DIY Stainless Tumbler

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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 09 Mar 2016, 10:52 am

zobster wrote:Could you put the link for where you got your S/S pins from please. I found some on eBay and I'm seeing if I could get it any cheaper.


I bought a pound of them on ebay for $20. That was before I realized how much media I'd actually need. For the size bucket I'm using I should need around 5 pounds. I'm actually considering buying a roll of stainless wire and cutting my own. You can get 15m for about $16 at bunnings and I'll just spend a couple nights cutting it while watching TV.

Otherwise you could purchase from aussie sapphire. They have 5 pounds of media and burnishing compound for $85 plus post
http://aussiesapphire.com.au/index.php? ... ts_id=2876
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by zobster » 09 Mar 2016, 12:39 pm

I'm leaning towards the cutting route, it seem the cheapest
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 09 Mar 2016, 12:44 pm

Yeah that's my thoughts too, it's a huge difference in price for just a little labour. When I buy the wire I'll weigh it and see how much each roll is and how many I'll need to make the weight. I reckon 1 or maybe 1.5 rolls should do it
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by zobster » 09 Mar 2016, 12:59 pm

Thanks!
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Oldbloke » 09 Mar 2016, 8:34 pm

Your mate is right, stuff all torque needed as the gearing will convert the revs to more torque. You seem to have solved the moter issue. :D
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by lole » 10 Mar 2016, 10:36 am

Gwion wrote:Holy sheet! Is that for all your brass or all your suburb's brass???


If he's too tired at the end of a big day to wash himself he just jumped in and has a snooze while it goes around for half an hour.

Comes out sparkling clean :lol:
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 16 Mar 2016, 2:27 pm

Yesterday I attached the fins to the inside of the bucket and sealed everything up with silicon. I also cut the shaft down to the right size and finished threading it.

I ran into a problem with the transformer, it's the right voltage but doesn't create enough amps to power the motor reliably so I'm in search of a power source. For the time being I'm thinking an old car battery. Should be finishing the mount for the motor on friday and I'll be ready to run.

Went to bunnings yesterday and bought the stainless steel wire, got it home and two rolls add up to roughly a pound so it's nowhere near as cost effective as I thought. I'm going to use the 2 pounds of media I currently have and run the tumbler at a lower capacity since I usually only have around 200 pistol cases or 50 rifle cases at any time. If I were starting from scratch knowing what I know now I'd go with the Aussie Sapphire kit I posted above. Also cutting up the steel wire is a really s**t job :lol:
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by TheDude » 16 Mar 2016, 4:54 pm

Make sure with your wire it's either small enough to easily pass through or big enough to not fit and get stuck in the flash holes.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 16 Mar 2016, 6:07 pm

TheDude wrote:Make sure with your wire it's either small enough to easily pass through or big enough to not fit and get stuck in the flash holes.


The pre-cut media I bought was 1mm thick and the wire I bought to cut was 1.6mm. From memory most flash holes are around .6mm so shouldn't be an issue, thanks for the advice though
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by RDobber » 05 Apr 2016, 12:00 pm

Any chance of a youtube to see this beast in action :D
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by deye243 » 16 Jan 2017, 1:48 am

now I have to make a small tumbler because I sold all but one of my centre fires I just have a 223 now and the LA101

I have 2500 cases but no way am I going to process that in one go :lol: I now just need a smaller tumbler for 200-300

at a time .


cheers D
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 27 Jan 2017, 12:20 pm

Now that I'm shooting again I've revisited this little project. After having a failure last time I tried to run it I've changed my design to eliminate some of the flaws.

First up I went to a smaller bucket, approximately half the size of the the original one. I figured the average load that will be run through this will be 50 .308 cases or 100 9mm cases so the extra room isn't really necessary.

I glued two disruptor fins inside to keep the media and cases moving

Image

The area that failed last time was a polymer rod I used to connect the motor to the bucket. I was originally planning to make a steel coupling to connect the two but didn't have the materials on hand so I've gone with just screwing a nut onto the driveshaft of the motor. There was very little meat there so I've only been able to fit a washer either side and no form of seal so this could give me issues when I add water but I'm going to see how it runs before I worry too much.

Image

Image

I gave it a dry run not long ago with approximately 75 308 cases and there were no issues. I'll keep testing with gradually more cases and maybe some media this afternoon/ night. First wet run will be tomorrow after the glue has had 24 hours to cure.

Hopefully if I can use a minimum of water everything will hold up and not leak too much.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by deye243 » 27 Jan 2017, 2:56 pm

way to go and a lot cheaper than mine to build this is the style I will be doing soon
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 27 Jan 2017, 3:38 pm

Cheers mate.

Ended up doing a wet run this afternoon. Structurally it held up fine but water leaks from the front of the bucket where the lid attaches. I'm going to lower the motor mount and move it rearward slightly. Should give the bucket a more upward angle so it's less likely to leak.

On the plus side I only ran it for a couple minutes and the brass had already begun to clean up so looks like it will work once I sort the bugs out.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post 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.

Image

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.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by deye243 » 28 Jan 2017, 11:34 pm

for such a small amount 1/2 a tea spoon of CA will be plenty and try just tuning it on and leaving it for 2 hours

then the primer pockets and it inside of the cases will be clean as well , with mine when full there would be so

much carbon I would have to change the water after an hour as the water would not hold any more crap and

don't forget to rinse the cases with clean water as CA is what is says it's an acid and it will leach the I think it's

zinc out of the brass and that is a big problem .

and because these tumblers make the brass so clean there is no carbon in the case neck anymore so you will

need some graphite to dip yjr necks in when sizing as the inside will bind ion the expander if you use one and

it will help for bullet seating .
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 29 Jan 2017, 6:59 am

deye243 wrote:for such a small amount 1/2 a tea spoon of CA will be plenty and try just tuning it on and leaving it for 2 hours

then the primer pockets and it inside of the cases will be clean as well , with mine when full there would be so

much carbon I would have to change the water after an hour as the water would not hold any more crap and

don't forget to rinse the cases with clean water as CA is what is says it's an acid and it will leach the I think it's

zinc out of the brass and that is a big problem .

and because these tumblers make the brass so clean there is no carbon in the case neck anymore so you will

need some graphite to dip yjr necks in when sizing as the inside will bind ion the expander if you use one and

it will help for bullet seating .


Thanks for the tip :). I'll give it a whirl once I get the fins back on.
.177, .22lr, .22-250R, 2x .308W, .30-30W, 7.62x54r, 8x56r, 9x19, .357 Mag, 12GA
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Chronos » 29 Jan 2017, 9:50 am

Baldrick314 wrote:Now that I'm shooting again I've revisited this little project. After having a failure last time I tried to run it I've changed my design to eliminate some of the flaws.

First up I went to a smaller bucket, approximately half the size of the the original one. I figured the average load that will be run through this will be 50 .308 cases or 100 9mm cases so the extra room isn't really necessary.

I glued two disruptor fins inside to keep the media and cases moving

Image

Hopefully if I can use a minimum of water everything will hold up and not leak too much.


in my opinion you need to add 4-6 more agressive disruptors, it's the mechanical action of the pins against the brass that does the cleaning and at the moment that's only happening twice per revolution and to only the cases against the sides of the drum.

I use these units, they cost about $120 when i bought them, i bought 2 so i'd have a spare when the first one died....it's still going

Image

notice how little time there is in a rotation for the brass and pins to simply slide along the walls?

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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 29 Jan 2017, 11:00 am

Thanks Chronos. While I'm attaching the fins I might as well chuck in a few more.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 29 Jan 2017, 4:10 pm

Image

Attached the disruptors this arvo. Used a lot of silicon to seal everything so I'll give it 24 hours to cure and give it a run tomorrow night. Thanks everyone for the advice so far.
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Re: DIY Stainless Tumbler

Post by Baldrick314 » 30 Jan 2017, 7:36 pm

Ran the tumbler today. I set out to run it for 2 hours. Checked after an hour and all was good. When I came back at 2 hours the nut on the motor driveshaft had come loose and the bucket was no longer turning. So it ran anywhere between 1 and 2 hours.

Image

Not a great photo but the insides of the cases show majority cleaning with some residue still around flash hole.

Image

Externally cleaned up well.

Image

Primer pockets have begun to clean up but not fully there yet.

I'll use some thread locker on the driveshaft tomorrow and hopefully it won't come undone again. I think with a full 2 hour cycle the cases should clean up all the way.
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