JigSaw

I think they had some inconsistency between the different Lots. I went 8k with no problems, Then every other sleeve of 100 would have 15-20 dead ones, back to all good for another few K, and then again back to problems. Striker guns were the worst. Swtiched between the S&B, Remington, CCI, Winchester, and Federal, all on a 1050 that stays very clean and the S&B were failing a lot. (purchased in December 2012 if that matters)

I got 99,000 <---- yes really, of them before the last big scare to convert my customers ammo to and save money. I would have payed the bill twice to have never received them. Nothing but trouble, and a failure rate in light sprung glocks and 1911s of 22% YMMV

The original purpose for the mixer was to coat bullets. I did a bunch of testing and found a better way, so I did a bunch more testing on the blades to see which design would "weave" the brass and media together. The contoured blades w/ a gap in the center did a great job so I powder coated them and never waited long on clean brass again.

The polymer tub mixer isn't cheap. A little over $300 if I recall correctly.

any side ways prerssure on the gun (from anywhere) will require an equal amount of side ways pressure on the opposite side in order to maintain a neutral grip which will be difficult to do. using your shoulders to squeeze inwards puts a lot of tension in your shoulders which is also not a good thing. you want to be gripping the gun with only your hands and he rst of your body should be relaxed ...I agree that pressure from the side of the gun will have to be cancelled w/ equal pressure from the opposite sideBUT.... All the guys running "Pedals" / are they not applying pressure on the side. Is it strictly a rest for the thumb and downward pressure is applied? The thumb rest is supposed to be exactly that.... Just a place to rest your thumb. For all those legions of folks who use it to apply downward pressure .... Well, in the words of Ben Stoeger ... "You're doing it wrong ..." ..... Thanks I bought one for my Edge but couldn't ever convince myself that tapping the frame was worth the trouble. Have shot a few guns with them and I believe I was doing it wrong every time because it wasn't the earth shattering difference I thought it might be.

i guess making a statement about heat transfer in the midst of a comment about how he could cool his gun was poor placement. This does not take away the facts of heat transfer between the two mediums. I also was not suggesting that laying a gun on a block of aluminum would cool it faster than dropping it in a bucket of water. I was just advising a different alternative as he was worried about dunking the gun in water. Just something borrowed from my experience welding and using aluminum and copper to control heat. The thought I had about a thin bag filled with aluminum powder seems like it would be fun to test. Not sure if it would work, but I could try it out and then make some thermite w/ the aluminum powder if it doesn't. Sounds like fun. While I was typing the I saw the link in your signature for "Entropy Engineering Corp" I used to work just across the street from a place called Carr engineering that did all kinds of real world test for lawyers and companies that had automotive law suits where poor engineering or build quality was in question. Learned a lot from those guys, and I bet doing your work is a blast seeing the real world results of things

Not even close! +1!!!! It seem incorrect but you can test this in your own kitchen. You should also not confuse the idea of "Rate of heat transfer" and "heat storage capacity" Aluminum's thermal conductivity is over 350 times that of water, but water has 4.7 times more heat storage capacity. http://koolance.com/cooling101-heat-transfer When you use an aluminum/copper pan to heat water, the pan heats up VERY fast while the water heats up very slowly. Water has an amazing heat storage capacity, but it takes a long time to get the heat in to the water as compared to copper or aluminum Copper heats up VERY fast but it doesn't have a very good capacity for heat energy at all. Aluminum heats up a bit slower than copper but has a much greater ability to store heat once transferred Water in this comparison heats up very slow, but can store magnitudes more heat energy than the other two. (this is why evaporating sweat cools our skin so well) Another thing to consider is that heat cannot transfer evenly through boiling water. The hot item you dunk in water creates the points where the water boils and turns into a gaseous state. Heat transfer will drastically diminish at the point where the item is surrounded by gas instead of water. Plenty of knife makers will use oil to heat treat their blades for a more uniform heat transfer as opposed to water. Think of it as having more control of the vapor layer which slows the heat transfer, and then when the process changes and the vapor layer breaks away, the direct contact to the fluid is more uniform (there are plenty other reasons to use oil instead of water or the other way around that you could debate for years) Here is a great link of a company discussing quenching steel in oil. Lots or really cool science and graphs to reference. The best snipet I found is this. "The ideal quenchant is one that exhibits little or no vapor stage" <--- you get no vapor stage from a direct contact metal quinch. http://www.globalspec.com/learnmore/materials_chemicals_adhesives/industrial_oils_fluids/quenching_oils_heat_treatment_fluids here is a piece from a college where they are setting up to test the heat capacity of copper, aluminum, and water if you'd like some other input. http://www.haverford.edu/educ/knight-booklet/heattransfer.htm Enjoy

Be sure to use a nice bulky powder. If you drop the speed that low you could get to a point where the low powder charge could result in a large boom. Imagine the primer lighting and causing 2 ignition points inside the case. 2 flame fronts, or pressure waves, slamming together in the case will cause an amplification, pressure spike, and very easily rupture a case.

You also bring up a good point. I bet the most optimal thing to do would be have a bunch of aluminum powder sewn into a bag or some sort of gun sock / cover. Lay the gun down on the bag, or rap it around the slide when not in use and the head will make its way into the aluminum powder.

I'd say about 1/2" thick and the same width and height as the gun. Obviously more is better for thermal mass, but then it will get to a size that's not fun to carry around.I have a 12" x 8" x 3/4" piece that I keep in the bag to set down and work on the gun at the range also. There isn't always a great place to bang around on things at the range. If good direct contact is made, aluminum and copper pull heat out much faster than water. I'll PM you a link to a guy on ebay I buy scrap bits from at a good price How exactly do you get good contact between a block of aluminum and a round gun barrel? So if you were using a block of aluminum for the purpose of heat treating something, you would mill a spot in the aluminum that would fit the part perfectly. It is common for knife makers to do this with two pieces of aluminum to sandwich the blade in. It removes heat very fast and creates a much more uniform treatment because there is less temp fluctuation like boiling water. In the OPs case, he is just laying the gun on its side on the block of aluminum. I don't think it will be magical, but it will draw some temp out of the gun through the slide/frame contacting the aluminum.

I'd say about 1/2" thick and the same width and height as the gun. Obviously more is better for thermal mass, but then it will get to a size that's not fun to carry around. I have a 12" x 8" x 3/4" piece that I keep in the bag to set down and work on the gun at the range also. There isn't always a great place to bang around on things at the range. If good direct contact is made, aluminum and copper pull heat out much faster than water. I'll PM you a link to a guy on ebay I buy scrap bits from at a good price

I tested it with No blade, 2" plastic angles stuck in 3 spots, the stock blades, and the modified blades. It turned out that the modified blades did the best, which is convenient because I welded them in place and powder coated them for extra protection. In the video I have it a bit overloaded w/ brass. It needed either less brass or more media to be perfect.

I was poking around at the topics all over the forum lately and realized I haven't posted my Brass Tumbler. I started a reloading business several years ago and got to a point where I needed to clean brass at a much faster rate than I though. I bought a Kobalt Polymer cement mixer and modified the blades of it so that the brass and media would make a weaving motion while spinning. It was originally purchased for coating lead bullets, and ended up being the best speed brass tumbler I've ever owned. It was given to a friend in Houston when I moved and every time I polish brass now I cringe and think about this monster.

Starting here will get you going. All it did was cause me to spend a bunch of money on a few jigs and bunches of parts. I've gotten a few sub 2# triggers (Powers jig) but I actually like them right at 2.25# as the full range of operation is more responsive to me

Aluminum and Copper are great at removing heat while welding to keep from melting things you didn't want to melt. A piece of scrap aluminum can be had for very little to lay the pistol on and allow the heat to travel to it. I have large pieces all over my work bench for heat control and it works great also.... Thanks to all the guys for the metallurgy stuff and oil smoke temp. Good Stuff