Post by therockdiaries on Oct 2, 2021 15:33:20 GMT -5
I'm having some issues with my Lortone QT66. The history is a little foggy though, I got this used from a friend of mine who had several of this model and when I was asking to borrow one to tumble a larger batch than my 33b could hold, she gifted this one to me. I don't believe she would purposely give me a faulty tumbler but I know she wasn't running them for about a year prior to giving this one to me, and before that they ran nearly nonstop for at least a year or more, so it's possible this one had some issues without her knowing.
Since I got it though, I've been having some issues, mainly that it won't turn properly for very long. I can put the barrels on and it'll turn properly, with no sign of issue, for about a minute and then it starts to sort of "skip" and then stall out completely and refuse to continue turning on its own. I'm including a 25 second video clip of what that looks like when it's stalling out.
I've bought new rubber gaskets because I noticed during one of my troubleshooting steps that the center of one of the lid gaskets had worn out. I've replaced it now and I have a spare one for whenever the other one wears out (which won't be soon, it's in pretty good shape.) The barrels themselves seem to be in fine condition, the bottoms are a little scuffed but no major damage. I also bought a replacement belt but when I took the belt cover off to see if that might be causing the issue, the belt seemed to be in fine condition, if a little crusty. I cleaned it up and left the old one on. I inspected the turning rods (forgive me I'm sure that's not what they're called, but I'm sure you know what I mean) and there was a bit of excess dirty grease on both ends of each which I wiped down, but these have been turning just fine when the barrels are off the machine, they rotate perfectly without issue. The rubber casings on the rods seem fine, the active turning rod's rubber case is perfectly smooth and the loose turning rod is a little scuffed up but very minorly and not even bad enough where I would think that could cause problems. The bracket on the motor/belt end is in good condition, not bent weirdly and it holds the kurled nut perfectly when the barrels are placed on. There's enough room for the barrels to turn freely without touching each other.
The last thing I could think is that the barrels were overloaded because the only time I got it to run fully without stalling is when I ran it with just ONE barrel for the week that I was waiting for the rubber gasket replacement for the other barrel. It ran perfectly fine all week long with the barrel nut facing away from the motor/belt end and it sat at that end all week. However, after I got that replacement on the barrel and started them both up again, it had stalling issues again. I spent a few hours removing rocks & water in increments of about 3-5 ounces of weight at a time until they were barely even half full (total, incl rocks/water/grit) and it still had this issue, I can't imagine they would need to run lower than half full, that's absurd, the rocks would break each other into tiny chips with that much excess room in there.
I fill barrels with rock to about 2/3 to 3/4 full, add about 6 TBSP (I use same number TBSP as pounds of barrel capacity) grit, and then water to half full (lower than the top layer of rock.) I've never had issues with this filling method when I run my 33b model, that one has never given me trouble in the year and a half I've owned and used it. I don't use huge rocks, they're all between 1/2" and 2 1/2" in these barrels and I use a variety of sizes so that they can move freely.
In conclusion, help! What should I try next to get these guys to run properly?
Since I got it though, I've been having some issues, mainly that it won't turn properly for very long. I can put the barrels on and it'll turn properly, with no sign of issue, for about a minute and then it starts to sort of "skip" and then stall out completely and refuse to continue turning on its own. I'm including a 25 second video clip of what that looks like when it's stalling out.
I've bought new rubber gaskets because I noticed during one of my troubleshooting steps that the center of one of the lid gaskets had worn out. I've replaced it now and I have a spare one for whenever the other one wears out (which won't be soon, it's in pretty good shape.) The barrels themselves seem to be in fine condition, the bottoms are a little scuffed but no major damage. I also bought a replacement belt but when I took the belt cover off to see if that might be causing the issue, the belt seemed to be in fine condition, if a little crusty. I cleaned it up and left the old one on. I inspected the turning rods (forgive me I'm sure that's not what they're called, but I'm sure you know what I mean) and there was a bit of excess dirty grease on both ends of each which I wiped down, but these have been turning just fine when the barrels are off the machine, they rotate perfectly without issue. The rubber casings on the rods seem fine, the active turning rod's rubber case is perfectly smooth and the loose turning rod is a little scuffed up but very minorly and not even bad enough where I would think that could cause problems. The bracket on the motor/belt end is in good condition, not bent weirdly and it holds the kurled nut perfectly when the barrels are placed on. There's enough room for the barrels to turn freely without touching each other.
The last thing I could think is that the barrels were overloaded because the only time I got it to run fully without stalling is when I ran it with just ONE barrel for the week that I was waiting for the rubber gasket replacement for the other barrel. It ran perfectly fine all week long with the barrel nut facing away from the motor/belt end and it sat at that end all week. However, after I got that replacement on the barrel and started them both up again, it had stalling issues again. I spent a few hours removing rocks & water in increments of about 3-5 ounces of weight at a time until they were barely even half full (total, incl rocks/water/grit) and it still had this issue, I can't imagine they would need to run lower than half full, that's absurd, the rocks would break each other into tiny chips with that much excess room in there.
I fill barrels with rock to about 2/3 to 3/4 full, add about 6 TBSP (I use same number TBSP as pounds of barrel capacity) grit, and then water to half full (lower than the top layer of rock.) I've never had issues with this filling method when I run my 33b model, that one has never given me trouble in the year and a half I've owned and used it. I don't use huge rocks, they're all between 1/2" and 2 1/2" in these barrels and I use a variety of sizes so that they can move freely.
In conclusion, help! What should I try next to get these guys to run properly?