by Baldrick314 » 28 Jan 2017, 6:59 pm
Played some more with the tumbler today. I cut the motor mount down a bit which gave the bucket a downward angle. Then I filed part of the motor driveshaft down. There was originally a step on it which stopped me from being able to do the nut up all the way. With this gone I was able to really clamp the nut down.
I ran the tumbler for about 35 minutes with 50 .308 cases, 250ml of water, some media, squirt of washing liquid and about a teaspoon of citric acid.
The results were a bit mixed. The disruptor fins were both detached from the bucket, I'll pop rivet them on tomorrow. I had very minimal leakage so that problem appears to be fixed. The cases came out pretty well clean but weren't shiny and neither the insides of the case or primer pockets were cleaned.
I'd expect to run the tumbler at least an hour so I'm not surprised the results aren't the greatest. When I run it next it will be for longer and I'll also add more media because very little seemed to actually get inside the cases.
As a function test it was a success though, the tumbler is mechanically sound and as water proof as it needs to be. Now I just have to get the mix of cleaning products right and it should work well.
.177, .22lr, .22-250R, 2x .308W, .30-30W, 7.62x54r, 8x56r, 9x19, .357 Mag, 12GA