Burnt myself on Harbor Freight Vibratory Tumbler

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goldpelican

goldpelican

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Something's up with my tumbler. 2 years old, probably put 4000 cases through it.

Forgot it was running last night, it had been on for about 5 hours - so went to the garage (it sits on a concrete floor), turned it off, touched the wingnut, and literally heard sizzling. The wingnut and thread must have been something crazy like 300F or hotter - in fact I think the threads annealed, as there's now some missing thread where it vibrated off.

Ran it again this morning for 20 minutes only - same result, near red hot.

Still working though, but now an obvious fire risk.

Any known fixes for getting back to normal operation? Getting super hot like this makes me think there's a bearing needing lubrication somewhere, but it may be beyond saving for the money needed to buy a new one. Might be the excuse I need to move to wet tumbling.

edit - FIXED - see https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...vibratory-tumbler.824854/page-2#post-10615916
 
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I have a friend that bought one and was disappointed in cleaning ability. He gave it to me.
I've run less than 10k cases through it over the years, mostly 45 and 223.
Every time I use it I have to work on threads, so far I've had it completely apart twice and replaced the threaded rod which is metric :barf:
It still works, but is a pita!
I WOULD NEVER PERSONALLY BUY ONE!
 
bds said:
Harbor Freight offers 1 year warranty - https://www.harborfreight.com/warranty-info.html

Even if it's out of warranty, I would still talk to a store manager. At all the Harbor Freight stores I have shopped at, store managers have been very accommodating and helpful.
Click to expand...

This only had a 90 day warranty as I didn't pay the 33% markup or whatever the 1 year warranty was (and I've had it for over 2 years anyway). Even if I just go and buy a new one today at full price I'm way ahead on what I've saved at HF by NOT paying for the extra warranties on each item they offer it on. The local store is a bit of a stickler for warranty returns - this is actually my second tumbler, my first one was DOA when I bought it online (they had been out of stock for weeks), and the manager kicked up a huge fuss about exchanging an online purchase in-store.

When I was originally getting it replaced, the cashier told me after the manager had left that he uses one himself for reloading, takes out the 1 year warranty, and just brings it back every 10 months, says "it broke", and swaps it for a new one. Not quite the High Road ethos. Apparently they've got a reputation for failing (but it's a HF power tool made in PRC so what do we expect). Posted a review on the HF website which they have to review before publishing, if they reach out to me then fine, if not, then I got my use out of it.

I may pull it apart and see if there's some lubrication that will help - Googling shows that this isn't an unknown problem, but no-one's posted pics I could find of "apply oil here". Could do without the fire risk though.
 
Thinking of the getting the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler - has excellent reviews and high capacity, and comes with the SS media. See it around for $160 or so.
 
If you want factory clean looking brass inside and out, including primer pockets your thinking is good.:thumbup: I use a Lee universal decapping die and then put them in the wet tumbler with citric acid and Dawn dish detergent. Will never go back to corn cob FWIW.
 
Yeah I've been doing dawn/lemishine in the ultrasonic, and then walnut tumbling. They come out looking awesome but I could probably replace two steps with one.
 
My HF has vibrated apart several times and been "repaired" by me each time. I finally got fed up and got some parts from a swamp cooler (motor, pillow blocks,shaft), the farm and ranch store (another shaft,pulley, collars), the auto parts store (heater hose, v-belt) and some other misc junk I had in my junk stash and built two shaft rotary tumbler. Slapped it together on a table in about an hour. It works fine, doesn't fly apart and the parts are available locally if it needs fixing. Right now it just uses walnut shells. It takes longer but has two drums going at once with more capacity and it runs along in the barn without any trouble. Some day I'll build it properly, give it positraction rather than having one as an idler so both shafts are driven and some better adjustments and aesthetics, nicer water tight drums etc but as a even as a slapped together prototype it works fine. I was way behind and in a real pinch with brass prep (several hundreds in several different calibers) and needed something I could use to catch up that wouldn't tear itself apart. The two barrels going at once really helped for incompatible cases. Pretty much caught back up now!
 
^^^^^ I prefer Scoops/tortilla chips and hot salsa for a dip. Popcorn hulls stick between my teeth.:p
Seriously though taking the motor apart and lubing the bearings might help with heat problems. I use Mobil One for firearms lube and this will work there as well.
 
Bearings are fine. It's friction between the wingnut and/or washer and/or rubber disk and/or plastic lid. That wing nut needs to be super tight to lock entire area together. I eventually stripped out the threaded rod on mine from always tightening the crap out of it.

After that I took it apart and rebiluilt it with a new larger rod. The thing just keeps on going.
 
When I was using a HF tumbler, I found it beneficial to use TWO nuts on the top. First one to hold the top down, second to lock the first nut. I also silicone glued a 2" dia fender washer to the top of the lid to provide more surface area for the tension load on the top nuts. When I did this I'd get 3 or 4 years out of them with heavy use rather than 10-12 months max. YMMV.
 
I bought a HF tumbler as my first tumbler, being a disabled vet I don't make a lot of $$ so I buy what I can afford, but I also do not load anywhere near the volume I have read in this post so far. I am green as green comes to reloading, I made my first loads just the other day and are perfect. My HF tumbler did the same thing, it is about a week and half old. I thought maybe I put to much corn cob media in and brass. I had about 35 pcs 9mm, 35pcs .380 and about 15pcs .45acp, but did not put all that in, just the 9mm, after 1 hour I checked it as I did not know how long is average (still really don't) but the bowl was spinning and the lid was off, I put the lid back on, tightened the wing nut tighter and no problem until 3 nights ago, 45 minutes in and bowl spinning and wing nut hot, fire hot. It will be going back to HF Tomorrow, I may just get the ultrasonic cleaner, but may have to settle for a replacement 5 gal tumbler. Is there a real fix? Maybe replace the all thread rod with a heavier one? Would have to drill and tap new size threads, but if this fixes the problem would be worth it. If mine was not under warranty I would try it.
Reno
 
I usually screw the wingnut down pretty tight, but that would be a valid explanation - as mentioned, I had left it running for over 5 hours when I normally only run a few. May have been long enough to shake itself loose. Now that the threads are worn, it's not a solid seal, so the short run would also have had the wingnut shaking on the rod.

I'll try a sleeve over the damaged thread to raise the wingnut onto a fresh section of thread and see if that stops the overheating.
 
Just throw a few washers on there instead of a thin sleeve, they will spread the pressure out over a larger area of the top giving you more bearing surface. I had the Dillon CV 500. I bought it used and after about 15 years of me running it about 3 hours every night I wore the motor out. I replaced it with a Frankfort Arsenal vibrator that I use to polish my finished ammo with. I use it a lot less as I use SS pins and a Thumlers to clean the brass now, but it is still going strong after about 8 years. FWIW my FA tumbler seems to work the top nut tighter the longer it is run.
 
Make sure the nut on the bottom of the bowl is tight, when that loosens up the bowl will rotate. I had issues with mine not staying tight, I replaced the metric rod with a bigger sae one and have had no further problems. Once a year or so tighten that bottom nut and I'm good to go.
 
Are there any exploded diagrams online of the HF tumbler? I am going to see what the cost is for a one year waranty is tomorrow as well.

Reno
 
I had trouble with Harbor Freights web site this morning (https://www.harborfreight.com/), but a assembly diagram is in the owners manual and that can be downloaded from their site. The tumbler part number for the 5lb is #67617. This morning when I clicked on the item it just put me back to the main page. I'm sure they will have it fixed soon.

I've looked at that picture several times :). I think you got good advise from everyone about the issue you are having. Mine wore out the threads too and like CZ9, I replaced the 6mm rod it a 1/4 rod and 1/4 hardware. A few months later, the plastic base cracked (see part #20 in the Assembly Diagram). To be fair, maybe I over tightened the rod.
Good luck,
H1
 
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we bought a used HF tumbler at a garage sale, it ran NOISY, so used it very seldom,and the last time I used it the center shaft was HOT.Threw it away immediately. Life is too short to have a known fire hazard running in or near the house. !
 
I bought that cheap Harbor Freight vibratory 8 years ago,
figuring to use it till it quits out and then invest in a nice one.

Damn, it's still running. Over 100,000 cases cleaned, and no failure. I hate that!

Well, one of these days I might just buy a Thumler anyway. I guess.
 
I sure wish I lived close to one of you that throw these away, I would tear it down and try to mod it to be much better, is easier to do when it is junk and you already have one. I just replaced mine and bought the 1 year warranty for it. Who knows, I might find one in a yard sale or thrift store. I saw at least 3 in thrift stores over the years, but since I never did reloads I always just thought they were to polish rocks. Now I know the last one I saw (about a year or more ago) was possibly a Lyman due to the color, if I remember right it was priced at $12.50 tested and works at the local Goodwill, there was also a set of dies I would say was Lee (in the red case) think $ 5.65 or $8.00, boy do I wish I knew what I was looking at then, there was probably a whole set of reloading equipment strown all over the shelves there, LOL!!!
I also let www.saferproducts.gov know about the tumbler being possibly a fire hazard, hopefully a redesign will happen and we can take these back and exchange for a improved version that will not be a fire risk. I'm hoping for the best.

-=Reno=-
 
Make sure the motor is clean of any dust, dirt, etc., and had good ventilation. If you can, lube the bearings/bushings with a light oil and look for any excess friction between parts...
 
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