New tumbler

[Kurt]

I completely wore out my Tumblers Tumbler, bearings and the rubber traction sleeves as well as the barrel liner so I replaced it with a Rebel 17 extreme tumbler two years ago and it is a great unit. When the Black Friday sales where on I saw a Frankford Arsenal tumbler plus 5# of pins and cleaner just over $100. with free shipping so I ordered it because at times I wish I had two running to keep up with my case cleaning when I' hit the summer matches where I will empty a bunch.
I gave this new tumbler a run with clean cases I ran through the Rebel 17 that really were not clean inside and the primer pockets that I been cleaning with a mix of ceramics and SST pins but I never got them clean all the way so I ran two loads through the Arsenal 100 .44-77 cases for the first and 200 for the second load and I set the timer for 1-1/2 hours and dumped them in a 50 mesh screen classifier and that water was just as black as if I would just have cleaned fired cases. They are now clean.
When I first started the unit turned a lot faster then the Rebel and a lot noisier but I can put up with the noise as long as it does it's job. The higher RPM has no effect on the case mouth then the Rebel gets. I thought that I might see some peening like some report from the fast turning Tumblers but this is not the case with this one either. Maybe the full drum of water they suggest using and the SST pins cushions the case mouth from getting beat up.

[Don McDowell]

Good to know. Those dang steel pins scare the begeebers out of me tho as they are so much harder than the brass...

[Kurt]

Good to know. Those dang steel pins scare the begeebers out of me tho as they are so much harder than the brass...

I will shake them when they get dry in the morning to see if any stick inside. When I gave them a hot water rinse after I got them clean I didn't find any pins on the towel like I do with the ceramics sometimes.

[Don McDowell]

I know those ceramic's are hard on decapping pins, wonder if those hidden steel ones won't be just as bad?

[Kurt]

I will find out. Even if one should stay behind and it's on the bottom of the case I don't think it will follow the charge out. I have found ceramic in a case I fired and it stayed behind, but it was the first run of the long once.

[Don McDowell]

It is a bit un settling to eject a fired case and have a ceramic come rolling out behind it..

[The Chief]

Kurt what did you do with your old tumblers tumbler? I need a motor.
Lee

[Old Jim]

I use the Frankfort tumbler loaded w/ Mauer's small ceramics, and it works fine. Never opened the bag of pins that came with it. I use his soap also, just a cap-ful goes a long way. Never found any bits in cases, though.

Jim

[Gunlaker]

Thanks for the review Kurt.

I have one of the Lyman tumblers and it's about the same RPM as the Frankford Arsenal one. I've been using SS pins and it woks pretty well, but does peen a few of the case mouths in each batch. I usually use it for cases I'm not really particular about like levergun cases, or cases that I expect to trim a bit anyway. The peening I've experienced is not severe, you need to drag a sharp pin point over the inside of the case mouth to detect it.

Chris.

[Kurt]

Jim.

I like the tumbler. So far I have only used the sst pins and the sample cleaner sent with the tumbler and I was impressed the way they came out. The first batch I pre rinsed before running them and they looked good. I ordered a couple bottles of the cleaner on sale at Amazon.
I was at Farm & Fleet the other day getting some Tung Oil and I saw a bottle of Jungle Jack cleaner on the shelf I had to chuckle when I saw it and I took it home to try instead of Dawn I been using for cleaner. I put 100 .44-100 cases in the Arsenal barrel with the pins and still had a lot of room so I got out a second 100 cases that where dark from not getting then to a shine and I used a 1/4 cup of this Jungle Jack and maybe a tee spoon of Lemishine and ran it for a 1/2 hour, I like that timer, and when I dumped into a 50 mesh screen the water was black and very little soap foam but the cases shined and the primer pockets where cleaner then I get using a mix of ceramics and pins in the Esteem tumbler.
When I was going to dump the water that I cleaned the cases with it looked clear. All the black stuff settled to the bottom of the bucket so I slowly poured it back in the barrel till a black streak started and ran 50 dirty soaked cases I just shot with out adding more water and they came out shiny. Good tumbler and pins for $120.