KD-6808 (or similar) rotary tumbler - any first hand opinions please?

[Donkey Basher]

Had the idea of going over to rotary tumbler for a while on & off but have never been able to get to grips with the idea & don’t want to spend c.£250 of a FA or similar bit of kit.

Wondering whether anyone has got any first hand experience of using one of the KD-6808 3l (or KT-2000 5l version) tumblers widely available online?

Have got a perfectly serviceable dry media tumbler that I’ve been using since Adam was a boy but it’s a pain to have to change media once it gets too dirty & full of black dust.

Is wet tumbling that much better?

What size pins/balls/other shape media works best? - will be cleaning 222 through to 308 cases.

TIA for any helpful replies

 

[wytonpjs]

I find wet tumbling using a FA Lite one very easy. I can take longer than expected and the cases don't IMHO come up as clean as dry tumbling but they are good enough for me. Bought my FA tumbler cheap off Amazon and have run it for the last 10 years off a US to UK transformer without issue. Buy once, cry once....................

This is the cheapest I can find at present (and its 230V) but I'd check carefully on any "extra" costs:

https://www.krale.shop/en/rotary-tumbler-frankford-lite-230v/

 

[JamesH]

I have a cheap eBay rock tumbler and stainless pins from Spud reloading (can measure if you want exact specs). In hindsight I’d have got a bigger drum size as I can only fit 50 6.5CM cases in at a time. A short 15/20 min tumble cleans the main crud off ok. 45 mins plus for shiny brass and cleaned out primer pockets. A tiny drop of fairy liquid and some citric acid in hot water is my recipe. Drying in a dehydrator or on radiators / airing cupboard.

 

[Donkey Basher]

I have a cheap eBay rock tumbler and stainless pins from Spud reloading (can measure if you want exact specs). In hindsight I’d have got a bigger drum size as I can only fit 50 6.5CM cases in at a time. A short 15/20 min tumble cleans the main crud off ok. 45 mins plus for shiny brass and cleaned out primer pockets. A tiny drop of fairy liquid and some citric acid in hot water is my recipe. Drying in a dehydrator or on radiators / airing cupboard.

Thanks - is that a 3 litre drum?

 

[JamesH]

No much smaller - 1.5 litre ish