Wet pin tumbler build

[milsurpguy]

Alrighty, another single phase, 115v, 6 pole motor is here, a 48 frame motor, this time with a 1/2 flat shaft.
Got a 1/2 gallon and a 1 gallon mayson jar with stainless steel key stock cleats RTV'ed in place.
Pillow bocks on the way.
Oh and some 1,200 grit "rock tumbling" polish.

 

[milsurpguy]

Working on it a little bit.
5/8 pillow blocks from ebay, a 7 inch modular pulley from tractor supply, 5/8 rod from lowes, fan motor from ebay, slightly adjustable evaporative cool motor pulley from ace.
This configuration will do between a 1/2 gallon container up to at leat a 5 gallon container.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

5/8 rod from lowes,

Good choice, you can sleeve with heater hose...

 

[milsurpguy]

Yeah have to up the diameter of the roller rods to about 1 inch to get the speed right.
5/8 heater hose should take it up to right about 1 inch, maybe a little more.
Got all the welding done, all I need is another belt, don't know what size yet and 2 same size pulleys with 5/8 bore.

 

[milsurpguy]

With my variable pulley and 7 inch fixed pulley I'm reducing motor RPM by about 2.2:1. So I'm looking at turning the 1 gallon jar at about 77RPM if the heater hose slipped over the 5/8 rod equals 1 inch.
That might be too fast/scarry, just the way I like it.

 

[milsurpguy]

Nailed it. Does 78rpm, the cases and pins look like a continuous breaking wave of metal.
It lacks duel drive. I couldn't find any 5/8 bore smaller same size pulleys locally so I got 2 cheap die cast ones off ebay.
Motor does get rather warm but it is a 90F day.
Tracking is perfect, first try.
I turned the drive shaft into a keyed shaft by cleaning off a line and running a straight bead with my mig welder, a little clean up with a dremal and it slid right on. I hate it when the key stock falls out of stuff at work, then no one catches it right away 90% of the time and that shaft and gear, pulley or sprocket are both ruined and you have to take it apart with a torch.


Could probably use about 5 more pounds of pins.

 

[Demi-human]

the cases and pins look like a continuous breaking wave of metal.

Nice! Very durable build!

That’s the perfect way to describe the action in the canister too.
Baffled canisters can run slower, but with the proper ratios aren’t really needed.

 

[milsurpguy]

Yeah I built it like a little peice of mining equipment as I mine brass from the local shooting pit.
Got the 2 adjustable same size pulleys in for dual shaft drive.
It will fit up to a 5 gallon water jug.

 

[Guy48065]

I think my next one will be a direct-drive 5-gal bucket.
As soon as I run across a dirt-cheap 60rpm gear motor.

 

[KentM]

Amazing what folks will go through to avoid spending $50 at Harbor Freight

 

[milsurpguy]

Amazing what folks will go through to avoid spending $50 at Harbor Freight

Well I already have the harbor freight one and it's too small. I modified it to fit a 2 quart tumbler and it's being pushed way beyond what it was designed for.

 

[milsurpguy]

I'm thinking the "breaking wave" of crashing pins and cases is ideal for hard fast cleaning, but the brass rolling over its self is better for polishing.
Probably try to slow it down a bit. Could do that by going to a bigger container.

 

[milsurpguy]

I added dual drive and made the motor pulley smaller.
Gives more of a sliding action than a crashing wave.
Yeah I need more pins, a thousand or so 9mm in a 1 gallon jar with 5lb of pins looks really light on pins.

 

[N555]

I get my brass from the scrap yard, costs about $100 per 5 gallon bucket, that about 2,500 pieces of 223, probably about 2x as many 9mm cases. Got a sweet setup, I take a fold up card table with chair to the scap yard, pull up next to the brass bin, shovel it on to the table like a clam bake. Pick through it, in under an hour I fill that 5 gallon bucket.
Picking it up off the ground is hard work, must be nice to be young and or have several young kids.
I'm going to try and copy this build.
I got 4 pillow blocks 5/8 size, 5/8 solid rod, I'm using a 3/4hp open frame 2 speed fan motor. My motor speed is 1,800 and and 1,200 rpm. Since my cases start out usually yellowish, but dirty I don't need a violent crash of cases.

 

[AK Hunter]

You will want to slide some 5/8" automotive heater hose over the 5/8 rods before mounting on the bearings to get grip to turn the PVC tube. Also smooth all of the lumps & notches off of the PVC caps.

 

[Skgreen]

mayson jar

Mason Jar?

 

[lightman]

Nice looking build!

 

[N555]

You will want to slide some 5/8" automotive heater hose over the 5/8 rods before mounting on the bearings to get grip to turn the PVC tube. Also smooth all of the lumps & notches off of the PVC caps.

Oh yeah I was going to heater hose the rods. I was going to use mason jar maybe but seems like they could break easy loaded with 30 pounds of stuff. I was going to use Franklin arsenal wet pin tumblers as they are 7qt where mason jars are only 4qt plus a massive 10 inch diameter stainless steel container.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

When I put the 5/8 heater hose on my 5/8" shafts, I sprayed WD-40 on it to get it on there quick. It's not an easy task. The WD will make it slick until the rubber soaks it up, then it grabs like you can't believe. I got it about 3/4s of the way on and had to fight it the rest of the way.
You may want to experiment with some on another piece of shaft before you try to put it on your tumbler You don't need to worry about slipping.
Even after 25 years on my tumbler I still can't move the heater hose on the shaft.

 

[N555]

I was going to try soap and water.

 

[bluetopper]

The smallest cement mixer at Harbor Freight makes a great brass tumbler. This pic is from a few years ago after I first got it. Been tumbling with dry media ever since. I now have some stainless media I'm going to try wet tumbling with.

 

[AK Hunter]

I was going to try soap and water.

I use a little dawn & Lemi Shine detergent booster with 1 gallon of water to clean about 700 .223.5.56 to 1500 9mm.
Tumble for 1 to 1.5 hrs & you will have very clean brass.
Here is the dawn going in.


Here is how much Lemi Shine I use.


Some get cleaner than others but they are all clean enough to reload.

 

[hdwhit]

Why didn't you just buy a Harbor Freight cement mixer, assemble it with a large quantities of sealant between the various gaskets, carefully tighten them down and tumble away?

 

[bluetopper]

Instead of expensive stainless media, I wonder how very small rocks would do as wet tumbling media? I have access to an unlimited supply of what we call coverstone, clean tiny rocks we chip seal (seal coat) roads with.

 

[N555]

Why didn't you just buy a Harbor Freight cement mixer, assemble it with a large quantities of sealant between the various gaskets, carefully tighten them down and tumble away?

A cement mixer doesn't fit on a shelf and harbor freight stuff isn't known for long run times. Plus I have a 2 speed speed motor for a better polish or faster cleaning and on top of that I can fine tune those speeds.