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My official statement is "it depends." How cold will it get there? I live in Omaha, and I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that the snow and ice would definitely throw a wrench into the operation here. The motor will generate a good bit of heat, and may actually benefit from cooler temps. Every part that you have there is moving, and as such generates friction/heat, so while there will certainly be some threshold at which it would be impacted, I would think that if it dropped into the 20s/30s at night, but then had enough sun to warm up during the day, you should be fine.
I would think that to some degree, your slurry would thicken with colder temps long before it freezes, so that may help with the grind, but you'd need to take that into account when you are tumbling. I couldn't say that for sure, but I'm thinking about like cold gravy vs. hot gravy or ice cream as it begins to soften/melt.
That's quite the motor for just one set of roller shafts, sure is nice and quiet tho! You could run 5 times, or more, that many barrels with that motor. Nice build.
Dogs are unlimited lines of joyful credit with a payment that comes due all at once.
There have been many threads here on running in freezing temps. Being in Florida, I didn't pay attention to the solutions folks have come up with. I wonder if adding salt to the slurry water would lower the freezing point significantly. I do recall that folks here had some clever ideas.
Dogs are unlimited lines of joyful credit with a payment that comes due all at once.
huskeric, I'm in East Tenn so we can get some pretty cold temps. The tumbler is in an area where there won't be any snow or ice. Good points about slurry thickness, thanks.
captbob, The motor is just 0.2 hp. You just haaad to point out it could roll 5 x that amount of rocks...I'll have to try some salt. I was thinking about adding some alcohol to prevent freezing. I'll have to make sure it won't eat up my barrels though. Thanks
Fossilman, I frikkin hate winter and not too fond of the heat either. Give me 60-70 degrees with low humidity year round. Need to move to the Canary Islands.
I would avoid alcohol and antifreeze. captbob mentioned salt. That may be the best idea. But like Borax, salt slurry would be hard on plant life. And also corrosive if spilt on your machine.
If you want to try anti freeze, you could try RV anti freeze. Me, I'm planning on pulling the plug in a couple of weeks. Clean up I think will be the problem.
Regular antifreeze that is used in cars is Toxic. RV antifreeze is safe for human consumption. If you dump your sludge with regular antifreeze in it, it could poison yours or neighbors pets. RV antifreeze will turn the snow pink but won't harm pets.
If you put a box over the machine, remember, the motor has to breathe. Enclosing the motor in a totally closed box will likely cause it to overheat and burn up. I've seen it happen. A Styrofoam box with a cutout or slots in the motor area would likely work fine.
I live in Ohio so it gets fairly cold here and last winter I ran mine in our garage. Its attached to the house but not heated. I didn't have an issues with freezing or any slurry problems but cleaning it out is troublesome. Its much easier when I can set up a table outside and use the hose to clean my barrels and rocks. I have a basic shower in the garage and I attached a cheap shower head with a sprayer and that solved the issue. Was able to use hot water so my hands didn't freeze and was able to get good pressure to help with the cleaning. Sadly, I didn't think of this until early spring.
If your carport is enclosed, why not try an electric space heater to help warm up the carport? The new ones are really safe and I use them in my garage when i am working on various things or when it gets really cold at night.
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Members with real questions or comments that need an actual response, please post on the main forum - not here! Casual PG-13 posts only, no politics or religion please!
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Wooferhound: Tumbling like a tumbleweed , pledging it's love for the ground.
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RickB: Drifting along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds
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Wooferhound: Imperfect memory and false recollections are essential elements of a flexible mind.
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Wooferhound: My mind is flexible like Rock Slurry
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Wooferhound: I grease the wheels in a factory, hunched over metal machines , the gears moving remind me of bodies in motion
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!