Ok I got my tumbler running and my drum made.

6" diameter pvc. Body is 18" long with 3 paddles all at 120 degrees from each other. Total length? Have to wait until tomorrow.  Drum speed seems kind of fast. It's 130 RPM's. So is that fast?

The formula I used was 10.5 lbs of brass, 10 lbs of media, Approx 2 gallons of water, 4.3 CC's of Lemishine, and a generous squirt of Dawn aout 3 seconds worth. Total weight 40 lbs.

I started tumbling and checked it at 2 hours lapse and the brass seemed unchanged, so I ran it for another 8 hours or so, but have not looked to see the results. Shouldn't I have seen some change at 2 hours? Do I have to much brass? To much of something else? Not enough of something?

from experience that is too many cases for the media, i have to stay 1/2 lb to a 1lb below how much media i have to get good results,  130rpm is fast

may be the cases are sticking to the outside wall? does it sound like they are tumbling around in there?

i was right at 100 rpm with my 6" cylinder and a 3" driven pulley and it worked good. took about 3 hours to get clean and shiney

with that much water i use 4-5 table spoons water and 2.5 45 cases of lemi shine.

and yes after 2 hours you should have seen results.

Yes agitation does not sound right. Spins more than it tumbles. I guess i didn't take into account motor rpms.

I will add more lemishine. I will have to get a larger pulley for the rollers. Or a smaller one for the motor if there is one.

I am running a 11/2 drive pulley and a 4" driven right now and with my 8" drum i am around 60-70rpm.  my motor rpm is 1750 or so.


also how far up in the cylinder is the water. you want it about 1-1.5 inches from the top.

Slow it down untill you hear the brass banging around, I have to guess everything is just getting spun around without much action

Ok the breif back story on this brass. It's rather amusing and perhaps others have heard of such things in gun store lore.

I have a friend who builds machineguns. He also makes ammunition in only a few calibers for sale at gun shows. He does a lot of component buying in completed ammo form, and then dismantles them and uses what components he wants. That said one of his friends we will call friend A, was excavating an area in the back of friend a"s new property and dug up some ammo. Loaded ammo. More digging revealed approximaately 50K+ worth of different calibers. Some in crates, most in what was left of the degraded carboard boxes. Calibers included 7mm Mauser, 8mm Mauser and some Argenite 7.65, and this Browning stamped 270 WIn. Friend A talked to the previous owner and asked about it. He was told that this guy had the ammo and no langer wanted it, but didn't know how to safely dispose of it so he buried it.

He showed me a box about 6 months ago that he disassembled and had used the bullets from and asked if there was any way for me to salvage the brass. I told him I would try. It sat for a while without me doing anything with it. I saw the SS wet system and thought maybe that would work? To say the brass is rough is an under statement. It's bad, I think the worst I have ever seen and I have brass laying in my driveway for 3 year that looks to be in better shape. Well we will see.

I got a new belt and 5" pulley, we will see how that goes. I might remove some brass also. Well time to go look and see what 10 hours of tumbling did. lol

Edit for spelling.

Ok I checked the batch after I changed the pulley.

Drum rpm's are 100 give or take 2 RPM's it sounds like its doing something now. I am ging to run it another 4 hours and see how it is.

When I checked the drum the water was nasty light brown. The brass seemed better but not what others have done. I added another tablespoon of Lemishine and a squirt of dawn. We shall see.

Tag for pics.