Medium-to-large scale brass tumbling

[stevewix]

Hello all, I'm in the development stages of setting up a humongous brass tumbler A LA 4 CuFt Kobalt concrete mixer from Lowes. I ran my first batch tonight, approx 6000 9mm cases. Clean as a whistle in just two hours with 30lbs of SSM, 2TBSP dish soap and 3 gallons of water. I ran into two problems with the overall process I would consider 'Major'.

First: Media separation. It needs to be done underwater in order to remove the media from the brass. I found that a simple 32oz cup to scoop the brass into the media separator took forever, especially once 75% of the brass was out of the mixer and into the containment device leaving mostly media to contend with while trying to find the remainder of the brass.

Possible solution: I guarantee I'll need a humongous funnel and possibly a test sieve. Empty mixer into sieve, strain media and repeat using clean water in the mixer.

Second: Drying. I currently have the brass sitting on a towel on the vasement floor with a heat buster fan circulating lots more air than necessary, along with a dehumidifier to keep the humidity level @ 40%.

Possible solution: self-stacking wire totes or oven racks placed directly in front of a large fan or in the oven.

I am afraid I just embarked on a 'learning experience', but If I can figure out how to make at least one of the two steps above work reasonably well I will be able to do an entire years worth of brass cleaning in mere hours with extremely consistent results. What say you, volume shooters?

Steve

[Brassaholic13]

I'm surprised that much brass cleaned that well with only 3 gallons of water and 2 TBSP of dish soap.

I run up to 3000 cases in my 8" x 20" tumbler (made from schedule 40 sewer pipe), and I run 11 lbs SSM, 3 gallons of water, 3 .45 ACP full of Lemishine, and a 2 second squirt of Dawn for every gallon of water. Seems to me like you're shy on the water, but hey, if it's getting them sparkly shiny clean, it works...

I use a Grafs media separator for mine, and have no issues. Dillon makes a larger one that you might look into. It holds 1500 rounds of .38 SPL or .223.

As for as emptying the tumbler without throwing crap all over the floor, look at biodiesel filters for 5-gallon buckets (probably rebranded paint strainers). http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=%2BEZstrainer I use a 400 micron filter/strainer to separate the water from the media. I drop the filter on my patio, then dump a fair amount of shells into it. Flush them thoroughly with water to remove the soap, and toss them into the media separator (again, small one from grafs). Just a reasonable turning and about 30 seconds will sling out all of the pins.

Finally, I dump them all on a towel in the basement (up to 3000 at a time) and have a simple 12" electric fan blowing air across them. Takes 4 hours to dry 3k.

ETA: I think you could easily remove 10-12 lbs of media out of your tumbler to make things more manageable.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Brassaholic13

[Steve RA]

I've found that 50% brass/50% pins works well.

[rjacobs]

I process 3000 pieces of 223 at a time in a dual drum wet, stainless tumbler. 1500 pieces of brass(about 22lbs) and 25lbs of stainless pins in each drum. I do this 2x a day when converting 300BLK.

I pour direct from my tumbler drums into a large Dillon media seperator to spin out the pins. I have no problem getting 99.9% of the pins out of the brass doing this. No need to remove the pins from the brass while its under water.

The brass then goes into a 5 gallon bucket that I took a lid and basically cut out half of it and the other half has a bunch of holes drilled out of it. After i fill the bucket up with brass I take it and start running water into it and dumping it out, 5 times gets the soap rinsed off.

The media and waste water then gets poured into a 5 gallon bucket and I pour the waste water off. I then start rinsing the pins in the 5 gallon bucket. Its pretty easy to pour off about 95% of the water without pouring any pins. Again, 4-5 times of rinsing gets all the soap off. I then pour them off of the 5 gallon bucket into a mesh collander I bought at Walmart, I think was $10. Then I pour the pins back into my tumbler drums to store them.

I then will spin the brass again in the media seperator to attempt to spin out most of the water. Brass then goes into a "hotel pan" that is 4" deep and into an oven set no hotter than 200 for about 20 minutes and its dry. I have a "full size" hotel pan, 4" deep and it fits 3000 pieces of 223 brass no problem.

Im still not 100% happy with my process, but it works well enough, it just takes a little to long for my taste, but I guess it is what it is.

Edited October 4, 2013 by rjacobs

[edhead35]

For drying, how about one of those restaurant sheet pan racks that they use for prepped food or cooling baked goods. Then make screens out of wood and window screening and slide trays in like a big dehydrator.

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/42891/donut-screen-racks.html

Run your air circulation towards it. Or build the whole thing from wood..:-)

[bajadudes]

I use a cement mixer with a plastic tub and a ratio of about 40% media 60% brass. water enough to cover plus a few inches more and a little dish soap. let it run about 2 hours. then I place a 1/4 mesh galvanized steel screen over the mixer opening that is held in place with a ratcheting tie-down strap. Tilt the drum to the empty position and just let it run over a big shallow plastic bin to separate out all the media. Every once an a while spray water into it with a hose to rinse while still spinning. 5-10 min gets it all out and the brass rinsed. Dump onto a tarp and leave it to dry for a day or two on the warehouse floor with a fan on it.

Does a 5 gal bucket full at a time sparkly clean with a min number of fuss and steps.