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Post by entrerh9 on Feb 23, 2006 15:41:45 GMT -5
Hello, Folks;
For those of us still doing it "small time" with the little tumblers with the red, plastic barrels that are designed for 8 oz. of rock at a time, here's some ideas for improving their life span and sound characteristics.
Purchase some inexpensive 2-part plastic epoxy and use this to fill in and level off on the outside of the barrels where the inner bevels are. This is the area where the rocks quickly wear a hole through, and I've found that the epoxy is waterproof and very durable. It'll take them rocks a long, long time to wear the whole way through all that hardened epoxy!
After the epoxy is fully hardened, tightly seal the entire lower 3/4 outsides of the barrels with duct tape. This furthur reinforces the epoxy but the main reason to do this is to sound-proof the barrels better. It really quiets down the tumbling sounds.
The lids on these cheap barrels often don't want to seal properly. The solution is surprisingly simple and durable. Thoroughly dry the areas involved, and then tightly wrap 1/2"width to 3/4"width clear, cheap tape the whole way around the perimeter of the top outside of the barrel about twice. The lid will seal nicely and will not leak, and under the lid's pressure, the water cannot undo the cheap tape's stickyness. Also, the tape is rather smooth and slick, and so there is no need to oil or grease the rims. The lid will attach and detach with relative ease and firmness.
>R.H.E.
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Post by rocklicker on Feb 24, 2006 19:20:28 GMT -5
Somebody gave me a few of those tumblers a while back. I don't use that type, so if you would like them you can have them for free. I would be glad to send them to you. I don't need them and would like to see them go to someone who could use them. If interested, drop me a PM.
Steve
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Post by Jack ( Yorkshire) on Feb 25, 2006 5:11:19 GMT -5
Hi RHE,
I use a spoon shank to put the tops back on if they are tight
Put one side of the top on the barrel , then stick the spoon in and push down on the rest of the lid as you move the spoon round till it clicks over then push fully down all round take spoon out .
Jack
Yorkshire Uk
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jrtrio
has rocks in the head
With10 tumblers tumbling the sound is so delicious!Send me more of those little red fellas, please?
Member since February 2006
Posts: 535
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Post by jrtrio on Apr 20, 2006 7:58:13 GMT -5
I don't seem to be having the problems that you are with the lids of my barrels. After all some of the barrels even come with arrows to help line up the tongues and the grooves. And if I'm having trouble with one lid and barrel combo I'll switch them out for a different lid. Then I usually don't have any more problems. It also might help that I'm using 9 barrels. 3 for coarse, 3 for fine, and 3 for polish. I'm also getting another batch of barrels from someone who no longer uses the little guys but doesn't want to throw them away. They know I'll give them a good home and will put them to use. So, now I'll have a few more new barrels to work into the mix! Maybe enough for 3 Coarse, 3 fine, 3 pre-polish, and 3 polish? I hope so! Talk about making my life easier! Plus I'm getting in my new "Tamper Resistant" screwdrivers so I'll be able to open up all the different machines. No more having to dump a machine because it's motor died, or it's drive belt is slipping (I find when I have opened an old machine that there was a TON of grit from unplugged leaks in the bottom of the machie that causes the slipping. The new screwdriver bits will save more machines now!
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Just an update. I have more barrels then I know what to do with, which is great! A total of 14 barrels, which means a little less clean up time needed so there's a faster turnover time. I have 5 total machines up and running and buying another machine later today to give me 5 of the 8oz machines and one 3# machine. I'm trying to tumble as much rough as I can before the really hot months get here in North Carolina which will shut down my tumbling in the garage. The temperature changes really play havoc with the hard plastic barrels. Contracting at night when it get's cooler and expanding during the day when it's much hotter. That's when they become just a little messy no matter what you do to them short of sealing them shut with cement! And that I just won't do. It's kind of easy to tell which tumblers are used for the coarse stage the fine stage and the pre-polish and polish just by looking inside! Some are a little darker than the others! But, using Comet for my wash cycles really does keep them clean. And that's what is recommended to use. The little bit of bleach that is in the cleanser doesn't have any affect at all. And like I said after washing the barrel and the stones of the load with it they come out almost as clean as the day I got them. And some of them become cleaner than the day I got them!;-) But, since the little guys are a "little noisy" to take inside during the hot day/cool night period of the beginning of summer I won't be able to take them inside to continue to tumble. So, I'll just be tumbling with the 3# Thumler inside while I'm learning/doing the Wire Sculpture. More of the learning part I'm afraid. But, maybe these pudgy fingers will be able to handle the wire wrap biz of stones. And then when both the days AND the nights are really hot then I'll be able to start tumbling again since there won't be any fluctuation of the temperature for a couple of months until the end of summer when the cool nights come back. But, that's the way summers go here in North Carolina. Hot days, cool nights. Then hot days with hot nights. Then it's back to Hot days and cool nights again! Then it's all over when fall hits with cool days and cool nights. After those couple of days of fall and then those couple of weeks of Winter it's back to good old spring!
I'm kidding of course. But, that's the way it feels sometimes. But, if the temperatures stay close to each other during the day and the nights I can tumble with the little red guys. And since they aren't that expensive to replace why go through all that additional expense trying to make the barrels last a little bit longer. If they get holes in them (which I have yet to see) I can always order up another set of 4 with lids and "o" rings are just $9.95. So, to deal with a little leak between the lid and the barrel? Vaseline does the job until the slurry does it from the inside. And what amazes me about them is their little motors. I've never burned out one myself but the machines that I've opened up to take out burned out motors for friends is that they've had a major leak and water and grit have damaged the motor and there is nothing to do but replace the motor or rebuild it with parts from the other machines I have just for that purpose.
Now I want to thank those people again here in public, who have given me machines and extra barrels with no thought of getting anything in return except that great feeling of helping out someone else. Rocklicker, you are "The Man" in generosity. Thank you so much for sending me those machines with no thought of making money off of them. And I would have bought them from you. But, you were more concerned with giving them a good home. And I have to say you don't have to worry about them any more. They have plenty to eat!! A great variety! Plenty of "roughage" And they get regular baths after each stage in tumbling. None of this "Ahhhh do I have to? I'll only get dirty again!" And Inflight22 sent me her machine with a surprise gift of 8oz of Sodalite inside the barrel! Man what a nice person she is! Again, no thought of money! Generosity and kindness is all I've found here at the RTH family. And even after I found out that my dad was being treated for cancer Cher was kind enough to send a box of rocks that just blew me away that day. Really needed a pick me up that day and amazingly her package came on that day! Someone was looking out for me that day. Plus I want to thank all the other people for sending me rocks, barrels for the 8oz machines, machines themselves that need fixing and a couple that didn't. Some I've been able to get into service but a couple I wasn't able to. And that's the bummer. But, as long as I can continue tumbling with them I feel really blessed. Thank you guys. Thank you for sending this little Jewels to me and all the kindness you've shown me in the past. I hope to "pay it forward" very soon. Bless each and every one of you!
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lithrick
no posts
Member since July 2006
Posts: 0
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Post by lithrick on May 1, 2006 15:46:42 GMT -5
A little while back I patched up the inside of one of my grit-stage grinding 8oz. barrels with that 2-part 2-ton epoxy stuff that I wrote about earlier. I only used it in the general areas where holes were beginning to form. After tumbling a load for a while through its pre-grit stage, I noticed that where there was epoxy, the inside of the barrel remained as perfectly clean and shiny as when I first applied the epoxy. Where the regular red plastic was exposed, it took on a very dirty dinge from a particularly nasty piece of slag that is in with this load. It may be worthwhile to coat the entire inside of the barrel with this epoxy as the dirt/grit simply will not/can not stick to it! This reminds me of the old tongue-in-cheek question that goes like this: "If nothing sticks to teflon, how do they get it to stick to the pan?".  |
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lithrick
no posts
Member since July 2006
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Post by lithrick on Jun 1, 2006 13:08:09 GMT -5
Hhmmffff! My so called "8oz. barrell improvements" aren't living up to what I billed them. The "two-ton-epoxy" I lined parts of the interior of the barrel with was easily eaten through by tumbling rocks. Also, it does not adhere very well to the outside of the barrell in the little triangular shaped troughs. Once a hole is eaten through the barrel wall (always at the top of one of those "triangular points"), the liquid just seeps out between the outer barrel wall and the epoxy plug. Were it not for the outer lining of duct tape, the plugs would probably just fall right out.
I'm not going to keep buying barrel after barrel. I've about had it with these little toy tumblers; time to move up to better equipment. Jrtrio, are you listening?
I've thought about trying one last ditch effort with JB-Weld. That stuff is purported to be indestructable. Still, the aggravation of uncertain experimentation and the limitations of a little 8oz. barrel may make me decide to not bother. I think a dual, 3lb. barrel Lortorne may be the way to go. One barrel for rough, one barrel for polish. Also, these Heinz 57 loads have to stop. I'll never get good results with such overly-mixed loads.
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wades
starting to spend too much on rocks
Gottfried Reiche (1667-1734)
Member since February 2006
Posts: 202
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Post by wades on Jun 1, 2006 17:38:10 GMT -5
I've thought about trying one last ditch effort with JB-Weld. That stuff is purported to be indestructable. JB-Weld is miracle stuff, but I wouldn't guess that it would be good for repairing tumbler barrels. Your barrels are probably polypropylene, and nothing sticks very well to that. Also, while JB-Weld has a really high tensile strength, I doubt that its abrasion resistance is very good, and it's kind of brittle. |
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lithrick
no posts
Member since July 2006
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Post by lithrick on Jun 2, 2006 12:58:21 GMT -5
Thanks for the insight on JB-Weld, Wades. It sounds like even it may not be up to the task.
I removed the outer wraps from that barrel last night and examined the epoxy plugs. They had actually held up against the abrasion well, but they had seperated from the plastic (like you said, nothing sticks to that stuff very well) and were allowing water to seep out underneath and around them. I cleaned everything up and reattached the plugs with lots of super-glue, and then rewrapped (i.e., re-taped them with duct tape) them thoroughly. The barrel is once again in service and leak free, but for how long?
Next time I create the epoxy plugs, I will gently squeeze the barrel to pop them out after they have set up good and then thoroughly reattach them with super-glue. Also, if I rough up the plastic and epoxy first, the glue should create a much better bond.
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