jamesp
Cave Dweller
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Post by jamesp on Sept 15, 2016 20:45:41 GMT -5
10 grey couplings for $82 incl shipping on Ebay. 6" to 4" bushings from Lowes. End caps from Amazon. Grey electrical coupling a good bit shorter than white plumbing coupling. Cheaper too. See comparison lower right. Bushing fills about half of grey coupling. Must grind off hex on bushing. So tumbling volume is in the end cap and 1/2 of grey coupling. Guessing 7 pound capacity. See assembled barrel lower center. Green pipe is SDR 35 with a gap cut so that it will fit and close gap. To sleeve entire length. It fits inside dirty pipe on left. Dirty pipe not cut to length yet. This slows the inner pipe wearing thin and splitting at end cap/grey bushing contact. End cap will have more PVC attached some how to prevent center wearing out. quartz I decided to go with std caps. Cost about 8.20 + 16 + 12 + pipe and glue each. Life estimated 4 years running 24/7 with SiC 30. This is a quart of PVC cement. I mean solvent, cement
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Post by orrum on Sept 16, 2016 6:54:02 GMT -5
Nice Jim. I use a 4 inch similar to that on my double 3 # lortone tumbler frame. It's very effective and very noisy! LOL I used a wing nut style inspection cap and it is hard to get off because the smalls wedge between the rubber gasket and the side wall. I let the bolt fall thru and take the top half off and then I can see the tiny smalls jamming the bottom plastic piece. Then just punch them out a few at a time with a flat screwdriver. I think the flat end tumbles better than the bigger version with the 6 inch to 4 inch telescoping reducer with a cap style rubber inspection cover. I think the rocks up in the neck down don't have much grit action.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 16, 2016 7:08:32 GMT -5
Nice Jim. I use a 4 inch similar to that on my double 3 # lortone tumbler frame. It's very effective and very noisy! LOL I used a wing nut style inspection cap and it is hard to get off because the smalls wedge between the rubber gasket and the side wall. I let the bolt fall thru and take the top half off and then I can see the tiny smalls jamming the bottom plastic piece. Then just punch them out a few at a time with a flat screwdriver. I think the flat end tumbles better than the bigger version with the 6 inch to 4 inch telescoping reducer with a cap style rubber inspection cover. I think the rocks up in the neck down don't have much grit action. So the 4 inch works well. Never tried it. If doing cabs I would have a 4 inch for delicate tumbling. 4 inch is sure cheaper too. I know what you mean about the 4 inch reducer area. I thought about sticking a rubber plug in the 4 inch pipe. Or screwing it to the rubber cap to fill the 4 inch void. Odd, the 3 year old 6 inch PVC barrels-2 had worn thru at the 4 inch pipe. They were worn all over. But I did have 2 breach at the 4 inch pipe before the 6 inch pipe were in half. I have seen people using the test plugs w/good results.
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Post by orrum on Sept 16, 2016 7:34:05 GMT -5
I think the rubber or wood plug for the small reducer area is a great idea!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 16, 2016 8:19:09 GMT -5
I think the rubber or wood plug for the small reducer area is a great idea! Wood would do it. May 'integrate' your suggestion. Full Definition of integrate integrated integrating transitive verb 1 : to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole : unite 2 : to find the integral of (as a function or equation) 3 a : to unite with something else b : to incorporate into a larger unit Sorry Bill, I get carried away with words. A landscape architect in Spokane ordered a custom fire pit last night. I described his request for the contractural agreement: "42 inch fire pit with 3/4 inch solid legs setting center of bottom of bowl tangentially contacting floor, legs mounted at 120 degrees at 45 degree slant, 12 inches radially out from center." Mouthful of BS eh ?
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Sept 17, 2016 10:55:25 GMT -5
Mass producing this bunch of small barrels for doing 2-4 pound stones. Note hack cuts on green internal wear rings(ACME part no. 4351). Green sleeve slides down and glued at coupling/end cap intersection for added thickness when inner pipe wears out. This end cap will be slid down and glued in place to butt up to coupling The end cap will be last thing glued on. It wears out first in the center where the finger is pointing. Will figure a fix later. To reinforce this area. Need to cut some 4 inch PVC pipe for the open end. Been cutting the 6 inch pipe with a 14 inch abrasive cut off saw for square cuts. Works well.
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jamesp
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Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Sept 17, 2016 14:59:40 GMT -5
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
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Post by huskeric on Sept 20, 2016 16:58:51 GMT -5
jamesp , Very well done, indeed. I don't know if this would appeal to you at all, but you could potentially line that with a Fernco rubber fitting instead of the PVC. I defer to your wisdom, 1,000x over my own, especially where it comes to making barrels, but I glued some shims of one into my homemade barrel (had to use Krazy Glue, even though PVC cement *should* work) and they help to tumble and cushion the rocks. I will edit this later with a pic. Here is the aforementioned coupling from my aborted initial attempt: I cut it into strips. I tried to "shave it down" on the back side so it was smooth, it could have gone better.... Not perfect, but you get the idea...
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 22, 2016 4:13:59 GMT -5
huskeric, I have had trouble with glue in PVC construction. The only bond I could ever succeeded at was PVC cement. I guess it is a solvent bond and melts the PVC to 'weld' it. So using PVC cement to attach PVC to PVC is the only way I could get a bond. If you could find a Fernco coupling that would fit exactly into the inside of the PVC pipe you would have cat's meow. last forever and quiet to boot. El perfecto. Or perhaps cut a strip of the edge and sleeve in into the barrel like the green pipe in the center of this photo: I tried a threaded PVC coupling once. Grit and slurry got wedged in the threads and I could NOT get it apart for the life of me. I had to saw the barrel in half to get the rocks out of it. Maybe that will work for you.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 22, 2016 4:18:06 GMT -5
huskeric, over time tumbling has a way of destroying anything it contacts inside that barrel. Abusive process to say the least.
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Sept 22, 2016 8:11:06 GMT -5
jamesp, I am really hoping I don't regret the threaded seal. Initially, I couldn't get it to be water-tight, so I used a strap wrench on the PVC and a pipe wrench on the cap. I know that's not a long-term strategy, so I used some gasket tape in the threads of the cap. We'll see if that helps to keep the grit, etc. out of it, but I can 100% see that happening. I wonder if some vaseline or something like that on the threads would at least help minimize the amount of grit that can get in there. You've got me scared now! =) You can cut the Fernco fitting so that what you have is very much like what you have with the PVC. The only problem I ran into with that was the fact that it has those slots in it for the clamps, so it didn't want to form fit. In hindsight, I could have filled that with marine silicone and it would help bond it to the PVC. My original thought was to try to join the Fernco cap to the fitting, and have a rubber barrel, but I don't know of a way to do that without a PVC sleeve and hose clamps. If you could reliably join those two pieces together, then you could functionally create a barrel that is similar to the Thumler barrels, and use a circle of PVC or some other plastic as your cap and an O-ring as the seal. I'm 80% of the way there, but the remaining 20% is 99% of the work. =)
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Sept 22, 2016 10:13:19 GMT -5
There is something odd about the way a barrel shifts weight 360 degrees over and over huskeric. It seems to act as a pump and pushes liquid down threads. Along with sharp grit particles that can sure jam the close fitting threads.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Sept 23, 2016 18:20:38 GMT -5
Figured out an end cap reinforcement using 1/4" sheets of PVC. Ready to glue end cap on and trap these plates. quartz, I had this grey PVC plate. Usable volume. Barrel weighs 9.5 pounds Some future large tumbles. Some will have to be sawn in half. Wood, bloodstone, crazy lace, not sure, and the black plume and white I forgot. All fine material from Tony.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Sept 29, 2016 12:50:32 GMT -5
Finishing up. Cut plates to go in end cap side to prevent hole wearing thru cap. High grade silicon caulk to fill 6 bushing gussets. Need more glue/solvent and they are done finally. Spears brand end caps quite a bit thicker in center than cheaper brands. silicon in gussets.
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Post by captbob on Sept 29, 2016 12:56:36 GMT -5
That black and white is the Zebra Lace from Roy and way too nice a specimen to throw in a tumbler.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 29, 2016 19:16:33 GMT -5
That black and white is the Zebra Lace from Roy and way too nice a specimen to throw in a tumbler. No such rock. ALL rocks worthy to be tumbled. Yes, that is Roy's fine 6 pound Zebra. It had 4 visits with the saw today. Split in half and 3 sides shaved slightly to remove concaves. Holy cow, I see why that is a hot rock. Sawn, it is off the chart. Perfect 'big tumble' subject. Soon to hit the pre-grinder, then tumbler. Went to 6 automotive shops to get a 42 inch v -belt for 18 inch Covington saw. In the past couple of weeks. They all sold 41 and 44, but no 42. Like the 13th floor, nonexistent. Went ahead and drilled the saw so a 44 inch belt would fit it. Have not run it in almost a year. Will be running it a lot soon Blade only has 3/32" diamonds left. Thanks to dense coral.
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Post by captbob on Sept 30, 2016 8:30:39 GMT -5
It had 4 visits with the saw today. Split in half and 3 sides shaved slightly to remove concaves. *sigh* Hope it makes the best tumble ever then. Belonged on a display shelf. You may not recall, but we had a pm chat over that piece. barbarian ...
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Sept 30, 2016 8:57:55 GMT -5
It had 4 visits with the saw today. Split in half and 3 sides shaved slightly to remove concaves. *sigh* Hope it makes the best tumble ever then. Belonged on a display shelf. You may not recall, but we had a pm chat over that piece. barbarian ... LOL, Fi Fy Fo Fum, I smell the blood of a tumbling Barbarian I recall clearly. The discussion placed a bullseye immediately and efficiently if not sooner on that rock.
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Post by captbob on Sept 30, 2016 11:36:36 GMT -5
Pitchforks & torches!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Sept 30, 2016 11:40:50 GMT -5
May the fleas of a thousand camels...
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