Some New stuff.

[jamaica]

I found a dial caliper at mcmaster.com. It was $27 plus shipping. This is something long overdue. I prefer the dial to a digital caliper. No battery to go dead.

The other thing: My son brought me a vibrating tumbler. The name on it is Chicago. He picked it up from a friend for peanuts. It seems to be in good shape and has a switch. I was amazed at how much brass it would shake at one time.

I had a bunch of 44 Spl brass that was quite old and dark colored. Two hours in the tumbler with walnut shell sure made it look different. I had 50 38 Spl that I tossed in with the 44 brass. That was a mistake. Without exception all the 38 brass was inside the 44 brass and the only thing that got polished was the rim.

I am thinking the next project will be to rig up some kind of sorter to separate the brass from the walnut shell.

You know, I really don't mind the dark brass, have been using it for years, but my wife was impressed by the bright shiny 38 brass for her 357. That is, the 38 brass I tumbled separate from the 44s.

Have a great day!

[T-Bear]

A suggestion on how to seperate the media and brass. Is to use an empty 5gallon bucket and a .99cent wire basket. The wire basket can be bought pretty much anywhere and for a small price it beats out the other system out there.

[ShootingNut]

Try this sometime, your wife will think her 38's look like Gold Jewelry!
With the polish additive that comes with it, it is unbelievable! Give it a try when you need more!
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...853&hasJS=true

[Smokey Joe]

Jamaica--Good on you on yr new toys!

I too favor a dial caliper over digital. Besides the battery issue, there is the ability to see the needle proceed from one mark on the dial to the next, and to eyeball when it hits 0.0005". With a digital, the indicator will jump from one thousandth to the next thousandth of an inch abruptly--With the dial and a good eye you are simply more accurate.

Used to clean my brass by hand. Then I got a tumbler--wish I'd gotten one years earlier! Sure is easy, and now while I'm cleaning up the brass, I'm also doing something else!

For a medium separator: I took 2 ice cream buckets, the 5-quart variety. Drilled holes just a little smaller than my cases, all over the bottom of one of the buckets. Voila! A sifter and a medium catcher, with easy medium storage to boot! And the price was right.

Enjoy your new toys!

[mrawesome22]

I wonder how many people use standard calipers like me?

I seperate like Smokey. Works great.

[CrustyFN]

I also prefer dial caliper over the digital. I have a Chicago tumbler also and it has worked very good for me. I bought it at Harbor Freight about nine months ago. I bought a spagetti collander and drilled the holes bigger. I set that on a five gallon bucket to sort the walnut from the brass.
Rusty

[jamaica]

Thanks for the tips.