Vibrating case cleaner - OVERDRIVE

You guys are either going to laugh at me, because you've been doing this forever, or you may think I'm a little loose.

In any event, I have a Frankford Arsenal vibrator (cheapie). Works great. It has a clear plastic lid, so when the vibrating occurs, you can easily see what's going on. The other day, I touched the lid during vibrating, and noticed a very real change in the vibration pattern. It went way faster. So, being the knucklehead I am, I tried taking the lid off and ran it that way.. SUPER OVERDRIVE !!!! I'll bet the speed picked up by three times.
Now, my corn cob is about 2 inches from the top of my bowl, but the little pieces don't even spill out all over, which I thought they would. I can cut my vibrating time in almost half. Certainly, a small matter - but I was impressed. I've also noticed that the majority of the vibrating case cleaners have a colored lid, so we can't see what's going on. Anyway, anybody else ever try this ??? enjoy Mike

I haven't noticed any difference with my Lyman, lid on or lid off. BTW my Lyman has a slotted lid. You're gonna get some posts about how dangerous cleaning brass in a tumbler w/o a lid can be; lead poisoning don'cha know...

It's an optical delusion brought on by inhaling corn dust laden with powder residudes.
Why not put the lid back on and just hold your finger on it?

:roll:[smilie=1:

Seriously though...
Less mass = More vibes
The motor driving it is probably marginal in power. By taking the lid off there is less top mass for it to have to move.
Equals a visible increase in activity.

Like yourself, I find simple things fastening.
When my Lyman 3200 was dieing I made the move to Stainless Steel Media Tumbling. Haven't looked back.
I do have a smaller Midway Brand with a clear lid I keep around. But the STM is the better way to go nowdays. ;)

I don't know... I keep my media "polished", so the dust should be mimimimimiminal. I'm OK, I'll be fine. I can take it.... enjoy Mike

Are you doing this outside? A Bud of mine ran his Midway 1292 on his carport with no lid. Everything within 6 feet of it became coated with "dust". He found that the dust escaping did not extend the life of his media any and tumble time was not much different. He went back to the lid.

If running it without the lid is a problem, try putting the lid on and placing a weight on top, say a small lead ignot . Next time I polish some cases I'm gonna try it. Mine has the clear lid also so I will watch for a change in action.

gary

I believe it's less weight that increases tub speed...

I had a problem with my 9mm not tumbling, they just sat there. I knew i had something laying around. Then i found it.

An old cannon ball, put it on the nut, it spins on it and put enough down pressure on the whole tumbler and started tumbling the 9mm.

But yes sometimes i run the tumbler with no lid, add more brass!!!!

try buying treated corn cob NO DUST or dust free instead of that cheap stuff.

I ran a tumbler for a few weeks without a lid and it finally dawned on me why every thing in sight was getting so dusty.

During the warm months I run my Frankfort Arsenal tumbler with the lid off on the back porch, works great and keeps dust out of the garage. Ripped up paper towels or dryer sheets help with the dust too

Ran my RCBS one night, outside. Looked at brass before I left for work & found it acceptable so I just turned it off with the switch, leaving cover off.

Came back from work; every squirrel for a mile around had visited and they had thrown the entire contents out onto the floor investigatng the walnut meda.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 2571

Ran my RCBS one night, outside. Looked at brass before I left for work & found it acceptable so I just turned it off with the switch, leaving cover off.

Came back from work; every squirrel for a mile around had visited and they had thrown the entire contents out onto the floor investigatng the walnut meda.

---

Now thats funny ! Squirrels...you just got to wonder what goes on in thier little pea brains. I heard it said that squirrels are the village idiots of the animal kingdom and have to agree with that .

gary

Mine is a Lyman 1200.

I tried it that way but the dust nearly choked me to death.


.

Sorry health nuts. over 30 years and ive yet to use a lid. They get tossed the day the new tumbler comes.

I have noticed this also years ago with my first Lyman Turbo tumbler.
Don't think it's necessarily a phenomenon but rather it's a couple of things.
It is less mass as said above but also me think the vibration is magnified to the
destabilization of the bowl sides without the cover tying "them"/it together.
..me think, maybe I had too much mercury dust too.:veryconfu

Like Lloyd I use no lid. Just something else to mess with. Heck, I have no idea where the lid for mine is but I do know where it isn't!

I`ve noticed the difference in the motion of the tumbler also ,tried 2 loads with same batch of brass .

I`ll keep the lid on , it made no difference that I could tell.

The trick is to load the correct amount of brass into the available media , I load until the media action just starts to slow .