I have a Harbor Freight vibratory unit. It’s loud and making more noise than it used to. What would you guys recommend that’s sturdier and relatively quiet? Not interested in wet tumbling or steel pins.

Frankfort Arsenal is still working fine.

I'll let it run for 24 hours straight.

I was looking at that one and wondering if it was good. I’ll order one.

Mine's been good too.

JG...didn't you have a Hornady or something red that lasted a long donkey time?

I run the bigger Dillon tumblers. I have 3 of them and like them a lot, one at home and 2 at the shop. They are the biggest I've seen and hold a lot of brass. When I was cleaning thousands of 50 BMG cases, I'd use a large concrete mixer!!

Wow! A concrete mixer. You win any tumbler contest we’ll ever have. I’m considering that Frankford rotating tumbler for my modest usage. My HF vibrate unit is holding together and the Grendel brass is looking Ok, so I’m sort of done for a while. Don’t really need a new unit right this minute.

Hornady that ran no telling how many hundreds of hours. I got my money's worth out of it.

That’s not the one you want 603. That’s a wet stainless steel pin tumbler. Get the vibratory tumbler and use corn or walnut media. Stainless gets them too clean.

I remember you saying it had been a good’un.

Yep… And spend the money on a hand-crank media separator. I have a Dillon, but I can’t say it would be any better than any other brand.

I have the hornady one and no complaints but it’s never been quiet. I just put it out in the shop or run it when we are t home.

I've had the Lyman for years. It was my fathers before me. When it died, I bought the Frankford and it last 10 years or so. A few years back I bought a Cabela's Brand. It's great. Also, the quietest of the 3 I've owned.

I also have the Lyman but I never use it since I went to no-pin wet cleaning. It's the big orange one and it's NOT quiet. It is quieter than the Harbor Freight wet rock polisher I now use.

I bought my Big Orange Lyman in the 80’s and it’s still going strong if I knock the dirt robbers out of it. Haven’t used it since I got a Franklin wet tumbler a couple of years ago.

Thumler's Tumbler in use for many years now.

One of the blue ones from Midway has been working since the 80s so cannot complain about it.

My old red Hornady has been cranking them out, nice and clean, for over 25 years.

Harbour Freight, but I wet tumble




























h

Ultrasonics are quiet and don’t use pins. I like my Hornady.

Wet doesn't need pins either. Harbor Freight rock polisher with a drip of dawn and a few granules of citric acid in boiling water works great. Rinse and dry in the sun.

I usually wet tumble without pins.

When I started out, I used stainless pins, but those are such a pain to get out of cases I elected to stop using them (Yes I have the magnet for them).

When I first started out, I would wet tumble all my brass, regardless what powder I used.

These days I *ONLY* wet tumble my black powder brass. (generally either 45 colt or 38 special - Cowboy Action Shooting). I just put hot water in the container, throw in brass, with some dawn dish soap and call it good. (I don't even bother using lemi-shine anymore). I generally let it tumble for a couple hours or more (I don't care), then drain, let them sun dry, then throw them in my Dry Media Tumbler to polish them up.

I use the smallest Harbor Freight cement mixer you can buy. It has served me well for years.

I think most vibratory units all make noise really! haveent have too many different ones, i purchased one from
Midway years ago, its a small blue on, its makes noise, but its out in the shop, who cares how much noise
it makes. Heard the new rcbs unit is quiet, check you tube, plenty of advertising there!

My main one is a RCBS I bought used.
It's pretty quiet relatively speaking.
When the lid is off it rattles and is loud.
It has to have the rubber "nut" on the lid
to keep it snug and quiet. It has rubber
feet and it pretty quiet on the concrete
floor. The rubber parts keep it quiet.
I would imagine that on a mat or carpet
it's louder because the rubber parts can't
do their work like they're designed to

Good Luck

Dillon or Frankford Arsenal are great.. They're all somewhat noisy but the quality is well worth the $$ spent