My homemade vibratory tumbler

[Moptop]

Hi all, just thought I'd post a picture of result of my latest shop project, a vibratory tumbler. In reading some of the posts I see there has been a lot of discussion about them. This design is not that much different from the ones you can buy and not very complicated.

And to think, I could have been digging a drainage ditch instead of working on this....a no brainer huh!

 

[Eric F]

um great what did you make it from?

looks cool though!

 

[floydster]

Moptop,
We need the mechanic's on how you put it together,
with pic's hehe.
Floydster

 

[pinkymingeo]

You can buy one for $30. How much did that thing cost you?

 

[btefft]

Moptop, maybe one can be bought cheaper, but there is still nothing that can replace the pleasure of something made for yourself by yourself.

Hack

 

[Moptop]

Everything except the plastic bowl & lid I already had. Scrap wood, saved motor (from what I don't remember), & rest out of the junk box. Sooo, $2.50 for the bowl at the Dollar General. That's it! I've always tried to build my own equipment when I can. It's just something I like to do. If anyone is interested I'll be happy to pass on any info on it's construction.

 

[Soybomb]

I love home made gear! Offset weight on the motor shaft?

 

[brentwal]

I was going to convert a tumbler to a paint shaker for model paint, now I think I'll just make me a paint shaker.

 

[rondog]

Yankee ingenuity, gotta love it! I'm too lazy to go very far with it, but I had a buddy that would build anything he could before he'd buy it. Or at least give it a helluva try. He's built a lotta cool stuff, gotta admit.

 

[lordgroom]

I am interested in the design. I would love to have a larger capacity tumbler or the ability to run 2 at once. I have not bought a second one because it is excessive for me to have 2 and I can't justify the price to myself. If I could make one from scrounged parts and it only cost $3.00. That I can afford!

 

[Walkalong]

Vet nice. Well done.

 

[280shooter]

very neat stuff,,good job

 

[Moptop]

Let me get some pictures together.

Gentlemen, let me get some good quality pictures to post and I'll give you the rundown on how I put this thing together. Got to dig a drainage ditch first...Hunydo project!

 

[bluetopper]

I'd like to somehow make a really big tumbler to clean a few thousand at a time.

 

[FM12]

Parasite: How about a small cement mixer?

 

[GaryL]

I'm tempted to do the same thing, as much for fun as anything. Doesn't look like it would be very hard to do, but I'm always interested in learning from other's triumphs and mistakes.

Thanks for posting that up.

 

[Jaybird78]

Looks like a salad mixer for the garage........awesome sir.

 

[Moptop]

internal pictures of tumbler

Well folks, here are some pictures of the "insides" of this thing. I do know that you have to use a motor that spins at least 3000 rpm. The little phonograph type motors spin too slow, only 1300-1700 rpm, and do not have enough umpf (hp) to do any good. The one I used is about the size of a sewing machine motor. This one happens to spin at 5000 rpm. It only had mounting screws on one of it's flat sides so I slid a couple of 3" hose clamps under the bracket before I screwed it down so I could attach the second bracket, which needs to be mounted 90 degrees to the first one. I tried putting one on each side, 180 apart, but that only made the platform vibrate on only 2 of the 4 corners. Setting them 90 apart made a 4 corners vibrate equally. The counterweight is a bolt I drilled out for the motor shaft diameter and put in a small set screw to lock it on with. Let me tell you, you don't need a very big counterweight on it. The first one I used made the thing dance off the workbench! The action doesn't need to be too aggressive to do the job. The rubber mounts & springs are ,again, junk box items. I'm sure you can find simular springs at the hardware store. My local ACE hardware had a fair selection of them.
I hope this helps anyone who might wish to build one of their own. I'll gladly answer any questions If I can.

Have fun!

 

[ar10]

Parasite: How about a small cement mixer?

I'm working on one now. I got an elect. mixer from my neighbor for 50.00, (HF). I need to cut the fins off and make a cover for the front and I'm ready to try it out. I've never heard if it's been done before but I had to get something bigger than my RBCS tumber. I have way too many cases and had to figure out something different.

 

[jeepmor]

ar10 - look into industrial case cleaners the big guys use. They are typically the cement mixer shaped cleaners if my memory serves from Speer 13 manual pics of employees.

 

[cliffy]

Lyman Tumbler

For about $56, I bought a really nice tumbler. Has lasted me for several years and still tumbles nicely. I'm not very handy regarding building stuff, but I don't think I could could build better for less. I do have an old VW air-cooled four-cylinder engine that I considered building into a tumbler set-up, but I never have 4000 empties at one time. cliffy

 

[dgdimick]

Nice to see how simple it was to make, that's what I like about this place, everyone has a way to do some task easier, cheaper, or better. I used the "Flower Wire" primer cleaner last week and was VERY happy with the results.

 

[jeepmor]

Nice work, but I'm lazy and pragmatic. I just bought mine. That Dayton motor you used is probably worth more than my Frankford Arsenal tumbler. Surely a better motor too.

Thanks for sharing, I admire your ingenuity. The whole key is to match the motor and suspesion springs that don't hit a resonant freqency while you have the motor running.

You can adjust the force imparted to the device by increasing or decreasing the distance away from the motor shaft and/or the mass of the offset weight.

Sometimes, when I overload my Frankford Arsenal tumbler, it'll find a resonant frequency and kinda hop it up and down and polish poorly. Keep an eye out for that.

To assist any of you interested in engineering the force imparted into your device, use this equation.

Fn=mv^2/r

Fn = normal force, radial in this case
m - mass of offset weight
v - tangential instantaneous linear velocity of the offset mass. (V= r*omega) (omega is the rotation in radians per second, which is 2*pi*rpm)
r - radius of mass away from center of rotation.

I always use metric units, then convert, simpler math.

What this amounts to is simply increasing or decreasing the offset weight and it's distance until it works sufficiently. Adjusting the offset mass will not change the harmonics of springs, they may match or resonate the frequecy of your motor, which is revs per second in this case. 5000rev/min*1min/60secs = 83.3 revs/second However, overloading your tumbler might slow it down enough to do so as is the case in my storebought tumbler. If you devise your offset mass similar to the third picture, with a bolt that's threaded all the way to the bolt head, you can make it adjustable. You grind a flat spot in it at the threads portion right up against the bolt head or close to it to drill your through hole. Then drill and tap your retaining lock bolt or set screw through the head of the bolt. Now you have a portion of threaded bolt that you can screw a nylock nut on and have an adjustable tumbler.

Once you find your sweetspot, you'll probably never adjust it again, but since this is DIY and all, I thought I'd put some math behind it. If you made it this far, I'm surprised and thank you for letting me get my geek on.

 

[luis7]

This is mine.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=360530
Greetings from Spain.

 

[Moptop]

jeepmor, thanks for the idea on the adjustable counterweight. I might try that to see if I can get a little closer in the tuning. Thanks to all for the "cudos". I'm a geek as well, or maybe a gearhead....no sure, jury is still out on that one.