Andy
01-30-2015, 12:00 AM
I have been reading around on DIY tumblers and have stolen many good ideas for this project from posts on this and other forums. I think the only unique thing I am adding to the equation here is the idea to mount it right on my lathe, to reduce cost and keep the thing dirt simple. This couldn't have taken me over an hour and a half to make and test once I had the parts on hand.
Uses a dowel chucked onto the lathe as the drive roller, two casters on a piece of plywood as the dead rollers. 6" pvc pipe with an end cap and 6>4 reducer, fernco as the seal. Clamps hold the plywood to the lathe bed and another clamp holds an outrigger to keep the pvc end cap from riding into the lathe head and creating drag. Lathe is set to 400 rpm, it's lowest setting, and the dowel was turned on the lathe to the appropriate size to give me 60-70 rpm and to ensure it was centered.
You can calculate out the dowel size you need based on your cylinder size and your lathe lowest speed. For me, I would have liked to do a 1/2" dowel to get 30 rpm (and then adjust higher with the variable speed control), but 1/2" seemed to small to nicely span the gap. If I decide to tune it down I'll use a 1/2" metal bar or a 3/8" bar with some grip tape on it.
Holds 1.3 gallons by volume. Right now I have 5 lbs of media in there. Did a test batch of 50 cases and they were done in an hour. Currently doing about 300 cases and we'll see how long that takes. This lathe has a quality 1/2 hp motor so I'm sure I can max load it with whatever will tumble correctly and not worry about the motor. The equivalent thumler has a 1/30hp motor, for example.
Total investment:
pvc pipe: free scrounge
end cap, 6>4 reducer and fernco: ~$30
Three decent casters: $20
I already owned the casters but also had to buy the 5lbs of media, so I'm out of pocket less than $60 total on this thing.
I just built this tonight so once I have the kinks worked out I'll make a nicer bottom plate that incorporates the outrigger built into it, and fine-tune the caster line-up and then install wood blocks on the underside of the bottom plate to guide off the lathe bed and make it easy to remount in exactly the same spot every time. Also might put some grip tape on the dowel where it rides on the pvc. It is working 100% right now but I can see the wood starting to gloss up and I imagine that will lead to slipping at some point.
I can hear it running the basement right now. With the 50 rounds you couldn't even notice it, with the current batch of 300 it sounds about like a treadmill running in another room.
Hope you enjoy reading about the design, if you have a lathe and need a wet tumbler try this out. It was dirt simple.
Andy
128997128998
Uses a dowel chucked onto the lathe as the drive roller, two casters on a piece of plywood as the dead rollers. 6" pvc pipe with an end cap and 6>4 reducer, fernco as the seal. Clamps hold the plywood to the lathe bed and another clamp holds an outrigger to keep the pvc end cap from riding into the lathe head and creating drag. Lathe is set to 400 rpm, it's lowest setting, and the dowel was turned on the lathe to the appropriate size to give me 60-70 rpm and to ensure it was centered.
You can calculate out the dowel size you need based on your cylinder size and your lathe lowest speed. For me, I would have liked to do a 1/2" dowel to get 30 rpm (and then adjust higher with the variable speed control), but 1/2" seemed to small to nicely span the gap. If I decide to tune it down I'll use a 1/2" metal bar or a 3/8" bar with some grip tape on it.
Holds 1.3 gallons by volume. Right now I have 5 lbs of media in there. Did a test batch of 50 cases and they were done in an hour. Currently doing about 300 cases and we'll see how long that takes. This lathe has a quality 1/2 hp motor so I'm sure I can max load it with whatever will tumble correctly and not worry about the motor. The equivalent thumler has a 1/30hp motor, for example.
Total investment:
pvc pipe: free scrounge
end cap, 6>4 reducer and fernco: ~$30
Three decent casters: $20
I already owned the casters but also had to buy the 5lbs of media, so I'm out of pocket less than $60 total on this thing.
I just built this tonight so once I have the kinks worked out I'll make a nicer bottom plate that incorporates the outrigger built into it, and fine-tune the caster line-up and then install wood blocks on the underside of the bottom plate to guide off the lathe bed and make it easy to remount in exactly the same spot every time. Also might put some grip tape on the dowel where it rides on the pvc. It is working 100% right now but I can see the wood starting to gloss up and I imagine that will lead to slipping at some point.
I can hear it running the basement right now. With the 50 rounds you couldn't even notice it, with the current batch of 300 it sounds about like a treadmill running in another room.
Hope you enjoy reading about the design, if you have a lathe and need a wet tumbler try this out. It was dirt simple.
Andy
128997128998