Homemade?

[Lucky Joe]

If ya can't buy it make it, if ya can buy it make it anyway.

[Danderdude]

Here's my 5gal tumbler I threw together today. Total cash cost: $32.

The motor and pulley assembly came as a whole for $31 at a local estate sale this morning. The 20ft vacuum cleaner replacement cord was $1.
The loose pulley has the riding side wrapped in a strip of busted tire inner tube tied with baling wire. All the lumber is junk cutoffs. The casters are rebuilt after breaking off of an old furniture mover. Bucket is moving at 80rpm.

This is version 1.1. Ver. 1.0 ended up chewing the inner tube off the pulley.

Right now I've got it stress-testing for an hour with 2 gallons of water and a shovel of gravel.







Edit: Stress test complete. 25lb of water and gravel for two hours didn't tear it up, so I'm sticking with this design for now. If I improve on it, it will include a steel frame with a large compression spring to act as a shock absorber, and I will widen the bearing surface of the rubber on the bucket.
The only problem I see is that it will take $100 worth of SS media to get enough in there, now...

[kbstenberg]

Danderdude I sure wish my tumbler was going that fast.
I am converting an old clothes dryer into a brass tumbler. I have spent the last 2 days fitting 3 supports to fit an outer 5 gallon bucket into the the dried barrel.
At this point I have stripped the electrical guts an heater out of the housing. So all that is left inside the housing is the motor which I have already wired to a switch and a timer.
Kevin

[gandydancer]

There Is so much talent on this web site its just amazing. all I can make is a little ear wax--maybe. I salute you all. GD

[DukeInFlorida]

Danderdude,
I gave some thought to going with the bucket version. I even bought the caster wheels for that purpose. However, I was more intrigued with the PVC pipe version.

I posted the video of mine working over in the swaging area:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=158516

[Bored1]

WOW. Logged on to see if a tubler COULD be made @ home. Now that I see the answer is a definate yes, I will be stuck trying to figure it out for awhile Im sure!!!

[Longwood]

WOW. Logged on to see if a tubler COULD be made @ home. Now that I see the answer is a definate yes, I will be stuck trying to figure it out for awhile Im sure!!!

I made a simple drum a while back with two three gallon buckets from a supper market bakery.
I used two to make it even diameter on both ends.
I cut the bottom from one so that the top fits against the bottom of the other then screwed them together with sheet metal screws but small stove bolts with nuts would work better.
I used a piece of all thread and sheetmetal that I cut to just fit inside of the rims on the tops to hold it closed. Good quality 1/2" plywood cut to the right size would work just as well as the sheet metal reinforcements on the ends.

The bearings in this photo are from Walmart and only cost a little over $4 each.
Two foot long pieces of 3" oak, clamped together then drilled with a spade drill and you have bearings like ones that were used for thousands of years.
Super cheap, plus better bearings can always be added later if they are needed.
I especially liked this style of bucket because of the large lip that serves as rollers.
I squirted a glob of silicone in each of the little molded in pockets around the lips to add strength..

[Elkins45]

I bought a 1936 South Bend lathe off Craigslist over the winter and I've been gradually making useful things, between episodes of making things that might have been useful if I hadn't taken off just a smidge too much metal. I noticed that Grainger had 7/8-14 threaded rod on sale for ridiculous cheap prices so I bought myself 15 feet of it to make "die type stuff" with.

This is an M die for my 300 Blackout setup. I have a genuine Lyman in 30 long but the stubby little AAC round won't reach the expander.



The expander is some 1/2-13 threaded rod that I turned to size, then bored and threaded the 7/8 rod to accept it. It isn't hardened, but I'm guessing that it will take thousands of rounds to wear it significantly--and then I can always just make another.

I've also cranked one out for 35 Whelen, but I used a grade 8 bolt for the plug. I learned my lesson with the bolt because the heads aren't exactly square with the shaft and it was a booger to center in the lathe. I can just jam the threaded rod into the three jaw chuck and start turning.

[Bored1]

I made a simple drum a while back with two three gallon buckets from a supper market bakery.
I used two to make it even diameter on both ends.
I cut the bottom from one so that the top fits against the bottom of the other then screwed them together with sheet metal screws but small stove bolts with nuts would work better.
I used a piece of all thread and sheetmetal that I cut to just fit inside of the rims on the tops to hold it closed. Good quality 1/2" plywood cut to the right size would work just as well as the sheet metal reinforcements on the ends.

The bearings in this photo are from Walmart and only cost a little over $4 each.
Two foot long pieces of 3" oak, clamped together then drilled with a spade drill and you have bearings like ones that were used for thousands of years.
Super cheap, plus better bearings can always be added later if they are needed.
I especially liked this style of bucket because of the large lip that serves as rollers.
I squirted a glob of silicone in each of the little molded in pockets around the lips to add strength..

What kind of motor are you going to use to power it? Looking in the drill/coffee can idea right now til I really wyap my head around how to get it working. Figure if I start small, can always go bigger. Is there any reason you couldn't use a oscillating fan motor? I know youd have to diable the oscillating part.

[Elkins45]

I can't remember if I've posted this here or not, so please excuse if it's a duplicate. It's hardly original but useful: the early versions of the Lee Bench Plate system didn't have any sort of indexing pins like I'm told they do now. I got tired of my press ending up in my lap so I aligned all the blocks and drilled a hole through them, then drilled through the metal baseplate and into my bench. Now when I mount a press I just jam the screwdriver down through the hole and into the bench---prevents any nasty mishaps.

[DeanWinchester]

I bought a 1936 South Bend lathe off Craigslist over the winter and I've been gradually making useful things, between episodes of making things that might have been useful if I hadn't taken off just a smidge too much metal. I noticed that Grainger had 7/8-14 threaded rod on sale for ridiculous cheap prices so I bought myself 15 feet of it to make "die type stuff" with.

This is an M die for my 300 Blackout setup. I have a genuine Lyman in 30 long but the stubby little AAC round won't reach the expander.

The expander is some 1/2-13 threaded rod that I turned to size, then bored and threaded the 7/8 rod to accept it. It isn't hardened, but I'm guessing that it will take thousands of rounds to wear it significantly--and then I can always just make another.

I've also cranked one out for 35 Whelen, but I used a grade 8 bolt for the plug. I learned my lesson with the bolt because the heads aren't exactly square with the shaft and it was a booger to center in the lathe. I can just jam the threaded rod into the three jaw chuck and start turning.

Great. I made one for 300 BLK too. I had some old Lyman Mdies in the old white paper boxes. I just cut a 30/06 Mdie off really short and it works great. One thing though, I can't use a locking ring. I made it short enough so I just run it in until the knurled part bottoms out on the press and it's set ready to roll.

[edwin41]

hi
i made me a device so i can roll the necks of a fired cartridge to any
diameter i want .
more pictures in the paperpatch section under the thread 6.5 x 55 mm.
there are also pictures of a sizer i made for sizing casted bullets.

i will have to do some testing with this roller though , but it looks promissing.

[etcher1]

I made a tumbler after looking at other diy projects, it works fairly well.



Here's the end result, The brass is 20+years old.



Hopefully I will learn a lot and be able to bring other things to the table.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Good result, no doubt you are on it, but I'd be checking those primer pockets before I loaded them (not that it would make much difference for most pistol loads I suppose.

[Longwood]

Good result, no doubt you are on it, but I'd be checking those primer pockets before I loaded them (not that it would make much difference for most pistol loads I suppose.

I sometimes get a piece of media in the primer holes. It can be a pain to get the hard Walnut shell pieces out of the hole.
My next lathe project, may be a devise with one of those automatic punches set at very low setting.
A simple push into a small indentation would cause it to punch a primer pin through the hole with enough force to clean out the chunk of walnut shell.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I sometimes get a piece of media in the primer holes. It can be a pain to get the hard Walnut shell pieces out of the hole.
My next lathe project, may be a devise with one of those automatic punches set at very low setting.
A simple push into a small indentation would cause it to punch a primer pin through the hole with enough force to clean out the chunk of walnut shell.

Good idea.

I was considering making a flashole clearer that faced down. I felt That as you picked up a case, you push it lightly onto the inverted pin and any media would fall free. Then place the case on the primer tool or press.

[Newtire]

wow, you guys put me to shame, I made a homemade tumbler by putting corn cob media and brass in a coffee can and put it in my truck for about a week

Nothing wrong with simplicity brow_tines, as long as it got the job done.

[Longwood]

simplicity brow

????????
Is this one?

[Four Fingers of Death]

I wonder what the other end looks like?

[Whiterabbit]

I hope you are talking about post #153 and not post #158