Wet tumbler size?

[TrxR]

Im going to put together a small wet tumbler to do 50 to 100 pieces of 30br or 308 brass at a time. Im just trying to figure out how long of a piece of 6" PVC to use? Also how many pins would you use?

Thanks

 

[Texas10]

This one, and don't forget to use the 20% off coupon you can find everywhere.

https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html

Pins are Ok, I've gone over to SS chips available at Sleeping Giant Brass. No more pins stuck sideways in the necks!

If you prefer to use a PVC pipe, you'll need to put fins inside or the media will slide instead of tumbling.

 

[TrxR]

Harbor Freight I dont think is an option being in Canada .

I planned on doing two fins if I used the pvc.

 

[Shrek]

Whatever size you make you need enough media and brass to fill it at least half full. The dinged case mouths come from brass flying around and banging hard. You want it full enough that everything slides rubbing not crashing around.

 

[Texas10]

Harbor Freight I dont think is an option being in Canada .

I planned on doing two fins if I used the pvc.

Pretty sure you can ship a rock tumbler via Amazon to Canada! I have the single tub version and it works great. I typically do 50 or so 223 cases or 25 to 30 6br at a time using RCBS liquid concentrate.

Just be sure to use enough media, which will migrate into the cases during tumbling leaving less to cushion the cases.

Building your own can be a rewarding project, but if getting the job done is more important, along with cost, the H.F. tumbler is the way to go. Simple, cheap, effective, just not as fast as a cement mixer.

 

[Termite I]

Chips from Sleeping Giant are the way to go especially if your doing any 6.5 Grendel or Creedmore. I have three different sizes of tubs, 8", 16" and 24". Just depends on how many cases I'm doing as to which size I use. As far as how many chips, I use at least 2 parts chips/pins per 1 part brass. Sometimes more chips/pins than a 2 to 1 ratio. You need some room for things to move around but too much may damage your brass as stated above by Texas10 and Daveinjax.

 

[Redrover]

Im going to put together a small wet tumbler to do 50 to 100 pieces of 30br or 308 brass at a time. Im just trying to figure out how long of a piece of 6" PVC to use? Also how many pins would you use?

Thanks

A quite satisfactory wet tumbler drum can be made from a piece of 6 inch diameter PVC waste pipe. See attached photos of what I made for myself. It might look like a Heath Robinson contraption but it serves its purpose very well. The length of the drum - between the outer faces of the end caps - is just under 10 inches. It rotates at about 40RPM.


The four paddles in it are made from 3/8 inch thick acrylic plastic, fastened with stainless steel self tapping screws. The size and number of them was based on gut feeling, not precise engineering design, so I made the lid from clear acrylic so that I would be able to see what was going on inside.


The short answer is that it works well. I put in 3 kilograms (say 6lbs 9 oz) of SS pins, a squirt of dishwashing detergent, anything up to 200 x 223 cases or 100 x 308 cases, and add water to about 90% full. It might handle quite a lot more cases - I haven’t tried. The load moves in a gentle rolling, streaming, sort of motion, rather than being tossed around, and peening of the case mouths does not seem to occur.


My intention was to ultimately replace the present lid with a screw-in 4inch diameter inspection port, the type used on the buoyancy compartments of small sailboats, etc, but I haven’t got around to doing it yet ….

 

[carlsbad]

Don't wet tumble rifle brass. More times than not the case mouth, the most critical part of the case, gets dinged up.

 

[TrxR]

Don't wet tumble rifle brass. More times than not the case mouth, the most critical part of the case, gets dinged up.

Im just looking for a cheap effective way to clean my brass after necking up and turning. I wont be cleaning every time. Ive got all the scraps i would need for a rotary tumbler. would dry media work in a rotary tumbler?

 

[Bob L.]

Im just looking for a cheap effective way to clean my brass after necking up and turning. I wont be cleaning every time. Ive got all the scraps i would need for a rotary tumbler. would dry media work in a rotary tumbler?

I used a Thumler’s AR-1 rotary with walnut shells for years. It worked fine.