how a mad scientist tumbles brass

[Abaddonseven]

As cool as that is... I picked up a tumbler for $30 at the gun show recently. That's a lot cheaper than a DC power source, 2 amps, an oscilloscope, and a speaker.

[mfree80286]

@Abaddonseven don't forget the frequency generator. Seriously, I already had all the equipment and was just screwing around on a night that nothing was needed anywhere else.

[slamdvw]

Lmao! Was not expecting that.

[rushymoto]

No media in the container?

[mfree80286]

@rushymoto , didn't have any at the time... was about 3 mo. from pulling the trigger on a Lyman shaker.

[elmagicocustoms]

It's awesome but I would call it a brass wiggler rather than a tumbler!

[mfree80286]

Calling that driver a 'speaker' is a stretch by itself. Especially considering there's no 'core cushion' to speak of... cone is a sheet of polypropylene, dust cover is concave, plain urethane surround, Q values that sucked eggs... ah, past tense. I cut the cone off the coil and put it in a corner of the basement intending to cut the magnet assembly off the basket struts some day. Think I gave ten bucks a pop on two 15 years ago, no idea where the other is.

[jakmere]

Actually, it's kind of stupid. Placing a container on top of the speaker will crush the core cushion in the speaker, completely fucking the speaker up. and the tumbler will not vibrate enough or have enough gravel to clean the brash on the casings because eventually the speaker will not be able to vibrate if the pressure from the weight of the container is great.

[WhoIsCasey]

That's Gangster



[hicama10]

i dont know what say the job was completed but overengineered. Awesome funny idea lol.

[bjizzle123]

they would have danced more and got cleaner if you played them some classic rock

[ovnox1]

are you polishing bullett shells?

[TehBr0]

HAHAHAHAHA, ingenius!

[silverdaggerbugs]

That's great. just needed better media and like you say "More Cow Bell" Awesome

[dills2403]

that would be painfull to the ears\



[joi1900]

wouldn't it just be easier to buy a brass tumbler from rcbs?? :-)

[joeratti]

i put mustard on my brass

[goffy44]

wow is that brass 45 long colt or 44 mag

[goffy44]

wow is that brass 45 long colt

[TacticalJunkie]

thats definetly not doing anything.

[lilham10809]

thats the best

[gerardiuxxx]

using all that gear you can turn that into an ultrasound cleaner

[triggersafe]

i hope you shoot just as good!!

[mjmcg]

good grief people it was a joke, he wasn't expecting it to clean squat he was just goofing. Its a good thing to because the life expectancy of that poor cone would probably be about one batch before it tore.

[realgungho]

How about playing some Heavy Metal on that rig ?

[Marine052191]

LOL, if it does the job, its good enough for me. That is great ingenuity! 

[mfree80286]

@Marine052191 Well, it didn't really clean anything, but never underestimate the power unleashed when you combine boredom and mad science.

If I'd had on hand something more than a ~150 watt amp/3 amp power supply and a chintzy 15" woofer with a Q like a bungee cord.... ok, well I might still be prying brass out of the ceiling. But I might not have picked up the RCBS tumbler that lives in the basement :)

[freeridemtb2]

looks like alot of equipment. I think you would have saved money by just buying the tumbler

[mfree80286]

@freeridemtb2 I already had everything, and was just goofing around.

[Bassguy17]

Cool idea but it doesn't "tumble" the brass at all; it just sits and vibrates, only making partial contact with the media.

[ammosmith]

That has to be the best out of the box Idea I have seen in months!

[xGothimox]

Horribly unnecessary but awesome

[jawbone83]

not to piss in your cheerios, but it doesnt look like its working.

[mfree80286]

@jawbone83 Ah, it worked great... kept me from rotting my brain in front of the TeeWee for a couple. The brass didn't come out any cleaner though, needed more cowbell... er... power.

[Xxoo0o0o0ooxX]

HAHA!!!! Thats the best thing I seen all day. Were theres a will theres a way.

[ragonamuffin]

Thats not working too well, they aren't moving around at all.

[liljohnnie69]

LMFAO Needs more bass.

[gailhodder]

Marry me! I love this!

[mfree80286]

@gailhodder Well, I have to say this is a first :)

[pastryhat]

very creative. i always find it fun to make something you don't have out of stuff you do have.

[Naturepheonix]

HAHA that's an awesome idea! :D

[gregorskiff]

HAHA!!

i hope that's not an Altec 515 LF transducer!!

[mfree80286]

Fear not sports fans... That's one of the last RadioShack 15" woofers. Good for moving a lot of air and.... uh.... this. No stiffness to the cone at all, Q is *awful*. These replaced the old fiber coned 15" and sat on the shelves for a LONG time, I think I got it for ten bucks back when I worked there (starving college student).

[mtw1993]

thats a lot easier than using a tumbler! looks like it works great too!....

[mfree80286]

@mtw1993 There's potential... but it'd have needed much more refinenement. I bought an RCBS tumbler shortly afterwards (may actually have already had it on the way while filming...)

[SigmaBallistics]

I wouldn't call this tumbling, it's more like shaking. I'm not sure how much that actually does to the brass. I'll stick to my RCBS tumbler, funny idea though =P

[troy5251]

i guess that would work but i little loud don't yah think?

[mfree80286]

@troy5251 Huh?

Yeah, I actually had it down off the limits most of the time... asides from running out of amperage and kicking the amp into shutdown, it was loud enough I worried about the neighbors.

[LRooster4Prez]

@troy5251 what I can't hear you

[jason867]

A mad scientist would be vibrating a Newtonian fluid instead of brass! :D

[aerospaceace10]

you need more media in there!! its empty

[romansten9]

looks like a lot of work, takes up a lot of space. why not just hook an old drill to the coffee can turn it on its side and let it roll?

[mfree80286]

@romansten9 Because it's too easy. Besides, I was goofing off.

[sonick808]

fucking genius, LOL

[cluelesswako]

That oscilliscope alone must have cost more than a tumbler.. XD

PS no media?

[mfree80286]

@cluelesswako only by about 5 times :)

[shotfirer1972]

my oscilloscope has ren an stimpy on it.... hang on, its a tv

[Misanthrope1967]

I'm with AngellXP. He has the vibratory part down. He's kinda missing the tumbling. That's where the media comes in. Oddly enough, his Folger's canister gives me an idea for some potential media. LOL. I don't drink coffee, but people who visit always buy some, drink a little, and leave 95% here. As they say in bad movies: It's just crazy enough to work.

[SeraphX43]

Pure genius my friend. Cleaning with the power of sine waves, lol.

[meduego2205]

ya a tumbler is only like $50 and tkes up about a 1x1 space this just seems like too much work for nothing

[v8power101]

you are a fucking moron

[mfree80286]

@v8power101 And you have no spirit or joy. Next!

[ponkkaa]

Should be renamed "why the mad scientist is deaf" well thought through though.

[mfree80286]

@ponkkaa Sorry, did you say something?

[AngellXP]

I have to ask, Where is your cleaning media? That aside this is by far the coolest way to clean your bras!!! Great idea!

[NickPech]

hah thats funny, does it actually work..?

[mfree80286]

@NickPech It could be made to work, I'm certain. Not as it was. I was just having fun with a concept.

[etniesfan09]

lol i agree with the person below me i think you got to much timr on ur hands and that takes up alot of space lol

[phi376]

Haha Has anyone ever accused you of having too much time on your hands?

[mfree80286]

@phi376 Heh... wait, actually, no. Back then I might have. That took all of IIRC 15-20 minutes to set up.

[colemickelron]

lol thats outside the box

[mfree80286]

@colemickelron no, it's in the can.

[mycaddigo]

LOL, I'll stick with my lyman

[mfree80286]

@mycaddigo I did end up with an RCBS, got a good deal on it online last year.

[mycaddigo]

@mfree80286 Good job, can't go wrong w/ rcbs

[dills2403]

i dont tumble my brass should i i clean the outside and clean out the primer pockert and flash hole'

[mfree80286]

Well.... are your reloads inconsistent or failure prone?

If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. First 100 or so .38spl loads I did were cleaned with a good shake around inside a jar with water and dish soap. I still have all my fingers :)

[netszk]

This is by far the coolest tumbler ever :)

[catseatcheese]

Ha! I love it!

[mlacey56]

wow. talk about some free time......good work for sure, gets the job done!

[a9samat]

add some base doods

[bobdagangster]

I simply couldn't stop laughing when I saw the speaker with the container on top

[tubemasta5000]

I think you need an isobaric enclosure to extend your low frequency response thereby reducing cycle time for cleaning. Clearly it also depends on what music your pumping through. You might want to try a square wave with some distortion, I've had good results with that.

[mfree80286]

ALL YOU OTHERS, now, look here: This man has the VISION!

[vtwintora]

LOL

[cz3006]

wow what a waste of time. those shells aint even tumblin

[mfree80286]

Christ, you people have no imagination. It was *fun*. Believe it or not, that's good enough for some things.

[Ohmslaw1]

Good God man. Sell that crap and get something that works.

[mfree80286]

Not much of a comment reader, are you?

[MasterBlasterMusic]

i LOVE IT....TYPICAL GEAR HEAD !!!!

[baconator490]

you probably spent more on all this then a fairly good tumbler would be

[mfree80286]

Spent nothing at all on it, actually. Amortization.... everything I used was gotten and used for something else at some time. Between that and that I was essentially playing.... some of you out there have no sense of wonder (or humor), do you?

[mfree80286]

Not a clue, I was playing around.

The RCBS takes a couple hours for a pot of 200 count .38spl though, but I use cob media and it's less aggressive.

[billdawg79]

Funny, Sad and even more funny to see your electric bill go sky high and your brass still sitting thier a week later. Way to go!!!! MAD "SCIEN-TEST"

[mfree80286]

Hrmm... to leave unattended, I could shut off the monitoring rig... amp's drawing at most 36 watts thanks to the small PS I own, freq gen pulling maybe... let's be conservative and blow it up to 5 watts. So for a whole month running 24/7 I'd use 29Kw/h worth of electricity. At today's rates, that's... $2.42.

Sky high, right? Right?

[billdawg79]

No disrespect mad... /look at your video and I dont see any progress on your brass getting clean. Only maybe 15 pcs shaking their in one spot while the others sit in the hot tub. Nice concept but don't fly. How long does it take to actually clean the brass?

[crasscrash]

that is the greatest thing i've ever seen. good steam punk job

[xxemagxx]

Awesome! I just made a tumbler to clean some small screws using a 6" speaker powered by a 3VAC transformer. I hot glued a disposable plastic cup in the center of the speaker to keep from damaging the weak paper cone and to transfer more vibration to the parts & media.

[thewaspsnest]

its folgers in your cup

[tupp21]

SWEET

[griffy85b]

lmao

[Spewedonyou]

That is funny!

[slejzi123]

W T F ??????

[lonestar1775]

wow thats funny

[mr357]

I totally cracked up when I saw the speaker!

[ivedigga]

Dude what the hell, i know its bad out but can you invest in a real brass cleaner.

[mfree80286]

LOL... I did man, this was just play. I've got a nice RCBS.

[DFX2K9]

that was one of the oddest things i've ever seen... LMAO, man... the real polisher HAS to work better...

[mfree80286]

It does, but it wasn't nearly as fun.

[sykop8ntballer]

I was expecting to see some Jacob's Ladders and Tesla Coils behind your osiloscope, haha. Great video.

[mfree80286]

Yes! But no. It went to about 6 and a half before the amp started to clip and overdrive protection kicked the power off with a big farting sound. Not enough amperage available on the 12+ bus.

[cmasailor]

but does it go to ELEVEN>?

[ipscshotter]

Too many equipments, but a great idea.

What if if get the brass frequency and apply the same method? It could work.

I made one myself, check on my account.

[mfree80286]

Yup.

No, several months ago I picked up an RCBS tumbler, works great :)

[bf3pwner]

so brass media aboombox with techno music and thats how you clean brass?

[gangstawigga]

you should have named it " How a techno dork proves he's also gay"

[mfree80286]

Oh God, I didn't know! Now I have to tell my girlfriend, she's going to be devastated..

[sirKeithD]

That is a really funny video!!! I loved the lead-up. Did not realize until you got there with the camera that the can was sitting on a speaker! Love the "throttling up and throttling down" effects. Nicely done!

[UBeKiddinMe]

hahahahahah.. We all know that square wave works best..

[eugeniusrex]

Che cazzata...

[bf3pwner]

so what does that do......... can i just get case cleaner and shake a can of shells like u?????

[TexasStraightShooter]

I would put in more media, and perhaps listen to Black Sabbath on the big speaker there.

[MetallicAsian]

Kinda low on medium there.

[stewbham]

...yeah, wtf.. with no medium -- they're just vibrating.. over-doing, show-off, long-way-home, wannabe nerd...

[Ihasacellular]

medIA not medium........were not phsycics here :P

[stewbham]

Yeah, but youre a DOUCHE, for trying to correct somebody on the internet...

...fukin sideways tongue smiley..

[mreisma]

really cool, more power

[Atrixium]

A 50Hz sine wave is good but 5v is too low. Up your voltage to around 10v-20v and get a larger throw out of the voice coil, that way instead of just vibrating the brass it will toss them around :D

[mfree80286]

Yup... except the power supply for the amplifier craps out at anything over 6.5 volts.

[Jaywasaki]

LAWLZ!!!!!

[elpidiovaldez4ever]

COOL !!! :)

[bddc201]

Does that actually get the brass clean? It didn't look like there was much rolling movement of the brass.

[mfree80286]

No, the media was wrong and I was keeping the power low. All in the name of experimentation, right?

[jefallijay]

this looks like a waste of time and money.

[mfree80286]

I had fun. That means there was no waste of time; I spent no money... hard to waste nothing :)

[jefallijay]

you got all that stuff for free?

[mfree80286]

I've had it all for years, and it had all performed it's regular purpose... therefore using it all for this is not a waste of money. I normally use the gen and scope for tuning/checking audio equipment.

[westkan]

I sure you "ran what ya brung", thumbs up there. I do believe most would be better able to homebrew a facsimile of a motorized tumbler drum though.

[mfree80286]

The 'scope was included mostly because I was worried about overdriving the amplifier, and I wanted something to see if the waveform skewed any. But I left it on when I filmed it just because it looked awesome :-D

Also noted, the amp protects itself from current overdraw, but with the setup in place it sounds like a huge fart when it kicks in. Seriously. "Frrrrt"

[spokehedz]

I know you were just experimenting, but you realize you've just created an adjustable vibration bowl that will never wear out or need oiling?

Something that is very expensive, and would otherwise be out of the budget for people who reload their own brass?

[shbazjinkens]

Way overcomplicated.. simple motor with an offset load will vibrate, just like in a game controller.

[frogz]

if anything, its UNDER complicated

[Kytonite]

yea it's undercomplicated shbazjinkens don't kno how it works as it'll be goos if u have those things dipped in brasso

[frogz]

hm, that gives me a idea....

probably been done but what about a vibrating brasso bath?

[DJDigitalMonster]

PERFECT. but one suggestion. try to hotglue the coffee can to the sub. or somehow get the coffee can to get more efficiency from the vibrations. then it wouldnt have to have as much amplitude. ive done this myself. it works great. but of course, dont do this if you want to be able to use the sub afterwards. its hard to seperate the two without tearing the paper off of the speaker cone.

[DeadlyDad]

This is an interesting use for what is essentially a tactile transducer. I'd be interested in knowing just how well it works.

You could also go one step further and totally remove the dust cap and most of the diaphragm, except what was needed for structure support, then attach the container directly to the voice coil. Not moving all that air or having components in between acting as shock absorbers would make it both quieter and more efficient.

[mfree80286]

I did that earlier today, it resulted in the voice coil rubbing on the magnet structure. The diaphragm unfortunately *is* the structure support. These subs suck... which is why I didn't mind ripping it up :) I've got another one to use as built, what I think I'll do is run some elastic bands over a bowl I purchased for this and try it that way.

I'll try it with media soon enough; if it works then I'll fine tune it a bit then make a dedicated circuit.

[mfree80286]

I like to play for the heck of it. Isn't that the whole point of being a mad scientist?

[tokejyn]

yeah, and the oscilloscope being included gives you +5 mad scientist credit.

[Fentanyl3]

why not go directly from mains to a step down transformer, and direct to the speaker, unless you like to play for the heck of it

[giskard1988]

um, if you're using a 50hz signal, why not just hook your woofer up to a step down transformer?

[irishdevil]

needs a before and after shot, but pretty rad use of materials man.

[mfree80286]

Well, this was just a test... that's cornmeal. As soon as I can get down to the local Gander I'll grab some crushed walnut.

[WeerdBeard]

Geek-Tastic! What are you using for polishing medium?