shop tumbler.

[1950T]

anyone ever built a shop tumbler from a steel or poly drum? ive been toying with the idea of building one to tumble burnish/polish forged items and horseshoes and such. anyone have any ideas? the local welding shop has one made from a cub rear old beer keg and a 3/4 hp electric motor with a pitman drive. its a noisy ******* tho

 

[wvpolekat]

It wouldn't be hard to do. I don't think there is any way around it being noisy. Once place I worked, we had a wheel abrader which basically was a tumbler made of expanded metal with a wheel under it that threw steel shot at it. That sucker was NOISY.

Not sure what speed you would want it to turn, but I would guess that once you spin it fast enough to be effective, it will be noisy. Perhaps you could wrap the drum in insulation of some sort or spray it with bedliner to lessen the drum effect.

 

[1950T]

dosnt need to turn insanely fast. 40-50 r's a min should be more than enough. material removal isant the goal here. tumbling media will be extruded ceramic triangles in green grit and walnut shells.

 

[forgeblast]

go around and see if anyone is throwing away an old dryer.....perfect set up put it on no heat and you are good to go...just check on the size of the holes if there are any in the tub, and buy the next size up ball bearing. I saw some people who tumble silver jewerly to add a nice finish to it.

 

[jbooth]

Just use a cement mixer and sand. Tried this years ago to clean out a cement mixer that was caked in dried cement. Threw some chunks of scrap iron in and it cleaned the mixer and the scrap iron. Don't know about the durability as I didn't use it all that much. It was noisy also.

 

[Willl]

Some time ago I met a guy that was into rock polishing. For his tumbler, he used an electric cement mixer.

Maybe this might work for you ?

 

[CBW1999]

Depending on what you want to polish or clean, a 1 gallon plastic bucket with snap on lid up through the 5 gallon size can be purchased at a hardware store usually.

Rig up a small motor to turn the "drum" on some simple rollers- add some baffles inside to allow the contents to 'tumble" and it should work.

I've been playing with this idea to clean up magnetic screw driver tips that get rusty, along with smaller parts and tools. Harbor Freight sells different media, including the ceramic cones- at a reasonable price.

The RPM doesn't need to be fast- the friction of the media against the objects is what does the polishing.

 

[SPIKER]

Look around at used equipment sellers there are often vibratory polishers for sale. Seeing one work will let you know how much it really takes to shake & clean parts.

Mark

 

[chainsawnut]

Where I used to work a toy factory one of the fellows had a cement mixer removed the baffles and used stick it type sandpaper discs stuck them to the perimeter of the drum.The one we had was a 44 gallon drum with home made wooden pulleys rigged to a small motor used to throw all the offcuts in and all the old sandpaper as well made great kids building blocks.Finish off chuck in a couple of bocks of beeswax and let it tumble

 

[czechsonofagun]

Here is some inspiration for you:

Rock Tumbling Hobby - tire tumblers that ive built and used....

Kreigh's Homemade Lapidary Equipment

Rock Tumbling -- My 31" Truck Tire Rock Tumbler

 

[CBW1999]

Those are some neat tumblers!
Although I do not (yet?) collect rocks and such, the thought of building an over sized tumbler to clean up the occasional load of small parts and such- is too much temptation to resist. :laughing:

Although I will restrain myself and start with a smaller (165 series) tire as the tumbling barrel, I am sure at some point, I will need to make it bigger

I'll post some pics while I work on it.

 

[1950T]

ive settled on a design i do belive. gonna take the basic idea of the tumbler at the welding shop and change it some to suit my self. first its gonna be wood framed from rough cut oak left from timber framing my blacksmith shop. got a rear from a cub 70 laying behind the shop that transfer power between the electric motor and drum. the drum will be 40gal steel drum and ill take the head off and weld in 4 peices of angle on the inside. weld my axles in then weld the head on. im gonna cut a 12x24 hold in the drum and make a door/window out of 1/2in lexan that bolts on.

motor will be direct drive to the cub rear and belt and pully drive to the drum. i think its a pretty sound design. rotational speed can be changed via the 3spd rear.