wet tumbling question.
- Thread starter jonbearman
- Start date
I'm with Dickn52, my pins haven't dented any of my brass yet. I'm using the harbor freight tumbler that is 2 chambers. Each chamber is good for 3 pounds. So I have a pound of pins, pound of brass and water to cover. Tumble for about an hour. Rinse and dry in the oven at low temps for about 15 minutes and done.
This gets me about 60 .223 cases in less than 2 hours total clock time. While the tumbler is running I can make dinner or chase the dog or GF
This gets me about 60 .223 cases in less than 2 hours total clock time. While the tumbler is running I can make dinner or chase the dog or GF
I stainless tumble my brass after neck turning to remove the lube. The stainless pins will not dent your brass. If you look at your brass after stainless tumbling under a microscope they may look like dents.
I don't know why anyone would want to slow down the tumbler. I would speed it up if anything. Simply changing the pulley would work.
I don't know why anyone would want to slow down the tumbler. I would speed it up if anything. Simply changing the pulley would work.
???Increasing the size of either pulley on the motor's drive shaft or the secondary drive pulley, you will decrease the drum's rpm.
I bought the Model B a while back but found myself spending a lot of time loading / unloading it. Since then I built my own, which does about 20lbs of brass in 1 hour. Since someone brought up the pulleys, I initially set it up for 45 RPM, but later changed they pulley on my secondary drive shaft from a 4" to a 3.5" to give it a little more drum speed, around 67 RPM.
I bought the Model B a while back but found myself spending a lot of time loading / unloading it. Since then I built my own, which does about 20lbs of brass in 1 hour. Since someone brought up the pulleys, I initially set it up for 45 RPM, but later changed they pulley on my secondary drive shaft from a 4" to a 3.5" to give it a little more drum speed, around 67 RPM.
JP351 said:
Ahem! If you increase the size of the drive pulley (leaving the size of the driven pulley the same) the drum speed will increase.
Due to mounting limitations it's often the drive (Motor shaft) pulley that is changed. Larger to speed up, smaller to slow down. Making the large pulley on the drum drive shaft larger usually causes one to run out of room in one direction or another.
amlevin said:
I stand corrected. That's what I get for posting late at night! Before I changed my ratio, I swapped the drive and driven pulleys around, and the motor just didn't have the power to turn a 60-70lb drum. Still curious where I would stop seeing results with tumbling with respect to RPM. At some higher RPM the tumbling action should be lost.
AR Shooter
Silver $$ Contributor
Was getting some case mouth peening when running the high speed motor. There was a long thread on this on the Shiloh Sharps forum (primarily BPCR) about a year ago. Consensus was that using the low speed motor, using ceramic media and filling the drum to ~2" of being full of water (and your favorite magic cleaning mix) would stop the peening. Called Thumler's and bought low speed motor, Arizona Sharpshooter's for the small ceramic media (a real PITA to use for 6mm and smaller calibers) and started filling the drum to within 2" of being full. As advertised, peening has been greatly reduced, if not stopped. Think another key to prevent peening is to have enough media. Too little media seems to allow more peening, just like too little water. Have also added back about 1/3 of the stainless pins, which seems to help clean the primer pockets. YMMV.
The peening is due to the cases banging into each other.
A slower speed thumbler would help but if you have the high speed, you can avoid it completely by reducing the number of cases you tumble (decrease chance for collision) and also by doubling the amount of SS-media you use (act as a buffer) i.e. 10 pounds. The added advantage of doubling the SS-media is that it will clean the brass faster and so you can decrease the tumbling time which also decrease the collision.
A slower speed thumbler would help but if you have the high speed, you can avoid it completely by reducing the number of cases you tumble (decrease chance for collision) and also by doubling the amount of SS-media you use (act as a buffer) i.e. 10 pounds. The added advantage of doubling the SS-media is that it will clean the brass faster and so you can decrease the tumbling time which also decrease the collision.
jlow said:
I have started to just clean each box of 50 cases once I've fired them. Makes it possible to keep the same cases together in weight sorted batches with the same number of firings. Small amounts clean fast. I just keep several boxes of brass prepped ahead. One or two in the range bag, loaded, several boxes on the shelf prepped and waiting to be loaded, and one or two boxes waiting "for the laundry".
Doing only 50 cases at a time in the standard 5# of SS pins works great and no peening.
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