Stainless tumbling vs ultrasonic cleaning

[P2000]

That's pretty lackluster for 12 hours of tumbling. I use cheap reptile bedding (Ground walnut shells)from Petco. 4-5 hours is more than enough time to get the brass shiny new and shooting sub-MOA.

I used some walnut later on, with better results, but since then decided to get stainless tumbling. I'm a weirdo, so I'm building my own tumbler. I'm almost done.

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[P2000]

I ran the first batch last night. It went pretty well! Only tumbled for 15 minutes and came out much cleaner than dry tumbling.

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[Coal Dragger]

When my vibratory tumbler finally died after 16 years of loyal service I bought a Lyman SS wet tumbler. I also own a Lyman ultrasonic cleaner but it's not big enough to process a lot of brass at one time. After my first SS media tumbling I have no desire to use the ultrasonic anyway, because the SS wet tumbling is so much better. So now I use the ultrasonic cleaner for steel gun parts, like AR bolts and bolt carriers, very very effective and no effort on my part.

The Lyman SS wet tumbler came with two strainers for separating brass, pins, and water. They work just fine. I already own a big Dillon media separator from using the vibratory tumbler. So I usually pour out most of the soapy water into a tub or sink, and then pour the whole lot through the basket on the Dillon and close it up and start cranking slow and steady. Removes all the pins like a champ in less that 1 minute. Then I place the brass on a towel and roll it around and let dry. The pins and water in the Dillon I pour through the fine mesh strainer to recover my pins, and then rinse them off under a faucet in the strainer. Simple and effective.

[markm]

Only tumbled for 15 minutes and came out much cleaner than dry tumbling.

15 min? 3 hours is my standard run time. Run that sucker!

[P2000]

15 min? 3 hours is my standard run time. Run that sucker!

It was just a test run with mixed brass but the results are completely usable. Better than what I'm used to lol.
I can't see it taking longer than 45 minutes for complete shineyness. It runs pretty fast RPM and I have lots of pins. Turbomatic 4000 it is.