Brass tumbler?

[Asahi1234]

I am putting together my Kibler Woodsrunner.  I have a tubler for cleaning brass for 45acp,9mm. My question is can I use my tumbler with walnut shells? Will it not ruin the ridges and lines of the brass pieces?  Thanks for you answering my questions.

[44-henry]

I wouldn't do that. The walnut hulls aren't overly abrasive and will do a good job of removing tarnish and lightly cleaning the metal, but not much else. If you moved up to something more abrasive like ceramic media it will do more, but that is where you will round over edges and take out all your detail. Really there is no shortcut that works well. Your best approach is using files to clean up/refine the surface, followed by wet and dry sandpaper backed with your file in increasingly finer grits. Tumblers and buffing wheels are a quick way of ruining your work.

[Scota4570]

Bad idea, do this:

[Rolf]

I tumble lock plates, lock parts, brass furniture, steel furniture, sterling silver in my cartridge tumbler with stainless steel pins and dish soap. Works great for the final finish after filing and sanding.

Here's a link to the pins https://stainlesstumblingmedia.com/shop/stainless-tumbling-media-refresh.html

This post shows some silver I tumbled this way. Look at the end of the tutorial.https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=77900.0

Best regards
Rolf

[Asahi1234]

Thanks you  for all response.  I will hand polish  the brass.

[smylee grouch]

Just curious but you mention tumbler but would one of those case vibrator,s work?

[rich pierce]

I’m just glad it wasn’t about making a flintlock tumbler out of brass. 

I think if it’s safe for modern casings and doesn’t change dimensions it should be fine for polishing flintlock gun parts.