THUMLER'S MODEL "B" 110V ROTARY TUMBLER Reviews & Ratings

I have had one of these for several years I found it built to last and it does a nice job cleaning brass. You will mot be disappointed.

Unlike it's Chy-nese made competitors this tumbler won't mysteriously die on you because of a myriad of poorly designed and produced reasons. This this is good'ol SOLID American Made technology born out of rock tumbling. Meaning it's going to work well and work for a very long time!

I've been using this product for more than two years and could not be more pleased with it! No dust, quieter than shakers, and incredibly shiny clean brass! Here's the best way for me: 1. Sort your brass (I clean each caliber separately - no stuck together cases!) 2. Decap everything. 3. Add 2 or 3 pounds of brass, fill with (I use warm) water to 1 inch from the top. 4. Add two tablespoons of Dawn and 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine, and install the lid. 5. Tumble till completely clean... (I've reduced the tumbling time to 45 minutes - yep, 45 minutes - and get perfectly clean, super shiny cases). 6. Pour off dirty water and rinse with cool water until soap is completely gone. 7. Pour brass into media separator and tumble until all stainless rods are in bucket. 8. Reload the drum and start the process over again. NOW THE COOL PART... I used to air dry my brass on a towel, but there are a couple drawbacks to that. The brass can get water spots, amd it takes a LOOOOONG time! To remedy both these problems, I bake the clean brass in a 180 degree oven while the tumbler is running a batch. I picked up several wire desk baskets at Walmart for a couple bucks each - the silver ones made of fine wire mesh measuring about 6" wide X 10" long X 1.5" deep. I removed the little rubber pads from the feet and they make great drying baskets. So the cleaning proces has three operations going on at once. Tumbling, drying, and cooling. The brass comes out looking factory new, perfectly dry, and ready to immediately reload or pour into the storage bin. When you change the tumbler, you swap an oven basket and toss the other basket of now cooled brass into the storage bin. It takes about ten minutes to change out the tumbler brass, and swap the drying brass, so you can easily do a load each hour. You can be reloading while the brass is tumbling. What a great way to spend a rainy Saturday! I have cleaned upwards of 2000 (pistol) cases in a day, whilst reloading over a thousand finished pistol rounds on a well-tuned progressive. That makes for a satisfying, productive day. If you are new to reloading, don't rush. The more you reload, the quicker you will get. Safety first, last and always! I have spent a lot of time working up my reloading procedures amd this may not work for you. If at any time you feel rushed, stop! Take a break and slow down. Safety means zero errors! Case cleaning is a chore, so why not make it efficient and get it over with? The reward is all those plastic boxes full of factory quality or better reloads calling for a trip to the range! One final note. Use the lowest temperature that results in completely dried brass. If you go much hotter than 180, your brass will begin to oxidize and come out dull. 45 minutes at 180 degrees works great in my oven, yours may be different. Avoid temps that could anneal the cases. Have fun and make lots of perfect ammo! You will love this tumbler!

I've owned my tumbler for over three years and have never had a problem with it. I've only used it with dry corn and walnut media and a drop or two of polish and cases come out like new. I would recommend cleaning straight walled cases with the spent primer still attached to prevent media from collecting in the primer pocket and flash hole and then re-sizing it. Bottle neck cases should be re-sized first and then cleaned and check the flash hole for stuck media. Clean pistol cases by individual calibers to keep them from being stuck into a larger caliber case.

The best and Fastest way to super clean your brass, get the whole kit, and never look back. One site(trying to sell sonic cleaners) said it takes 4 hours to clean. WRONG, the nasty old range brass that I ran, just for giggles(2 hours) was so shiny and clean, that it looked better than my walnut media cleaned brass( 5 hours). The brass will look better than new. I can not express how clean the brass gets. The pins never wear out. I have read that people are breaking the drive belt.....I have overloaded by several pounds, with zero issues. I run 400 9mm, or 350 40cal., or 250 .308 at a time, full of water, Lemishine(1/4tsp) and Blue Dawn dishsoap(2tblspn).COLD water,2hrs, rinse WELL. and dry on a towel under a fan. No Spots, period.

Use this to make new brass out of old no more dust to breath,no need to replace the media,i deprime then run bass looks brand new inside and out as with the primer pockets it does not get better. there is a kit out there that has the media and media seperator all in one.

I love this cleaner and haven't used my corn-cob cleaner in ages. Just be aware that there are two thing to be careful of - First watch what cases you mix together in this. Some cases fit fairly snugly inside other larger caliber ones and when the media gets into the gap between them it can wedge the two together enough to ruin them before they will separate! Test fit cases of different calibers or tumble only one type at a time. I bought two of the small canisters and clean in them if there are not too many cases. (Thumler sells a kit with two of the small canisters and new shafts to run them at the same time.)Also be careful with 223 brass, the pins sometimes get stuck crosswise in the neck - check and pick out with a needlenose if needed. Haven't noticed this with other size cases.

Throw away everything you own for cleaning cases--ultrasonic, vibrating tumbler, etc.--they are completely inferior to this product. This is quieter, uses tap water and Dawn dishwashing detergent, and cleans PERFECTLY. I use 308 Palma brass with the small primer pockets and after 4 hours, EVERY PRIMER POCKET WAS SPOTLESS--not even a hint of carbon! I literally could have sold these cases as new. I threw away all the primer pocket brushes I owned. I'm amazed that the outside, inside, and primer pockets looked like new on my 5th reload of this brass. I cleared so much space in my shop by throwing away and selling my vibrating tumbler, media,and all the other table top appliances I used for cleaning cases. Trust me, you will save so much time and hassle in the case prep regimens we all have to get our brass ready to shoot. You must get one of these with the steel media, and 2 tablespoons of Dawn liquid soap, (I use one tablespoon of "Finish Rinse" dishwasher liquid and hot tap water 2" from the top). Four hours later, the brass was flawless.

These Thumbler Tumblers are designed to tumble/polish heavy rocks which requires continues running for weeks at a time. So tumbling brass shells is a minor job compared to what they were designed. Meaning, as a case cleaner, these Thumbler Tumblers will last forever! They work great with dry or wet media. In the three years I have owned mine I have cleaned over 12,000 5.56 cases, and 15,000 pistol cases. My Tumbler still looks and run like new. I bought 3 extra barrels which makes it easier to use different media. I have a barrel for very dirty first runs, a barrel of corncob, a barrel of walnut shells, and a barrel for wet media such as ceramic and stainless pins.

Fantastic product. I have found rinsing well, use a strainer, with a paper towel over the sink opening in case a pin goes straight down and lots of rinsing works great. Deprime the stuff first. Then I have a tupperware bowl full of methanol, a quick dip, a shake, let it lay on a towel to dry. A lot better than trying to mess with the oven. I would not go back to the other tumbling methods!