Not another brass cleaning post!

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hdwhit

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No, it's not what you think - honest.

Right now, I have a rotary tumbler built out of some material handling rollers and the drive mechanism from a Texas Instruments Optiplex dot matrix printer. I use plastic coffee cans for the tumbling drums. And this has met my needs since the 1990's, but as bullet-proof as that TI printer's guts were, they are not immortal and the plastic gears are starting to wear out. It is only a matter of time before it stops working entirely - or the toothed belt breaks.

I could replace it with an electric motor and a chain and some sprockets (or a belt and some pulleys) but even from a second-hand or surplus dealer, that can get costly pretty quick.

A replacement factory made rotary tumbler (like this one): https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/7...-platinum-series-rotary-case-tumbler-110-volt is about $170.

After looking at this video posted by Aardvark Reloading about how they clean their brass:


It occurred to me that I could imitate them on a smaller scale with a Harbor Freight 1 and 1/4 cubic foot cement mixer and have a lot more capacity that either the factory tumblers of my coffee can spinner could ever deliver and for the same or less money.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-14-cubic-ft-cement-mixer-61931.html

I don't currently wet tumble, but I know if I want to start, I would need to either make gaskets for all the seams or at least seal them with some sort of gasket compound when I assembled it, but that just seems to call for some care and patience rather than any real difficulty. Am I missing something here or is this practical as a poor-man's brass tumbler?
 
Sure looks like it will do the job, wonder how many lbs of pins? (if you decide to use pins)
 
Dudedog, I hadn't even gotten there yet, so that's a good question. Most of the sacks of cement at the home improvement stores are in the 2 cubic foot range and weigh between 60 and 80 pounds, so without researching it, I would guess 30 to 40 pounds would be about the limit for pins, brass and water. Of course, I would stay well below that so that I didn't overload the motor and drive mechanism because it needs to last a while.
 
Thanks, goldpelican. It looks like in the video you linked to that they had left the original baffles in place. I noticed Aardvark made a point of saying they had replaced them with some they had devised for themselves. I wonder how much difference that is going to make?
 
Last year I saw a video on Jerry Miculek's channel where he did this. I was blown away by it. But figured to get to that level of shooting and since it's his profession that the only way to clean all that brass was via such a large mixer.

He also has a video on an insane lead melting setup that he uses. Again to do massive volume.

For us mere mortals I think more "normal" equipment is fine.
 
hdwhit said:
Most of the sacks of cement at the home improvement stores are in the 2 cubic foot range and weigh between 60 and 80 pounds. . .
Click to expand...

Check that. A standard sack of cement is 1cf, and weighs 94 lbs. You might be thinking of a Sackrete or premix concrete product.

I don't know the density of stainless media, but I'll bet The Google knows. Worst case you'll need to call a bulk supplier and ask; I'll bet www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com gets this question twice a week.
 
edwardware wrote:
You might be thinking of a Sackrete or premix concrete product.
Click to expand...

Thank you. You are exactly right that I was thinking of Sackrete. Well, that will teach me from relying on memory and not looking up the particulars.
 
Hokie PhD wrote:
For us mere mortals I think more "normal" equipment is fine.
Click to expand...

The perverse reality is that I have space to park a freestanding mixer in the lean-to behind the garage at the farm (where the noise it is going to make will be far away), but countertop space is at a premium. Besides, the mixer is cheaper than the "normal" rotary tumblers - even considering the added cost of a couple tubes of gasket sealant.
 
I think my brother has a concrete mixer at my folks place. I'm sure I could use it if I wanted to but it seems like overkill for the small amount of brass I clean at a time. Now if the range didn't have a "pick up your own brass only" rule then maybe it would be worth it to go there a few times a week and sweep the place for them ;-)

But being someone who tries to follow the rules (for the most part). I only pick up what's where I"m going to be shooting before, then clean up after myself leaving the stall cleaner than I found it.
 
Hokie_PhD wrote:
I only pick up what's where I"m going to be shooting before, then clean up after myself leaving the stall cleaner than I found it.
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Absolutely. Taking responsibility for leaving things at least a nice as we found them (and better if possible) is the only way for us to have nice things.
 
hdwhit said:
Absolutely. Taking responsibility for leaving things at least a nice as we found them (and better if possible) is the only way for us to have nice things.
Click to expand...
It's funny but it's contagious. I usually bring a broom to clean up before and after. When I do, I always get people asking if they could use my broom for a few minutes and they clean up too. It's nice to see as I usually shoot at a public range and it being kept clean ensures that it stays open!
 
I went back to Aardvark Reloading (the source of the video in the original post) and their brass tab now opens to a site I had never heard before called East Coast Reloading Supplies that claims to be selling brass that is wet-tumbled, decapped, swaged, resized and then lightly polished. I don't know if Aardvark changed their name to East Coast or if East Coast acquired them, but for Aardvark's stuff looked really good when I bought some and if they're now decapping it, removing the crimp (where needed) and resizing it, it looks tempting.
 
Every time I see a thread like this, I'm glad I went with Thumbler's tumbler(s) and stick to dry tumbling with corncob.

I admire the creativity and ingenuity, but there is a point in which it seems there is a bit of masochism.
 
Try it without pins first. Theres been a number of guys wet cleaning brass without pins and most like the results more than with pins, partly because they dont have to buy or mess with pins, and because they felt the pins made the necks so squeaky clean the expander sticks. The common recipe seems to be 1/2 teaspoon of Lemi-shine dishwasher additive or generic citric acid powder, a very small amount of dish soap, and run the tumbler. one guy uses a concrete mixer and does 5 gallons of 9mm at a time. He still doesnt use much of the lemi-shine, I dont think over 1 teaspoon. He also does a plain water first rinse/tumble for a few minutes, then the dish soap/lemi-shine for an hour or so, then a rinse cycle with armor-all car wash and wax.

They are drying them in towels rolled back and forth then spread out for a couple days, some use fans to speed it up, some use food dehydrators and are done in a couple hours I believe. I just recently realized I had large special brass dryers cleverly disguised as window screens. Some decap beforehand, some dont. The 5 gallons bucket at a time guy loads on a 1050 with feeders for all his supplies. Hes all about time efficiency. he mentioned having about 12 buckets of 9mm to do Theres about 6000 rds in a 5 gal bucket I believe he said.

It seems that the pins are useful for extremely dirty cases with tarnish, but for most use, going without and much less time than most do works well. Ive only done small amounts with a harbor freight dual drum rock tumbler. It cleaned up very tarnished 5.56 brass looking mostly very good, some cases had to be run a second time. The cases had been sitting fired since the 80s, were in a basement flood, then left in bags the past 3 years since then. I am totally done with dry tumbling for the foreseeable future. I also have no intention of buying any pins after seeing the annoyance they are at times. I dont see the need.
 
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Eagerly awaiting the results of the cement mixer test when you get it:)
Good thought to try it without pins first.
I use citric acid (canning area of the supermarket)and Formula 1auto wash and wax in my Lyman Cyclone tumbler.
You favorite brand of wash and wax should work fine.
 
RugerOldArmy wrote:
I admire the creativity and ingenuity, but there is a point in which it seems there is a bit of masochism.
Click to expand...

I assure you I am quite free of any psychopathology (and because my handicap requires a psychological evaluation to determine the appropriate treatment, I have a letter from the Psychiatrist to prove it).

My current tumbler - cobbled together from ex-Texas Instruments printer parts - is on its last legs and will need replacement soon. I can either buy a rotary tumbler made for tumbling brass, or for less money, I can buy and re-purpose a cement mixer. Since the family farm has three storage sheds ranging in size from 96 to 384 square feet, finding a place for the free-standing cement mixer is not a problem. Finding countertop/cabinet space for a purpose-made brass tumbler is an issue.

Save money, have greater capacity, and save countertop space. None of that sounds like an adventure is self-inflicted pain.
 
Dudedog wrote:
Eagerly awaiting the results of the cement mixer test when you get it
Click to expand...

Thank you.

But that's where the whole retirement thing becomes problematic. You see, there is no high speed internet service available where I'm going, so I may only be able to get on-line to post when I go into town to the public library and use one of their computers.

It's going to be like moving 500 miles and 30 years back in time. I can't say that I'm fully aware of the ramifications of that, but the move is necessary since I can't afford to pay for two houses on my retirement income.
 
Malamute said:
Try it without pins first. Theres been a number of guys wet cleaning brass without pins and most like the results more than with pins, partly because they dont have to buy or mess with pins, and because they felt the pins made the necks so squeaky clean the expander sticks. The common recipe seems to be 1/2 teaspoon of Lemi-shine dishwasher additive or generic citric acid powder, a very small amount of dish soap, and run the tumbler. one guy uses a concrete mixer and does 5 gallons of 9mm at a time. He still doesnt use much of the lemi-shine, I dont think over 1 teaspoon. He also does a plain water first rinse/tumble for a few minutes, then the dish soap/lemi-shine for an hour or so, then a rinse cycle with armor-all car wash and wax.
Click to expand...
Sounds counter-intuitive, but the left over residue on the inside of the case does act as a sort of lubricant for the expander. I noticed the same problem with the expander sticking when I first started wet tumbling with Dawn, but that was all but eliminated when I switched to Wash-n-Wax instead of Dawn.

Running without the pins does as good a job on the outside, except for really tarnished cases, or the primer pockets. My normal procedure now, for bottle-neck cases, is to wash without pins for about 15 minutes (just to get the outside clean), then lube/resize, then run for an hour WITH pins.
 
It's going to be like moving 500 miles and 30 years back in time
Click to expand...
:eek:
satellite internet maybe?

I could survive without internet and my cell phone with no major withdrawal symptoms (unlike some of my friends), but it might be expensive,
I might spend more time shooting and less time on THR:)
 
I'm out in the country and my only options are satellite or cellular. In some areas they have been testing the powerline technology with good success. If you have land line available you could always go dsl. There is a fed requirement that makes that available, but I don't think dsl is considered high speed these days. And it would be more expensive than satellite.
 
hdwhit said:
I assure you I am quite free of any psychopathology (and because my handicap requires a psychological evaluation to determine the appropriate treatment, I have a letter from the Psychiatrist to prove it).

My current tumbler - cobbled together from ex-Texas Instruments printer parts - is on its last legs and will need replacement soon. I can either buy a rotary tumbler made for tumbling brass, or for less money, I can buy and re-purpose a cement mixer. Since the family farm has three storage sheds ranging in size from 96 to 384 square feet, finding a place for the free-standing cement mixer is not a problem. Finding countertop/cabinet space for a purpose-made brass tumbler is an issue.

Save money, have greater capacity, and save countertop space. None of that sounds like an adventure is self-inflicted pain.
Click to expand...

Purpose made tumblers and/oe vibratory can actually be put on the floor, or on a piece of plywood. There are some very inexpensive ones and will clean a lot of brass for a whole lot less hassle.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/587176/frankford-arsenal-quick-n-ez-case-tumbler-110-volt
 
Blue68f100 wrote:
There is a fed requirement that makes that available,...
Click to expand...

First, the government requirement you are referring to does not apply to non-regulated carriers and telephone service up there is provided by a non-regulated carrier.

Second, DSL will only work within a specified distance of the switch; depending on the hardware anywhere between 5,000 and 17,000 feet. In my case, the nearest switch is 35,000 feet distant.

My options are dial-up (57.6 kbps), a local mimo provider using a T-1 backbone (384 kpbs) - neither of which I really find acceptable and so didn't mention them earlier - or satellite (512 kbps up to 1,536 kbps), or buying 4G data from AT&T or Verizon. The mimo provider's one advantage is that he doesn't have data caps which the satellite does have and the cell companies charge out the nose to obtain.
 
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