Ideas for home-made tumbler?

[charger 1]

Tire shop trips need not be dreary. Ya you gotta spend coin, but as I say turn a frown upside down. Ask him fer his wheel weights. Then bring yer brass in distinctive batches. Each bunch to go into a tire upon installation with a handful of whatever. Next trip back sure you still gotta pay the tire disposal fee when he takes em off, but if yer always leavin with weights and sparkly brass you's a happy camper

[pietro]

FWIW - I clean my brass, 50 to 100 at a time, in the K.I.S.S. tumbler/cleaner - I toss them in an old pillowcase, tie the neck in a knot & throw it in the clothes washing machine, to clean/cycle with a towel load and regular detergent.

[uncle joe]

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

my bench is just over waist high,(do my work standing up) just screwed a wal-mart hook under the bench and let it hang from the bucket bail. I later had to put something in the bucket attached to the sides to help agitate the brew. It worked great until the sander bit the dust. It was only about 40 years old. I think I put to much media and brass in it at one time.

[HTRN]

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 . . .

Uhm... There is always room for improvement!

This should be fairly easy to duplicate using 55 gallon plastic drums. Or for those wanting a vibratory tumbler..


HTRN

[melw]

Uhm... There is always room for improvement!

[URL"]This[/URL] should be fairly easy to duplicate using 55 gallon plastic drums. Or for those wanting a vibratory tumbler..


HTRN

The first link you have looks like some one made it in their garage. I like the design but over $600.00
to buy!
I am working on a larger tumbler, my problem has been finding a good container to use. The 5 gl bucket I bought from the hardware store is some what tapered and wants to walk off the casters it is rolling on. The sides are also slick and the motor drive just slides.
I will have to look for those blue barrels. That is great.
Mel W.

[ttman4]

Migth check what wifey has in the cupboard, she will not miss one of thoose Tupperware things. (Or will she?)

There's only 3 things in this world I'm scared of......
1. Tornadoes
2. Rattlesnakes
3. MAD WOMEN!!!
....& I would suggest caution! seriously!!!!

[ronbo]

This post is older than the hills but I made a tumbler from a plan in the American Rifleman magazine in the mid 70's. Was made with plywood drum and two old style clothes dryer pulleys of the day, junked furnace blower motor. The only thing I bought was one belt for $5. Has been polishing brass in a hurry with corncob media for over 30 years. It leaks a little bit of media out of the door but I put it back in once in awhile. It is quiet and polishes to a high shine in an hour.

[RP]

oh just mount a can or two one your lawnmower wheels fill with brass and media and mow the yard or better yet get your wife to mow the lawn you get clean brass and your wife off your back.

[madcaster]

Now Scrounger,that is a redneck tumbler,us HILLBILLIES just put the brass and media in a 5 gallon bucket and throw it on the tradmill with anyone who just happens to be drivin' it at the moment-but we WON'T be mentioning any names....

[colt 357]

Migth check what wifey has in the cupboard, she will not miss one of thoose Tupperware things. (Or will she?)

If you take her tupperware you may want to hide the knives as well

[sparky45]

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=130815
This guy makes a tumbler that works extremely well.

[kywoodwrkr]

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.

Local gun shop owner had a couple mixers set up during Vietnam war to 'clean' brass off the ranges at Ft. Knox. He said he used sand and, well, time. I got my 'surplus' brass from some fellow employees in armored units who would just burn up their allotment on a range and bring brass home in garbage cans.

[plmitch]

I need a tumbler and theres lots of good ideas here for making my own( got plenty of junk in the shop to work with).I learn something new everytime I log on.

[NavyVet1959]

Tire shop trips need not be dreary. Ya you gotta spend coin, but as I say turn a frown upside down. Ask him fer his wheel weights. Then bring yer brass in distinctive batches. Each bunch to go into a tire upon installation with a handful of whatever. Next trip back sure you still gotta pay the tire disposal fee when he takes em off, but if yer always leavin with weights and sparkly brass you's a happy camper

I have to wonder how much of that brass would be left after 40K+ miles in a tire...

I have seen tumbers made where they used a tire as the container. In one case, the tire was sitting on rollers that were powered and it had some round plywood sides on it that could be bolted together to enclose the "tumbling drum". In another case, the person just put the same type of setup on a treadmill and had welded up a framework along the sides to keep the tire pointed straight ahead. And in yet another case, the person had a shaft which went through the tire and the tire hung from it. The shaft was hooked up to an electric motor via a fan belt and some pulleys. The inner edge of the sidewall rested on the shaft and when the shaft rotated, the tire would also rotate. It looked like an older 15" tire, maybe a 31x10.50x15, so it had pretty deep sidewalls and could probably hold quite a bit of brass even without having any lids on the sides. Assuming a 1" diameter shaft going through the tire, that would mean that the shaft would rotate 15 times for every 1 time the tire rotated. If you figure a 1725 RPM motor from a clothes dryer and no reduction, that would mean that the tire was rotating at 115 RPMs (or about 10.6 mph). That might be a bit too fast, so a larger pulley on the shaft that goes through the tire would probably be best to gear it down at least half of that.

[jmorris]

I was wondering what you were doing up at 2 in the morning, trying to find that 10 year old thread on building a tumbler, I see.

[NavyVet1959]

I was wondering what you were doing up at 2 in the morning, trying to find that 10 year old thread on building a tumbler, I see.

Oh, I'm often up pretty late... We had a saying, if an engineer is at work at 8am, it's probably because he's been there the entire night.

[upnorthwis]

Here's my homemade version. 5 gal. bucket is driven by 5/8" steel rod with two wood rollers with friction tape on them for traction. Turned the wood rollers to size on lathe to get bucket to 62 rpm. That's down from the 2 pole motor speed of 3600. Pulley system was already in place and used for an earlier wood lathe that has been replaced. Cleanest brass I've ever seen.
The red pulley is part of a boat winch that was laying around and is only used for the pulley and bearings.

[Bama]

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

I built one about 10 years ago and have used it since then. The 8-10 inch PVC pipe with 3/8" to 1/2" wall is the best I have found. Ideal rotational speed is 28 to 32 RPM for this size range. PVC is mold-able. I take scrap and cut in half length wise and put on a foil covered tray in oven and bring up to about 350'F for 10 to 15 minutes. When remove from oven I clamp between two pieces of 3/4" plywood. When cool I have flat sheets of PVC. I drill a center hole and cut out a slightly larger circle than diameter of pipe. One end is rabbited to glue in to one end. Three or four trapezoidal strips are cut from a piece of pipe to glue inside for lifters to keep the media and brass from just sliding in pipe. When running at correct speed the media will release from the drum when it is at the 11:00 o'clock position if looking from end and cascade back onto itself to give maximum polishing. O yes a threaded rod hold the non glued end cap on.