Enigman
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 163 
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Post by Enigman on Dec 21, 2017 15:10:49 GMT -5
My first tumbler machine, the one that "started it all" for me, was the Chicago Electric tumbler with dual 3 pound barrels. That was back before I discovered Lortone machines. Being a Chinese knock-off machine, the big disadvantage of CE is the complete lack of replacement parts from Harbor Freight, the US distributor. As a result, I have been jury-rigging the machine with hardware store materials and retro-fitting Lortone parts to keep it alive and improve performance. This tutorial addresses the problem with the barrel drive and idler rollers, namely that CE used clear vinyl tubing to coat the shafts and provide drive friction. The problem with that is that clear vinyl tubing hardens and shrinks with age. This tutorial outlines a very inexpensive and easy fix to bring the rollers back to full performance. 
| 1) This photo shows the original vinyl tube coating on the roller shafts. Note that the tubing has retracted from the ends by quite a bit on three of the ends. That gap makes the barrel unsteady and allows the barrel to skew sideways occasionally. That combined with the hardened vinyl reduces the rolling friction to near zero.
Stripping off the old vinyl and applying some kind of new rubber tubing to the shafts was one option, but not a really desireable one. That vinyl would be a bear to remove and a correctly sized rubber tube source is unknown and would probably be a real pain to shove onto the shaft.
A more attractive option is to coat the existing vinyl with a new surface material and extend the contact area. It is important not to change the diameter of the roller significantly or else the rotation speed of the barrel will be changed. Therefore I wanted a paint-on rubber that would stick to the vinyl and provide good friction. The option I settled on was artist's acrylic paint, which is literally liquid acrylic vinyl.
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| 2) Clean the existing vinyl tubing and shafts with alcohol or acetone to remove any traces of oil or other contaminants. Before painting on the acrylic paint you might need to add back some length to the roller contact area. In this case all that was necessary was to spool on some painters masking tape in the open ends. Roll the tape onto the end areas until the diameter of the tape exactly matches the diameter of the existing vinyl tubing. Cut the tape at an angle before rolling on the last bit of tape so that the joint at the end of the tape addition spreads out around the tape in a spiral. That avoids a ridge that might go "bump bump bump" as it rolls the barrel.
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 | 3) With the three tape additions in place you can see that the roller contact area has been extended back to a better length, especially on the drive roller.
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 | 4) The acrylic paint I chose was an inexpensive black liquid paint that was less than $3.00 for a one ounce bottle. You can use the tube variety of artist paint but it requires more messing around to find the right water balance to add, while the bottled liquid paint is perfect already. Color is irrelevant and up to you, but black seemed like the best fit. You can also use acrylic household paint if you have some lying around, but it should be the semi-gloss or satin trim paint and not the flat wall paint. Acrylic semi-gloss paint remains slightly tacky or spongy forever, which is what provides good friction, while flat wall paint hardens and gets powdery on the surface which is not as good for friction.
Use an art or hobby brush to apply the paint or even a sponge. Whatever you have handy. It works well to turn on the machine and just run the paint brush down the spinning roller for a great even surface coat. You'll have to turn the idler roller by hand to get an even coat.
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| 5) Once you have coated both rollers including the tape additions, let it dry for at least an hour and then coat it again. Three coats is a good amount of coverage. Let it dry overnight before putting the machine back in service.
My testing shows that it has great drive strength after this repair and no transfer of paint to the barrel.
One great thing about this repair is that if needed later you can always paint on a fresh coat of acrylic to revitalize the rollers. Another benefit is that you don't have to struggle with stripping off the old tubing and hunting down new rubber tubing.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Dec 22, 2017 17:19:36 GMT -5
Oh, man, I just tossed some because I want to do some renovations and I'm running out of room...
I still have one of them rolling, though, and another that needs only a minor repair (I think).
Do you know if Harbor Freight still sells these guys? The one rolling now has been going 24/7 without a break for over 2+ years. I assume it isn't destined to live forever.
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Enigman
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 163
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Post by Enigman on Dec 22, 2017 18:41:08 GMT -5
Are you saying that you just tossed some of these whole machines? If so too bad. You could sell the parts on eBay with little to no competition. I don't know if Harbor Freight still sells them, but you can buy brand new dual and single barrels machines on eBay for about $40 to $55. I have done so many modifications to mine to keep it active. A while ago I adapted a Lortone motor pulley by drilling out the center hole to fit the CE motor. The original plastic CE pulley with integrated fan self destructed when a belt broke and went rogue. So now it has the metal Lortone fan and pulley from the Lortone 33B and I use the round Lortone belts instead of the CE V belts that broke if you looked at them cross eyed. This was the second iteration of the fix after making a hybrid pulley by taking just the metal fan off of a Lortone pulley and gluing it to the cut down plastic CE pulley. But the plastic pulley groove didn't really like the Lortone round belts so I went to a full metal Lortone pulley. Drilling out the pulley and keeping it running true was a bear, but it has worked ever since. I also ditched the silly plastic rub tabs from CE and mounted a nylon surfaced ball bearing shower door roller on an L bracket for positioning the barrels. No resistance and no wear. I spent a lot of time working on mods for quieting the machine too. The best one is to remove the shaft bearing end caps and place a small pad of felt inside and then close it back up. The felt retains more oil and puts a little pressure on the end of the shaft and stops it from chattering. Another great noise mod that I do to all my machines is to replace the tiny bumper feet with 7/8 chair leg cupped feet. I drill through the bottom of the foot and bolt it to the frame upside down so the feet are like soft rubber shot glasses with the opening facing down. That alone cuts about half the machine noise. You can just see them in the photos above. The only thing I haven't done is paint the frame blue.  |
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Dec 22, 2017 21:13:05 GMT -5
Are you saying that you just tossed some of these whole machines? If so too bad. You could sell the parts on eBay with little to no competition. I don't know if Harbor Freight still sells them, but you can buy brand new dual and single barrels machines on eBay for about $40 to $55. . Yeah-- one reason I'm a fan of these because we know how to make them run quiet and no one in my neighborhood has ever noticed them going, whereas they did notice my Lot O. Not sure what hubby does with all the feet of my Harbor Freights but it's probably similar to you because they are not noisy at all... I think these little rotaries are great to play with and not so huge that it's difficult to keep them filled. Maybe it was a mistake to toss the oldies, but more because I could have set up to use them again myself-- I have lots of material. I don't sell on eBay any more and haven't for years, dishonest people have all kinds of methods for getting used items for free (feedback extortion), and I'm done jumping through the hoops getting my money back from eBay. It just isn't worth it to me anymore. People see that high rating and decide it means you're open to being extorted... I don't have the time. I can't remember how many hours I had to spend on the sale that finally caused me to quit, but it was a lot. Ebay eventually agreed I was correct and took my money out of the guy's Paypal, but it took months. Worst thing about it? The guy is still years later on eBay and still doing feedback extortion. So it just isn't a place where I care to do business. We like tinkering but buying & selling, ugh... I've really cut back on selling/swaps. |
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indigocreek
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1
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Post by indigocreek on Feb 26, 2018 21:24:20 GMT -5
Wow! This is exactly what has happened to my tumbler this week! I will try this!
Thank you so much for posting!
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Thunder69
Cave Dweller 
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,105
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Post by Thunder69 on Feb 27, 2018 20:34:34 GMT -5
Harbor Freight still has them...Was in one the other day and saw them..John
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asclepius
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2021
Posts: 4
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Post by asclepius on Sept 26, 2021 20:23:36 GMT -5
I bought a similar model (Identical, I think) in July 2021. It worked long enough to get me hooked, but the nylon sleeve bearings have worn out, even though I oiled them as directed.
I just ordered some flange mount ball bearings to replace them (https://bearingsdirect.com/mounted-block-bearings/ufl000-kfl000-zink-flanged-clean-series/kfl8-2rs-min-zinc-flange-set-screw-ball-bearing-bore-8mm-kfl8uu).
The driven pulley on the shaft is a bit wobbly, but I think it will be fine. I'll see how it does with a new set of bearings.
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Post by mohs on Sept 28, 2021 22:12:32 GMT -5
found the old folder so add my H.F Tumbler experience for the archive The biggest problem out of the box and tumbling was that little belt kept breaking I suppose these machines weren’t meant for dense rocks Probably just for light brass shells
darn I thought I had picture
of the original pulley and the little black belt
maybe some one could post a picture of the original pulley? anyways I lucked out found a pulley off some salvaged machine that was much more heavy duty. This allowed me to install a super duper belt Darn thing worked really well  Being that I was in that old folder found one my early rock’n heart pendant I was crafting on.  |
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Enigman
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 163
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Post by Enigman on Sept 30, 2021 13:05:55 GMT -5
Do you know if Harbor Freight still sells these guys? I have never seen one on the shelf in Harbor Freight, but they are always on eBay, although the price has doubled to $95 since I bought mine years ago. There are also clone reissues of the CE machine under different brand names with different paint. That is a common tactic of Chinese manufacturers. First produce them for the original company, then make them unbranded and sell them in parallel to the original company at a lower price.
I wouldn't recommend buying the CE machine or clones today. The lortone 33B machines are US made and much better and fully supported with parts for near the same price. There is also a newer series of machines called the Tumble-Bee that use cogged belts to prevent slipping issues. I haven't used one but they have nice features.
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rob58
starting to shine!
Member since September 2022
Posts: 37
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Post by rob58 on Sept 8, 2022 10:02:47 GMT -5
Just an update on theses tumblers, they are still selling out of Harbor Freight. Being new to the hobby, I didn't want to spend a ton of money until I was sure I'd be interested, so I grabbed one, $70. It's only been running for a week, so as far as endurance of the machine, time will tell. But I'm pretty happy with it so far.
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nursetumbler
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2022
Posts: 992 
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Post by nursetumbler on Sept 16, 2022 18:42:04 GMT -5
Just an update on theses tumblers, they are still selling out of Harbor Freight. Being new to the hobby, I didn't want to spend a ton of money until I was sure I'd be interested, so I grabbed one, $70. It's only been running for a week, so as far as endurance of the machine, time will tell. But I'm pretty happy with it so far. I have three CE machines. As long as you dont overload the weight they work great. They start getting heavy and the "bearing" on the motor pulley goes FAST. I put 3-1 oil or wd-40 in the hole where the pulley shaft comea out. I bought the extended replacement warranty. Have I taken them back. Yup but only 2, I run 3 machines 24/7. Been tumbling a year(ish) I think the 2 I took back, because of the motor shaft, is because I had it to heavy. Nursetumbler |
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vance71975
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since September 2022
Posts: 760
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Post by vance71975 on Sept 16, 2022 20:17:02 GMT -5
Do you know if Harbor Freight still sells these guys? I have never seen one on the shelf in Harbor Freight, but they are always on eBay, although the price has doubled to $95 since I bought mine years ago. There are also clone reissues of the CE machine under different brand names with different paint. That is a common tactic of Chinese manufacturers. First produce them for the original company, then make them unbranded and sell them in parallel to the original company at a lower price.
I wouldn't recommend buying the CE machine or clones today. The lortone 33B machines are US made and much better and fully supported with parts for near the same price. There is also a newer series of machines called the Tumble-Bee that use cogged belts to prevent slipping issues. I haven't used one but they have nice features.
Tumble-Bee is what I have, runs at 60 RPM so a touch faster than a Lortone, Does run a bit on the warm side, but I put a house fan blowing on it and that took care of the problem. All in all, A decent Machine for 89 bucks. 4lb Barrel but the Machine has a weight Limit of 6lbs 10oz above that and they say it will burn out the motor Above 6lbs 10oz so I do weight my barrel. Barrel itself wights a bit over 1 lb. Been running about 10 days so far and Im happy with it at this point. |
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rob58
starting to shine!
Member since September 2022
Posts: 37
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Post by rob58 on Sept 16, 2022 21:10:36 GMT -5
I've seen those Tumble-Bee machines out there. I like the fact that they have a bigger barrel. I'm going to wait and see how things work out with what I've got right now and then maybe think about getting something bigger to expand my production. I think it was the Rock Shed that had a 12lb Lortone kit, that I thought was pretty reasonable. The holidays are coming up, maybe I'll treat myself.
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