Tumbling cast buckshot?

[Navy_Guns]

Can you use a vibratory tumbler or do you need a rotary tumbler? What are you "home-made buckshot" folks using?

[klcarroll]

I use a rotary tumbler; .......but that is only because I made it myself, and a rotary is simple to fabricate.

I am reasonably sure that a vibratory unit would also do a good job of "finishing up" buckshot.

Kent

[madman]

I tried a vibratory with no luck they just sat in the bottom and did not circulate to made them rounder or to coat them. Use a rotary you will be happy you did. I coat mine with ultra fine graphite 2 days and no sprue nice and round and ready to blast away with. Oh yea I was using a Lee .311 ball mold. Casting out for straight alloy no tin or soft lead added and man do they do a job on a car. 10 pellets is about 1 oz.

[RP]

I use a cement mixer got to have alot to get them to run good but i also used it for my shot. I think you may be better off just making you something to roll them in how fancy is up to you.

[Slowpoke]

Can you use a vibratory tumbler or do you need a rotary tumbler? What are you "home-made buckshot" folks using?

I have had good luck with a vibratory tumbler.

I put the shot in a medium sized plastic peanut butter jar along with some moly and steel BB's.

I get the best action with all media removed from tumbler, I let it run for a few hours.

In my tumbler the jar will make counter clockwise revolutions as well as vibrate.

I used a glass jar once but it was to loud, worked just a well.

Do a little experimenting, I bet you will find something that works for you.

good luck

[Navy_Guns]

I tried the Do-it mold last night, and I don't think I'm going to have much luck with my little 10# bottom pour Lee production pot. I tried for 15 minutes and couldn't get the mould to fill out, even with the heat cranked all the way up. I guess I'll have to ladle pour these. :(

[dmen]

I just use a jar in the back of the car. Add a 1/4" bit of pencil lead and let them roll around for a few days. Smooth, round and lubricated. dmen

[klcarroll]

Wow! ......Do I feel stupid!!!

I never thought of using pencil lead as a source of graphite!! (DUH!)

Kent

[diehard]

DMen,

I'm glad you posted this...I was afraid someone would laugh at me so I never suggested it online. :-D I've been doing the same thing with my buckshot. I fill a plastic jar about 3/4 full, duct tape the cover on, and let it roll around the back of my pick up for awhile. While not perfect, the sprues do get worn off and the shot is much rounder. I think I will add some pencil lead next time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Diehard

[KCSO]

A rounding mill is easy to make or have made and then you end up with round shot and no sprues. All it is is a drill press attachmnet the has a rimmed plate at the bottom and a plate at the top that is spun by the press. You put in you round balls, start the drill press and lower the quill and the rotating top plate spins the balls perfectly round. Mine is 6" in diameter and I do 20-30 balls at a time depending on size.

[klcarroll]

@KCS0;

That sounds interesting! .....I am going to have to play around with that!

Do the plates have any "surface detail" or are they just smooth?

Kent

[madman]

Not to be insulting to any one but man this is redneck engineering at its best. I love it. best stuff I have seen yet.

[Navy_Guns]

Put a hole in the side and turn up the RPM's and you will have copied the infamous "DRED gun". Just google it, you'll laugh until it hurts... I want to see a DRED-equipped vehicle try to take a corner with the thing spun up.

How long does it take your rounding mill to do a batch? Sounds like it'd go pretty quick.

[twiggins105]

can you tell me how you made your rounding mill? I'm hoping you used off-the-shelf parts so I can make one myself.

[steg]

! used a cast iron fry pan 8" and a 5/8 steel disk 7" I brought the steel disc home years ago when i was a machinist, I just spin it by hand heck its on ball bearings...

[Four-Sixty]

Pencil lead for graphite. That is a brillant idea. Pencils are such a throw away item these days. I use them at the office cause I can always pick them up. Its the pens that everyone wants.

Thats also a neat idea about putting them in the trunk.

I'll throw out another idea.

I use a rounded glass wine jug. One of those Carlos & Rossi ones with the ring handle at the top. You have to drink the wine to empty the jug. :p

It is noisy though when you roll that buck around. I do this in the garage. My Wife, in the house, says it sounds like a kid shaking a piggy bank full of coins, non stop.

[Kskybroom]

Can sombody post a pic of a rounding mill..

[dwdw]

I use a gallon paint can that rolls around the back of my pickup and a shot of Graphite spray from Farm and Fleet.
How much pencil lead do you use and how do you open the pencils to save it?
Thanks
dwdw

[turbo1889]

I made a rotary tumbler out of an old cloths drier that the heating element had burned out on that I picked up for twenty bucks. I just cut the wires to the heating element and stubbed them off and then removed the plastic fins on the inside of the metal drum and filled the holes for the bolts that attached the plastic flapper fins to the inside of the drumb with smooth head small size carriage bolts with teflon insert lock nuts on the outside of the drum.

Just open the door and dump in a bucket of round balls or buck shot and then set the timer button on the top for how long I want to tumble them and push the start button and it even has a buzzer that sounds when the cycle is done so that I can change out for the next batch.

Works like a charm, noisy as heck though. Sounds like someone dumped a dump truck load of marbles on a slanted roadway and they are all rolling and bouncing down the road together. More rolling sound then bouncing or rattling sound in my rig but that is probably because mine has such a big drum size. That big old cloths drier has a drum that is like three foot diameter.

[RMc]

Wet tumbling for a few hours in a Lortone rock tumbler leaves hard cast buckshot (.32" to .60") smooth and round.

[lkeppinger]

I tumbled some 00 buck today. [II don't have a tumbler, so made a tube from 4" PVC pipe a food long with a cap glued on one end and a screw on cap on the other, split a 1" dowel in 1/2 and screwed the two pieces into the pipe. Put in about 5# of 00 buck and 2 pieces of pencil led about 2" long. Them to further the redneck engineering, I placed the pipe on my tread mill and turned it on..... 1 hour later I had the prettiest round buck shot you could want. Here Texas Ranch Country we do with what we have.
[smilie=s:

[kullas]

I use a homemade tumbler but i use homemade charcoal powder instid of graphite. what is the purpose of graphite in buckshot?

[HiVelocity]

After I cast buckshot I just toss into my regular case tumbler with whatever media I used previously. Usually about a pound for 30 minutes. Then I put into an old plastic container with a dab of JPW and give a good coating. Pour out onto a butter tub lid to dry. Makes em' slick!

Then after they're dry, load as usual. :bigsmyl2:

HV

[NZSarge]

I tumble mine is this home made container with a drill

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=156423

[Hawk78]

I tried a vibratory with no luck they just sat in the bottom and did not circulate to made them rounder or to coat them. Use a rotary you will be happy you did. I coat mine with ultra fine graphite 2 days and no sprue nice and round and ready to blast away with. Oh yea I was using a Lee .311 ball mold. Casting out for straight alloy no tin or soft lead added and man do they do a job on a car. 10 pellets is about 1 oz.
I just bought me a rock tumbler specically to remove the sprue from my lead buckshot. Is the graphite mandatory, and where is the best place to order it? How much of ir do I use with 3 lbs of buckshot? How many hours do I let it run? Thanks in advance. I have some pencil lead replacements for those mechanical pencils. I will use that for my first batch.
I can add a little hardener alloy to my next batch, but not too much because I only shoot muzzle loaders.

[Conditor22]

DIY tumbler using a windshield wiper motor, computer power supply a couple salvaged wheels and some scrap
https://i.imgur.com/B3KN8xA.jpg?2

Bucket adapted to windshield wiper motor
https://i.imgur.com/RLFUtJn.jpg

Bucket adapted to hold square peanut jar
https://i.imgur.com/dCXmXcs.jpg

as cast - trimmed
https://i.imgur.com/z2bfUbj.png

tumbled for a while in square peanut jar with a pinch of graphite
https://i.imgur.com/YrO0N93.png

[garrisonjoe]

what is the purpose of graphite in buckshot?

Although graphite and charcoal are both almost 100% carbon, so is diamond. Due to their different atomic bonds and molecular structures, they have much different properties.

Charcoal is not a lubricant. Graphite is. Lubricating properties help a little while loading and a little when firing buckshot. Graphite also tends to prevent rapid oxidation of the lead surface
(turning light gray with age).

[LeonCarr]

I use a Harbor Freight Rock Tumbler.

I fill each drum about half full with buckshot, add a tiny bit of graphite (Like half an empty .22LR case full), run it for 3-4 hours, and the buckshot comes out looking like black pearls.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr