Post by willz0072002 on Nov 3, 2024 10:23:47 GMT -5
Newb and fully addicted.
Hi guys, so I've gotten a lot of good information and have been lurking. My dad was a geophysicist but I never learned anything about geology from him unfortunately. And now after finding rocks in Washington state that gave me the sickness, I have been traveling with my fiance across the country. She's a travel nurse and I've been rock hounding the whole time for the last 8 months.
I've collected all over the country most recently Florida and now I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota finding fossils and agates and all the things.
I'm going to Hit you all with with an inquiry here in the new members area. I will move it or change it if I have to but here it goes. Ty in advance for reading!
I currently have a vevor 5 lb single barrel tumbler and a good old Chicago electric double barrel that I got cheap.
I then bought a brand new only used once vibratory tumbler it's a 5 lb barrel made by Central machinery. Of course just like the lady that I bought it from did, And everyone else I've seen tried to do this including myself, attempt to put water and rocks in it. (I like to challenge any type of sticker warnings on things) I ran it after tightening all of the bolts that had come loose from her one-time use.
Alas, it made some awesome progress in the 3 hours it was loudly running! . I'd never used the vibratory before And have been enamored with the idea of two times faster turnarounds on these stages. After 3 hours though I heard a racked in the closet and of course the lid came loose and splattered everywhere.
Hi guys, so I've gotten a lot of good information and have been lurking. My dad was a geophysicist but I never learned anything about geology from him unfortunately. And now after finding rocks in Washington state that gave me the sickness, I have been traveling with my fiance across the country. She's a travel nurse and I've been rock hounding the whole time for the last 8 months.
I've collected all over the country most recently Florida and now I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota finding fossils and agates and all the things.
I'm going to Hit you all with with an inquiry here in the new members area. I will move it or change it if I have to but here it goes. Ty in advance for reading!
I currently have a vevor 5 lb single barrel tumbler and a good old Chicago electric double barrel that I got cheap.
I then bought a brand new only used once vibratory tumbler it's a 5 lb barrel made by Central machinery. Of course just like the lady that I bought it from did, And everyone else I've seen tried to do this including myself, attempt to put water and rocks in it. (I like to challenge any type of sticker warnings on things) I ran it after tightening all of the bolts that had come loose from her one-time use.
Alas, it made some awesome progress in the 3 hours it was loudly running! . I'd never used the vibratory before And have been enamored with the idea of two times faster turnarounds on these stages. After 3 hours though I heard a racked in the closet and of course the lid came loose and splattered everywhere.
I'm determined to make this unit work for better or worse.
After watching some YouTubes that were less than informative, except for if gleaned some insight into the physics of these units. This is led me to some ideas that I am pursuing today.
So I want to tumble some rocks immediately and I have so many I need to catch up on, I'm doing a quick fix and shoring up this bowl so I can do a batch tonight.
res.cloudinary.com/forum-rocktumblinghobby-com/raw/upload/v1730647306/kyrvsmowy7ookqkmx6m2
My first thought was to line the bowl I currently have with rubber matting. Then beef up the weak points in the system which is use thread lock on the the non-thread locked bolts holding the rod to the bowl the hole in the bowl itself etc. And the screw heads that are exposed underneath the bowl mat that could allow for seepage of slurry to get into it will be sealed with silicone then another rubber mat glued to it.
res.cloudinary.com/forum-rocktumblinghobby-com/raw/upload/v1730647306/kyrvsmowy7ookqkmx6m2
My first thought was to line the bowl I currently have with rubber matting. Then beef up the weak points in the system which is use thread lock on the the non-thread locked bolts holding the rod to the bowl the hole in the bowl itself etc. And the screw heads that are exposed underneath the bowl mat that could allow for seepage of slurry to get into it will be sealed with silicone then another rubber mat glued to it.
Then adding redundant rubber gaskets everywhere in between every connection point, reinforce the center portion of the bowl from the outside by putting a sleeve in and filling in with epoxy reinforced, adding a metal sleeve so the bowl isn't vibrating in contact with the threaded rod coming up through the center. (I even thought about putting the entire bowl in a industrial waterproof bag and attaching it back to the tumbler in case of a vibratory mishap.)
The issue I have not worked out yet at this point is how to line the inside of the bowl. It seems the most contact with the plastic is at the very bottom aunt along the lower portion of that area that rises up through the center. While it may be a bit more difficult to clean slurry from with cut pieces overlaid somehow on the inside, I think it would work until I can pursue other modifications which are below. I did try to draw an exploded pattern do you have the rubber fit inside? Snugly and do the math myself, but it was proven to be beyond my high school algebra educated brain to figure out.
So I am gluing a circular piece into the bottom, followed by overlapping slightly smaller strips to line the sides. One underneath each next for the center and same with the outer edge of the bowl going up about 3/4 of the way. I'm doing that now.
After this temporary fix, I intend to order a bowl that seems to almost be a direct fit that works, plug, and play and has a clear lid off of Amazon for about $35.
My next step and one that I am inquiring after all this is- I haven't seen anyone suspend the entire unit Which I believe could mitigate all of the issues that people have had in using these and increased the efficiency of it, the longevity and reduce the sound/vibration coming from it so that it could be used inside.
The things I've seen reported before is failure of the motor due to being overworked with that weight of media and rocks in a bowl that's not designed for it either. The noise, And the bowl disintegrating.
I would like to build a frame in my closet and have some steel lines that in a 10 point Suspension setup. I'm going to try simply two at first top and bottom with trampoline springs inline as a possibility.
If that has undesired effects I think running 8 lines in a 4 cornered frame with two main additional lines (10 total) the 2 main lines will be coming from the top of the bowl and the bottom of the unit running up and down, The other eight lines will be running to the four corners of the frame I'm building. (the top four lines will be attached to the base below the bowl,and the bottom four lines attached to the bottom lip of the base of the unit)
I think that having the ability to adjust the tension in which it's held could yield some if nothing else, interesting, benefits. I think by doing this it would greatly change its center of gravity allowing the whole unit to vibrate rather than it being based on the ground where the throw of the bowl is currently quite a lot resulting in a more violent tumble as the swing of the action is much wider with the bowl being so far from the counterweight below it.
I saw a video where a gentleman moved the counterweight up closer to the base of the bowl by flipping the motor and modifying the counterweight. I'd assume just flip the entire unit upside down for that matter to see if that makes a difference. I'd like a much higher frequency, tighter vibration, for polishing but I'd also like to be able to still have the option to go back and forth between the two.
I also think suspending it would also remove alot of resistance from the motor allowing it to run more efficiently and at a higher rate.
I think it could be much quieter as well.
Another thing I'm curious like for input on is maybe adding weights (gym weights I have) while it's suspended as well to the base? What do you think this would do to the Dynamics of the setup?
Thoughts? Speculation? Reference material to lead me somewhere? Ty in advance.will
