julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 17:40:26 GMT -5
Click on the photo and you'll see a short video clip. I built this little dandy after I spent some time in a working opal mine in Lightning ridge. This works well for separating nobbies from kaolinite clay, but it's not so slick for general rock tumbling.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 17:43:51 GMT -5
This is a 46" x 20" tire, and it works well, but tends to spill filler rock and grit pretty badly out the sides.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 17:45:53 GMT -5
Oh Yeah, you have to click on the picture, and it will take you to the video, which takes a few moments to buffer and start running.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 17:50:41 GMT -5
Here is the big tire tumble revision 2 - I cut chamfered disks out of plywood, and used a threaded rod with wing-nuts to tighten the chamfered edges into the bead of the tire rim. Note the V8 soda pop can at the end of the video, to get a sense of the size of things. This is a special large tire that is typical of the front tires of a large cement mixer truck.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 18:32:31 GMT -5
I had to wrap a cross-section of inner-tube to each end of the 5 gal bucket, to get it to turn on the hex shaped driver spindles. This was a forgettable effort, with the rubber bands not holding up for more than several hours. dismal failure.....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 30, 2009 18:35:35 GMT -5
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drjo
fully equipped rock polisher
Honduran Opal & DIY Nut
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,581
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Post by drjo on Oct 30, 2009 20:22:10 GMT -5
Cool! and you never got a batch out of these?
Dr Joe
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NDK
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 9,440
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Post by NDK on Oct 30, 2009 23:24:53 GMT -5
Nice machines, and awesome videos.
Thanks for sharing!
Nate
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adrian65
Cave Dweller
Arch to golden memories and to great friends.
Member since February 2007
Posts: 10,789
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Post by adrian65 on Oct 31, 2009 0:05:34 GMT -5
With such monster tumblers, your home must be full of stones! Do you have any finished tumbled rocks? What's the max. size of them?
Adrian
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 2:52:27 GMT -5
Oh, I have a lot of rocks laying around to be sure! With the monster tire tumbler, I mostly just ran big rough cobbles in #10 grit, which cuts really fast, and skins the oxidation off rocks in a hurry!! This is expecially important with west coast jaspers, which tend to be rusty looking, and hard to read, until they have spent a nite in the tire tumbler. Ive never run anything bigger than about 20lb cobbles in it. I guess football sized or so. Mostly from there, I slab up the pretty cobbles, for cabbing, and the rest just kinda make their way to the various rock gardens around the house. I also have a 65T tumbler from diamond pacific, which can handle most rocks, but Ive only taken stones out to a satin finish in that thing. I need to get a good batch of smoothies to justify the purchase of a second 65T barrel, which is fairly pricey... I want to use a proper media to cushion the polish cycle in the 65t barrel, its too heavy to roll properly if you fill it with agates for your tumbling media, and if you dont fill it up, its too rough on the stones, and they get dinged up instead of polishing. Ive been cracking walnuts, to get a nice load of walnut shells to cushion the stones.... LOL
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 3:06:37 GMT -5
BTW, as has been mentioned on other posts, the tire tumbler will do a good job shaping your rocks, but you cant get the full use out of your grit before the sludge gets too milkshakey, and the stones get a bit rounded. After that the big stones would rather slide back down the well of the tire, than roll down in the desired manner. after 2 days or so, you have to muck it all out, rinse out your grit, and start over, after removing all the smooth tumbled stones, that are ready to move on to 60-90 in the next tumbler. Could you imagine storing a set of these tires, one for each phase of tumbling? Also the sealed bearings in my pillow blocks tend to get polish contaminated and wear out fairly rapidly. This is due to the slurry that seeps out of my tire during tumbling. This tumbler generates so much heat, that its like a sauna in that little soundproof room after an overnite tumble. No problems running this system in the dead of winter......
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