Harbor Freight Tumbler
- Thread starter BBean70
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The one I have is kind of small for cleaning brass I use it for Molly coating bullets, I use the Frankford arsenal wet Tumblr for cleaning brass
xsn10s
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I haven't used that Harbor Freight tumbler. I did look at it and I'm sure it would be fine for small jobs. If you're a competitive shooter doing large quantities of brass you'll want a larger well known tumbler. I've worked in manufacturing/ production and you'll see a a ton of HB products.
xsn10s
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There are times I just clean rifle brass by hand. Clean towel, a scotch bright pad, maybe some never dull on heavy carbon or dull brass. The rock tumbler would probably only do a small amount of brass. Maybe 10 or so rifle brass using wet methods. The vibratory metal tumbler would be better for normal amounts of rifle or pistol brass. About the same size as my old midway tumbler.
I waded lightly into the wet tumbling with the Harbor Freight tumbler. This was before/right as the big reloading specific models came out.
I had scrap pvc at work (3" aircell sch 40) and went to lowes and got a street plug and test plug. Got a nut to replace the wing. Cut it to length and now have one larger version as opposed to the two.
Load examples - I can do 400+ 9mm and more than 100 30-06. I really only wet tumble 9mm these days, getting pins out of bottle neck cases can be time consuming.
Opinions (not that you asked) after doing thousands of cases this way - I would buy a Frankford/Lyman/RCBS/whoever tumbler now, they just were not out then. This thing keeps rolling so until it goes... I would also ditch pins - go with the stainless steel chips, they pour out of bottle neck cases.
I had scrap pvc at work (3" aircell sch 40) and went to lowes and got a street plug and test plug. Got a nut to replace the wing. Cut it to length and now have one larger version as opposed to the two.
Load examples - I can do 400+ 9mm and more than 100 30-06. I really only wet tumble 9mm these days, getting pins out of bottle neck cases can be time consuming.
Opinions (not that you asked) after doing thousands of cases this way - I would buy a Frankford/Lyman/RCBS/whoever tumbler now, they just were not out then. This thing keeps rolling so until it goes... I would also ditch pins - go with the stainless steel chips, they pour out of bottle neck cases.
Buckleman
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I've got the Harbor model with steel pins. I'm in no hurry,and just a hunter who rolls his own. Works great,brass comes out beautiful
xsn10s
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How many rifle brass say 30-06 or otherwise can you tumble at one time. I'd think 100 at a time is more than acceptable for average range shooter/ hunter.
xsn10s - I want to say that I could clean 80-100 cases 30-06 in the supplied tubs.
Long cases like 30-06 are more of a rolling motion through the pins rather than a tumble. But the outsides are clean! primer pockets are fairly clean. I know a few folks who don't use the pins at all and wet tumble and that works for the outside.
I really only wet clean pistol cases anymore as I want to be able to see the powder in the case before bullets seating during progressive reloading. I use the harbor freight parts cleaner (vibratory cleaner) for rifle brass, mostly just to removed lube.
Long cases like 30-06 are more of a rolling motion through the pins rather than a tumble. But the outsides are clean! primer pockets are fairly clean. I know a few folks who don't use the pins at all and wet tumble and that works for the outside.
I really only wet clean pistol cases anymore as I want to be able to see the powder in the case before bullets seating during progressive reloading. I use the harbor freight parts cleaner (vibratory cleaner) for rifle brass, mostly just to removed lube.
ruraltexas
New Member
I use the Harbor Freight. I only ever load small quantities of rifle, no pistol. I can clean 100 cases of 6BR Norma or 100 cases of 223. 308 or 6.5 i can do 50 at a time. I use the SS chips instead of pins, gets the primer pockets cleaner and no stuck pins. My shooting partner just had to quit because of health issues and I now have his rock tumbler also.
xsn10s
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When I was starting out I just used the Lee case holder and 0000 steel wool
