milsurpguy
member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2021
- Messages
- 549
I started wet pin tumbling last year after years using dry media vibration tumbling and ultrasonic cleaning been doing that since some time around 2006, before that I washed oily rifle brass in soap and water after sizing, if I even did that.
My current setup is a harbor freight rock tumbler with a 1qt mayson jar. It works pretty good just would like to fit more in there and maybe do it faster.
I like being able to pick up the jar and just look at it to know what the condition of the brass and water looks like. So want it to be a see through container.
To start it off I picked up a 48 frame 115v 1/3hp 6 pole 1,140rpm fan motor for cheap. The lower the motor RPM the higher the starting torque and the less I'll have to reduce it down.
To really rock and roll the brass and pins I'm trying to get the 1 gallon mayson jar rotating between 60 and 100 RPM.
A 3:1 motor reduction to roughly a 0.9 inch roller shafts with rubber heater hose slipped over keyed shafts with some electrical splice tape should get me to around 80rpm. Scaling up the 1qt rock tumbler to a 1 gallon power tumbler should require about 1/10 of a horsepower to turn that jar 100 times a minute. So I don't need anything like a 1 hp motor, at least not until I build an even bigger one.
That might be too fast but that's kind of the point. So fast the pins and cases are not pinned to the outside of the jar like clothes in a front load washing machine on spin cycle, but not so slow, steady and safe like a boring rock tumbler. I want it to be a little scarry. Hopefully I can do what took the rock tumbler 2 hours to do in under an hour and do 4x as much in that time. Right now I can fit about 170 count of 9mm or about 100 count of 223 in a 1qt jar.
But wait there's more I'll make it long enough to fit 2x 1 gallon jars. Probably won't have any guards or anything so it will be way more dangerous than a gun.
Why do I need all this tumbler power?
I have an outdoor range that I mine black and heavily tarnished brass out of. I also have people that smurf brass there and I could charge them 10% to launder their really dirty brass.
Any one ever build one?
My current setup is a harbor freight rock tumbler with a 1qt mayson jar. It works pretty good just would like to fit more in there and maybe do it faster.
I like being able to pick up the jar and just look at it to know what the condition of the brass and water looks like. So want it to be a see through container.
To start it off I picked up a 48 frame 115v 1/3hp 6 pole 1,140rpm fan motor for cheap. The lower the motor RPM the higher the starting torque and the less I'll have to reduce it down.
To really rock and roll the brass and pins I'm trying to get the 1 gallon mayson jar rotating between 60 and 100 RPM.
A 3:1 motor reduction to roughly a 0.9 inch roller shafts with rubber heater hose slipped over keyed shafts with some electrical splice tape should get me to around 80rpm. Scaling up the 1qt rock tumbler to a 1 gallon power tumbler should require about 1/10 of a horsepower to turn that jar 100 times a minute. So I don't need anything like a 1 hp motor, at least not until I build an even bigger one.
That might be too fast but that's kind of the point. So fast the pins and cases are not pinned to the outside of the jar like clothes in a front load washing machine on spin cycle, but not so slow, steady and safe like a boring rock tumbler. I want it to be a little scarry. Hopefully I can do what took the rock tumbler 2 hours to do in under an hour and do 4x as much in that time. Right now I can fit about 170 count of 9mm or about 100 count of 223 in a 1qt jar.
But wait there's more I'll make it long enough to fit 2x 1 gallon jars. Probably won't have any guards or anything so it will be way more dangerous than a gun.
Why do I need all this tumbler power?
I have an outdoor range that I mine black and heavily tarnished brass out of. I also have people that smurf brass there and I could charge them 10% to launder their really dirty brass.
Any one ever build one?
