sak
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2013
Posts: 88
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Post by sak on Sept 14, 2014 18:59:35 GMT -5
Nice clean build im in the works as well on a home build ...but outta wood . A 24in chunk of 4in just wanna run coarse to keep vib fed . How is your rpms ? Im curious to whats the best ? I like the bumper idea as well I may do this to mine .. Hi Braders - Thanks for your compliments. I used steel because I have access to welding machines. My initial plan was to use aluminum rails (they are strong & much lighter than steel). I think you'll be fine with wood. Regarding RPM's, I'm at about 50 RPM. I was initially shooting to be around 35-40 RPM's, but my rocks are tumbling fine @ the 50 RPM speed. I posted a 10 sec video below and you can hear the tumbling action. When the barrel is spinning,it doesn't seem like it's fast (50RPM). To validate a good RPM speed, I initially put a clear piece of plastic cover (in place of my red cap) and I noticed I was get a good tumbling action at this speed. Also, down the road for some reason if I realize that the speed needs to be altered, that can be done via changing the pulley size on the motor. Hopefully this helps. P..S. - I just loaded a video of the tumbler running that you can check out. It's on pg1 of this posting (the first posting). Thanks. Sak....
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sak
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2013
Posts: 88
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Post by sak on Sept 14, 2014 21:03:51 GMT -5
How are you preventing the bolts on those barrels from boring a hole in the bottom of the barrel in front of it. The rotation is unlikely to be perfect which will cause rubbing in a small area. Hi foxtail, Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I was so excited to complete the build & start tumbling that I haven't completely addressed that issue. It is however, something I had considered during the design phase. My plan was to put additional ball bearing bumpers spaced appropriately for each barrel alongside the neutral axle. I ultimately chose to bypass that idea because then I would be's stuck to using the same length barrel's all the time. As a modification, I made the legs of the tumbler adjustable such that my barrels won't walk along the axles. Additionally, I plan on putting a rubber cap over each screw. I'm hoping that'll minimize any friction amongst the barrels. Thanks for your input. Sak
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sak
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2013
Posts: 88
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Post by sak on Sept 14, 2014 21:12:00 GMT -5
sakThat thing looks bulletproof. It should last forever. I like your ingenuity. One comment, get some guards around the belt and pulleys. I hate to think what that industrial tumbler would do to small fingers or long hair. Thanks for sharing. Hi star guy, I really appreciate you guys bringing these things to my attention. As it turns out, I do have small fingers and long hair in the household I thought about the guards thing for about a nano second when I was building this thing. The tumbler is on a bench in the basement with the belt being against the wall. That part is unreachable by my daughter. However your post made me realize that the Spinning drive axle on the opposite end of the tumbler is in fact accessible by my daughter (with long hair). That is definitely a potential hazard!!! I need to come up with some sort of guard for that. Any ideas for that would be appreciated. Thanks Sak
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sak
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2013
Posts: 88
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Post by sak on Sept 14, 2014 21:14:29 GMT -5
Awesome tumbler and Christmas gift for your daughter, sak! Have my grandmothers vintage sewing cabinet, but never thought about turning it into a tumbler. Thanks for you compliments. I just couldn't bring myself to spending the kind of money that's required to get a comparable tumbler. Sak.
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navyvet8192
starting to shine!
"Trying to see a gem through a mountain of rocks!"
Member since July 2014
Posts: 36
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Post by navyvet8192 on Sept 20, 2014 20:04:14 GMT -5
I was wondering how the red pipe plugs held up after a round of tumbling? I was thinking about using a 4 or 6" clean out plug, but am open to suggestions.
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sak
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2013
Posts: 88
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Post by sak on Sept 22, 2014 2:28:33 GMT -5
I was wondering how the red pipe plugs held up after a round of tumbling? I was thinking about using a 4 or 6" clean out plug, but am open to suggestions. Hi Navyvet8192 - I initially used the 4" fernco Quick cap (here's the link w/pic) www.homedepot.com/p/Fernco-Qwik-Cap-4-in-Plastic-DWV-Flexible-Cap-PQC-104/100372305I ultimately decided to go with the oakley (here's the link w/pic) www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-4-in-Gripper-Mechanical-Plastic-Test-Plug-33403D/100204964So, here's the pros & cons of the oatley product: I like it better than the fernco, because it allowed me to reduce/minimize the neck size of my barrel. I was wanting to minimize the number of rocks that would get caught up within the smaller diameter neck portion of the barrel. Also, removing the oately cap is faster & more convenient than having to unscrew the fernco. The down side to the oatley, is that the underside of it, has crevices (similar to the top side - as shown in the pic on my link). The problem with that is some of my rocks would get lodged within the crevices & therefore, would not tumble. As a work around to that, I filled in the crevices with epoxy. That solved that problem. The other issue, is that grit does find itself somehow between the rubber gasket & the plastic underside cap. In turn, it sometimes cam make it hard to re-tighten (after you removed the cap to check on your rocks). My work-around for that is to cover the top & bottom of the rubber gasket with silicon grease. Even though grit may still get trapped there, with the grease, the re-tightening of the cap becomes real easy. If I had to do it again, I would definitely use the (Oatley) test plug approach. Hope that helps. Sak...
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navyvet8192
starting to shine!
"Trying to see a gem through a mountain of rocks!"
Member since July 2014
Posts: 36
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Post by navyvet8192 on Sept 25, 2014 2:23:33 GMT -5
Sure does sak. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
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