Improvised tumbler

[COUSIN DANIEL]

So some back story here, i acquired 10,000 223 cases for a amazing price from a gunshop I frequent. The brass is all once fired crimped lake city brass.

I have a Lyman cyclone and national brand wet tumbler which both run walnut as media, my tumble time is 5 hours and I seem to get wonderful shinny brass BUT that is for 1000 pieces at a time. So it's a major time commitment, not that my time is all that valuable I just want to be done lol.

I am cleaning the brass, lubing the brass, processing it through my Dillon rl1000 with trimmer and primer pocket swagger, and before loading I will tumble to take away the lanolin case lube.

So in theory it will be 100 hours of tumbling total

I bought a broken plastic tub concrete mixer for 20 dollars and I am looking at various ways of powering it so I can tumble 10,000 cases at once
What stands out to be as the cheapest power unit would be a 3/4 inch drill from harbor freight.

Dose anyone have experience with using a drill in a application where continuous run time is required for 5 hours or less at a time?

[BLAHUT]

So some back story here, i acquired 10,000 223 cases for a amazing price from a gunshop I frequent. The brass is all once fired crimped lake city brass.

I have a Lyman cyclone and national brand wet tumbler which both run walnut as media, my tumble time is 5 hours and I seem to get wonderful shinny brass BUT that is for 1000 pieces at a time. So it's a major time commitment, not that my time is all that valuable I just want to be done lol.

I am cleaning the brass, lubing the brass, processing it through my Dillon rl1000 with trimmer and primer pocket swagger, and before loading I will tumble to take away the lanolin case lube.

So in theory it will be 100 hours of tumbling total

I bought a broken plastic tub concrete mixer for 20 dollars and I am looking at various ways of powering it so I can tumble 10,000 cases at once
What stands out to be as the cheapest power unit would be a 3/4 inch drill from harbor freight.

Dose anyone have experience with using a drill in a application where continuous run time is required for 5 hours or less at a time?

Yes; tried that on a meat grinder, burned up the drill in short order....

[high standard 40]

I guess the amount of load would have to be factored. I built a wet tumbler to polish my brass that uses a 10" section of 6" PVC as a drum. I load it with 5 pounds of pins, 200 cases, and water. The motor I use is a 1/2" Harbor Freight variable speed drill. I run it for two hours at a time. I've been using it for about five years with no issues. I built another for my brother at the same time. Both are still problem free.

[COUSIN DANIEL]

50/50 odds so far!

[GregLaROCHE]

I always wondered about using a cement mixer. Be sure to let us know how the project turns out.
I’m not sure how long a drill would last running constantly. I once replaced a burnt out cement mixer motor with one from a washing machine. It worked great for years.

[alfadan]

I think a drill will burn up running all that time.
I can find old 1750r0m AC motors on craigslist for 50 to 100 bucks. Maybe even get a free dryer and rip the motor out.

[rancher1913]

i use a cement mixer for brass, picked it up on sale for about 150 bucks if i remember right, been 10 or so years ago. only use it for the initial cleaning before running it through my rollsizer and 1050. for the cost and time of jerry rigging a motor you might be money ahead to just buy a new unit.

[MrWolf]

Was gonna say grab a cheap electric Harbor Freight cement mixer. I have one and it did what I needed done. Just looked at the prices and they look like they have at least doubled.

[Sasquatch-1]

If you have access to a couple of windshield wiper motors, you can make a nice wet tumbler out of PVC sewage pipe. I used 4 inch pipe, built a wooden frame and used some old inline skate wheels with 1/4" all thread for the drum to rest on. I ran a bolt with a rubber washer through an end cap for one end and use a rubber clean out cover for the other. The bolt is to connect to the motor with a connecting nut. My piece of pipe is about a foot long with some pieces of plastic angle screwed to the inside to agitate the brass. Look on YouTube there are several good designs depending on your skill level.

I don't think the windshield wiper motor will be strong enough to power the cement mixer.

[need1more]

Find a used treadmill, aka "clothes hanger". DC servo motor, high torque, variable speed, run all day long.

[j p sixguns welldone]

I have one of those clothes hangers i mean treadmills you can have if you pick it up.

[Chris S]

As long as your at Harbor Freight, look at the actual motors they have. A half horse AC motor should run your tumbler just fine. Another alternative would be to source one from Ebay. Just watch the mounting features and you should be GTG. Look here for the types of frames and match the one you need:
https://www.grainger.com/know-how/eq...ma-frame-guide

Chris

[MUSTANG]

Yep; been using a Harbor Freight 2 & 1/2 cu ft Cement Mixer for large batches of Pistol and Rifle Brass for last 15 years. Bought Corn Cob Media in 50 pound Bags from Grainger. Large Tarnished brass would take 24 to 72 hours to turn it to "Like New" polished. I also use the same mixer for mixing cement - just clean it IMMEDIATELY and VERY WELL after mixing bags of cement so that I can keep using it for brass too.

https://www.harborfreight.com/3-1-2-...xer-67536.html

I would consider a used motor from 2nd hand shop or from Harbor Freight like outlet. Warning - I bought a 1 & 1/4 Harbor Freight Mixer about 10 years ago. Did not get around to assembling it until a year later; after 5 minutes the Motor Burned out (Cheap Chinese of Course) and because of not assembling and testing right after buying it; I could not get a replacement.

Corn Cob media from Harbor Freight is about $46.00 per 50 Pound bag. I am sure Shipping is expensive; but if a local store - I would try order & pick up at Store.

https://www.grainger.com/category/ab...&filters=attrs

Another source of 40 or 50 pound bags of Corn Cobb Media is Zoro.

https://www.zoro.com/kbmt/corn-cobb-media/

[turtlezx]

iam so glad i dont bother to polish brass

[GONRA]

GONRA doesn't either - too lazy.....
AND - a microscopic thin coating of decent sizing lube
on the cartridge case is nice for functioning in semiautos.

[17nut]

I dont see a problem here!
You have a Lyman Cyclone allready.
Load 300 cases and do a wet tumble of 3 hours.
It takes me litterally under a minute to load a tumbler with cases, water, detergent and acid.
Then dump the cases and all into a wad of water and retrieve the pins and you're set for the next batch in under a minute again.

You can do whatever you like during the 3 hours of free time.

I dunk ny tumbled cases into the oven at 190degF for an hour.
If you only have 10000 cases to do then why spend $$$ to do them all at once???
300 cases x 4 times a day = 1200 cases and you're done in 8 days.
Drink beer and enjoy being in no rush.

[Jal5]

there was a thread on here about using a treadmill for large tumbling operations: 4" PVC pipe would hold a lot of brass. You can probably get one for nothing, just to pick it up for someone who wants it gone.

[elmacgyver0]

I am not going to do this, but the idea just flashed into my mind.
Mount a 2X4 on each side of the treadmill belt and one across the ends.
Put containers (you are on your own here) perhaps the PVC that someone mentioned on the belt between the 2x4s.
You could do a lot of different sized cases all in their own PVC container at the same time.
How easy would this be?

[BamaNapper]

I am not going to do this, but the idea just flashed into my mind.
Mount a 2X4 on each side of the treadmill belt and one across the ends.
Put containers (you are on your own here) perhaps the PVC that someone mentioned on the belt between the 2x4s.
You could do a lot of different sized cases all in their own PVC container at the same time.
How easy would this be?

I've eyed the treadmill and thought about it. My thought would to use a few pounds of SS pins in a 5 gal water cooler bottle. Just need a sheet of rubber and a pipe clamp to seal it. It's not smooth sided so it should tumble well. Could probably hold a few thousand 223 cases at once. Hot water, Dawn, a cup of citric acid, and a cup of purple power degreaser to get that nasty lanolin off. I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[Sasquatch-1]

I am not going to do this, but the idea just flashed into my mind.
Mount a 2X4 on each side of the treadmill belt and one across the ends.
Put containers (you are on your own here) perhaps the PVC that someone mentioned on the belt between the 2x4s.
You could do a lot of different sized cases all in their own PVC container at the same time.
How easy would this be?

There is/was(?) a YouTube video that used this exact idea. The only thing you may have to do is wrap whatever container you use with something for traction. The treadmill belt and the container may be too slick to grip each other.

As far as the 5-gallon water bottle goes, it would be hard to load, and it would have to be sealed somehow. The great thing with the treadmill is you could put 2 or 3, 4" PVC pipes on it at once.

As stated earlier, check YouTube. If they haven't taken them down for one reason or the other there are plenty of homemade wet tumbler designs shown.