Bad news becomes good news...A media tumbler is born

[speedo]

So I had the unfortunate opportunity to replace my well-pressure tank yesterday. Bad news was that it was a PIA (being without household water....AND having to do emergency plumbing). Good news is that I have the dead 32 gallon pressure tank that I can send to the landfill (wouldn't do that), give to recycling (would do that), or do something creative with it for the shop. I have a good sandblaster (requires work), and a decent parts washer (requires work too), but I don't have anything that would clean, de-rust or de-grease that is autonomous. And seems like between UBER and Tesla we are heading that direction. Thinking about creating a shop tool that when filled with appropriate media...I could toss in a set of Webers, A-arms, torsion bars, whatever...let it tumble for a couple hours and get a clean product to work on. The dimension is a well (no pun intended) designed tank 20" diameter x 26" tall with three feet. I was considering building a cement mixer sort of angled platform. Open up the top end for access and allow the tub to rotate on rollerblade wheels say at a 30-45 degree angle from level. Slow rotation driven by an inflated wheel which rotates the base driven by a 3 hp electric motor.

I see lots of "tumblers and vibrators" on the internet that look like they are designed for polishing jewelery and rocks...made out of crock pots. Has anyone fabricated something larger and more durable for larger parts? If so feel free to chime in. Here is what I have to work with...and yes John's well service was quite helpful.





Speedo

[psychoideas]

We used to use an old clothes drier with walnut shells to clean bulk 9mm cases.
I guess no matter what media you were putting in it you would have to line the drum with rubber or something soft. I'd hate to have a set of webbers bouncing off the inside of a steel drum for 4 hours

[MBAtarga]

I'd consider using a think rubber horse stall mat as a liner. Available at your local farm supply store.

[tocobill]

I think the idea with this style tumbler is slow speed so nothing is “bouncing” around and the drum is mostly full so the part is always cushioned by the media as it rolls around in it. Id mount it on a pair of pillow blocks and a vfd motor to get your desired speed.

[Tom Elder]

This might help

TUMBLER

I bought the dxf file to laser cut the parts, just have not changed the design to suit my motor, yet

[speedo]

Originally Posted by tocobill

I think the idea with this style tumbler is slow speed so nothing is “bouncing” around and the drum is mostly full so the part is always cushioned by the media as it rolls around in it. Id mount it on a pair of pillow blocks and a vfd motor to get your desired speed.

I will put a lot of media in it...and decide if I need to protect the inner walls with some sort of cushioning.

Not sure the best way to separate the top from the body...no pull tab evident

Scribed the cut and steadied the sawzall...




Cleaned up the cut. I will be able to put something pretty large in here!



This will be close to my orientation.



And once removed the plumbing crap from the bottom, I have a drain hole for the media. Think Ill keep the legs in case I have reason to stand this on end.



Already looking for rollerblade wheels and bearings, and my drivetrain will consist of a two or three hp electric motor which I already have, maybe a speed controller, and an inflated 6-8 inch wheel and a couple pulleys. Weight of the tumbler will rest on the wheel which will "drive" it, and the tumbler will float on the rollerblade wheels. I will dummy up the contraption with wood, then take dimensions once everything is sorted and weld up a frame with casters.

[Trackrash]

Subscribed. Can't wait to see how this works out.

Here is my mini version. Still trying to figure out the best media.

[mepstein]

Cat litter is supposed to work well.

[speedo]

So I need some help. Been all over the internet looking at motors ranging from washing machine to windshield wiper motors. I think I need an rpm range between 30 rpm (for big stuff), to 60 rpm for smaller items. My 120 v electric motors want to spin at 3500 rpm. If I use a 2" pulley and the diameter of the tub as the second pulley, that reduces the rpm to 350 rpm...still way to fast. I can gear down the rpms with a series of jack-shafts...but that gets complicated and expensive. Thinking about using the motors I have with a simple speed controller. Does anybody have any suggestions?

I have designed the carriage to be movable, collapsible and portable. I will be using 1.25 x .125 square tube stock and rollerblade wheels.

If any electronic gurus want to weigh in on the speed control I would gladly share design
specifications.

Speedo

[jpnovak]

Drive your AC motor with a Variac. This will change the voltage and you should be able to set any speed you want. Just make sure the power rating (VA - Volts X Amps = Watts) matches up with your motor of choice.

[Willem Fick]

Go look up "Make It Extreme" on Youtube. He recently did a ball mill from an old propane pressure vessel, and I am sure you will find a lot of what he did quite useful!

[Dpmulvan]

I have built several tumblers for various items, a vibratory tumbler would have been a better choice for metals and car parts. You should have cut it lengthwise and used heavy valve springs attached to a plate. A motor at 1700 ish with a weight to throw off the balance. The media is the hard part it s very exspensive you can easily spend $500 to $1000 on it to fill something that size. You can easily destroy car parts in a tumbler similiar to a ball mill.

[speedo]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

Drive your AC motor with a Variac. This will change the voltage and you should be able to set any speed you want. Just make sure the power rating (VA - Volts X Amps = Watts) matches up with your motor of choice.

Thanks Jamie...looking into it!

Originally Posted by Willem Fick

Go look up "Make It Extreme" on Youtube. He recently did a ball mill from an old propane pressure vessel, and I am sure you will find a lot of what he did quite useful!

Willem, thanks... interesting and amazing craftsmanship! Now I need to figure out what the heck a "ball mill" is?

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

I have built several tumblers for various items, a vibratory tumbler would have been a better choice for metals and car parts. You should have cut it lengthwise and used heavy valve springs attached to a plate. A motor at 1700 ish with a weight to throw off the balance. The media is the hard part it s very exspensive you can easily spend $500 to $1000 on it to fill something that size. You can easily destroy car parts in a tumbler similiar to a ball mill.

You are right...thanks for the positive thoughts, I am going to weld this back up and throw it in the landfill! Or maybe not... I already own most of the parts and plan on experimenting with media. Last I checked, my cats don't spend much $ on cat litter, so I might start there. And if I have to go to a plan B...I can still cut it length-wise and create a vibratory tumbler. I don't need a tumbler to destroy car parts, I am pretty good at destroying car parts without using a tumbler.

[Tremelune]

Oh man, super interested in this project. You might get a lot of love from The Garage journal forum, too.

[macssc911]

Take it to a metal recycler make a little money

[speedo]

Crap...I am off to dump this stuff to the re-cycler again....well...nope
Not sure why so many are negative. This is a low cost project, non-environmental. Could potentially be productive...and a resource for others.

Dropped my electric motors at the local wizard. He is going to tell me what I have is "viable" or not.

I am inclined not to update the thread until I can produce some positive results...too many nay-sayers.

When I am up and operational, I will update.

[dad911]

You can get some good advice around here. Filter out the naysayers....

I'd try a treadmill motor with speed controller. Cheap, guys using them for variable speed lathe/mill conversions.

[rwest]

How about some sort of gear reducing box? Maybe from a dryer or washing machine? We have a gate across the parking lot at work and it has a unit made by Dayton that takes the speed from a regular motor and gears it down to turn the large pulley that lifts the gate.

[Dpmulvan]

I will say again waste of time, effort. It will take a week to clean one part and it won't do it that well
There's a reason companies pay thousands for large vibratory tumblers and thousands for media and special fluids. Media and part move too slow in a tumbler like that. Think about it not trying to be negative just trying to save you some time.

[arrivederci]

Originally Posted by rwest

How about some sort of gear reducing box? Maybe from a dryer or washing machine? We have a gate across the parking lot at work and it has a unit made by Dayton that takes the speed from a regular motor and gears it down to turn the large pulley that lifts the gate.

Gear reducing box? Speedo, don't you have some 901 and 915 variants of gear reducing boxes? That could be neat!

A better thing to do...make the tank into a rocket and strap it to your 914.