Here is a non electronic version of a brass tumbler set up and bullet coating set up So here is my idea take a spinning wheel powered by the foot and reworked the yarn part to be replaced by diff units a like round tumbling case or a bullet coating powder case
But to add a belt to the wheel and yarn pole or what ever it called to turn the unit with tumbling case is attached to the unit.but use a small 5 pd barrel like unit to tumble clean low amounts of brass casing as need Then for the bullet and buckshot and lead shot powder coating use a smaller 1.pd sized jug to basically powder coat the units as need with a small coating of powder then out next to a fire to finish sealing them up to be used in reloading
The only brass that really needs a hard cleaning is old brown tarnished range pickup brass. I wet tumble because I want clean brass. I reloaded for years with out any kind of case cleaning other than soap and water to wash the case lube off rifle brass. For years my pistol brass just got wiped off by going through the carbide sizer die and that was it. Oh and I would hand shake molybdenum sulfide coating onto bullets.
Not a bad idea...I'm just trying to figure out why you'd want to powder coat lead shot...unless one is truly bored.
I only wet tumble 5.56 and 7.62 with stainless media with amonia and dawn dish soap! Toss it on a tray and set it out in the sun, or winter time ether on the wood stove or in the oven to dry it! Will do pistol brass if it's super dirty, otherwise it just gets a quick wash in soapy water and dried off! Lots of folks use Lem-Shine in their wash which lubes the brass for loading, I haven't tried it but it works from all I have seen who do!
Tumbling for 30 minutes is plenty Coating buckshot is only if you want too size it to 30 cal for a light rabbit/squirrel load...bang bang
Finding a spinning wheel to modify could be difficult. I've not seen a new built wheel, ever. Haven't looked for one either. Waterproof might be a good feature.
Grandad had a line shaft running down the ceiling of the shop with driven and slip pulleys, driven by an old Model T engine. It drove table saw, planner, milling machine, lathe, etc and I am sure that in 20 minutes he would have cobbled up something to tumble brass in. He always shot an old 1890's lever action 30-30 and reloaded its ammo with a mallet and a Lee hand loader. Never did polish his brass etc.
Yeah you will need a way to trim the rifle brass before you will need to clean it. And 30-30 brass like to grow, especially Remington.
Heck, have the women folk do what they did in the olden days to make ice cream by having them sit on the front porch kicking that tumbler back and forth to each other.
Skip the spinning wheel entirely and just rig up a bicycle to turn the drum. An old spinning wheel is much too valuable to destroy, whereas an old junk bicycle is either free or costs a few dollars at most. Or just buy an electric rock tumbler, and use it while the grid is available.
You can use about anything you like to clean brass but ammonia or products that contain ammonia like brasso are a big no no! That will break down and weaken brass.
why anyone would want to purposely hand power something these days is a mystery to me - if it has an extended shaft you can chuck up a variable speed drill to it ....
Lemi-Shine is citric acid with a small amount of lemon oil. If you are going through a lot of brass or use it for a lot of other things you can make it much cheaper than you can buy it at the store. Use 1 cup of citric acid to about 3/4 tsp lemon oil and blend in a food processor.
Do you have case trimmers? I would recommend the electric Lee pencil sharpener style that way you can do some where around 300 shells per hour. And the manual RCBS one for when the power goes out. The hand powered one sucks, I doubt that you would want to do more than 100 or 200 per day. To me cleaning the brass real nice is something more for doing when the power is still on. I usually wet tumble with stainless steel pins in a rock tumbler over night.
Especially the gym quality ones with the big flywheel. I've had one sitting in the barn for years because the flywheel is wide enough to fit car serpentine belts.
