jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 1, 2020 10:49:12 GMT -5
I have made a decision to try fabricating HDPE tumbling barrels for rocks, munitions, ball mills etc. for resale. Fabricating a welding system for welding end plates on HDPE pipe will be a challenge. Pipe to pipe welds are relatively easy but a plate to pipe weld much trickier. Each barrel will have three pipe-to-plate welds. Initially making 6 inch pipe barrels, if all goes well 8 inch pipe barrels.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 1, 2020 11:07:49 GMT -5
I have made a decision to try fabricating HDPE tumbling barrels for rocks, munitions, ball mills etc. for resale. Fabricating a welding system for welding end plates on HDPE pipe will be a challenge. Pipe to pipe welds are relatively easy but a plate to pipe weld much trickier. Each barrel will have three pipe-to-plate welds. Initially making 6 inch pipe barrels, if all goes well 8 inch pipe barrels. I suppose it's still the fog of the New Year, I don't see 3 flat plate welds to make a barrel. Could you clear the fog for me? Henry
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 1, 2020 11:43:52 GMT -5
I have made a decision to try fabricating HDPE tumbling barrels for rocks, munitions, ball mills etc. for resale. Fabricating a welding system for welding end plates on HDPE pipe will be a challenge. Pipe to pipe welds are relatively easy but a plate to pipe weld much trickier. Each barrel will have three pipe-to-plate welds. Initially making 6 inch pipe barrels, if all goes well 8 inch pipe barrels. I suppose it's still the fog of the New Year, I don't see 3 flat plate welds to make a barrel. Could you clear the fog for me? Henry There are 4 pieces requiring 3 welds Henry. End plate to 6 inch pipe. Reducer plate to 6 inch pipe. 4 inch pipe stub to reducer plate. Pipe barrel can be any where from about 10 inches to 30 inches. I have made PVC 6 inch pipe barrels 28 inches long. Such long barrels flat crank out some tumbles because they hold a lot of rocks and are easy to handle. Quiet too because of the smaller diameter. 6 inch at high speed for coarse, 6 inch at say 25-30 rpm for finish and delicates.
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Post by knave on Jan 1, 2020 12:27:50 GMT -5
One line to try..... have the flat plate reducing donut in the toaster oven at 225F just below melt temp. Have the 4” and 6” pipes heating on your wife’s Teflon skillet. Set the 6” pipe over your jamesp jig that will allow fusion but will prevent the reducing donut from caving in with pressure. Place warmed reducing donut over pipe with supporting jig under it. Set the 4” pipe on the reducing donut. Place a barbell weight from your younger days on top. Use a focused heat gun at the seams to encourage complete fusion. Leave weight on until cool. Don’t mind me I’m just rambling.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 1, 2020 15:14:09 GMT -5
One line to try..... have the flat plate reducing donut in the toaster oven at 225F just below melt temp. Have the 4” and 6” pipes heating on your wife’s Teflon skillet. Set the 6” pipe over your jamesp jig that will allow fusion but will prevent the reducing donut from caving in with pressure. Place warmed reducing donut over pipe with supporting jig under it. Set the 4” pipe on the reducing donut. Place a barbell weight from your younger days on top. Use a focused heat gun at the seams to encourage complete fusion. Leave weight on until cool. Don’t mind me I’m just rambling. Enlightened, divorced and totally hungry Evan. Barbell landed on foot and on way to hospital. House burning because stove was left in 'on' position. Toaster filled with licorice-like pool of liquid HDPE.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 7:10:21 GMT -5
12 end caps, enough to make 6 barrels arrived from the machine shop. Not so cheap due to set up charge. The per unit price drops a bunch with a quantity order. Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm. Hope to sell these barrels on EBAY to finance a larger order of end caps to lower per unit cost. Hopefully snowballing into a self supporting mini business. Guessing the ammunitions dudes will be #1 customer base. Then ball millers. Hopefully the rock tumbling bunch will dive in and try some too ! ASME rated for SiC 10 grit ha. "The last tumbling barrel you will ever buy"."Easy off cap". Maybe a label with a gorilla image...
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Jan 9, 2020 9:52:15 GMT -5
jamesp , how much are you planning to charge?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 10:18:00 GMT -5
jamesp , how much are you planning to charge? You being the 1st inquiry will be looking at a certain discount joshuamcduffie .(unexpectedly put on the spot here lol) It will depend on this labor issue Joshua: "Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm." I am guessing minimum $50. But it is possible that the length may be up to 24 inches long or longer meaning it will hold a lot. But such a long barrel would mean building your own longer tumbling machine... Thanks you for your inquiry(along with a plethora of various snake oil massages) Jim
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Jan 9, 2020 10:26:01 GMT -5
jamesp I hope you get everything worked out, they look like they'll be cool barrels. I'd want an 8 inch one, or two.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 11:01:24 GMT -5
jamesp I hope you get everything worked out, they look like they'll be cool barrels. I'd want an 8 inch one, or two. Interesting. I was curious if short barrels may be the most requested. Thinking people may want to run them in existing Lortone/Thumler/etc machines. I will say that they may be a bit noisier than rubber barrels unless you are running slurry. I know they are quiet with slurry.
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EricD
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Post by EricD on Jan 9, 2020 11:39:25 GMT -5
I would for sure be interested in a 10" overall length barrel for my thumler (I think it's 10", I can measure if there is any possibility you will make short ones)
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 12:47:57 GMT -5
I would for sure be interested in a 10" overall length barrel for my thumler (I think it's 10", I can measure if there is any possibility you will make short ones) Keep the open end in mind Eric. Something very similar to this arrangement. Beware of location of end rollers/stops on your machine.
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whyofquartz
spending too much on rocks
So, Africa is smaller than I expected...
Member since December 2019
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Post by whyofquartz on Jan 9, 2020 13:02:27 GMT -5
Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm. you might try putting a short ring of steel or iron in the pan to limit the melting to the very edges of your cap, you may have to glue a tab on the back of the cap to allow you to handle it without grabbing the melted part. I honestly don't know that the pipe will transfer enough heat but it is worth a try.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 9, 2020 13:07:42 GMT -5
jamesp , how much are you planning to charge? You being the 1st inquiry will be looking at a certain discount joshuamcduffie .(unexpectedly put on the spot here lol) It will depend on this labor issue Joshua: "Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm." I am guessing minimum $50. But it is possible that the length may be up to 24 inches long or longer meaning it will hold a lot. But such a long barrel would mean building your own longer tumbling machine... Thanks you for your inquiry(along with a plethora of various snake oil massages) Jim To heat up steel plates in the mold industry we bore holes at even intervals and insert cartridge heaters. They come in various diameters and lengths. Chuck
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Post by knave on Jan 9, 2020 13:12:36 GMT -5
James is officially out of the kitchen, frying pan sear marks on his ears. Rolling pin possible as well.
He had to stop by the local scrapyard and pick up one of these....
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 16:48:24 GMT -5
No chance James will be doing any production work any where near the wife's domain. OK to sneak in for a quicky. Prolonged trespassing is instant roll pin offense. Hell, she cracked my sternum on the first date. Broke my little brother's rib when he and I were playing keep away w/her. Also chipped his ankle bone with a rock from like 70 feet away.
Hope to need that welder.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 16:50:30 GMT -5
You being the 1st inquiry will be looking at a certain discount joshuamcduffie .(unexpectedly put on the spot here lol) It will depend on this labor issue Joshua: "Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm." I am guessing minimum $50. But it is possible that the length may be up to 24 inches long or longer meaning it will hold a lot. But such a long barrel would mean building your own longer tumbling machine... Thanks you for your inquiry(along with a plethora of various snake oil massages) Jim To heat up steel plates in the mold industry we bore holes at even intervals and insert cartridge heaters. They come in various diameters and lengths. Chuck Thanks for the info Chuck. The other information you shared a while back is valuable too, maybe more so.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2020 17:06:25 GMT -5
Next challenge is to set up heating plates to make the end welds, hmmm. you might try putting a short ring of steel or iron in the pan to limit the melting to the very edges of your cap, you may have to glue a tab on the back of the cap to allow you to handle it without grabbing the melted part. I honestly don't know that the pipe will transfer enough heat but it is worth a try. Yep. Going this direction initially whyofquartz. These are weird welds not performed normally by plastic pipe welders. Will need to improvise on these perimeter welds.
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EricD
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Post by EricD on Jan 29, 2020 9:22:26 GMT -5
I would for sure be interested in a 10" overall length barrel for my thumler (I think it's 10", I can measure if there is any possibility you will make short ones) Keep the open end in mind Eric. Something very similar to this arrangement. Beware of location of end rollers/stops on your machine. On my thumler A-R12 the shaft distance center to center is 6", so a 6-5/8" diameter barrel likely would not work unless I move the idler shaft.
I can see now it would be a better investment to buy a couple 1" shafts, bearings, motor, and pulleys and build a tumbler around your barrel design instead. Much more flexible setup, and more shafts could be added later for more capacity.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 31, 2020 12:21:12 GMT -5
Keep the open end in mind Eric. Something very similar to this arrangement. Beware of location of end rollers/stops on your machine. On my thumler A-R12 the shaft distance center to center is 6", so a 6-5/8" diameter barrel likely would not work unless I move the idler shaft. I can see now it would be a better investment to buy a couple 1" shafts, bearings, motor, and pulleys and build a tumbler around your barrel design instead. Much more flexible setup, and more shafts could be added later for more capacity.
Yep. The longer shaft home made set up with multiple barrels rolling against each other in a row is the best way to run these barrels. Retrofitting these to factory tumbler may be a challenge. I never owned a factory made, always built my own using the 4 bearing/2 shaft arrangement. Or 2 sets of shafts for 2 speeds. It all started when a neighbor gave me a bunch of SiC and AO sales samples of abrasives. Odd way to get into rock tumbling. And I had salvage industrial components just right for building rotary tumblers.
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