Post by rocklicker on Jan 14, 2009 2:36:00 GMT -5
Some may remember my good ol home-built tumber. It's been faithfully running for about 4 years and made many pounds of polished rocks. With new barrels in my near future, I decided to rebuild to give it more room for them. I built it on the same principle as the last one... build it like a tank. Here's the old one (big one on the left):
I had to get all new bearings and pulleys to accomodate the larger shaft size. I used superstrut for the frame...aka erector sets for adults. It's great for building just about anything, you don't have to weld anything, the strut and fititngs are commonly available, and it's stronger than snot. I built the tumbler around a metal table and was able to bolt everything on. Here's the initial stages... laying all the parts out. Not that complicated:
Here's the finished tumbler:
End view showing metal table it's built around:
Top view:
Motor and mounting shelf:
Barrel guide. In order to get 2.5 barrels on, things had to be cut close:
Another shot of barrel guide, pulley,etc. This sucker looks mean!:
The shafts were increased from 1/2 inch to 5/8 inches in diameter. There's also just enough room for 2 large barrels and one short one! The motor is the same 1/6hp motor from the previous tumbler. I may have to increase it to 1/4hp with extra barrels. The main pulley is 10 5/8 inches around and the smaller is 1.5 inches. With the hose covering the shafts, it puts the barrel RPM at 22RPM, right where I wanted it. All that was just by accident too! It's already off and running with a batch of agates and once again the comforting faint sound of tumbling fills the air.
Steve
I had to get all new bearings and pulleys to accomodate the larger shaft size. I used superstrut for the frame...aka erector sets for adults. It's great for building just about anything, you don't have to weld anything, the strut and fititngs are commonly available, and it's stronger than snot. I built the tumbler around a metal table and was able to bolt everything on. Here's the initial stages... laying all the parts out. Not that complicated:
Here's the finished tumbler:
End view showing metal table it's built around:
Top view:
Motor and mounting shelf:
Barrel guide. In order to get 2.5 barrels on, things had to be cut close:
Another shot of barrel guide, pulley,etc. This sucker looks mean!:
The shafts were increased from 1/2 inch to 5/8 inches in diameter. There's also just enough room for 2 large barrels and one short one! The motor is the same 1/6hp motor from the previous tumbler. I may have to increase it to 1/4hp with extra barrels. The main pulley is 10 5/8 inches around and the smaller is 1.5 inches. With the hose covering the shafts, it puts the barrel RPM at 22RPM, right where I wanted it. All that was just by accident too! It's already off and running with a batch of agates and once again the comforting faint sound of tumbling fills the air.
Steve
