I use a small lortone rotary so the length might be different but... tumble for 1 or 2 days with the green triangle polymer media from HF first to get the crap off. they will be clean but dull. then get the coarse walnut shell stuff from HF and add some polish. look here for some more feedback: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flitz-vs-mothers

I have been putting my pinballs in the walnut mixture and the results are astounding. leave them going for 2 days. they look way better and play way faster it's totally awesome.

I use my reloading setup..go to cabela's and get corn cob or walnut media and polish they sell them as a combo. put parts in, put media on top, squirt some polish. lock her down start her up..the media works best when its new but can be reused to an extent. i have seen results in as little as 2 hours..sometimes you just run it over night

We have got a tumbler recently as well. Got the tough walnut shells and the softer corncob. The shells are amazing for polishing steel. Though only mix parts that are alike; like screws/bolts, metal plates with larger surfaces, pinballs etc. The corncob should be better for cleaning.

Throw a bit of polish in there for extra effect. However, I would advise to let it tuble with only polisher for an hour or so, otherwise the medium crumbs up due to the polish, and then sticks on your metal.

As for how much you can tumble at once; check if every part goes through and around the tumbler smoothly. If parts stick out and does not get fully under the medium than you have too much or too large parts.

I fill my rotary up to 3/4 including media and parts. My tumbler is rated for 2lbs. I plan on getting one of those big vibratory ones at some point so i dont have to buff balls guides and other larger pieces. spent three hours on the wheel sunday.

You can reuse the medium until it starts to change color. You do NOT want to be paying all that money for new medium for only a few uses.

I use walnut shell through Cabela's (cheaper than Amazon, usually). Fill it perhaps 65 percent of the way, dribble on some FLITZ polish. Just a few "lines" like you are putting chocoloate syrup on top of ice cream. I usually tumble for at least 24 hours.

Best to degrease and clean before tumbling to preserve medium and improve speed toward polish.

Yeah, as said before your using the wrong medium.

Med to Fine Walnut shells work best (corncob puts a better shine, but takes much longer). I put a squirt of Brasco. Fill the tumbler 50-60% with media.

Don't put a ton of parts in at once. You can kill one of those HF units in no time. Also, try to put like items together. Sometimes mixing screws in with larger parts causes scratching.
Another problem with overfilling, it will take longer to tumble.

Experiment, you will figure it out. I would recommend the HF extended warranty. I have burned up at least 4 of them (overfilling, bowl came loose and vibrated destroying it, several motors burned up).

or buy a unit that will last!
http://www.thumlerstumbler.com/industrial.html
I found a good deal on one of these thru Cabellas.

Get your tumbler through cabelas and don't worry about it.

That's funny.. I have both for the same reason. And i can give some views. The tumbler tumbler is great and well built, and should last. But.... It does not vibrate/shake near as fast (its also much quieter); so cleaning time is vastly increased. It takes 2/3X longer than in my POS HF unit (which shakes like crazy).

I end up running both. The HF unit has walnut shell and does my initial clean usually 12-48 hours. From there I put it in the tumbler tumbler which has corncob media. I will run that for another 24 hours to get things very polished.