Originally Posted by
DoubleBuck
HWooldridge;
You may be familiar with some people in your area who are into rock polishing? I have a brother in law who is into it big time. They have clubs with people who gather from all over and associate. They have some top notch rock tumblers, which are what the Harbor Freight 'ball mills' actually are. I ask my BIL about it and he said he could get me a good tumbler any time and some times pretty reasonably.
I myself bought a HF double drum tumbler/polisher about five years ago for $50 and have had really good luck with it. I think I have made close to 20 pounds of powder with it. I don't use both drums at one time, but with 50 lead balls of 60 caliber, it will do a half pound in each drum, in 8 hours.
If you do decide to get a tumbler of some sort, or make one, I have one suggestion. If you use lead balls, you will get a certain amount of wear off them, into your powder. I am in the process of replacing them with high tin content lead balls, quenched in water. Hopefully that will cut down on the wear. HighUintas posted about a year ago, that he had researched and was using a certain type of Stainless balls. 304 if my memory serves and it probably doesn't. ha. Others have tried ceramic but they are light and I'm not sure of the success of using them. I think lead is the best, because it is so heavy, but the wear concerns me. More so for the contamination of the powder.
Should you try a HF tumbler, there are a couple of mods you can make on them, to make them more efficient. And you can fill copper tubes with lead and use them as a mill media. Not sure if they wear well, or not, but someone here will know. Copper jacketed bullets have also been suggested.
VettePilot's suggestion on the tread mill is a good one, as well, if you can make your own mill jar. I have a friend right now who has offered me a free tread mill, to get it out of his living room. It would carry your three or five pound jar for years.