[soundguy]

saw the frankford arsenal vibe tumbler and rotary media seperator on sale for a darn good price. 67$ i think. seperator is like 32$ by itself.. and the similar vibe at harbor freight is like 55$ .. seems good$$

still got my eye on a auto powder dispenser.. can't decide between rcbs and hornady. would welcome comments.. on others as well.


I want one I COULD use just as a scale IF i wanted ( I have 2 scales already..e tc.. ) and I would like it to be easy to manually type in a charge and throw it. might be nce to have a trickler function.. ..e tc..

 

[gundog5]

Looks like a good buy to me, I have had the rcbs vib polisher for years and why I waited 35 plus years to get a seperator i'll never know but I love the dang thing. Funny I recieved a Lyman 1200 dps3 electric powder dispenser last year for christmas still in the box and never used, just cant get my head into not manually dispencing the powder.

 

[woolleyworm]

I would go with the RCBS as my first choice. I haven't used the Lyman, but it does offer memory to store loads and you can hook it up to your computer to transfer load data.
The deal on the tumbler/seperator combo is a good one. If the tumbler ever stops working; it's most likely just a broken wire. I've dealt with several incidents of the F.A. tumblers failing and just a quick repair will get it up and going again. I had to fix mine a couple years ago and it's fine. It's about 8 years old now.

 

[Bindernut]

I've got two seasons on my Frankford/Midway tumbler now. Same model they've got on sale this month.

So far no complaints from me on it but I suppose I've only got a couple hundred hours on it at the moment. I usually run it for one hour stretches but occasionally I'll do a two hour batch on some real crusty range pickup brass.
I have seen reviews on Midway and here at TFF about the motors going bad on them so I've been keeping an eye on mine just in case.
I've seen a few of the cheapie Northern Tool (same as the Harbor Freight) die after a year's use or less too...but I don't know how much they're being used. I know a few guys still running the Northern Tool one after three or four years and they're still fine.

I personally think short intervals and a good cool down between batches is probably the key to longer life...as opposed to running them 24/7.

I finally got my homemade rotary tumbler back from a friend who bought his own Frankford kit too so I'm usually using that one for the long running batches again.
It's made of a few old electric typewriter platen rollers and the motor from one with a 6 quart pail for the tub. I have no clue what that pail originally held but it's about the right size for a big batch of brass. I know one guy uses an Oxi-Clean pail for his homemade rotary tumbler.

 

[Bindernut]

On the powder dispensers...
I'll tell you straight out that I'm a PACT fan. I've got a PACT digital scale and I always had plans of adding the dispenser to my kit. Just haven't done it yet.
I've used the PACT setup and I like it. It's a little slow for throwing rifle charges, but fast enough when throwing pistol charges. I suspect all of them are similar. The more powder you are metering, the longer it'll take to throw a charge.

The RCBS dispenser and scale are made by PACT and both are equivalent quality. the RCBS is more expensive though...because of the green case and "big time" brandname.
You won't go wrong with either one but the grey one (PACT) will be cheaper for the same performance.

I can't tell ya about the Hornady dispenser.
I know one guy with the Lyman dispenser and he like it. It does meter faster than the PACT & RCBS units and still seems consistent.

 

[Guest]

I believe both the Horandy and the RCBS unit are made by the same place. I might be mistaken though.

 

[carver]

I guess I'm just cheap, my seperator is an old ..............

 

[Bindernut]

I believe both the Horandy and the RCBS unit are made by the same place. I might be mistaken though.

Nope, the Hornady isn't the same as the RCBS. It's a one-piece unit where the RCBS is two-piece (the scale can be used stand-alone from the dispenser).

The older RCBS units were identical to the PACT, with the scale on the right side of the dispenser. A few years back they restyled them to bring the scale front and center, the same as the other brand names brought out their own dispenser units. The new style also uses a hard-wired connection from dispenser to scale as opposed to the IR port that the old-style (and the PACT) uses.
I'm not sure why PACT has stayed with the right-side and IR setup, other than they didn't have to retool everything for the new layout.

 

[kostnerave]

Have a five years and thousands of pieces of brass through my Frankford Arsenal vibe tumbler. It get alot of use and keeps working. Midway has a great customer service if your worried about warranty.

 

[soundguy]

they'v always treated me pretty good... sales lady even hangs on the line while you thumb thru looking for last minute adds for your order before processing..

 

[68c15]

I'm kind of like carver. I bought the FA tumbler brand new from a gun show for $35 and the wife HAD a plastic colander with slots exactly like the separator FA sells. She also HAD a nice blue pail with pour spout that fits the colander real nice. I wonder if she knows they are missing.

 

[soundguy]

i got scolded when I borrowed wifes items to work on tractors. I guess she came home 1 too many times to find a flywheel ring gear in the oven and a flywheel in the freezer, and some parts in the dishwasher..

 

[gdmoody]

I have been using a Lyman vibratory tumbler for years. I don't remember how I used to separate the brass from the media, I think I just picked each piece up and dumped the media out of it.

My wife complained about me using her kitchen stuff, too. I few years ago I went over to Wallyworld and bought a cheap plastic colander that has two pieces (the bowl and a cover). I used a drill to open up the holes in the colander to about 1/4 of an inch. I dump the contents of the tumbler into the colander and stick the colander into a bucket and shake it until all of the media is in the bucket and the nice clean brass is left in the colander.

 

[soundguy]

a while back gander had a sale on a lymna turbo media seperator ( collander )

I got one and it works fine with a bucket....

i set it on a bucket and empty vibro tumbler contents into it.. shake.. pour.. done...