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My home built wet tumbler


biggdawg

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If some of you do not know, BiggDawg turned this into a business. I appreciate his work but was short on cash to buy his. I to built my own but, Appreciating all his effort and keeping these posts up after his business venture, I bought a 8in small tumbler drum from him just to kick some cash his way. He has helped thousands on several different forums to get into wet tumbling and figured he deserves a kickback.

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many guys have built them with treadmills but you need to keep all the controls from what i have seen. as far as parts list goes for my tumbler it is on the first and second pages. for a treadmill tumbler i would google it it has been done many times. i just haven't done it.

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I'm hopping someone can double check/help me.


I'm building a wet tumbler and I have everything I need except the large pulley. I've used http://www.culvermotor.com/Engineering-Formulas/Pulley-and-RPM-Calculator.htmland I come up with the below.


1725 -- 2 -- 7 = 492.86

492.86 -- 1 -- 6.75 = 73.02


1725 rpm motor with 2" pulley

6" PVC which is 6.75" on the outside of the cap and reducer.

3/4" shaft for one side and 1/2" shaft for the other (because that's what pillow blocks I had on hand).

With the heater hose on the 3/4" shaft it's 1" OD (I'd like to drive from the 3/4" shaft).


Now to get down to the 70 rpm range it "appears" that I have to use a 7" pulley on the 3/4" shaft. This seems to be much larger than others have been using.


Can anyone confirm that I need a 7" pulley or show me the error of my ways?


Thanks!

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7" will be close you are running a larger shaft than i run -- i run 5/8 shaft with 6" on it and 1.5 on the motor. for your combo i would run 1.5 and 7" but that is me i have learned you don't have to spin them as fast for them to work.

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I was hoping some one would be able to help me out with the formula for calculating the ratio of ss media to brass to water. I am currently about midway thru my build and will need to know how much media to order. thanks in advance for any and all help. This post has been great.

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I guess I should have been a little more clear. Lets say my container has a 2 gallon capacity, in order for me to get good results how much of each SS pins, brass and water should I use? Obviously I cant just pack every thing in tight it needs room to "tumble". Thanks again for all the help.

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I guess I should have been a little more clear. Lets say my container has a 2 gallon capacity, in order for me to get good results how much of each SS pins, brass and water should I use? Obviously I cant just pack every thing in tight it needs room to "tumble". Thanks again for all the help.

I agree with Steve, 50:50 pins:brass is the most efficient in terms of minimum run time for brass that needs to be scrubbed, and then 1/2 to 2/3 full brass/pins vs remainder to top water. You can of course do anything else, it just may require longer run time for results you want, but also highly dependent on condition of brass. I can do once-fired nickel with no pins, soap and water, and it looks new when done. But generally for me, pistol brass, 50:50 brass/pins in an hour so looks great. When I would overload brass vs pins might be double or more the time for same results.

BTW, even when I've given a recommendation that works 100% for me, let someone borrow my setup, others had problems, here are some of the variables you'll play with once you are up and running

- Hot vs Cold water, hot is better especially dirty rifle brass

- Hardness of your water -- if you have hard water, you'll have to play with what works with your soap or even use water softener

- How much soap / Lemishine - Pistol brass cleans pretty easily, but rifle brass may need enough soap/hot water to actually clean vs just leaving everything with uniform film of stuff

Edited by trgt
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