If you’ve been loading old soot covered brass than you’re in desperate need of a brass cleaner. Ugly nasty brass picked up fresh from the ground has many unseen drawbacks. Firing will both leave a residue on your brass and rolling around on the ground will pick up dirt. This residue not only looks unsightly but it is bad for your dies and guns as well. So even though you can reload bullets without cleaning them, you probably shouldn’t. So how do you clean your brass? The easy way to clean your brass is to use a Case Tumbler. In this post I will both explain why you should buy a case tumbler and review your options.
In the old days the only way to clean your brass was to clean them in soap and water, or possibly put them in a pillow case and run it through your washing machine. Embarrassingly enough I’ve actually tried this method and the results left a lot to be desired. The brass came out dull and residue and powder remained on the inside of the cases. Not only was the brass unsightly the rest of my family didn’t appreciate me throwing it in the washing machine. Thankfully the times have changed and you can use a case tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner.
Why Choose a Brass Case Tumbler?
The obvious answer is to clean your brass, but why is a brass tumbler right for you. The initial reason I chose the brass case cleaner was because the science was familiar to me. I grew up using a rock tumbler when I was a child and a case tumbler seems to work the same way. If a rock tumbler can take a ragged ugly rock and smooth it out a case tumbler should be able to clean brass.
A case tumbler is a quick and easy way to clean your brass. It takes about 30 minutes to clean your brass enough to safely run it through your dies. But if your like me clean wasn’t enough, so I typically run the brass for a few more hours to polish it. If it wasn’t for the dented primers you would have a difficult time telling that the brass wasn’t brand new. It comes out of the brass case tumbler smooth and polished.
Brass Case Tumbler vs Ultrasonic Cleaner
If you look at a case tumbler next to an ultrasonic cleaner it’s hard to believe that they accomplish basically the same thing. A case tumbler uses a dry tumbling media case tumbler media while a ultrasonic cleaner soaks your brass in a water bath. The biggest advantage to an ultrasonic cleaner is how quiet they are compared to a case tumbler. If you’ve ever used both of these machines you’ll notice how fast an ultrasonic cleaner works. Both the inside and outside of your brass will be clean in 15 to 20 minutes. Ultrasonic cleaners are more expensive and won’t fully polish your brass cases. A case tumbler on the other hand takes significantly longer to use but leaves your cases looking polished and new.
Which Is the Best Frankford Arsenal Tumbler?
For a while Frankford Arsenal didn’t have an excellent reputation in the reloading community. They were seen as a low cost reloading solution with poor product reviews. With all the major reloading companies improving their products the days of sub par reloading equipment hitting the market is behind us. Frankford Arsenal has caught up to their competition in terms of quality and still delivers a budget product. Frankford Arsenal has two major tumblers on the market. Frankford Arsenals basic case tumbler is the Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler Kit. This case tumbler is used great for cleaning small to medium quantities of brass. Frankford Arsenal also has a premium case tumbler (Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler 7L) that is designed for larger quantities of brass cases. Below I will review the two best Frankford Arsenal Tumblers.
1. Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler Kit
The Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler Kit has everything a reloader needs to begin cleaning their brass. The Quick-n-EZ case tumbler is Frankford Arsenals entry level case tumbler. This case tumbler has a different design to their premium unit but offers much of the same functionality.
This case tumbler provides a quick, cheap and easy way to tumble clean your brass. Clean brass both looks nice and reduces wear on your reloading dies, while extending brass life. The kit includes Quick-N-EZ Case Tumbler, Quick-N-EZ Rotary Media Seperator, 4 oz Brass polish, 3 lb Cleaning Media and a Plastic Bucket.
Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler
The Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler is a quality entry level case tumbler. The Tumbler is made entirely of plastic with a clear plastic lid. I’ve found that this unit gets slightly less movement than other case tumblers, but brass comes out clean. You can process up to 600 9mm or 350 .223 cases at one time. The clear plastic lid is very helpful in determining when the brass is finished.
It is very easy to use this unit. All you have to do is add your dry media to the bowl along with the brass and turn the unit on. You may also want to add a brass polish to your dry media at this point. Once the unit is on you can go about your day and return three hours later to polished like new brass. Once the brass is clean just pour everything into the included Rotary Sifter Kit.
Quick-N-EZ Rotary Sifter Kit
The Rotary Sifter Kit is an easy way to separate brass from the tumbling media. This works much faster than the traditional food strainer style seperators, and removes much more of the media. The media separator kit assembles in a snap and is an easy way to remove your media from your brass. Simply attach your media separator to the supplied bucket and open it up. Once you pour the clean brass into the media separator simply lock it and spin the handle a few times to quickly remove most of the media. This unit isn’t as elegant as some of the other ones on the market but it works surprisingly well.
This kit gives the beginner reloader everything that they need to clean and polish their brass. With this kit Frankford Arsenal fills a much needed void in the budget case tumbler market. It’s hard to beat this unit seeing as how similar products are more expensive without the media separator.
Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler 7L
The Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler is Frankford Arsenals premium case tumbler. If you reload a lot of brass this is the case tumbler you need. A big step up from their Quick-n-Ez tumbler the Platinum series falls into the category of professional units.
The platinum series case tumbler has approximately three times the capacity of the smaller tumbler. This tumbler holds 7 liters which allows you to clean a lot of brass. Frankford Arsenal Claims that you can clean up to 1000 pieces of .223. I haven’t actually put that much brass into one of these but it should hold up to 30 lbs including the media. In my opinion even if it can’t hold 1000 pieces it holds a ton of brass and I’m not disappointed in the capacity.
The platinum series rotary tumbler works best with astainless steel media. Stainless steel media is a huge step up from the traditional dry media. Consisting of small pins stainless steel media scrubs brass clean while tumbling it in a solution of water and detergent.
The biggest difference between using stainless steel media and dry media is that the stainless steel cleans the inside of the cases. It can get all of the nooks and crannies of your brass including the primer pockets. Clean primer pockets increase the consistency of your reloads. The platinum Series rotary tumbler actually comes with a 5lb bag of stainless steel media. As long as you don’t accidentally pour it down the drain stainless steel media can be reused forever unlike dry media. The only additional cost from this unit is their Frankford Cleaning Solution. This solution is a little pricey and I’ve had similar results with dish detergent.
One of the nicest features this tumbler has is the automatic timer. You can easily set this unit for any time up to 3 hours and just head off to work. This is a feature that I think should be on all tumblers but isn’t found on the Quick-N-Ez tumbler.
To use the Platinum series tumbler simply pour your brass into the drum along with the stainless steel media water and cleaner. After adding the solution and media close your lid and plop the drum onto the base and set the timer for 3 hours. This drum spins surprisingly fast and doesn’t make a lot of noise. This machine doesn’t even bother me while I’m sleeping or watching tv. Once it’s done spinning pour the water out with the provided strainer over the end of the drum and separate the brass from the media. Your brass will look brand new when you are done with the 3 hours.
Which Frankford Arsenal Tumbler is Right For You?
I’ve been very pleased with both of these tumblers, but the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler is considerably better than the Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-EZ Case Tumbler Kit. Due to the premium price it’s no surprise that the Platinum tumbler is better, but they both have their uses.
The main advantage the Platinum tumbler has over their entry level unit is the ability to use stainless steel media. Once you move to stainless steel media you won’t want to go back. You will get significantly cleaner brass in less time. Another advantage is the capacity of the Platinum series tumbler. You save a lot of time throwing all of your brass in at one time.
The Quick-n-Ez case tumbler is an excellent budget tumbler. If you purchase the kit you will have everything that you need to clean your brass. It doesn’t compare to the Platinum Series unit, but you get what you pay for and you get an awful lot for the price.
I have been very pleased with both of these units. You can turn filthy brown brass that looks like it should be scrapped into almost new cases. With either of these units the days of throwing away dirty brass will be behind you. If you are interested in cleaning your brass either of these cleaners would be an excell