Has anyone got a better idea for bags to tumble brass in, other than the plastic ones from Midway? I've bought these several times but they develope holes too easily!
Dick

Use the plastic scrubbers your wife gets with liquid body wash. Often free or less than $1 each. They are held in a ball shape by a string. Cut the string and you will have a 5-6 foot tube. Tie a knot about 10" from the end and pull tight. Cut behind the knot and repeat. Close with a rubber band. 10-12 cents each, or free, and so what if they get holes after a few uses. My experience is they last longer than the purchased bags too.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Curious. What are these for?

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

You mean a loofah? I feel retarded for this comment but believe im correct.

Sent from my Samsung Tablet

Me, too. First I've heard of this. Why even bother?
BTW, a loofah is an organic thing, the fibrous skeleton of a gourd. They're talking about the plastic mesh type of soft scrubber.

Larry

I use a Thumler's Tumbler to polish brass. If I don't use a bag I have to dig the brass out of the media after cleaning. Much easier to use bags. Thanks, ALK8944, my wife does have an extra!
Dick

Lyman sells a pack of 12 baggies for about $7.

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Dick

That's what I've been buying but they develop holes quickly.
Dick

For those of you who don't understand there are two reasons for using the mesh bags.

First, as Reddog said, they work as a media separator. Just take the bag out of the polisher and shake/roll it to get the media out. Faster than picking cases out by hand.

Second, and most important, you can polish mixed sizes of brass at the same time and they don't get stuck inside each other. If you have ever tried polishing 9mm. .45 ACP or .40 S&W for examples, at the same time, you will understand. You can run mixed batches instead of several small batches of single caliber.

The bags generally sold as "Brass separator bags" at least the ones I have had, seem to be made from polyethylene, while the "Scrubbies", again, the ones I have used, seem to be polypropolene. This is stronger, softer and more durable. It is a smaller mesh too. With the commercial bags cases like .32 ACP will work through the larger mesh. Besides, if you can get a virtual lifetime supply for virtually nothing, why pay $7/doz. for basically the same thing?

Make some bags and try them, I think you will see the light.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I guess I have an excess supply of brass. I fill my Thumler's Tumbler with one caliber at a time. I have mixed .308 and 30-06 brass after a good day of range picking.

If you leave your brass behind, how do you ever get caught up on ammo?

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S&WHF 366

You can find those bags at the grocery store with cherry tomatoes in them. Good for you and for your brass.

Dave

Brass Tumbling bags, learn something new every day.

I use two plastic buckets to separate brass / media. One 5 gallon and one 2 gallon ( old drywall mud buckets). Drill a bunch of holes, smaller than 9mm dia. in the bottom of the two gallon. Dump in the brass / media , shake the heck out of it..

I also recently saw where a guy used a 5 gallon plastic bucket and a wire mesh waste paper basket that fit inside the 5 gallon bucket, looked like a good idea.

I also use a brass sorter, I think I got for Midway or Dillon, to sort brass before I clean them.. The sorter works great.

I always tumble my brass loose in my Thumlers Tumbler (one caliber at a time) and separate the brass from the media (crushed walnut media with a touch of Nu Finish) with a colander over a wash bucket and shake a few times and pour the media back in the tumbler. Where is the necessity to use bags and what for? Sounds like extra work to me.

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James
On the Llano Estacado

How well do these bags work with a rotary tumbler using "soup" and stainless pins?

Gorsh, Mickey, learn new stuff around here all the time!

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

Is life that short you can't pour your cleaned brass into a $1 plastic colander to get most of the media out, then check the others for splits and bulges as you dump the media back into your tumbler ?

My reloading is enjoyable and satisfying from start to finish.

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Armed and Dangerous

I dump my brass and media into the cheap plastic strainer made for separating the media from the brass, and stir it a few times and 90% of the media goes into the bucket. The rest I dump as i pick it up by the handful. Worked for me for many many years.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

JonF,
At my age, I guess you could say that life is short! Even so, I can't see spending time picking brass out of walnut media when I can keep it sorted with a simple plastic mesh bag. I don't think that's so hard to understand? Thanks for all the good suggestions, everyone!
Dick

Tumbler bags, learned something new today. wish I had thought of it....that will keep all them 9mm out of the 45's.

Gary

Seems like H RICHARD and I just work things a bit differently.

To each, his own Reddog.

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Armed and Dangerous

Cheaper idea yet is to use a cat litter scoop. Just use a clean one...dig into the tumbler or shaker body and shake the media out, dump the clean brass and go back for more.
I'm a cheap old ******ge so it works for me

If they are out of cherry tomatoes check the 3 lb onion sacks. Use the 5 & 10 lb ones for fish.

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Front sight and squeeze

So far, ALK8944's idea seems to be the best. I cut and tied 10 brand new bags out of my wife's plastic scrubber! Thanks, ALK!
Dick