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I still use my vibratory polisher for display rounds, rounds that go on a belt, etc. Some of my highly polished rounds ended up in a magazine add for aftermarket mags. I made them for a photographer friend. DR
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You can think of ND like vehicle waxing. After the initial applications, much easier to clean/keep clean, if 1 stays up on it.Mind you, that's the worse piss-poor representation I've seen for military brass, especially for that area with officer's galore, & all the "Important" folk that would visit there. When I was in/there, you rarely could look at brass, without the sun gleaming & blinding you. It was the standard. Those emblems don't appear to have been Never Dulled in some time, oddly.
Sorry to hear of your troubles with chips.I like wet tumbling but I tried chips instead of pins today. What a nightmare lol chips are way messier then pins.
Jim: Kind of sounds like me I took a 5 gal bucket put a couple of aluminum angle in it built the bearings out of wood and a dowel put the top on it put a 4" hole in the lid with a screw in pug and a hole in the side with a plug for draining out the cleaning solution and used an old v belt and a 3/4" old and I do mean old low speed drill motor works great by old My dad had this in the early 40s and I have had it for the last 20 years I am in my 80s, probably around 100 years old by now, works great keeps me busy, have a great day sir.My first tumbler I built using a coffee can with the lid taped on for the barrel and the rollers were from a wringer washing machine. I made the pillow blocks out of Oak. I found the motor somewhere. The pulleys were the only thing I bought and got those from Granger.
This is it. Factory military ammo doesn't have a mirror shine and it works well enough. As well as dirt, though, I don't like any carbon residue on the mouths. Which can scratch dies even if the case otherwise looks "clean." Depending on the state of the brass or batch size to be cleaned, I use different techniques. Including a vibratory tumbling (in use since the 1980's, they practically never wear out). I also use chemical case cleaners. Sometimes, just water and detergent. Haven't done the steel pins thing yet.As long as all the dirt and grit are removed is the main thing.
Yes, I did something like this as well before I bought a vibratory tumbler. An office where I worked at the time was throwing away a copying machine, a great big thing that must've cost thousands of dollars at the time (early 1980's). I took it home for salvage. It contained several motors, one of which had a nice train of reduction gears that had a final drive of just about the right thing for a rotary tumbler. Basically, I was copying a lapidary tumbler. The drum was a coffee can. It was all scrounged, er, "repurposed" materials.My first tumbler I built using a coffee can with the lid taped on for the barrel and the rollers were from a wringer washing machine. I made the pillow blocks out of Oak. I found the motor somewhere. The pulleys were the only thing I bought and got those from Granger.