Cement Mixer brass tumbler

[CJ]

Tomorrow I think I'm going to pick up a Harbor Freight cement mixer to tumble brass. I'm getting a little sick of using 3 vibratory tumblers constantly. My only concern is how loud this thing is gonna be. Anyone ever used one?

My other option is to weld up my own which is belt driven to be quieter.

[YALE]

Before you know it dude, we WILL be running three-phase power to your house.

[KBScobravert]

How come I can picture you with a gas powered trailer mounted cement mixer in the driveway shoveling brass into the hopper?

[YALE]

How come I can picture you with a gas powered trailer mounted cement mixer in the driveway shoveling brass into the hopper?

Diesel genset, all the way. He'll probably scrounge it on Craigslist for $37 and have a Taurus with a blown head gasket thrown in after offering an order of wings and a six-pack.

[bulldog896]

we had one at the shop couple things

1) don't put in the mixing fins they ding the crap out of the brass

2) if you can sandblast the inside of the drum and take all the paint off will keep it from flaking off onto the brass and be a little less messy

3) you will need a lot of media and a lot of brass polish


we were tumbling 1500 rds of 308 at a time without the fins it was loud but put it outside and it's not so bad

[CJ]

we had one at the shop couple things

1) don't put in the mixing fins they ding the crap out of the brass

2) if you can sandblast the inside of the drum and take all the paint off will keep it from flaking off onto the brass and be a little less messy

3) you will need a lot of media and a lot of brass polish


we were tumbling 1500 rds of 308 at a time without the fins it was loud but put it outside and it's not so bad

Ah great, thanks Steve that's good advice. I bet it dusts up a storm too without a cap on it.

[bottlerocket]

I don't think obsessed even begins to cover your issue with reloading lol

[JP135]

Go big or stay home!

[bottlerocket]

Go big or stay home!

hahahah just pull up to the range in that thing filled with walnut

[bulldog896]

Ah great, thanks Steve that's good advice. I bet it dusts up a storm too without a cap on it.

thats an understatement tho we found that if you use a full box of media with a full bottle of polish it's not too bad

[forbes]

Ah great, thanks Steve that's good advice. I bet it dusts up a storm too without a cap on it.

Take a piece of plastic and piece of nylon strapping and make a lid

[CJ]

Take a piece of plastic and piece of nylon strapping and make a lid

I think I might just switch to a wet media. I've sent an e-mail off to an industrial supplier of stainless needle bearings. I asked them what they would charge me for 30lbs of needle bearings.

[CJ]

Or, possibly ceramic media. I also want to tumble gun parts.

[CJ]

I went and visited the cement mixer 2 times at harbor freight giving it a good look and trying to decide if it's what I'm looking for. At the last minute to switched over and bought the giant 18lb vibratory tumbler for a number of reasons. Vibratory tumblers are a lot faster at cleaning brass, no doubt about it. I already have a couple Thumler's Tumblers and they are slow as hell, and quite a pain in the ass to keep running. I didn't want to deal with a really loud cement mixer (and boy they are loud) and I didn't want to deal with the paint problem Steve mentioned.

So, I went against my own recommendation and bought another HF tumbler. My last 5lb one didn't even last a year, the sleeve bearings crapped out, and I ended up screwing the bowl to the stage. However, it appears this tumbler is much better made (it better be for the $199.99 msrp) and I've read about 10 reviews saying it's good for daily use for years. It was on special sale for $149.99 and with 20% off coupon good until the EOM I got it for just $119.99. I bought a 2 year warranty and plan on beating the living shit out of it in those 2 years.

The best part is it's a wet tumbler. I think I'm going to give the stainless steel media a shot with this big ass tumbler and see how it does. I've read a lot of info, and everyone says not to use a vibratory tumbler. However, I can tell they are all just repeating what they've heard, I can't find anyone that's ever tried it, so I'm pretty sure they are full of shit. I will report back how it does. If the stainless steel media doesn't work out for me, I will switch to wet ceramic.

Right now I've got my 100lbs of walnut media and brass churning. It does about 2,000 9mm cases at a time, or 1,500 .45 ACP. I can mirror finish brass in about 4 hours. Much quicker than before.

[Bassics]

If this fails and you go back to rigging something unconventional up, consider an industrial concrete vibrator as your motor. Just a thought. I've seen where they wrecked 1" plywood forms from overuse in a pour.