2000 Round Tumbler

[MoShooter]

In the process of gearing up to reload I researched all the tools. I got a lot of great information on this forum. One of the things that seems over priced to me is case tumblers. On Midway's web sight they have owners comments on many different tumblers. The only consistently good comments were on the more expensive machines.

One name that comes up a lot with positive comments is Thumler. When I saw their rotating tumbler I started thinking that this is something that could be home made. Then I read about the cement mixer and other large capacity home made machines.

Here is what I came up with. I used the drive head of a Harbor Freight wood lathe that I never used. I bought the bearings from McMaster-Carr. The carboy is from US Plastics. The total cost of the parts I had to buy is about $100.

I have 2000 rounds of 45 brass in it with 5 pounds of corncobs and Flitz polish. It looks like it is going to work great.

 

[tenbase]

That is cool...the only "problem" I can see is if the rollers aren't exactly parallel, the carboy will slowly move towards one side or the other, so maybe put some teflon strips on the inside of the 2x4s supporting the rollers so they won't wear through the carboy over time? Also consider something to bleed off static electricity from the drum...depending on the roller material you can probably just ground the pillow blocks to the motor cabinet if it has a 3 prong plug. But I am a reloading n00b so I don't know if static is a problem in brass tumblers.

Am I overthinking things (again)?

Nice work.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I made several tumblers like this in the 70's, only instead of pillow block bearings, I simply drilled 1/2" holes through 1 1/2" thick oak and drilled an oil hole from the top so I could lubricate the 1/2" cold rolled steel I used for the runners. I used rubber garden hose over the cold rolled steel rods for traction on the plastic drums, which were 1 gallon pickle jugs from a restaurant. I used the rubber traction strips that are intended for glueing to steps around the jugs to further prevent slipping. For a motor, I used one out of a swamp cooler and used pulleys to gear it down. I also used a timer out of an old clothes dryer that was headed for the dump and I could turn it on and forget it.

I used the last one for about 5 years and then sold it to another guy so I could buy a Thumbler's UV-18, which is on it's second motor, but still going strong. The oak bearings never wore out and I know the guy I sold it to used it for many years before he finally passed on to the great loading bench in the sky..........

Fred.

 

[MoShooter]

Tenbase you are right on the mark about the rollers being parallel. Mine are very close but the carboy does tend to move to one side. I added the bearing on the post.



Fred, I had a piece of 5/8" cold rolled rod and used automotive hose for the rollers. I like the simplicity of using oak blocks. It would have saved several dollars.

 

[molasses.slim]

Keep us advised on how well it works -- time to clean, quantities, etc. Does your motor unit have variable speed? It looks like you installed paddles (for lack of a better term) inside your drum -- 1x2?
I have need for a larger capacity brass tumbler than the Dillon CV-2001 (I reload for several cowboy shooters besides myself) and can't see buying a cement mixer. This plan could easily be adapted to several drums with the use of longer shafts.

 

[molasses.slim]

Keep us advised on how well it works -- time to clean, quantities, etc. Does your motor unit have variable speed? It looks like you installed paddles (for lack of a better term) inside your drum -- 1x2?
I have need for a larger capacity brass tumbler than the Dillon CV-2001 (I reload for several cowboy shooters besides myself) and can't see buying a cement mixer. This plan could easily be adapted to several drums with the use of longer shafts.

 

[ReloaderFred]

You can only get so many drums on the rollers before the combined weight of the drums, media and brass cause the rollers to flex and the drums slip down between them and jam. Ask me how I know this.

If you wanted to add more drums, then it takes an intermediate set of bearings to keep the rollers parallel, or another set of rollers entirely.

When I made my barrels from plastic one gallon pickle jugs, I screwed 1/2" dowels the length of the jug, about 1" from the sides. I used three dowels in each jug and cut the ends to the contour of the jug and then put a sheetmetal screw through the wall of the jug into each end of the dowels.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[MoShooter]

Slim,

I just did a load of 9mm brass. I ran it a little over an hour and they looked great. The paddles are 1 1/2" aluminum angles. Two of them are plenty. If you go to a 3/4" cold rolled steel rod you could put an awful lot of weight on it. You could also set up parallel sets of rollers using double pulleys to chain them together. That would require a bigger motor though.

The spped of mine is variable by changing the pulley combinations. Right now the drum turns 46 rpm. That works well.

If I had the need to do more brass than this rig can handle I would go with a cement mixer.