Ohioans For Concealed Carry Discussion Forums

I keep seeing folks using wet tumblers and got to thinking about making it big time. I've also been reading on some folks that have had high lead levels in their blood linked to the dust from dry tumbling. But I'm having trouble justifying $150-200+ for a glorified rock tumbler - why not grab a 1.25 ft^3 cement mixer for about the same price and use that? The only downside I can think of is size if storage is an issue.

Harbor freight has one for $150 that holds 1.25 cubic feet, and if my math is right that's over 180 pounds of concrete, so it should do fine for pins and brass. They sell a larger 3.5 cubic foot one for $210 that will do over 320 pounds of concrete. Both have wheels and handle to move around, belts so it should be a bit quieter than a direct drive, and are beyond overkill so should last. RPM's are about 35.

So what am I missing here? For not much money I can tumble a lot more brass, and tilt the mouth down a bit to drain directly into a seperator for the pins. The only downside I can come up with is internally rusting the mixing drum, which can be addressed if it becomes an issue.


http://www.harborfreight.com/1-14-cubic ... 61931.html

Makes sense to me!

I'd have no place to store it, but that is a different problem!

Would there be any potential risk to the brass? It's one thing to be tumbling around with five pounds of your closest friends, but when you've got 30+ pounds there's bound to be more dings and dents.

I highly doubt it. A lot of the commercial wet tumblers on Midway do 17-27 pounds of material at once, and brass isn't the most sensitive thing out there (not the hardest either, thankfully).

Just get an old,used cement mixer truck Go big or go home.

If Jerry uses a cement mixer it has to be okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y_dsP3dsM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I saw a local. commercial reloader using a mixer as tumbler many years ago. Not many if any tumblers made for cartridges out there in those days.

Follow up on this - I went ahead with the smaller, reasonable Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART). I use it frequently, and dry the brass out in a food dehydrator and use the FA wet/dry media separator to get the pins out (except bottlenecks, no pins for those).

It's a relatively short clip - the last part of the video shows the drainage of the drum, which for me is the big part. No dust, reduced lead exposure, way cleaner brass, etc..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUwzhZ5cMaY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been using the FART with no pins and they come out great.
This thread has all of the ingredients to use to clean the brass.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php ... he-F-A-R-T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1/8 tsp washing soda
1tsp ETDA
1 tsp citrc acid
1 tbs armor all