you either have to buy a cleaning solution or make one. Following discussions in this forum I'm tweaking making one using Dawn and Lemishine with water, it's cheap.

In my case, to do the SS I'd have to buy a tumbler, media, still buy or make a solution. As I already have a Dillon case/media separator I wouldn't have to buy anything for that, but would still have to spend roughly $200. based on my testing results so far, I'm happy with the US results so see no need to buy a new system.

But if you are going to have to buy something either way, that may change the decision.
 
I'm low volume with a rifle. i just shoot 25-50rds of 223 here and there and a couple hundred of 9mm here and there. i buy brass in bulk and clean it all and trim, etc and stash it.
 
I use the HF rock tumbler for small batches. It works great for that and like stated only takes a couple of hours. With a Super coupon, I paid less than $35 for it. It does enough for me.
 
the FA kit includes 5lbs of media, this is one of our sponsors & about as low a price as I've seen:

Frankford Arsenal Rotary Kit

I like that it's designed for wet cleaning brass with SS media. Seems to be a well built gizmo.
 
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I have a harbor freight rock tumbler and like it.... cost 30 some $$... has two cylinders to tumble in...got some stainless media and it works very well for me...... i seldom process more than 25 - 100 cases at a time.....
i am a tinkerer and always trying new loads / powder/ primer bullet combinations
If you process 500 at a time often i am very jealous of how you have time to shoot that much
smile.gif
 
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You'd be better off with the Frankford Arsenal. Much more capacity, built in timer and all components as a kit. Keep an eye out for sales, they can be had at a very good price.
 
Originally Posted By: pahntr760You'd be better off with the Frankford Arsenal. Much more capacity, built in timer and all components as a kit. Keep an eye out for sales, they can be had at a very good price.

where are the sales coming from? Frankfort, midway, etc? also whats the reasoning behind a timer? can you actually run it too long to mess up brass?
 
There was a time when people were having trouble with the belts
breaking on the HF rock tumbler, but they responded to that. I've had
the HF tumbler for a few years now. With mine, they sent a couple
extra belts, but it's still on the original belt with no problems.

I don't shoot nearly as much as I would like, so this dual-drum
HF tumbler works well for me, and cleans brass shinier than new, just
like any of the photos you may have seen. I do use Lemi-shine and it
only takes a pinch per drum. Cleaning the pins out did get to be a
PIA, so I got the RCBS media separator, and life is good.
thumbup.gif
 
Thanks for the replies. I don't shoot a lot but i scrounge brass so i accumulate a lot of dirty stuff and just looking for a cleaner way to do them. 50 223 cases and 200 9mm cases a month is about all i do for my shooting needs.

range brass is another story.
 
Originally Posted By: ohihunter2014Originally Posted By: pahntr760You'd be better off with the Frankford Arsenal. Much more capacity, built in timer and all components as a kit. Keep an eye out for sales, they can be had at a very good price.

where are the sales coming from? Frankfort, midway, etc? also whats the reasoning behind a timer? can you actually run it too long to mess up brass?

if you run a cleaning solution that's dawn based (like most of us are) eventually run long enough the dawn will lose its ability to emulsify the garbage in the water. once the emulsion breaks down, all that carbon will get redeposited back on your brass and it'll come out of the tumbler looking gunmetal grey.

i've also read about the possibility of work hardening your brass if tumbled for an excessive amount of time with the pins, but i cant substantiate that myself.

i had a batch that turned out the grey thing when i didnt put enough dawn in. this was before i built my timed outlet when i left he house for a "quick run out" and ended up having dinner with my bro and being away for about 4 hours. got home and awww crap.

had to rinse it all out, redo my solution and put it back in the tumbler to get the carbon back off.

now i have a timed outlet built into my bench so its not a problem, i just set it for ~2 hours and walk away.
 
Originally Posted By: ilmo
If you process 500 at a time often i am very jealous of how you have time to shoot that much
smile.gif



i save up all my brass throughout the year. not hard to rack up 500 pcs in a season. i usually do that with a couple calibers.

i have enough brass to shoot all summer and then spend my winters cleaning. so its not uncommon for me to quite literally spend a weekend just washing brass when i get to it.


i run my high volume usage brass first (full tumbler batches) and then tumble the low volume shooting brass last.

the only reloading i do in the summer is powder, bullet and primer. although i do for my high volume stuff (blk and 223) pre-prime those brass ahead of time when i get done with all my winter brass prep.
 
Originally Posted By: ohihunter2014Originally Posted By: pahntr760You'd be better off with the Frankford Arsenal. Much more capacity, built in timer and all components as a kit. Keep an eye out for sales, they can be had at a very good price.

where are the sales coming from? Frankfort, midway, etc? also whats the reasoning behind a timer? can you actually run it too long to mess up brass?

Midway has had em cheaper and Amazon. Cabela's too from time to time. The timer is a nice feature if you have to leave and come back later. I have found no ill effects by letting the brass sit for a while (less than a day) after tumbling in the water and soap. After it sat, I just turned the tumbler back on for 20 min to agitate the grime off that had settled.
 
I use SS and lemi shine with cascade I have soft water also.i keep 500 as a min.for my M&P 15, 200 17.rem,100 7MMpractial,100 300 tejas,100 280.ackley im.. I like volume.i bought a plug in timer so it wont run to long. I feel it betterto be to big than to small.
 
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I have been using the HF tumbler for a couple years. I have run 100's of rounds through it with no problems. I am using ceramic instead of stainless in mine. I pick up a lot of brass and don't clean until I get about 100 rounds.
 
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