Making a rock tumbler

[arabian]

 

Is it better to make a rock tumbler, or to buy?
I have just started out, just looking for something small to medium.

Everywhere I go I am always picking up interesting stones, ans always wondered what they would look like polished.

I do alot of wire wrapping with my stones, so tumbled are perfect.

  Happy New Year 
 

[calxoddity]

Buy one.   Sure, you could build one - but to make it cost-effective you'd have to cost your labour at zero and have a lot of the component parts already lying around or available for pretty cheap.  You're better off buying a proven design from a mob who know what they're doing.

The Lortone twin-barrel unit is pretty good, small and low maintenance and I understand the Thumbler units are pretty good too.

Regards,
Shane

[Aussie Sapphire]

Is it better to make a rock tumbler, or to buy?

Andrew can give you some ideas on home made tumblers but you have to have access to an electric motor at reasonable cost - the barrel part is relatively cheap to make.

Easier to buy but very possible to make your own.

cheers
Leah

[Andrew]

 A great exersize for the ones who love the workshop,often does cost as much as a new one but if it brings satasfaction we you cant value that
 The basics as simple two shafts some type of bearings some guides to keep the Barrel centered and drive belts and pulleys ,gaurds are of course needed for belts/pulleys or there will be no more Fossicking A good Barrel and of course a motor to drive it.
 Some might have most or part of this sitting around,to go and buy it all new would be an expensive exercise but parts can be found .
 The two hardest things to duplicated is first a neat speed reduction if using a normal 1440 rpm motor,the second is a barrel that the lid works on time after time.
 Good barrels can be made from Plumbers PVC but the ends can be a bit of a problem to seal after a few times.
 I will try and add some pictures tommorow .
 Anyone else got some ideas ??
 Cheers Andrew
 

[Aussie Sapphire]

I could suggest that you consider the idea in this video clip...wind-powered     but somehow I think it wouldnt be very practical 

For a DIY tumbler, I think you'd be better off taking Andrew's advice and check out his photos - I'll try and remind him to post some if we get time tomorrow.  We've got the insurance assessor coming tomorrow to inspect the hail damage to our windows/roof so might get a few spare moments. 

[smg id=79 type=av]

cheers
Leah

[calxoddity]

hail damage?  Was this just the other day?  I was checking the weather radar for local storms and noticed there appeared to be a good one up your way.

Regards,
Shane

[Aussie Sapphire]

I was checking the weather radar for local storms and noticed there appeared to be a good one up your way

That was probably the one that went right over the top of all of our property and wiped out all of our crops 

The dented roof and a few broken windows are actually not as big a problem as losing over 200 acres of new soybeans totally and over 75% of our almost ready to be harvested wheat - salvaged what was left on Boxing Day.  Who'd be a farmer??

cheers
Leah

[arabian]

Hi Thank you for your suggestions, I think I will buy one, with three young children I have very little time to enjoy my hobby as it is.

I live in Victoria, we just have a light drizzle.

 

[Andrew]

 Hi all,
 Some pictures at link below of a Robilt Simple design:
[smg id=80]
 A simple Barrel Design below:
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We have two second hand Robilt units currently,when you work out the cost of new Bearings shaft and Pulley these are well priced,Link Below:
http://www.aussiesapphire.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=100_84&products_id=1342
 Just had a customer in today stocking up with Grits and Findings and he said the PVC barrels are working great for him.
Cheers Andrew

[Andrew]

A very unique design
Would actually work once you got enough guides etc aligned but now that would be fun
[smg id=83]
Credit to Lennart Widmark

Cheers Andrew

[Andrew]

 This is a great looking unit made by Johnc ,I brought this over from the gallery ( hope you dont mind John ) as I thought it was worth sharing in this thread.
My Tumbler
Home built.
The drum is made from PVC stormwater pipe.
The drive is a gearbox and motor I scrounged from a friend.
I originally tried belt drive but found it hard to get belts.
[smg id=82]

By johnc
image/text copied over by Andrew

[moonshadow_dancer]

I am sitting here looking at the tyre and for the life of me I can't think where the stones go  It does look very interesting though, I am wondering if they go inside the tyre and if so how does one get them in there  The joys of being blonde I guess 

[johnc]

No problems Andrew.  I was going to do that but I thought it had to be aproved by the moderator first.

Anyway, the drum is made from pvc 150 mm stormwater pipe.  On one end (left) there is a standard end cap which is glued on and can't be removed.  On the other end (right) there is a threaded end cap which unscrews.  The tyres are made from earthenware pipe seals and are simply big rubber rings which are just stretched over the outside of the drum.  The right hand side one is sitting up against the screw cap but I can just roll it down a little bit when I need to unscrew it.

The rubber rings work well as they allow the screw cap to clear the rollers and they make the drum roll nice and smooth.  I think they will wear out fairly often though as they are fairly soft.  That shouldnt be a huge problem though as they are quite cheap and readily available.

It's early days for my tumbler and I have changed it around quite a bit since I first built it.  I originally had a belt drive, but my belts kept breaking and the motor started to get very hot so I managed to scrounge a little gearbox and fitted it up with a slightly bigger motor.  That turned out to be pretty noisey and was also running hot.  I improved things a lot by packing the gearbox with lots of greese getting some nice ball races for the rollers and adding some fans and heat sinks to the motor.  It's now running at about 60 degrees C and the noisiest thing is the drum although it's pretty noisey.  I might try some more modifications to reduce the noise today.

It's great fun tinkering with the design.  I am very happy with the drum it doesnt leak at all and I have found that putting a bit of vaseline on the threads of the end cap makes it seal so well that I can always hear a rush of air released when I unscrew it.  It's important to keep the threads nice and clean though obviously.

I plan to make a few more drums for the different grit grades and I think I will make them a bit smaller as well.  I should be able to get two of them on the rollers if they were a little shorter.

This forum is very interesting.  I really enjoyed calx photo of his petrified wood.  They look so gorgeous I am hoping that our results can be something similar.

Wow that tyre idea is brilliant.  It would be great to be able to look in and see the stonest tumbling.

John.

[moonshadow_dancer]

Hi John,

Andrew actually put it on there for you 

[Wwoofa]

Hi all,
I have never tried tumbling but I might give it a go ..... a couple of dumb questions.  What RPM is good for the tube ? And, do you have to "vent" the tube in any way to avoid pressure build up etc?
Thanks & have a great New Year,
Paul