I'm new to wet tumbling

[whughett]

The HF is so inexpensive that if the lids fail after a year or two you can simply replace the whole thing. Mine did tend to overheat on the first run, but no problems once I took the rollers out and lubed the bearings with vaseline. It comes with them completely dry. And if you use Brass Juice instead of detergent, you will:
1. not need SS media (what a waste), and
2. only need to tumble for 1/2 hour

I tried a plastic peanut butter jar and Lyman’s brass cleaner on a batch of 45C cases used for black powder. Placed on the Harbor Freights drive shaft it rotated ok but the brass just stayed at the bottom of the container. The brass cleaner did very little with out some scrubbing by friction. Complete waste of time. The SS pins function is to polish and clean by friction I’d imagine and they certainly do an outstanding job inside and out and primer pockets. They don’t however add the shine, the citric acid does that. The dish soap keeps the grime tarnish removed from the cases by the pins in suspension.

 

[packetloss]

Ok ok please no more HF suggestions!
I already have a Lortone tumbler that the HF resembles (or copied) and uses the same rubber drum.
I don't trust the lid to hold water.
A common complaint for these small tumblers is the little motor gets too hot, and I can vouch that's true of my Lortone and my old DIY dry tumbler.

Really--I like building things. That's why I reload. It certainly isn't to save money!

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If you enjoy building then it's worth it just for the fun of it. I don't have any info to add regarding the parts you were asking about, but I do need to add my observations regarding the HF dual drum tumbler that I use for small loads (had it for several years) and I've run it overnight many times and never had any issues with the engine getting too hot or with any leakage (as in 0 leakage ever). I'd even argue it has a better more solid consistent seal than my Lyman Cyclone which I use for large loads.

 

[WeekendReloader]

I've used my HF single drum tumbler for 5 years now. Works just fine.
I oil the shafts and the motor every now and then.
It only runs for 45mins - 1 hour at a time. Nice, bright, clean brass.

 

[Foton]

As a wet tumbler user and mechanical design engineer, I feel qualifies to add my 2 cents....

>> The primary consideration is that the drive wheels rolling against the container exterior become a part of your gear reduction system. Do not overlook this point.

If your motor turns 1725 RPM (the standard 120V motor speed) you may need a primary reduction using a small V-belt (small pulley on the motor/ large sheave on the roller shaft), then your drive wheel-to-container becomes your secondary reduction. So if you are lucky enough to get 10:1 on your first reduction, then you are still turning 172 RPM. So in order to get your container down to 2 RPM (an optimal tumbling speed) you still need a further reduction of 86:1, which is huge. This one fact is telling you that your drive tires need to be tiny in relationship to your container. Since you are going to tumble a small number of cases, you were probably considering a small diameter container.... say 10 inches. So you, my friend, are in trouble from the very start. Because to get 86:1 on a 10" diameter container you'd need drive wheels of 0.11". That's less than 1/8 inch.

>> The secondary consideration is that motor HP is not your real concern. What you need to rotate the container is Torque, which is amplified by the mandatory gear reduction. No, what you really need is a slow speed motor. Your overall gear reduction becomes much, much easier if you can obtain (say for instance) a 900 RPM motor... even if it has a tiny torque.

The rule is while gear reduction systems decrease Speed, they also increase Torque. A 50:1 speed reduction also increases torque by 50 times. So even a motor with 1/4 ft-lb of torque ends up exerting more than enough to turn a small drum filled with water and brass.


In the end, once you find a slow speed motor, I think you'll end up with 1/4 or 5/16 inch diameter shafts coated in heat shrink tubing to grab your plastic container. These shaft sizes will also work easily with small bearing blocks and be more than sufficient to support the weight of a small container.

Hope this helps.

I am continuously in awe of the knowledge available on this forum!

 

[rfwobbly]

Out of curiosity where did the 2RPM come from on what size drum? Not questioning the statement just curious.

I stand corrected. You are absolutely right it's more like 30 RPM. Thanks for the heads up.

It takes a village to build a tumbler !

 

[Guy48065]

It's a little slow going when you order from eBay & Amazon. The very last part arrived today so my tumbler project is wrapped up.
I built a 1.5 gal barrel from 6" pvc which puts the overall length at about 18". I found a sturdy bar stool locally on Craigslist with useable dimensions, removed the seat & used the rest as a stand.
The 1/2" hardened & ground shafts spin in ABEC3 shielded bearings and are covered in silicone tubing that is soft & grippy enough to rotate the barrel without slipping. Final speed is 65rpm.

 

[Guy48065]

I'll post a short video of it running if I can figure out how to shrink it small enough.

I've cut, trimmed & squashed it all I can but file size limit won't let me post it directly so I've put it on Flickr instead.

https://flic.kr/p/2kBuuZP

 

[Demi-human]

Nice! Now that is going to clean some brass!
Great design, @Guy48065.