Author Topic: Have any of you built a home made tumbler? (UPDATED 5-10-08) Pictures (Read 1668 times)

DalesCarpentry · « **on:** May 08, 2008, 03:21:41 PM »

Have any of you built a home made tumbler? Does not seem to be to difficult. Seems like all you would need would be a drum, motor and a belt. I might be able to dream something up here. Let me know of your thoughts. Dale

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #1 on:** May 08, 2008, 03:54:59 PM »

I do have a couple electric motors. I am not sure of the size of them now because they are down the garage. The one came off a furnace. It was what drove the blower. I wonder if I could hook up something like a dimmer switch to control the speed? Stimpy I bet you know. My wheels are really turning now. Maybe I could mount it to a 3 or 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Maybe even a coffee can. Mount a pulley to the bottom of the can or bucket bottom. The can would be on it's side. I could attach a belt between the motor and can. I am afraid the motor would spin to fast and it would not tumble. I could maybe take a piece of 3/4" copper pipe and JB weld a few pieces to the inside. Like a mortar mixer or a cloths dryer. Hey I am up for ideas. I just started thinking about this tonight. Dale

handi243 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:12:41 PM »

Go down to the local harbor freight store (if you have one ) 40.00

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #3 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:14:26 PM »

The more I think about it. I am pretty sure I have a good working idea in my head. When I get around to it and start building it I will take some pictures and keep you up to date on it. Dale

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #4 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:17:32 PM »

Quote from: handi243 on May 08, 2008, 04:12:41 PM

Go down to the local harbor freight store (if you have one ) 40.00

We have one about 50 miles from here. It would cost more in gas than to buy it. Besides I have about 90% of what I need and this one would last the rest of my life. Dale

stimpylu32 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 09, 2008, 12:08:37 AM »

Dale

Ya it can be done , the trick is going to be getting the thing to turn slow enough , your going to want to keep it to 300 RPM or less other wise it will beat up the cases way too much ( dints and crushed necks ) .

stimpy

LaOtto222 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 09, 2008, 12:24:19 AM »

Dale I have a Thumbler's Tumbler - the big one. I have had it for years. The motor is 1/50 HP. It is reduced from a 3/4" pulley on the motor to a 3" pulley on a shaft. Then further reduced by running on a pair of shafts by the rim (one of the shafts is the drive with the 3" pulley). The drum has a hexagon (not round) shaped body with round ends that are bigger in diameter than the body, with a rubber liner. The drum rides on the two shafts (one is a drive remember). Since the tumbler is designed with polishing rocks in mind, the motor is a continuous duty type. It will run for weeks at a time. Of course you do not have to do that polishing brass. I do not think a plain steel drum would be satisfactory. It will wear out fairly quickly and the noise would be awful. I have given some thought about making a tumbler before and then abandon the thought...too much bother with results that may not be satisfactory. If I were real serious about making one, I think I would end up with a design similar to a portable cement mixer. If you can get a heavy plastic drum, possibly a heavy 3 gallon pail. Put some paddles in there to give yourself some good action and tilt the bucket at a 30 degree angle or so. You could bolt it to a shaft with a large pulley attached and a small pulley on the motor. I would think that you would only want it to turn about 60 RPM or so not over 120 RPM. If you used a 1725 RPM instead of a 3450 RPM motor it would help reduce the RPM's. You would need about a 1/17 reduction. a 1.5" pulley on the motor and a 24" pulley on the drum would get you in the ball park. You would want to be able to remove the drum easily or be able to dump it to separate the media from the brass. Be prepared to replace the bucket every so often. My head is hurting, now I remember why I just bought one.

stimpylu32 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 09, 2008, 01:11:04 AM »

LaOtto222

You bring up a good point about the noise , I know that if I have my Vib full of cases that the plastic lid takes a beating form the brass and makes a nasty racket . there are a few out there that have used cement mixers and even old clothes dryers to do large batches of brass .

Dale

Check yard sales , you may get lucky and find a used one for next to nothing , another thing that works too for just afew cases is to wash them in hot dish water and then take a peice of 1x and put a couple rows of finish nails in it to use as a drying stand . This also works for drying after you annell cases .

stimpy

njanear · « **Reply #8 on:** May 09, 2008, 02:12:14 AM »

Here are a couple of links for you:

http://tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Minerals/Homemade.shtml

http://www.ssrsi.org/Onsite/brasstumbler.htm

Let us know how it works out.

WILD_WEASEL · « **Reply #9 on:** May 09, 2008, 04:44:53 AM »

I have been using my old rock tumbler for the past 20 years. It is a Lortone 3A http://www.lortone.com/. It only holds x50 to x100 cases depending on size, but I've been getting by with it.

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2008, 04:56:06 AM »

Boy I sure wish I would of thought of this a few months ago. My family used to make home made chocolate when I was growing up. Anyways we still have a large chocolate melter from then. It is like a vat with arms in it. I scraped the arms from the inside a few months back. It is rather large though. It would hold 150 pounds of chocolate. It weighs about 500 pounds. I am thinking I could put it on its side and re attach some arms some how. The good thing about it is it does not turn very fast. What should I try for media? as big as it is I would have to put 20 or 30 pounds of rice in it or something else. I have heard of corn cob media. Could I just throw a bunch dried corn cobs in there? I live around a bunch of farms so that would be great if I could do that. Dale

stimpylu32 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2008, 05:14:36 AM »

Dale

Unless your going into the ammo buss. that would be WAY to big , you would never find your brass . You could just use some BrassO or Neverdull to do a few rounds ( 100 or so ) till you could aford a tumbler . In most cases unless tou are trying to clean up range brass a terry cloth towel will do a great job , not the shinest but it cleans them for loading and shooting .

stimpy

buck460XVR · « **Reply #12 on:** May 09, 2008, 08:05:30 AM »

I read somewhere where a guy bought a used orbital sander at a garage sale for $6, screwed a plastic Ice Cream pail to the sandpaper pad, turned it upside down and filled it with media and cases and voila! clean cases......but, to me, considering you can buy a new and proper one on sale for $45 that will last most of us a lifetime.....why bother? I have worked with hand and power tools all my life and came to the realization many years ago that the quality of your finished product is relative to the quality of your tools. That doesn't mean you have to have the most expensive/fanciest tools made. it just means that you need the proper tool for the job. To me, paying $20 for materials, working on it for two days and then fightin' with it everytime you use it ain't worth the minimal savings.......I'd rather do without. But then that's just me being me again.

.........good luck DALESCARPENTRY with your project.

quickdtoo · « **Reply #13 on:** May 09, 2008, 08:14:10 AM »

Seems hardly worth the trouble when you can buy a vibratory case cleaner for ~$30, the Frankfort Arsenal sells for $40 at a local chain store, $35 when on sale. Pick up a bag of crushed walnut shells at Petco or your local feed store and you're all set.

Tim

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00047SR100

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #14 on:** May 09, 2008, 08:22:15 AM »

Yea you guys are probably right. $:-\$ Dale

mdi · « **Reply #15 on:** May 09, 2008, 01:34:43 PM »

Don't give up! There's a great satisfaction and pride in constructing your own equipment and tools. Home made doesn't mean cheap or shoddy. Like bullet casting, you could probably buy cheaper than make your own, but that's not the point. Anybody can buy a cheap plastic vibrator or tumbler, but it's not everyone that can design and fabricate a custom piece of specialized reloading equipment. Money isn't an equation here, but ingenuity and workmanship is! I say go ahead and build the best damn brass cleaning equipment ever seen.

Ingenuity, Craftsmanship, and Determination, That's the American way!!

Mike

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #16 on:** May 09, 2008, 01:46:34 PM »

I am still thinking about it. I have 3 working ideas in my head as of now. I will let you guys know if I move forward. Dale

hoggunner · « **Reply #17 on:** May 10, 2008, 02:07:08 AM »

remember the old saying "it only cost a little more to do it yourself."

Bubber · « **Reply #18 on:** May 10, 2008, 10:59:31 AM »

I refuse to buy anything at retail price that I am capable of making myself.

About two months ago I set forth to build a tumbler. I have it to where it will work but is not efficient, the reason being is the motor is out of an old box fan and does not have thrust bearings in it so I cannot mount it vertically without burning it up. As of now it is mounted horizontal and does not have the correct motion, mounted vertical (I tried it) it would work well though. As soon as I find a small AC motor that has trust bearings in it I will pull it off of the shelf and finish it.

Right now I have a total investment of $.99 into it.

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #19 on:** May 10, 2008, 11:41:35 AM »

I tore down the old melter today. I turned the motor on before I even bothered tearing it down because it has not run in 27 years. It was froze at first. I flipped the switch a few times and there it went. It is really quite. The long shaft turns at 10 RPM'S. The box above the motor is a transmission and slow it down a bunch. Dale

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #20 on:** May 10, 2008, 11:50:35 AM »

What I am thinking about doing is mounting it side ways and using the shaft as a roller to roll a 5 gallon bucket. I don't know if mounting it that way will harm the transmission though. Guy's I am up for ideas. Here ar a couple more pictures. Dale

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #21 on:** May 10, 2008, 11:53:02 AM »

A couple more pics. Dale

Siskiyou · « **Reply #22 on:** May 10, 2008, 11:58:10 AM »

Dale,

That thing is big!

I was visiting a commercial, high volume loading operation and was surprised to see them polishing newly loaded ammunition in a cement mix. They had two or three of them going full of ammunition and corn meal.

They had a stack of 50-pound bags of corncob. Would not be surprised that it is not the same stuff they sell at the farm supply store.

I have to admit that I was rather nervous around those cement mixers loaded with corncob and loaded ammo. Nothing went bang while there.

You must have a cement mixer around for your business?

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #23 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:00:42 PM »

I was thinking I could mount it like the picture below. I could use a 5 gallon. I could mount some fins in the bucket like an agate-or. I am a little concerned about how slow it turns. I wonder if I replaced the big pulley on the transmission with a smaller one if it would speed up the RPM'S? Dale

charles p · « **Reply #24 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:09:18 PM »

Why reinvent the wheel. Just purchase a Lyman vibrating tumbler. Go to a pet store or to eBay and buy crushed walnut shells dirt cheap, and off you go.

Don't over complicate it. It is already one of the cheapest steps in the reloading process. You only have to tumble when you are embarrassed by the tarnish on your brass.

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #25 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:18:43 PM »

Do crushed Walnut shells leave black stuff all over your hands? I just though of another idea and may try it. If I am correct with my thinking I could finish it for under $10.00. Dale

Siskiyou · « **Reply #26 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:23:11 PM »

I would think a 5-gallon plastic bucket would work. Fasten three or four small wooden paddles to the walls from the outside using brass screw. Might want to put liquid nail or other adhesive between the wood and the wall of the bucket.

I have no idea how fast is fast in the tumbling world. I have watched cases tumble in a number of products and it is a little like watching paint dry after awhile. But those cement mixers turned faster then any tumbler I have seen, but slower then mixing concrete. I normally load my tumbler up; put the lid on to keep any dust down and to other work.

I guess I could put a marker in my tumbler and see on long it takes to make it around.

Siskiyou · « **Reply #27 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:32:14 PM »

At one time every time you bought an outdoor barbeque a 12v electric motor came with it. It might be an over night process but it could be a component in making a small tumbler. My wife’s idea, it would be worth exploring if I was looking at building a tumbler. A large to small pulley setup could speed it up.

As suggest buying one is the easy way out, but not very creative.

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #28 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:35:35 PM »

Yea that is just how I plan on attaching the paddles. I just came up with another idea. Maybe get a 2 or 3 gallon bucket with lid. Turn the whole thing horizontal and take a couple U bolts and mount the bucket to the side of the shaft. What do you guys think of that idea? Dale

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #29 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:46:39 PM »

Quote from: Siskiyou on May 10, 2008, 11:58:10 AM

Dale,

That thing is big!

I was visiting a commercial, high volume loading operation and was surprised to see them polishing newly loaded ammunition in a cement mix. They had two or three of them going full of ammunition and corn meal.

They had a stack of 50-pound bags of corncob. Would not be surprised that it is not the same stuff they sell at the farm supply store.

I have to admit that I was rather nervous around those cement mixers loaded with corncob and loaded ammo. Nothing went bang while there.

You must have a cement mixer around for your business?

Were those whole corn Cobb's? Or were the chopped up into little pieces? We are having corn on the cobb tonight and I could just dry them out in the oven and use them. Dale