tumbler mods

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btoran
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tumbler mods

Post by btoran »

i did some research and decided i'm going to clean brass by wet tumbling with stainless steel pins. harbor freight sells two versions of a rock tumbler, one with a single drum and one with a dual drum. both got decent reviews from reloaders and a local sale combined with a 20% off coupon was too good to pass up. so, for under $40 i brought home the dual drum machine.

i knew opening the drums was going to be a pain, but the reviews didn't do this engineering nightmare justice. the drums have an outer cap that must be pried off with a screw driver and an inner cap that you have to use a pliers to get out. multiply that misery by two drums, and it was obvious something had to be done. i also have no doubt that over time, tearing the tops off the drums will lead to a catastrophic failure.

the interweb is full of folks who have used other kinds of jars in place of the drum on the single machine, but i couldn't find a suitable jar with the right length and diameter for the double machine. i did find a post about a guy who used a pvc tube and rubber bands (for added traction) and i decided to try his method, with a slight twist. below are some pics of the drum i made for the dual machine.

materials include a 2 ft length of 4" diameter pvc pipe, a 4" test cap, a 4" test plug, pvc primer and glue, some duct tape, a spray can of plasti-dip, and a 9/16 hex nut. the pvc tube was cut to 9.5" using a hacksaw, and a bench sander was used to smooth/even it out. the test cap was glued on one end using pvc primer and glue. the other end gets the removable test plug, which comes with a wing nut. the wing nut needs to be replaced by the hex nut so it clears the frame of the machine when it is spinning. from the unused part of the pvc pipe, a piece 7.75" long x 1.5" tall was cut and glued inside the pvc tube (butting up against the test cap). this actuator helps move the brass / pins around, so they don't just lay on the bottom of the drum when it rotates. finally, the pvc tube is too smooth to rotate on the tumbler so some form of friction must be added. people have used rubber bands and even the extra drive belts that come with the tumbler. i tried to replicate the pebbled, rubbery surface of the original drums by wrapping the pvc tube in duct tape and liberally spraying 6 coats of plasti-dip around it.

harbor freight dual drum rock tumbler with diy single pvc drum. the drum is opened and closed by loosening or tightening the hex nut on the end of the test plug.
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red test plug on left and inside of pvc drum showing actuator on right.
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Bruce

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Re: tumbler mods

Post by Fyodor »

Nice! Have you checked the capacity already?

I got a rebel 17 wet tumbler, that was much more expensive than your setup. But it does have a realy comfortable lid to compensate for that.

The tumbler makers state, you should use about the same weight of cases and pins. In my rebel 17 they said to use 5lbs of pins and 5lbs of cases, and fill everything up with 7lbs of water.

I found that this doesn't give very good results. I put 5lbs of pins, but only 2.5lbs of cases. I found that if you take only half the amount of cases, you save about 3/4 of the time! So I prefer to do two runs, and still take only about half the time. Fill it up with hot water so the whole lot is covered by about an inch. A little (!) dab of dishwashing soap and a tip of a knife full of lemishine (citric acid). After tumbling, you should have a little soapy foam left, but if the whole drum is filled up, you used too much soap. In that case the water can be reused for the second round.

I tumble my cases for about 45 minutes only. They are not perfectly shiny as factory new, but pretty clean in and out, including the flash hole. I put them in the oven at about 230°F for 20-30 minutes, and briefly open the door a few times to release the vapour.

With wet tumbling it's quite important to get the cases dry afterwards. That's why I decap before tumbling, and put them in the oven. A friend of mine uses his front loader washing mashine to clean his brass, which also works pretty well. But he doesn't decap before, and he did have wet powder in quite a few rounds, even after having the brass sitting to dry for two weeks!
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Re: tumbler mods

Post by btoran »

Fyodor - have not used it yet. Bought new brass and haven't got enough dirty yet, but working on it. :) people who used the hf tumbler fill each of the small drums with 1 lb of pins, so I figured 2 lbs for a single larger drum should be ok, but will test it out. Need to make sure the motor can handle the total weight, including water.
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Re: tumbler mods

Post by buckeye43210 »

I've had good luck using a 48 oz applesauce container in my double size HF wet tumbler.

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Re: tumbler mods

Post by btoran »

Now you tell me. doesn't the applesauce get stuck inside the primer pockets? :)

do you wrap it in any way to add more friction? how many pins (in weight) are you using and how many/caliber of cases? thanks.
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Re: tumbler mods

Post by buckeye43210 »

btoran wrote:Now you tell me. doesn't the applesauce get stuck inside the primer pockets? :)

do you wrap it in any way to add more friction? how many pins (in weight) are you using and how many/caliber of cases? thanks.
I usually eat the applesauce first, but may try using some as a water soluble sizing lube :-)

I haven't found it necessary wrap my containers to increase the coefficient of friction, but did replace the tubing on my powered roller with "grippier" tubing a while back. The first part of the following video contains some recipe information as I don't currently use any stainless steel media in my cleaning process. You may also try using spaghetti sauce or salsa containers. If they don't work out for wet tumbling, you can use them for brass storage.

[youtube][/youtube]
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Re: tumbler mods

Post by btoran »

very interesting. thanks much.
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Re: tumbler mods

Post by buckeye43210 »

btoran wrote:very interesting. thanks much.
You are very welcome. I am also not an expert, but am not the not an expert :-)
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