ringlord
starting to shine!
Member since May 2015
Posts: 31
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Post by ringlord on Jun 3, 2015 9:21:40 GMT -5
I'm going to be away from home for a while (10 days or so) and figured I should shut down my tumbler (rotary) for safety reasons.
But as I thought about it more, I leave my tumbler unattended all the time -- every day while I'm away at work, at night while I'm sleeping, even short day or weekend trips.
So does it really matter? Most days I just look at the tumbler for two seconds while I walk into or out of the house via the garage. If it caught fire or burst open, it would be hours before I knew about it. In fact, if it's going to catch fire, maybe it's even better if it happens when my family isn't home!
I'm not tumbling anything that creates gas, so I don't have much concern about the barrel popping open.
So what do you do? Any horror stories?
I'm mostly interested in rotary tumblers, but you can talk about vibes too since I'm sure others will want to hear about those.
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Post by captbob on Jun 3, 2015 9:44:57 GMT -5
Not sure vibe units apply here for leaving unattended for long periods of time as the load must be maintained at least daily. Your rotary tumbler should be set in a location where IF it were to spontaneously combust that nothing is close enough to catch fire. This is regardless if whether you are checking on it hourly or leaving it for a week at a time. I don't see a problem leaving a rotary to do it's thing while you are away - as long as it's not sitting up against the floor length draperies in your living room or underneath that old dried out Christmas tree you haven't gotten around to taking down yet.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 3, 2015 9:49:54 GMT -5
vibe tumblers require daily attention so I would not leave that going even for a weekend. The only problem I ever had with leaving a rotary is on my lortone 12 pounders. I have had two issues and both are related to power outages. The first was a power outage that lasted about 8-12 hours and that was enough to cement a whole load of apache tears in 46/70 grit. The second was a quick power surge that stopped the barrel. When the pwer came back to life the tumbler did not have enough strength to turn the barrel so it sat for hours turned on but nothing was moving. A quick push of the barrel and it was going again but the motor was so hot I could not touch it at all.
Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
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Post by jamesp on Jun 3, 2015 10:02:11 GMT -5
If it is a watery load of agate in course I would leave it going. Power outages with dirty slurry will sure concrete up causing problems.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 3, 2015 10:13:18 GMT -5
If it is a watery load of agate in course I would leave it going. Power outages with dirty slurry will sure concrete up causing problems. yep, I have turned off a tumbler for a couple days and restarted with no issues with normal agates and jaspers but apache tears in 46/70 creates thick mud quick and the power outage turned it into a conglomerate that was hard to bust up and trashed the a good portion of the load in the process.
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Post by captbob on Jun 3, 2015 10:53:55 GMT -5
If you're worried about a power outage and coming home to a barrel of fancy cement, I guess you gotta play the odds. Kinda sounds like most everything else in life.
Leave it run in a secure location - or - shut it down, do a clean out and leave the rocks sitting in water until you get home and can do a reload and start running again.
< insert smiley face thing flipping a coin here >
Personally, if I were leaving for 10 days, I would be more worried about shutting off the water to the house (ever had a pipe break while you weren't home?) than shutting down the tumbler. Although, I'm anal enough that I'd probably do both so that I'd have more time to worry about how long it's going to take that 15 year old punk that lives a few houses down to figure out that I'm out of town.
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ringlord
starting to shine!
Member since May 2015
Posts: 31
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Post by ringlord on Jun 3, 2015 12:03:54 GMT -5
captbob, I do shut off the water to the house every time I leave more than a couple days! I'm that paranoid. Plus, my brother had a pipe burst while he was gone for a week, and it was one of the worst things I've ever seen. Furniture swollen and cracked, mildew everywhere. Bad.
I rarely have power outages, so I'll likely try my luck and leave a load running. Hard to give up a good 10 days of tumbling!
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Post by 150FromFundy on Jun 3, 2015 18:20:33 GMT -5
When I get busy, I sometimes leave my Thumler rotary tumblers running for two and three weeks with no attention and have left them for a week while on vacation with no problems. The Thumler has a thermal shutdown on the motor. If things get too hot the motor shuts down.
Darryl.
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riverrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2010
Posts: 1,395
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Post by riverrock on Jun 3, 2015 20:17:50 GMT -5
The only time I turn mine off are when I don,t have any grit . 24 days 7 days a week for 5 years now . And I have never turned my water off when I go away. If any thing happens . I will say that I guess someone broke in and turned the water back on . Plus the rabbits like the warmth they create and live under the shed.
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rastageezer
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 169
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Post by rastageezer on Jun 4, 2015 0:07:31 GMT -5
Be safe! Clean out the tumblers and turn them off if you're going away for extended periods of time. The rocks will be there when you get back.
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Post by orrum on Jun 4, 2015 10:59:54 GMT -5
Chuck my 12 pound Lortone won't start up when the power goes off. It's thunder season now and I think I will have to shut it off. I tried adjusting the belt and always keep it lubed.
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Jun 4, 2015 11:03:22 GMT -5
Chuck my 12 pound Lortone won't start up when the power goes off. It's thunder season now and I think I will have to shut it off. I tried adjusting the belt and always keep it lubed. My 12 lb lortones do the same if power goes off.Have to spin by hand to get going. snuffy
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Post by captbob on Jun 4, 2015 11:41:09 GMT -5
Do ya'll clean your belt and pulley? I have Thumler's units, so I don't know if Lortone is the same; but on a Thumler's, the drive belt (and therefore the pulley) get oily. I'm guessing from where the drive roller gets oiled near the pulley.
Anyway, I use Q-tips to regularly (at least weekly) clean both or the belt can start to slip. Run the Q-tip in the groove of the pulley and hold it against the bottom of the belt as it's running. Q-tips always come away black = oily.
I think the Lortone units are enclosed (?) so it may not be as easy to clean, but it might be worth checking.
Our power goes off quite frequently compared to most places I suppose as Tampa Bay seems to get more than it's fair share of lightning storms. My Thumbler's always start rotating again by themselves - as long as the belt/pulley is clean. And I'm running a lot heavier loads than a Lortone 12.
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Post by MrP on Jun 4, 2015 20:35:33 GMT -5
I set my tumblers up on a relay that drops out when the power goes out. The tumblers will not start up again unless I push a momentary start button. I set this up because I lost a motor once when the power went out and came back on...............MrP
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 4, 2015 20:46:41 GMT -5
I set my tumblers up on a relay that drops out when the power goes out. The tumblers will not start up again unless I push a momentary start button. I set this up because I lost a motor once when the power went out and came back on...............MrP I wondered if there was a store bought option for doing that exact thing. Was yours home brewed or store bought? Chuck
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Post by MrP on Jun 5, 2015 5:30:41 GMT -5
I set my tumblers up on a relay that drops out when the power goes out. The tumblers will not start up again unless I push a momentary start button. I set this up because I lost a motor once when the power went out and came back on...............MrP I wondered if there was a store bought option for doing that exact thing. Was yours home brewed or store bought? Chuck It is homemade. Used a double pole relay, ran the coil wire through 1 contact, put a momentary switch inline with the hot to the coil. When you operate the momentary switch it picks up the relay which is then held in by the contact being closed to the coil. When the power goes off the relay drops out and has to be reset manually. It has worked twice for me. I only use it for rotary tumbles because a vibe will always restart after a power outage.....................................MrP
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