Vibratory Tumblers in the absence of UV-10 / UV-18

[chaosdsm]

Been looking at the UV-10 & UV-18 tumblers basically as soon as I started tumbling again.   Unfortunately, I have yet to find one in stock ready to ship.   

As such, my first order back in April was for a Lyman 2500 Pro Magnum Turbo case tumbler.  This is a 10lb+ capacity vibe, was $110, and it did a phenomenal job for about the first 200 hours.  Then its sound and rotation pattern shifted suddenly from predominantly outside to center rotation (what some call donut rotation) & pretty loud, to counter-clockwise rotation with very little outside to center movement and not nearly as loud.  Then somewhere between 230 & 240 hours, it died completely.    Taking a close look at this tumbler, there does not appear to be any way to disassemble it for user repairs.  The springs are set about 1/4" deep in epoxy on the base, and on the top. 

It has not been used within the manufacturers guidelines (rocks instead of brass ammo cases) in both wet & dry tumbling, and so does not qualify for warranty service as best I can tell from reading the warranty page, but waiting on a reply from Lyman to verify.  So I may just do a semi-destructive tear down of the base to see if I can swap the motor for a concrete vibrator.... 

Thumler's vibes are still not available, so....  I thought about the Harbor Freight vibe, but then I found an Eastwood vibe.  18lb capacity at less than half the price of a new UV-18 industrial model.  It's an impressive looking vibe, and the base is quite heavy at 20lb 15oz and a total empty weight of 25lbs.  Compared to the Thumler's UV-18 Industrial which the Thumler's website lists as having a total shipping weight of 18lbs, and a 1.6A motor.   Neither company lists the HP of the motors directly, but the Eastwood appears to use a much larger and heavier motor that runs at 1.1A which means it should be more efficient on electricity usage.

Haven't actually used it yet with rocks in it, as I'm letting the epoxy dry where I plugged the bottom drain hole, but running empty, it's significantly quieter than the Lyman was, at least 50% quieter with both vibes empty.   And while the Lyman would send vibrations into the wall that you could sort of feel, the Eastwood shakes the entire wall.  So, looks like I'll have to make a stand-alone work station for this thing to sit on.  Fortunately, I already have a set of steel legs that I can use for that, the steel alone is 95lbs, and the frame is large enough to have 3 of these sitting on it, not that I would ever buy more than 1.  I also have a nice 200mm 12vdc car radiator fan that can push up to 740cfm.  This will be mounted under the tumbler to make sure the vibe motor stays cool.  

Looking at the detailed images of the UV-10 & UV-18 industrial bowls, the UV-18 appears to be almost identical to the Eastwood bowl minus the odd indentions on the sides of the Eastwood, even the same size threaded rod.  So, I've ordered a UV-10 industrial bowl, and if it does work out, then I'll also order the UV-18 industrial bowl as well.  The Eastwood bowl seems fairly decent, and the material is about 3/16" thick, so it should last a really long time.  I will be using it for the polishing stage.   I plan to use the UV-10 bowl (if it works out) for softer specialty rocks that I would never have in huge quantities - Petosky stones, Obsidian, Labradorite, etc.... and the UV-18 bowl for most everything else.

Photos coming soon:

[chaosdsm]

One nice thing about the Eastwood, it came with both abrasive media, and polish media.

7Lbs of tiny green triangles: 
 

Plus 7lbs of very finely ground corn-cob:



There's one thing I don't like so far, the cover plate on the bottom is to solid to allow much airflow.


Fortunately, I have this nice fan to assist in heat dissipation


A look at the top of the base, shows the 5 spring mounting points, and the 4 motor mounting points


The label - that bottom line threw me for a moment


I love the hardware for securing the bowl


And lid


It also has rubber gaskets that sit on the top of the bowl & bottom of the lid (seen as the the wide black line in the image above.  The wide fender washers also have 1/8" thick rubber washers under them, though one fell off of the washer which really isn't an issue.  

There is one other thing that seems odd to me, even though I closed it off with a plug & 2 part epoxy


The drain hole is located up about an inch from the bottom.  Seems like it would be better to have it located further down in the recess to be much closer to the bottom of the bowl - ideally where I put the red dot 


I dumped the contents of my Lyman 2500 bowl into this one, and turned it on.  It's probably a bit under-loaded with only about 9lbs of Petosky stones & corncob media,, but this Eastwood vibe IS significantly quieter than the Lyman was.

Only time will tell, but I think this purchase may end up being a good one!!

[markymark]

Thanks for posting this and can't wait to see how it runs.
I took the harbor freight 5 lb vibe and added the uv-10 bowl, so far so good after approx 8 loads, I did change out the hold down bolt to a slightly thicker and less thread count.
The Eastwood and harbor models look to be exactly alike but the colors. They prob made in the same factory.

[rockbrain]

Tumblers made for brass typically won't hold up very long with rocks. The rocks are a lot heavier and the springs aren't made for that. The bowls typically wear out real quickly too. Raytech tumblers are available, they are designed for rocks, inexpensive for a rock tumbler and have probably the least expensive bowls available for them. They do tend to be a bit loud.

[markymark]

Aug 22, 2024 19:18:16 GMT -5 rockbrain said:

Tumblers made for brass typically won't hold up very long with rocks. The rocks are a lot heavier and the springs aren't made for that. The bowls typically wear out real quickly too. Raytech tumblers are available, they are designed for rocks, inexpensive for a rock tumbler and have probably the least expensive bowls available for them. They do tend to be a bit loud.

.
Yes correct, I have already gone through a couple raytech so decided to go this route. After comparing the two the HF as a larger motor and thicker springs

[chaosdsm]

Aug 22, 2024 18:03:36 GMT -5 markymark said:

Thanks for posting this and can't wait to see how it runs.
I took the harbor freight 5 lb vibe and added the uv-10 bowl, so far so good after approx 8 loads, I did change out the hold down bolt to a slightly thicker and less thread count.
The Eastwood and harbor models look to be exactly alike but the colors. They prob made in the same factory.

Leegol Electric 18lb model too.   I only saw 1 for sure difference and 1 possible difference between the HF & Eastwood, the Chicago Electric at Harbor Freight shows it has a 0.7A motor, and the Eastwood is spec'd with a 1.1A motor.   I didn't have calipers with me to measure, but looking at the display model, the CE also appears to have thinner springs than the Eastwood but it could have just been poor lighting.  

Eastwood is automotive and metal fabrication oriented, so their tumbler is made for removing rust from, & polishing up steel parts like: nuts, bolts, wheel studs & lugs, mounting brackets, etc... so it makes sense that it might come with better motor & springs.  

rockbrain said:

Tumblers made for brass typically won't hold up very long with rocks. The rocks are a lot heavier and the springs aren't made for that. The bowls typically wear out real quickly too. Raytech tumblers are available, they are designed for rocks, inexpensive for a rock tumbler and have probably the least expensive bowls available for them. They do tend to be a bit loud.

I had a coupon from Eastwood from a previous purchase, so the 18lb tumbler ended up about the same price as the Raytech TV-10 from Kingsley North. 

As to the Lyman, it's rated for 10lbs of brass, plus the cleaning/polishing media, and I never had more than 10lbs of total weight in it.  However, I suspect the the Lyman was never intended for runs longer than 4 - 6 hours.   Eastwood at least alludes to a continuous 24 hour runtime when they suggest, in the users manual, that when using polishing media: "typical running time for this media is 6 to 24 hours."

[chaosdsm]

Here it is running: Load in the video is 9.8lbs total weight of Petosky stones, Labradorite, about 2lbs ceramic media filler, and about 4lbs corncob media.  After recording this clip, I added about 2.5lbs additional corncob media which seemed to smooth out the flow.

[chaosdsm]

First test run I did a 2hr test before I found a DC adapter to run the fan.  It never got super hot, but the base of the tumbler was warm to the touch, I'd say around 105F - 110F after the 2 hours.  

I then rigged up a DC power adapter to run the 200mm fan which is a radiator fan for a race car - high performance, high airflow.  The way I had to mount the fan, is the opposite of how it would ideally be mounted.  Fortunately, this fan can be run in either direction, so I just reversed the leads to run the fan in reverse, so it's blowing fresh cool air directly at the motor!

The fan is working wonders   After hooking up the fan and running the vibe for 22 hours straight, the base is still at room temperature    

BTW.... at a full 12Vdc, the fan is noticeably louder than the tumbler.  Fortunately, my DC adapter adjusts in 1.5V increments, so I started at just 7.5V which is a little quieter than the tumbler.  Based on this result, I think I can even drop it to 6V & still have sufficient cooling!

[markymark]

How long will you run the dry corncob mix?
Will you add any dry polish?

[chaosdsm]

Aug 24, 2024 12:19:18 GMT -5 markymark said:

How long will you run the dry corncob mix?
Will you add any dry polish?

I'm just a beginner here especially with the vibratory tumbler, so I'll let the rocks tell me when to move on...   Once they get to a nice consistently smooth feel, then I'll move up to the 1,500 SiC grit, & then to the polish after that.  I saw a pretty decent improvement in the first 22hr run, so I'm thinking the next day or two to move on to the 1500 SiC.

I now have 32lbs of corncob media including the fine corncob that came with the tumbler, so when this batch comes out, I'll put that corncob with the 500 grit SiC in a separate container for re-use later, and put fresh corncob in with the 1500 grit & repeat the process.  I'll save the extra fine corncob that came with the tumbler for the polishing stage.

BTW... anyone know what if there's a specific polish that works best with Petosky / Labradorite ? 

I already have some 12,000 grit AO, as well as 0.3micron Linde-A & some left-over marble polish that has both polish and ultra fine synthetic diamond abrasive in it, though I think the marble polish is supposed to be a wet process powder.   

[chaosdsm]

In preparation to bolt this down to the wood top, I pulled the bottom off the vibe. 

This tumbler definitely has a serious motor on it.  It's almost 4" diameter and about 6inch long without the vibe weights, and has cooling fins all the way around the motor.

User adjustable vibe weights   Not that it need adjusting.

The bottom cover is just fiber reinforced nylon as best I can tell and about 0.1" thick, so I'm just going to cut a replacement out of 1/8" thick piece of black acrylic on my laser cutter with a pattern that will allow about 200% better airflow!

Ran it for 28 hours this time.  With the fan on 6V, the housing was still cool, but the motor was at about 110F ~5 minutes after I shut it off so looks like 7.5V is the magic number for the fan with the stock bottom plate.....

Here's a look at one of the 5 springs, I cannot quite get my calipers up there to do a measurement, but the outer diameter of the springs appears to be about 1 inch which means the spring material would be about 0.165" diameter.  


One really nice aspect of this vibe, everything is bolted together, so the entire thing can be disassembled, fixed, & put back together if/when it comes to that!!!

[markymark]

So your corncob mix is your own version of the diamond pacific vibra dry? I think the vibra dry has diamond powder in the finer grits.

[chaosdsm]

Here's the original base plate:


5 slots for air movement, plus about a 1/2" wide gap between the out side of the plate, and the sides of the base.  Definitely 'serviceable', but not ideal. 


Here's what I came up with overnight as a replacement:

This will allow for at least a 200% improvement in airflow allowing for better cooling from my fan.  

  

[chaosdsm]

Got the new bottom plate cut out....


Perfect size match, but.... I though 1/8" acrylic would be thick enough, it's not... did a simple stress test, used it like a hand held fan it did fine for 5 minutes, then cracked.  So I need to space out the +'s a bit, so I'm also going to make them a little larger, and use 3/16 acrylic sheet instead.   

[pebblesky]

Did you laser cut the plate? Looks great.

[chaosdsm]

Aug 28, 2024 11:21:39 GMT -5 pebblesky said:

Did you laser cut the plate? Looks great.

Yep, cut it on my AtomStack X7 Pro, it's super easy with acrylic sheet, and only took about 1hr 20min.  Of course the important thing is to remember to cut the big circle last!  Learned that the hard way on other laser cutting projects   

[southernlakehuronguy]

Why not just omit the base plate cover. No air flow restriction then.

[nantucketdink]

The mini sonics and vibra sonics can be sourced still. They are more expensive units, but are tough and work well.

[chaosdsm]

Aug 29, 2024 7:07:50 GMT -5 southernlakehuronguy said:

Why not just omit the base plate cover. No air flow restriction then.

While that is true, having no cover would add extra dust into the housing, and might negate the warranty.



As to the Mini-Sonic / Vibra-Sonic... even the Mini-Sonic is more than I would realistically like to spend.  Not to mention 4lb bowl vs 10lb or 18lb bowl.  The Eastwood 18lb tumbler (got a great deal on) + the UV-10 Industrial bowl (which I'm still waiting for) combined were just under $300 after shipping.  About $100 less than the cheapest Mini-Sonic that I've found so far.  That covers a bunch of grit, corncob, & walnut shell media!

[RockNerds]

I got Raytech TV10 to trial, still sitting in the box after a month but going to see how it compares and what i need to change to make it work