Homemade tumbler... Who's made one?

You don't necessarily need to have a motor on it (if you want to clean being super cheap and easy). The frankford aresenal wet/dry media separator will work just fine.
Fill the bucket with warm water, throw in some dawn dish detergent and some lemi-shine (or citric acid) and spin by hand for 5-10 minutes. You'll probably want to do this in a laundry sink though, if you have the old version. The new platinum series has a top cover, which is nice.
 
ruffbird said:
I use to tumble with lyman,....now I just use a big empty peanut butter plastic jar with hot water, a touch of dish soap, whatever my wife buys & a teaspoon of citric acid or lemon juice.
Just shake gently, roll around & end over end for 3-4 minutes & drain! Rinse with running water with the lid on a few more times & that's it. Dump out on a flat surface to dry for a few days & enjoy the shinny brass for reloading. No dust, noise or tumblers!

Try it, you may like it!:)
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Too easy not to give it a try. Thanks.
 
Hi
The easiest way to make a ss media tumbler is get an old treadmill and cutoff the belt,shorten the frames for the tread part and the control part to make it compact. I put the rollers far enough apart so that a office water cooler jug fits between them. I use the jugs with the handle moulded into it so it acts as a agatater. I had trouble getting the jug to spin properly so I cut up an old inner tube and stretched two pieces around the outside of the jug. Also the jug wanted to walk on the rollers so I used a roll of black tape and built up a ridge on each side of the jug on the rollers. 1.5 hrs at 1.8 mph works great and the best use of a treadmill i have found yet!!! You can do about 800-1000 9mm at once. The treadmill was given to me and the water jug were free from work. The ss pins were cheap also, picked up a half used roll of 1/8" ss welding wire from a local shop for $10 into their coffee fund and used an electric hand shear to cut the wire into small pieces and used a Dillon media separator to wash the pins out of the brass over a big tray with the garden hose running on it.
 
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trebor2880 said:
Too easy not to give it a try. Thanks.
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I can second this method. As I said before, space is practically non-existent around my place, so I use an old plastic jug the wife was going to toss. Usually I like to shake it for a few minutes, then let it sit for like a half hour, then give it another shake before draining. I didn't use any lemon juice so they didn't come out nice and shiny, but they came out clean which is all that really matters (although some days I question how much that even matters lol)
 
I built one recently cause I couldn’t stomach the price of production one that could handle larger amounts of brass.
My build consisted of using a mastercraft drill press that I had around to power it. Just unscrew two bolts pop it off the stand lay on its side and bam you have what you need to drive the power side of the tumbler. Next grab some 1/2 rod from princess auto and 4 pillow blocks. I wanted to be able to do 500 cases of 223 at a time so I went 3ft Long 4 inch pipe. Inside I glued in a small piece of cut off the length of the drum to tumble the brass and pins. Super easy setup. Just lock the chuck down on the rod and away you go. For stainless pins I used thing stainless tig rod that I cut down it’s cheap and I cut them on a bench shear longer then the width of my largest case so nothing gets stuck inside the case if that makes sense. I use 8 lbs of stainless for 500 cases of 223 or 1000 cases of 9mm. Little lemi shine and dawn 3 hours later sparkle sparkle and clean primer pockets:)
 
I built a wet tumbler this year when I got i.to reloading. $12 12v window motor from princess auto, hooked to 14v drill charging cord. Rests in a wood frame and rides on roller skate wheels. Used whatever I had lying around from previous projects for motor frame. Mounted an empty pool chemical pail to the motor. Put metal baffles in to agitate better. Bought 1/2lb of stainless steel jewelry tumbling pins off amazon for $22. Will do 100-150 at a shot. Add dish soap, lemon juice, and run for 2h. Brass is spotless inside and out, nice bright finish, and primer pocket and flash holes are cleaned too. Not bad.. $35 for a lifetime of brass cleaning.
 
I build mine. Motor and belt driven rpm reducer is from an old breadmaker that I found, drum (4.5 liter capacity) made from 6 inch pvc pipe.
Have about $50 in it i'm guessing. Plus $40 for 5lb of pins.
Most expensive was the pillar block bearings from Princess auto. Could have gotten cheaper ones on ebay but did not want to wait 4 weeks to get them.
Found a nice countdown timer for it so I can set it to desired tumble time and walk away :)
Size about 12 x 8 x 21 inches


Will take a picture soon and post it here.
 
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Here are pics as mentioned this morning.

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I made a wooden bracket that I fastened to a treadmill with two C clamps. It works like a charm, it has speed control and a timer, what more do you need. I used a plastic drum from a weed sprayer, and if I wanted to get a couple more drums, the treadmill would have had room for three drums turning at a time. Cost was zero, and about an hour of time.
 
ruffbird said:
I use to tumble with lyman,....now I just use a big empty peanut butter plastic jar with hot water, a touch of dish soap, whatever my wife buys & a teaspoon of citric acid or lemon juice.
Just shake gently, roll around & end over end for 3-4 minutes & drain! Rinse with running water with the lid on a few more times & that's it. Dump out on a flat surface to dry for a few days & enjoy the shinny brass for reloading. No dust, noise or tumblers!

Try it, you may like it!:)
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Thanks, I'll have to give it a try.
 
Magellann said:
I'll be building my next tumbler along these lines in the near future,I have to see what parts are in stock so I can meet my zero dollar budget.
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If you are like me and have all kinds of scrap and junk stuff in your garage you will get pretty far :)
Find yourself a breadmaker, motor is perfect size, the right rpm's and does not run hot even after 3 hours.
I'm at about 30 RPM for the drum but can easily increase it by adding more rubber tape on the driveshaft.
 
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