Anyone got good ideas for a homemade case-tumbler?
Yes, I can buy one, but I like tinkering with strange stuff and have some spare time:-)
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Anyone got good ideas for a homemade case-tumbler?
Yes, I can buy one, but I like tinkering with strange stuff and have some spare time:-)
Old metal coffee can driven by a belt or rollers
I had a rock tumbler I got at a yard sale for a couple bucks a long time ago
same principle
I like the coffee can idea, that's probably the simplest and cheapest way.
It shouldn't be hard to copy a vibratory tumbler. A large bowl on top of a small electric motor (maybe an old drill motor?) with an offset weight on the shaft.
Get a piece of PVC pipe...the 8 or 10" dia. stuff. Cut it about 10 inches long. Use some plywood for the ends and screw it to one end. In the other end, thread some 1/4 studs in it PVC and leave it about an 1 and a half long, and use wingnuts to secure the plywood cap to it.
Use an old motor and rig it to run it. You'll need to put a couple of wodden paddles in the PVS to agitate the brass and the tumbler meduim.
Not hard to do. I made one many years ago that worked great and had alot of capacity.
Some good and easy ideas here, just keep them coming!
I migth go for drillmotor and PVC-pipe, guess I finaly can use that old singelspeed Black&Decker for something:-)
The first one I rigged up I started with an old elictric ice-cream maker, It took some reinforcing but I used it for about 3 years.
I was thinking the same thing - just how hard can it be to make a rotary tumbler like a little ball mill or rock tumbler?
I started surfing around the internet a year or so ago to get ideas or at least try to get good ideas and save some time. I found these links:
http://www.unitednuclear.com/ballmill.htm
http://tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Minerals/Homemade.shtml
http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Homemade-Rock-Tumbler/
http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/2007/...k-tumbler.html
I also had several other good links but they are dead now and I was unsuccessful find the same info.
I have an idea in my head and will be building it soon. I am thinking even simpler using one roller and a slotted guide to hold a can with a shaft out each end. The can shaft is guided in vertical slots and the can rests on a driven shaft/roller with rubber (hose) covering. Turn the roller and the can turns. I would drive the can directly but the roller is used to reduce speed so small sheave on the motor, large sheave on roller, small roller drives large diameter can giving further speed reduction.
I will post pictures when I get mine done. It will be a while though. I just finished an archery spine tester and am working on shotgun slugs now. I also owe no34570 some testing on PP boolits. One thing at a time!
Good luck.
Longbow
A suggestion for what not to do: For years I got away with filling a 2# coffee can about 1/2 full of corncob media & then added a double handful of cases. Taped the top shut with black electrician's tape & put it into Mrs. oksmle's clothes dryer along with a load of wet laundry. By the time the clothes were dry the cases were pretty clean. Then once I couldn't locate the electrician's tape & substituted masking tape. Bad mistake.... Masking tape melted & you can imagine the rest....
62 chevy on blocks in low gear. Knock the rear fender off. Drive belt of the rear wheel turns a beer keg on 4 casters from a rolling chair. Use old conveyer belting for the drive belt.
Gianni
An old clothes dryer that has quit heating, or remove heating element and tape wires, fasten container to back of drum. The motor will run on 120 volts, as will timer, the timer can be used if wanted, but best is to use a off-on switch. Metal bars scewed to inside of container walls will insure tumbling. A plastic 5 gal. pail wwith a lid fastened with bungee cords would be a large capacity tumbler' Dale
Use a cement mixinig tub from Menards, the kind you are suppose to roll on the ground. Set it on roller skate wheels and turn it with a small DC motor and a belt. The tub will hold a S#i^ load of brass and the ridges inside make it tumble real nice. Or just buy a cheap cement mixer and put a door on it.
Twenty years ago I got an idea for a vibrating case cleaner from an article in the American Rifleman. I bought a small 110v vibrator motor from WW Granger for $10. I punched some holes in the bottom of a new paint can and bolted the vibrator motor. This assembly was hung by the bail with a coil spring. It would clean fifty 30-06 cases with walnut shell media in two hours. It made a lot of noise, especially when a case chattered against the side of the paint can. I now have a Lyman Turbo tumbled and am happy with it.
Another one to look at. www.jurai.net/~winter/tumbler/tumbler.html
I seen one made from the unit out of a vibator chair. Made a nice tumber and any size drum you put on it works.
This is the one I built using an 8gal. olive drum and a D.C. variable speed gear motor salvaged from a conveyor belt. The drum rotates at 45rpm, using a transformer and full wave rectifier. Has a 12hr. timer, and there are 4 wooden vanes installed like a cement mixer. It's counterbalanced, and tips for emptying. Have never been able to determine the capacity, I've tumbled over 1000 .45LC cases at a time with no trouble.
Morgan
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...i/100_1774.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...i/100_1773.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...i/100_1771.jpg
:holysheep
[smilie=w:
I don't care how long ya read these posts, there is always someone out there to remind ya you are still just a novice at this . . .
:castmine:
Built a square box from 1/8 plywood, door on side, length of all-thread through the middle. Pully from junk box, motor from an old box fan.
The square corners provide agitation.
Figgered it would last till I got somthing better, that was three years ago.:-D
Haborfrieght.com has a 1.25 cubic ft. Mini Cement Mixer on sale now. 1/4 HP motor, was $139.99, now $99.99. Item # 91907-1VGA Just the ticket for 1000 45-70 cases.
brshooter, That's probably the best way to go. Sure saves a lot of work. Should be some way to install a lid on it to kep the dust down.
Morgan
Yours is way cool though Morgan! I am cheap, poor, have a lot of "junk" in my barn and love to putz around. I have two vibrating cleaners but I want to built a rotator. Funny my pal stopped over last night and brought up that he wants to build one and we searched the internet only to be led to this post! Some good ideas!
J
Thanks J, It's a lot more fun making, and more satisfying, using equipment you've made yourself.
Morgan
Morgan, Way cool. Whats an Olive Drum and where did you get it? Gianni
I have (somewhere) the Handloader Magazine article where they built the Coffee Can Tumbler. Could Scan and email if anyone is interested.
Doug
Gianni,
Morgan Astorbilt is my SASS "Cowboy" name. I originally clicked on this castboolits site from a thread on the SASS site, and logged in with the same name I use for SASS. I mention this because, like you, my name ends with an "I". (Faini). I'm originally from New York, and got the olive drum from an Italian-American grocery store, where I bought my olives. These are the containers the olives are imported in. If you want one, I guess you could contact an olive importer, and ask them to sell you one. I've got two more, but they're a little smaller, and the lids are two piece, a center section held on with a ring, like a canning jar, making them less convenient to open and close.
Morgan
I used a double barrel rock tumbler for years. Only problem I found was the amount you could tumble at a single time.
So I coppied it on a larger scale. Used a couple of rods with hose on them as a drive rod and the other wheel. Searching junk yards found a barrel about a foot in dia. welded a couple of lids up so I could run 3 threaded rods up the sides, one end welded tight shut and the rods welded too. On the other end I use wing nuts to hold the lid on. It is drove with a 1/4 horse motor with a small pully at the motor end and a huge one on the tumbler end and a V belt. I can put 10 pounds of no name rice in there and a couple thousand rounds to tumble with room to spare.
[smilie=1:Yes I use rice, cheapest stuff I found that works very well. Of course you have to clean the flash hole when you clean the primer pocket as rice will stick in the hole.
:mrgreen: Al
Lots of good ideas! I think I have a plan, involving a 1gallon bucket, an orbital sander (el cheapo china-version) and some bits and pices. Will post pictures when done.
For a small tumbler, why not use the large plastic containers Miracle Grow and other soluable plant foods come in? (I believe it's the 5lb. size.) They hold about a gallon, and their square cross section and screw-on lids make them preferrable to buckets.
Morgan
Migth check what wifey has in the cupboard, she will not miss one of thoose Tupperware things. (Or will she?)
:roll: thats just asking for trouble, taking wifies things.:-? May be buried so deep in a closet she hasn't seen/or used it in 25 years and you take it for some use and she starts yelling about you taking some thing with out asking.
Nope best just go buy a dish/bowl for your self.
:mrgreen: Al
# gallon pvc plastic pail used for pool chemicals. Drill hole through both screw on top, run shaft through it couple el cheapo ball bearin pillow plocks and slow speed motor. Use fan belts on pulleys. Should be able to find the pillow blocks at harbor freight, home depot sells the pails or scrounge one up, belts at auto store and slow speed motor look at one of the surplus catalogs. Just a thought. Can't remember the name of the place that advertises in home shop machinist. Frank
Franks idea is propably the easiest and cheapest. If one really wants it cheap one could use an electric drill with a chucked bolt, woodbearings and a "flatbelt" made up of something (dressbelt, web, jeans).
Get some rice at your local chinese grocers and polish away. Think I will make one just to try:-)
Here is one I made several years ago. Similar to Morgans, 5 gallon bucket with "vanes" added inside. Gear reduction motor off of a chip auger. (110 volt)
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...at/tumbler.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...t/tumbler2.jpg
My pal is wanting to build a tumbler and we looked through this thread and all internet hits we could find. We came up with using an electric ice cream freezer motor and tub. Will lay is horizontal with a shaft bolted to the center of the tub bottom to help carry the weight. I am thinking the body of a trashed 30-06 casing will work fine for this. Found a setup to donte parts for $5 at Goodwill. Will post pics when done with it.
J
All you guys have inspired me!! I have been trying to boost up my reloading equipment and supplies after not reloading or casting for over 22 years. I have just bought dies and a mould for reloading 45acp for a H&K usp that I haven't shot a box through yet. After reading all the posts and looking at the linked sites, I have Frankensteined a truly bad a** vibratory tumbler. I did most of it while the wife toasted a iced pizza. here are the pics. I had an old orbital sander that I didn't use so it's all free.
Nice job Joe, You gonna clamp it in a vise? Be easier than rigging a stand. I do that with my old orbital sander when I have small parts to sand.
Morgan
Just mount a coffee can to your lawnmower mine shakes like hell find a good shake spot mount can and mow the grass wife is happy and your brass is clean. Note make sure lid is on good mower will shot a casing better then you think
Used a 2 gal bucket on some old casters for the drum. Fitted that, to the motor from the 10 foot satellite dish that was in the yard when I moved here. Use it to graphite shot in. Its a 12 volt motor so have to use a battery charger to run it.
Jerry
I made one out of a large waterless hand soap can. I screwed four pieces of wood, 3/4 x 3/4 to the inside.