Brass Sorting Machine

A few members from a local shooting club were interested in what I put together for sorting brass.
This isn't my usual electronics video... this is about modifying a vibratory brass tumbler to improve my process for sorting brass cartridge cases by caliber, that were picked up at a shooting range.
There is a companion video explaining the foot switch and Solid State Relay (SSR): www.youtube.co...
This shows how the tumbler and existing sorting trays were modified to cut down on the manual work. Instead of laboriously shaking brass though each tray one at a time, this allows the user to pour unsorted brass into the top and have it vibrate through the various layers.
Let me know if you have any enhancements that you have come up with on this labor intensive task!
The items in this video are a Lyman 2200 tumber, and a set of sorting trays. You can get these items from many sources, but here are some links.
Shell sorting trays: www.grafs.com/...
Lyman 2200 tumbler: www.grafs.com/...

[@scottb1002]

Thanks for the video. I will say, just putting in the spacers helps a lot. I added the spacers and just shook around the trays without the vibration and was able to sort a 5 gal bucket of really random brass in under an hour.

[@Pappy7064]

I took some old plastic spray paint caps and placed them upside down between the different trays. It creates enough space to easily shake the brass through.

[@briansouth9325]

Add magnets around the edge of the top one for steel cases. I pick up everything that looks like nasty brass and that's how I root out steel.

[@Corgitronics]

I might try adding magnets, but it's shaking so violently. I check the brass first with a large magnet, which catches the steel. One thing that I've found several times this year are brass plated steel cases, they look just like regular 9mm brass but the magnet catches them.

[@michaelhenderson5098]

I know this sounds funny, but I just took an old Craftsman vibrating sander and held it against the side of the bucket. The brass was dancin' a jig as they fell through the slots in the sorter. 75 .223 and 215 9mm...and a few 357 Mag. Only took a few minutes. Mostly playing with the sander. :)

[@fnubersrful]

Pretty darn good idea, thank you

[@JP1AO]

It would have been nice if the factory could have figured this out so we wouldn't have to glue and screw to get it to work. Good thinking.

[@charlestravis9798]

My problem is that 380 and 9mm hide inside the .40 and 45 acp even during tumbling, so I separate before. Even a few hide during separation.

[@littlewolf5485]

i'll gladly take all that junk 380 and 223 from you

[@markbrown6236]

Nice conversion. but 223 is not junk.

[@electron4784]

Some great ideas thanks

[@johnlathrop123]

Brilliant!!!!

[@truehope287]

Nice, good job!

[@adamsredlines]

Did this sorting machine hold up?

[@mhatter6332]

stop using the dry tumbler!! wet tumblers are the way to go!!!

[@rosendanielp]

How would you sort brass this way using a wet tumbler?

[@kimherrick9615]

dry rocks . wet sucks