Enormous DIY wet brass tumbler!

[spandit]

I'm hoping that the washing machine I took apart for this project was the right one...

After a lot of undoing bolts and screws, I eventually got the drum surround out. I cut the stub from the back of the drum, drilled and tapped it to take an M12 bolt then bolted it to a polypropylene barrel. The original motor was designed for 240V but being a "universal motor" it can run on DC too so I connected one brush to one of the two coils and connected the other brush and the other coil to a 12V leisure battery. This makes the drum turn at about 40rpm. Fast enough, I reckon.

I had unscrewed the agitator baffles from the stainless drum (which I've turned into a firepit) and have screwed them inside the barrel as otherwise the brass just slides around:

I didn't have any stainless tumbling media so thought I'd improvise with some nails. I happened to have a rather rusty bag of them lying around so shoved them into the drum with some resized Winchester .223 brass (wasn't especially dirty but it was once fired so a bit sooty in places). I put in a litre of water and a small squirt of Ecover washing up liquid. The Americans all use Lemi-Shine which seems to be normal rinse aid but I couldn't be bothered to go back into the house to get any so just set it running as it was. Left it going for about 40 minutes and was getting so cold in the workshop that I switched it off. Opened it up to find this:

Quite a lot of foam! After rinsing everything off it turns out that the nails have come up quite well but the brass isn't much cleaner than it was when it went in. Anyway, I'll get some stainless media ordered and try again with better ingredients:

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

Heath Robinson eat your heart out!!!

 

[Dannyboy220]

What's the need for clean brass and how would this clean the inside of the case?

not into reloading....yet!

 

[spandit]

Heath Robinson eat your heart out!!!

I was going to make up a new frame for the barrel but this way the tension on the belt is correct. The barrel isn't terribly round, as it turns out but there's enough flex in the plastic to alleviate this

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

as long as it works eh,,

 

[spandit]

What's the need for clean brass and how would this clean the inside of the case?

not into reloading....yet!

There's a considerable amount of pressure generated when you use brass resizing dies. Any dirt/grit on the cases can embed itself into the dies and damage them. Have a look at a fired case and see how sooty it is. With the correct stainless pins they slosh around inside the cases and the primer pockets too - plenty of videos out there on YouTube

 

[1066]

Good bit of recycling Spandit. The Lemishine (or an equivalent) is quite fundamental to the process.

The Lemishine is mainly citric acid, it will clean the brass without any agitation but tumbling makes the process more even and quicker, hot water will also speed up the process.

Here's my tumbler and a brief look at the process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcyAkj-LzA8

 

[paul o']

you useing ovil nails ?? how you turning it

 

[spandit]

you useing ovil nails ?? how you turning it

Yes, they're oval nails. Nice clean oval nails now!

It's being turned by the original washing motor but wired to run from DC

 

[Ray7756]

I have a Rebel 17 extreme tumbler and it takes about 3 to 4 hours to get the cases all bright n shiny, once you get your stainless pins you should be sorted with shiny brass just dont expect it to be done in less than 2 hours

brilliant idea though

 

[spandit]

Bought some of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-2-Cross-Pin-1kg-Stainless-Steel-Media-Shot-Tumbling-Tumbler-Polish-J1411-/351788336270?hash=item51e838048e:g:j90AAOSwtnpXj3KL

They're 2 different diameters so should be OK for different cases. 2kg is nearly 5lb which is what the Americans seem to use. Arrived today so bunged in about 150 .223 cases (mostly Winchester with a few PPU) and about 40 .308 cases, mostly Federal. Added a squirt of Ecover and a squirt of Co-Op Dishwasher Rinse Aid. Let it chug away for 3 hours (checking every hour) and the results were pretty good:

The one on the right is a just full-length resized Hornady Match case.

The primer pocket is pretty clean too - not shiny bright but certainly cleaner than they were. The .223 ones were all pretty similar too:

Nice big pile of shiny brass came out anyway:

Dried them on top of the wood stove for a few minutes (they get hot pretty quickly!) - it's a faff to do and next time I'll dry them a different way - wondering whether tumbling them again with some towelling strips or something would dry them sufficiently.

Most of the media was tipped into a cotton bag and left to drain. There's still some left inside the drum which catches on the rim and I didn't have the time nor inclination to recover it all immediately.

Gave them another half an hour on a higher speed (19V Dell laptop power supply instead of 12V) and I think next time I'll do the whole lot at that speed for 3 hours. The drum did leak slightly, which was surprising, but a simple drip tray was more than sufficient. Was kindly given some more .308 cases today so I'll full length resize them and clean. The once fired stuff just gets neck sized.

All in all, for a total investment of £4 for the drum and £30 for the pins, I'm satisfied.

I did notice, shining a torch into the .308 cases that the Federal ones were flat inside at the bottom whereas the Hornady ones had the primer pocket indent clearly visible on the inside, implying the base isn't as thick on the Hornady. The insides of the cases weren't terribly shiny but I don't think that matters particularly

 

[spandit]

Did another batch, this time for 3 hours at 57rpm (19V power supply). Opened the barrel to be met with a tidal wave of foam that flooded my workshop floor. The brass, however, was much cleaner than before and the primer pockets were more or less perfect.

However, they did all tarnish quite quickly on top of the stove so don't look quite as lovely but they're definitely clean.

 

[Ray7756]

Did another batch, this time for 3 hours at 57rpm (19V power supply). Opened the barrel to be met with a tidal wave of foam that flooded my workshop floor. The brass, however, was much cleaner than before and the primer pockets were more or less perfect.

However, they did all tarnish quite quickly on top of the stove so don't look quite as lovely but they're definitely clean.

I dry them by rubbing between kitchen roll 10 at a time leaves them nice n shiny with no water marks, and leave them stored upright for a week or so before reloading so all dry on inside as well
Ray

 

[ink7682]

Love the idea, get steel pins I reckon that'll do it! still grinning at this its awesome!

 

[paul o']

I use a sonic job thinking of making a wet one looking at this thread , As to the my way of drying them I have an old kettle that has clean distilled water in it each time, I just put the cases in and boil them , I made a nail peg board that holds 50 so I stand the cases on neck down and then with my compressor I blow the flash holes dry and let the heat do the rest .

 

[spandit]

Love the idea, get steel pins I reckon that'll do it! still grinning at this its awesome!

I can't believe how expensive some tumblers are. The steel pins were fairly pricey (£30) but there are plenty of old washing machines about going begging, I would have thought. Mine isn't very pretty and it's quite bulky (I want to cut the tub surround down sometime and mount it on legs) but the performance is great and although there's a minor amount of leakage, it's nothing a small bucket can't cope with (I only put a bucket of water in anyway). Next batch will use car shampoo with wax in to see if that makes them a bit shinier. I like the idea of just standing them up on nails but reckon a rack from an old dishwasher would do just as well.

i have an ultrasonic cleaner but the solution can be pricey and the capacity is small. This tumbler cleans so well

 

[1066]

Here you go Spandit - HERE

 

[plumber01]

awsome tumbler, ! great bit of engineering, possibly try dry media ? although how much do you shoot ?that thing could do a 1000 rounds at a go easy !

 

[spandit]

Here you go Spandit - HERE

That would probably work although steel drum would be noisy and punishing on brass. It's also £81.55 more than I spent on mine!

awsome tumbler, ! great bit of engineering, possibly try dry media ? although how much do you shoot ?that thing could do a 1000 rounds at a go easy !

Why use dry media when wet tumbling works so well?

 

[Alantoo]

Snip.... Added a squirt of Ecover and a squirt of Co-Op Dishwasher Rinse Aid. Let it chug away for 3 hours (checking every hour) and the results were pretty good:

Snip... The drum did leak slightly, which was surprising, but a simple drip tray was more than sufficient. Snip...

Use dishwasher detergent which does not have the added foam agent?

The warm water with a bit of citric acid used in Ultrasonic cleaners should also work.

To prevent the leak can you not tilt the axis of the drum a bit?

I still have a little tumbler I made when I was a jeweller, from a Nivea pot fixed on a record player turntable which was titled up at around 35˚ that worked very well with offcuts of silver as the media.

One thing I was thinking of using for media with centre fire cartridge cases was all the old rimfire cases...some left as is...some squished with a hammer...some chopped up...

Alan