Hey Guys, its been a few since I last posted. I do ALOT of reloading and selling. Brass is where most of my sales come in but, this isnt the place for all that info.
I typically get 10,000-50,000 cases per trip to my local contact and have had it with regular vibrating and walnut tumbling. The brass I get is from an outside range, its filthy and it only takes my media 10 batches or so be be totally contaminated dirty as heck. Once this happens, the brass that I tumble is very dull and almost looks like it needs to be tumbled longer. I know this isnt the case as I typically run the brass in a Dillon tumbler and run it for 6-8 hours. Since I have 2 tumblers going at the same time, I can compare the two batches (they both come out the same. I use a cap full of Cabelas brass shine/cleaner, a Bounce dryer sheet, and a few caps full of Turtle wax. This does nothing to the brass... Most people that do this swear that the brass is ridiculously shiny... not mine.
So with that said, I started looking into wet tumbling and reading up on it. Once I saw how much brass the standard Thumbler did, I realized that it wasnt going to work out as it would take WAY to long to tumble the amount of brass I receive on a regular basis. I read the thread and idea about the gentleman who used the two chlorine bucket system and it seemed smart! I thought I was going to go that exact route and if it was easy enough, I would build multiple machines and sell them at local gun shows. After exhausting all my heating and air conditioning contacts (figured I could get motors for free). EVERYONE of my contacts just threw out at least 5-10 motors each... Grrr, I was about two weeks late on my idea.
So, that took me to looking for a motor to construct one homemade SS media tumbler capable of doing large amounts of brass at one time.
After researching the idea a lot more and seeing that between materials and time, I would have around 70 bucks or so into the project (can be done a lot cheaper if you find a "deal" on parts) I got impatient and started thinking more about it.
Looked at what Harbor Freight had in store and found this....
With a 25% off coupon and a nice guy in the store, I got it for 100.00 out the door!
I am not sure if this is going to work but, I do not see why it wouldn't.
Since I own my own custom body shop, I am going to spray in Gorilla Rubber lining and I should have a HUGE SS Media tumbler capable of doing a few 5 gallon buckets at a time.
Now, here is where I am getting worried. How much media do I need? Where do I buy it at? What is the "formula" of water, soap, brass, Lemmon Shine, and SS Media?
I would prefer to buy the SS pins locally from a Menards or Home Depo but, I have no clue if they sell anything like that. Ideas thoughts?
I also have an old dryer that is at my shop.... I am planning on throwing all the tumbled media into a mesh bag and drying it like that for 30-40 mins? Thoughts on this idea?
Anything else I should think about when doing this?
Help, thoughts!
Thanks guys,
Bobby C
Here is the link to the Mixer I picked up just incase you all need specs for what I should mix for the "formula"...
Cement Mixer Linkie!
I typically get 10,000-50,000 cases per trip to my local contact and have had it with regular vibrating and walnut tumbling. The brass I get is from an outside range, its filthy and it only takes my media 10 batches or so be be totally contaminated dirty as heck. Once this happens, the brass that I tumble is very dull and almost looks like it needs to be tumbled longer. I know this isnt the case as I typically run the brass in a Dillon tumbler and run it for 6-8 hours. Since I have 2 tumblers going at the same time, I can compare the two batches (they both come out the same. I use a cap full of Cabelas brass shine/cleaner, a Bounce dryer sheet, and a few caps full of Turtle wax. This does nothing to the brass... Most people that do this swear that the brass is ridiculously shiny... not mine.
So with that said, I started looking into wet tumbling and reading up on it. Once I saw how much brass the standard Thumbler did, I realized that it wasnt going to work out as it would take WAY to long to tumble the amount of brass I receive on a regular basis. I read the thread and idea about the gentleman who used the two chlorine bucket system and it seemed smart! I thought I was going to go that exact route and if it was easy enough, I would build multiple machines and sell them at local gun shows. After exhausting all my heating and air conditioning contacts (figured I could get motors for free). EVERYONE of my contacts just threw out at least 5-10 motors each... Grrr, I was about two weeks late on my idea.
So, that took me to looking for a motor to construct one homemade SS media tumbler capable of doing large amounts of brass at one time.
After researching the idea a lot more and seeing that between materials and time, I would have around 70 bucks or so into the project (can be done a lot cheaper if you find a "deal" on parts) I got impatient and started thinking more about it.
Looked at what Harbor Freight had in store and found this....
With a 25% off coupon and a nice guy in the store, I got it for 100.00 out the door!
I am not sure if this is going to work but, I do not see why it wouldn't.
Since I own my own custom body shop, I am going to spray in Gorilla Rubber lining and I should have a HUGE SS Media tumbler capable of doing a few 5 gallon buckets at a time.
Now, here is where I am getting worried. How much media do I need? Where do I buy it at? What is the "formula" of water, soap, brass, Lemmon Shine, and SS Media?
I would prefer to buy the SS pins locally from a Menards or Home Depo but, I have no clue if they sell anything like that. Ideas thoughts?
I also have an old dryer that is at my shop.... I am planning on throwing all the tumbled media into a mesh bag and drying it like that for 30-40 mins? Thoughts on this idea?
Anything else I should think about when doing this?
Help, thoughts!
Thanks guys,
Bobby C
Here is the link to the Mixer I picked up just incase you all need specs for what I should mix for the "formula"...
Cement Mixer Linkie!
