HF cement mixer for wet tumbler

[beechbum444]

Evening, I'm curious if anyone besides me is curious if a HF cement mixer would work as a wet tumbler. Ironically, they FA wet tumbler and a HF cement mixer are about the same price, but the cement mixer is a lot bigger......thoughts....

[rancher1913]

I got a similar one from a local store and as long as you don't overload them they do fine. easy to dump out too.

[RogerDat]

I seem to recall a member using a cement mixer for pin tumbling brass. Need the room, ability to drain without losing a bunch of pins, and of course the need to do that volume of brass. The FART can handle a pretty good volume of brass in a convenient size, the cement mixer would handle a whole lot of brass in a batch and might do a batch in less time due to more tumbling action. Seem to also recall cement mixer for rinsing berm mined lead to remove the dirt.

Don't forget brass needs to be same diameter to avoid cases inside cases, especially annoying if wedged by pins. Not enough to have hundreds of cases, need to have hundreds in same size to make the larger batch work well.

[Guesser]

I knew a commercial reloader that used an old cement mixer to clean the used cases he bought from anywhere he could find them. That was almost 30 years ago, before the Y2K crunch changed the ammo market. He didn't really go for shiny, just clean.

[MUSTANG]

1. I use a 3 & 1/2 cubic Harbor Freight Cement Tumbler to tumble brass - but I dry Tumble in it using Corn Cob media. Have not used Stainless Pins and liquid tumbling in it.

2. I bought a 1 & 1/4 cubic Harbor Freight Cement Tumbler, and left it in the box for 2 years until I was ready to use for tumbling brass (was going to revert the Mixer in #1 above to cement use). Assembled the unit, put some brass and corn cob media in it, and 5 minuted later the motor burned up. Replacement motor was more than a new HF cement mixer on sale; so it is still in the reloading shed waiting on locating a cheap motor.

3. For Stainless Pin & Liquid media; I use the HF Rock Tumbler:

https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-d...ler-67632.html

Works well; but the Stainless Pins also abrade the Rubber Drums resulting in Black Water and some discoloration (not completely cleaned and shiny). For this reason I use a 3inch PVC pipe as my drum with this unit. Works well, but quantity is far less than in the Cement Mixer obviously.

[jdfoxinc]

Mustang, look at a motor for an evaporative cooler squirrel cadge fan. Might have to bubba the control panel mounting.

I was tumbling a batch of Lee 000 and 00 buck shot yesterday in my 1.25 cu ft mixer. It rained so it turned into a wet tumbler.

[sniper]

Jerry(?) Miculek has a Youtube video....and that's exactly what he uses, then dries the tumbled brass in an old electric range oven. Of course, he shoots more in a year than most of us will in a lifetime!

[kevin c]

I've heard that the case mouths can get peened over by the metal mixer blades. How to prevent that? Coat the interior of the drum? Use a plastic bucket as an insert (it'll need its own blades I think)?

I can tumble ten or eleven pounds of brass and enough water to cover it all in my FART (I don't use the pins). No apparent strain on the motor at all. What is the practical capacity of the large and small HF mixers?

[JimB..]

A whole different price point, but the larger STM unit is quiet, reliable, and able to clean a 50cal ammo can or full MFRB of brass in a couple hours. Only downside is that draining and separating requires lifting and tipping the full drum.

[kevin c]

Jerry(?) Miculek has a Youtube video....and that's exactly what he uses, then dries the tumbled brass in an old electric range oven. Of course, he shoots more in a year than most of us will in a lifetime!

I just looked at that video. He certainly does have a high volume operation just for personal use. He also seems to use the mixer for initial cleaning, and then tumbles in dry media after oven drying the mixer cleaned brass.

I basically wanted to get away from dry media tumbling and the dust it generates. So far wet tumbling in water with citric acid and combination car wash and wax does it all in one 90 minute run. What comes out of the FART gets a few rinses in tap water, a few turns in the FA media separator to shake out most of the water, and gets air dried in the sun. Just need to figure out how to scale up to the cement mixer for the large amount of brass my club wants to process.

[bpatterson84]

Guys, all you have to do to retain your pins is dump onto a bedsheet, makes it real easy!

[Mr. Woodchuck]

I use a 5 gal.paint strainer over a large plastic colander from Walmart to dump my brass and pins in after cleaning in the Frankford Arsenal Tumbler. I rinse the brass and pins in the colander with cold water in utility sink. Then I dump the pins and brass into the Frankford arsenal media's separator, spin the pins out into the separator water reservoir. Works great and I can do 1000 9mm at a time.

[fredj338]

My buddy does exactly that. He fit a 5ga; bucket to the inside of his cheap cement mixer & does like 8k a pop. He has a solid lid & a slotted lid. When done, replace with slotted lid & all the pins come out.

[woodbutcher]

Hi MUSTANG.Look for an electric motor from a junked washing machine.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Traffer]

For the roughly the same volume several people have used tread mills with 5 gal buckets on them. You can weld up bars across the track with a 5 gal bucket in front of each bar. Used tread mills can be gotten cheap even free if you hunt.
https://youtu.be/6P9xfO0WYv8
https://youtu.be/MfS_Ks17n3U
https://youtu.be/kd7rUjRtsqo

[MOA]

I use a 5 gal.paint strainer over a large plastic colander from Walmart to dump my brass and pins in after cleaning in the Frankford Arsenal Tumbler. I rinse the brass and pins in the colander with cold water in utility sink. Then I dump the pins and brass into the Frankford arsenal media's separator, spin the pins out into the separator water reservoir. Works great and I can do 1000 9mm at a time.

This is my Wal Mart special, got it for less than ten bucks, works great. Been using same pieces for about 5 years now, holding up good. I dry my pins in the oven at night, turn it up to 250 and put the pins in and close the door, and turn oven off. In the morning all are dry and they go back into the plastic tupperware. The brass I dry inside a king size cotton pillow case. Drop them in hold onto the ends and roll them back and forth until most are dry maybe thirty seconds and then on to a few towels under the ceiling fan in the bedroom to air dry for a few hours. Easy Peazy.

[Echo]

I basically wanted to get away from dry media tumbling and the dust it generates. .

Throw a used dryer sheet in with the dry tumbler. Catches all the dust...

[jaysouth]

Jerry(?) Miculek has a Youtube video....and that's exactly what he uses, then dries the tumbled brass in an old electric range oven. Of course, he shoots more in a year than most of us will in a lifetime!

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y_dsP3dsM

[kevin c]

Throw a used dryer sheet in with the dry tumbler. Catches all the dust...

I did, actually one and a half or two, cut into strips. That reduced the dust but didn't eliminate it. May be that I tumble too long ( a couple hours), but i like the brass shiny (yes, I know it doesn't make any difference to the round, but that's what I like).

[jdfoxinc]

Add a tablespoon of mineral spirits to the dryer sheet. It really helps.