SS Tumbler, what are you using?

bcsteve said:
Been thinking of switching over to the shiny side and my wife is asking for Christmas suggestions. What are you guys using? Thumler's tumbler B, Frankford Arsenal, other?
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titch-- said:
I was just at PAuto looking at motors for a DIY build
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I was considering a Thumler's B, but couldn't spend the $... So, I found a used treadmill for free from the local buy-n-sell. I cut out the middle of the frame and welded it back together again to end up with a heavy duty, variable speed tumbler. A piece of 6" PVC found in the scrap pile was made into a 2 gallon barrel - 10 lbs of media does a nice job on 300 rifle cartridges. Purchased parts: PVC cap, rubber cap, roller ball and replacement rubber feet cost me about $33.

parts:


barrel with speed bumps:


frame cut and re-welded, with roller ball and scrap UHMW to keep barrel from rubbing:


ready to tumble:


first load, towel dried then out in the sun (do not let the Mrs. see this pic of her drying rack):
 
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The drying rack looks too labour-intensive for me. I just sort of pour the cases from the towel onto the trays of the dehydrator. I try to avoid having to handle every case individually as much as possible.

If I were air-drying brass that was deprimed, I would just lay it out on a towel.
 
I dump the wet brass into a new cotton pillow case, shuffle it up a bit, then hang over a vent. Works perfect with no water staining and dries quickly.
 
Cleftwynd said:
I dump the wet brass into a new cotton pillow case, shuffle it up a bit, then hang over a vent. Works perfect with no water staining and dries quickly.
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I used to do something similar, but stopped as I figured out it was peening the #### out of the necks. Now I tumble on towel and into the oven 15 min at 175f
 
How does hanging them is a pillow case peen the necks? If that's the case better stop buying brass in bags lol.

I just roll them around in the pillow case before hanging them, no issues at all.
 
Did some more annealing last night. As I dropped them in water for instant cooling, I checked them out this morning and they are fine. So if you NEED them dry right away, I can see doing the oven trick, but if you not in a hurry just leaving them pointing down on a towel or something over night and they are fine. Works for me.
 
titch-- said:
Did some more annealing last night. As I dropped them in water for instant cooling, I checked them out this morning and they are fine. So if you NEED them dry right away, I can see doing the oven trick, but if you not in a hurry just leaving them pointing down on a towel or something over night and they are fine. Works for me.
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I did the same, annealed left head up in trays in my garage. The next evening I sized and primed, and started to weigh my loads. Filled first shell, went to dump in scale tray big clumps of powder came out. I deprimed all 100 cases and put them in the oven. I rather not risk it and another 15 minutes is no biggie.
 
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