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Heavyopp

Heavy Duty, Home brew Liquid brass tumbler

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I've been wanting to switch over to liquid tumbling with stainless media for a few months now. I wasn't really thrilled with the commercial offerings for tumblers so I decided to build my own. Looking around there was a great thread over on arfcom about building a tumbler -- My inspiration came from there.

 

Anyway --- Right to the pictures...

 

I decided the frame would be made of aluminum, I happen to have a great supply of 3" 6061 channel so this is the obvious choice --

The small 1" stubs of round rod are for the rubber adjustable feet

 

P1050355.jpg

 

Laid out... Ready for tig welding

 

P1050357.jpg

 

Mostly welded up

 

P1050359.jpg

 

Plate over the angle pieces for the motor mount

 

P1050360.jpg

 

Rubber feet mounts

 

P1050362.jpg

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I bought the motor new, online. 1725 RPM rated continuous duty belted fan motor -- I'm guessing the bearings in the shaft are designed for the side load the belt tension puts on it.

 

If a dryer motor is 1725 rpm I'm sure it would work. My motor is 1/4 horse -- cost about $75 to the door

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Alec, Just using the drill press as a guide-- Not tapping under power -- Twisting the quill by hand just to get it started then finishing the job by hand on the bench

 

Topher -- The speed is regulated by the size of the pulleys -- 1.75" on the motor, 4.55" on the shaft gives something like 600 rpm on the rotating shaft --

 

Then the diameter of the drum drops that down even more -- I'm getting 74 RPM of the drum

 

The drum is 6" sdr 35 PVC pipe with agitators inside pics to follow...

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Continue the build...

 

Next move was to transfer all parts to the aluminum frame...

 

P1050423.jpg

 

P1050424.jpg

 

 

 

The 1/2" steel rods are lined with 1/2" heater hose, increasing the diameter and giving them grip

 

I still need to wire in a switch but thats as far as the frame is right now

 

 

Here's how I built the drum --

 

Parts: 12" long piece of 6" sdr 35 pipe -- 6"x4" reducer -- 6" cap --12" long piece of 1 1/2" sch 40 pipe -- 8 stainless flat head screws with stainless lock nuts

 

P1050370.jpg

 

As you can see the 1 1/2" pipe gets quartered on the tablesaw, making the agitators

 

P1050371.jpg

 

P1050372.jpg

 

P1050373.jpg

 

 

Glue the cap and reducer on --

 

P1050374.jpg

 

P1050375.jpg

 

Use a 6" rubber cap to seal it all up -- No leaks using this method

 

P1050376.jpg

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You might want to rethink those bolts holding the agitators.

 

Those bolts will tear up soft brass pretty quick. Maybe just use PVC cement to hold the agitators on.

 

If you absolutely need them, smooth out the threads or put a rubber cap (like the ones for wire shelving) to cover the threads.

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You might want to rethink those bolts holding the agitators.

 

Those bolts will tear up soft brass pretty quick. Maybe just use PVC cement to hold the agitators on.

 

If you absolutely need them, smooth out the threads or put a rubber cap (like the ones for wire shelving) to cover the threads.

 

yep..

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But since the intention here is to tumble with thousands of sharp stainless steel sticks, would a few blunt bolt-ends poking out really be an added detriment?

 

The tumbling media is not fixed (ie it will move) so there is very little impact. The bolts are fixed in place and will tear up the brass.

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But since the intention here is to tumble with thousands of sharp stainless steel sticks, would a few blunt bolt-ends poking out really be an added detriment?

 

their mounted solid that makes the diffrence.. roll a nail around in your hand then nail one through a board and try rolling it around in your hand again..

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You might want to rethink those bolts holding the agitators.

 

Those bolts will tear up soft brass pretty quick. Maybe just use PVC cement to hold the agitators on.

 

If you absolutely need them, smooth out the threads or put a rubber cap (like the ones for wire shelving) to cover the threads.

 

PVC cement will never hold alone. The cement needs a tight fitting joint to work properly

 

I see no evidence that the bolts damage the brass -- I've run a few loads now -- I'm thinking it's a non issue -- The only real solution would be to insulate the bolts with silicone or something like that

 

As of right now it's a problem that doesn't exist.

 

As for the holes in the pipe where the bolts go -- The holes are counter sunk on the outside, recessing the screw heads below the pipe surface.

They're close enough to the ends of the pipe that the fittings cover them up and seal them.

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1st run... 600 45.acp cases de-primed --- weight about 7 pounds

 

P1050378.jpg

 

Filled the drum just about half way

 

P1050383.jpg

 

11 pounds of XL stainless pellet pins

 

P1050380.jpg

 

From what I've been reading guys are only using 1 or 2 pounds of more pins than brass. Thats with the regular, small sized pins.

Since I'm using the larger pins, there's less pins per pound, so I decided to add more weight to get more pins working on the brass

 

P1050384.jpg

 

I added water to about an inch under the taper in the reducer fitting, half a bathroom cup of liquid dish detergent, and a .44 magnum case full of Lemi- shine

 

P1050385.jpg

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I then leveled the tumbler using the adjustable feet to prevent the drum from wandering to one side of the machine and rubbing on the ends

 

P1050386.jpg

 

 

 

Started up and running, I didn't weigh the drum and contents totally -- I did have 16 pounds of media and brass and over a gallon of water

I'm guessing maybe 25 pounds total

 

P1050387.jpg

 

P1050388.jpg

 

I ran on generator power the day after the storm, lost track of time but it ran around 5 hours

 

Here's what it looked like after opening the lid

 

P1050390.jpg

 

Time to rinse

 

P1050392.jpg

 

This is a lyman media sifter over a 5 gallon bucket with a crack in the bottom, to drain the water, also only half the load of brass

 

P1050394.jpg

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No dust during cleaning or left on your "clean" brass, as clean inside as outside, clean primer pockets

 

The downside is you have to wait for your brass to dry

 

If you want to bring some de-primed brass along with you to the next weeks shoot I'll run it for you.

 

Jer

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Nice work. Those pins are great, btw.

 

I like my brass shiny. I spend an inordinate amount of tme in the basement putting stuff together. It shows I care :D ! And, if I'm gonna spend that time, it might as well look good, too.

 

C

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Here's some .223 brass -- I only had 175 dirty cases but I've been getting questions about the larger pins getting stuck inside the case mouths, so I tried them out

 

P1050406.jpg

 

Only ran this load for 2 hours -- with 5 pounds of pins -- This pic is just dumped from the drum and shook to drop some pins

 

P1050408.jpg

 

Tossed around and rinsed -- Nothing stuck in the cases -- no flash hole jams -- these pins are easy to handle and don't want to float on the suds and surface tension of the rinse water

 

P1050409.jpg

 

P1050411.jpg

 

Pins are easy to keep track of

 

P1050412.jpg

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