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parts tumbler

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  DSW 
#1 ·
A bunch of you have posted about wanting to clean parts. I was working on a post on my parts tumbler for you all when this thread showed up. As I can't post the pict I'll do it there.

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=20645

You can see my tumbler there and some of the other comments may be useful.

Any questions fell free to ask me. Good luck
 
#2 ·
I have built several rotary tumblers for a couple of people. This is my current one. Not as pretty and finished as my last couple, but I made it out of misc. parts I had in order to do a rush job after I sold my old one.

I use it both for cleaning tanks, you'll see one in the pict. and also for parts, my buddy has my parts drum right now.



The drive unit is a parallel shaft gear motor. I get it from grangers. I have found the 30 rpm ones seem to work well. I had a 18 rpm one and it worked but took longer. I may try to get a set of 60 rpm gears to put in mine just to see if its any better when I have some spare change. You don’t want it to spin to fast or centrifugal force will force the tumbling media to the sides and carry it over the top. You want it to rise and fall. I have seen them made from motors with a gear and chain drive, Belts often slip under the torque. These motor rpms are based on an 8" tank, a larger dia will require a faster motor speed to get # of rpms on the drum that you want.

The motor is connected to the drive roller by a Love joy connection. Mine is a L-075 but I usually go with L-095 or L-100’s You need to go with urethane or hytrel spiders as the buna ones fail rater quickly 20-48 hrs run time under load. This allows for shock take up and alignment problems. The center drive shaft is ¾” cold rolled in 2 pillow blocks. I have used flange bearings but if the bolts/nuts protrude in to the center area you will slowly machine your drum. My drive roller uses a poured urethane roller. I had the urethane from another project and this does not mark tanks like other things I have tried. For a parts tumbler I would use boat trailer rollers. The rollers must be a very tight press fit on to the shaft. The one I build for my buddy we had to drill out the rollers and then pressed them on with the shop press. If the roller slips it will not work.

The side idler rollers on mine are bearing mounted. I had some material rollers that I encased in urethane and just left the PVC forms on to give it more diameter. Normally I use 3” PVC for the forms but I was running low so its 2”. No big deal. My buddies is made from boat rollers. These were drilled slightly oversized so the are a slip fit on the shaft. shaft is well greased and rollers are slid on. The motions for this are very sexually suggestive so I leave it to your imagination. Stops at each end allow some end play and keep them from walking. My last one used a 1 pc poured idler rollers and I inserted a counter sunk grease fitting. Not as good as I hoped. The fitting would allow you to grease the roller from the center with out removing, greasing, siding it on and off and repeating several times until done, however it tended to pull out of the urethane when you tried to remove the grease gun.
Shaft size on the idler is important. The original ones I copied had ½’ shafts. Bent. My first set had 5/8” shafts. These were so so. I now go with ¾” min for all the shafts. The ones in the picts are 5/8” threaded rod but the bearing mounted material roller and PVC make up the difference. I usually thread the ends of the round stock to take nuts on both sides to lock it together. You could use pillow blocks or flange bearings but I find the costs prohibitive. I have also thought about using casters, inverted as the idlers, again I have found it cost prohibitive for my purposes.

Frame work is 3/8” steel plate with c channel for the motor on one side, 2x3” angle on the far side. The nuts on the threaded rod lock it together and allow me to adjust for tanks of various dia. You would need a bottom frame if you were to use bearings on idlers. Top frames tend to get in the way of loading unloading the tumbler.

I wire the cord to either a utility box with a standard switch or a timer.

My parts drum is made of 12” dia pipe plated on one end. The second end is removable. I’ve have tried several options a ring welded to the other end with a bolt on door seams to work ok. My buddy has had some luck with 8” pvc pipe with a cap on one end and a threaded male/ female set up on the other. He often wet tumbles and I haven’t quit got an o-ring to stay and seal mine. Need to cut a grove in the lid. % gal buckets may work if they will roll well haven’t tried. A 30 gal drum with a removable top is perfect but very large and heavy. BTW the tanks on the tumbler can weigh as much 60+ Lbs empty, plus tumbling media about 50 Lbs for the large ones plus several gal of water to fill to the top. My guess both tanks on at once 230-250 lbs total load,

I use alum oxide tumbling media from advanced deburring mostly. Also have glass beads and ceramic chips. I have also seen coarse sand used, small screenings used and even ¾” stone. The stone was used in a concrete mixer to clean parts runs in a fab shop.

Any questions fell free to email or pm me and I'll be glad to help.
 
#5 ·
Albin:

Neat idea on the 1st link. Unfortunately I could not get any of the links on the page to work to see exactly how he did it. The idea of using the 5gal bucket appeals to me, but I havent had a need to rebuild mine to work around the wider rim on most buckets. Then again I honestly haven't tried to see if it would fit as is or not. The second is similar in basics to mine but the tire makes an interesting tumbler drum.



DRM:

Yes that will work well. I have a friend with a fab shop and that is what he uses to debur bulk parts that he plamsa cuts prior to assembly. His is a heavier gas powered comercial mixer that he got from when his brother went to an auction. I thought I had refered to it in my post but it may have been in an eariler post on the dryer tumbler. He uses 3/8" crushed stone to clean the parts as a tumbling media for smaller parts and 3/4" for larger parts. Sand would work also for very small parts. Noisy as all get out, it runs outside. A little large for the average person but does a wonderful job.
 
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