Question about vibrating tumbles

M

mrdaputer

New member
I want to mount a 5 gallon pail with my 3 pan shell sorter on top of it.
In theory I want it to do all the work of sorting out my dirty brass. My question, Is the motor strong enough to vibrate the casings through the sorter pans? Or does someone have a better idea to get the job done fairly cheap?
 
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If your wobbler is strong enough it might work. Most "vibrator tumblers" (all the ones I've seen) have a small motor with an off center weight attached to the motor shaft. The motor spins and the unbalanced weight make the unit wobble. This throws the whole thing out of whack and makes the spring mounted bowl wobble/vibrate. If the bucket isn't too heavy for the spring mounted bowl, and not so heavy to "dampen" the off center wobble, it'll work...
 
The amount of vibratory wobble will depend on the total mass of the load. Some folks have made the mistake of trying to use stainless steel pin media in vibratory tumblers and found the added weight just made them sit there and barely hum. So all I can be sure of is that the added weight of your bucket and whatever you put in it will dampen the vibration in some degree. How much depends on the amount of that weight and the how strong your tumbler's motor and eccentric are. Some of the commercial units are pretty strong (a lot stronger than the case tumblers) as they are made to work with the heavier kinds of media to polish harder metals than brass. But they cost a lot more.
 
Would probably work if the pail is lightweight plastic rather than metal and only a limited amount of media and cases are used. Would likely depend on the size of the tumbler but don't think it would work with my Tru-Square Ultra Vibe 18 that I usually tumble only 100 large rifle cases at a time with.
 
Don't want to do dry media thanks anyway. I was talking about using it for separating brass. I think I will fab up a motor with a cam because a lot of ppl were saying watch the weight.
 
I guess we didn't get the overall picture to begin with, but without the additional media weight, the idea has a good chance of being successful.
 
CB,

He's trying to separate media from brass, so, presumably, he's got the weight of a tumble load of media and brass to sift through.

Mrdaputer,

It occurred to me after my previous post that you might be able to drill a hole through the center of the bottom of the bucket so it replaces the lid. That would buy you a little weight wiggle room with the brass. Without knowing how much the separator weighs compared to the lid, though, it's hard to guess at the result. I can't say if that will help enough or not.

If you are building your own, you can screw the bucket to a board that extends to the side of the bucket and mount the motor there. You can make legs for the board from old valve springs or just set it on a couple of layers of thick pile carpet so it can wiggle.
 
But from re-reading the OP, referring to a 3 pan shell sorter it does sound like the idea was just to separate different cases. I initially thought that media was included and he does seem to now be saying that media is not included (see post #8).
 
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My fault I should have been more clear. It is just to sort brass. I did about 60 lbs by hand which wasn't too bad. I have over 100 lbs to go and just thought lets make this as easy as possible. I have already figured out the best way for me to clean and tumble my brass.
 
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