Solar Powered Tumbler

[Daryl]

Ok, here's a strange idea.

Many of you commented when I was looking for another case cleaner and I was unaware about the extensive and effective use of tumblers. Some even suggested a cheap cement mixer and many had creative units made out of spare parts.

Well, when I got the last electric bill, my wife says its "that thing" that runs all the time!! Maybe, maybe not.

Anyhow, I thought, what if we could make "one of those things" that ran on solar or wind power out of a mix of pieces and parts. I'm no engineer but I can understand what I'm told.

So, I thought we could get together a collection of thoughts that some of us could use to think about how we could make one of these with minimal investment. I don't know about gearing, pulley ratios, etc. but do know that maybe a little wind turbine or fan could be geared to turn this. Or maybe some small solar panels would be enough to charge a car battery that could run a small d.c. motor?

Any ideas?

[acoilfld]

Stationary bicycle (pedal power) - get fit at the same time :)

[mike in co]

so what did you end up with ??
a real tumbler/vibrator will not break the bank via the electric bill....
why is it running all the time ?

one hour in a good vibrator will clean all but winter outdoor brass...which takes two hours...

so what do you have and why is it running so long ??


my guess is the extra money on your electric bill would have paid for a new vibrator/tumbler....



mike in co

[waksupi]

Or, you can put the brass in a coffee can, duct tape it closed, and let it roll around in the back of your pick up for a few days.....

[Shiloh]

Carrying it in your pockets will clean it up as well. :bigsmyl2:

Shiloh

[Artful]

Solar power - costly - wind power cheap - put a a windmill blade and attach container - free tumbling.

[jmorris]

Have a creek near by? A water wheel with a bucket attached would do the trick.

Or you could just use lamp timer to run what you have while the Mrs. can't hear it.

[mdi]

For solar power a 12 volt system would probably be the easiest. A 12 volt automotive motor might work. A solar panel, a few 12 deep cycle batteries, a charging regulator, an inverter, would prolly run you more than a few years extra on yer elec. bill...

[Storydude]

A tumbler is using at most 350 watts. it would have to run for 3 hours+ to get a Kw/Hr of electric used.

a Kw/Hr here is .07 cents.

.28 cents a day run non stop.

[Willbird]

A quick google says more like 100 watts :-). I often run my tumblers over night, the brass just keeps getting cleaner and shinier.

Bill

[montana_charlie]

28 cents a day run non stop.
That would be less than ten dollars per month if you never turned it off.

Your wife has it in her head that your high electric bill is the result of running your tumbler. If you show her the math, she will see that it can't be true.

If you (and she) are truly concerned about the bill, you will probably find something else running (maybe even something of hers) that uses real power...or some defective appliance(?) that is using more than it should.

Look especially at heat producing devices. They burn electricity at a high rate, but do it so quietly they often go unnoticed.

Alternatively, there may have been a rate increase that escaped your attention...

CM

[Edubya]

We just got the highest electric bill since we moved into this house! I do not use my tumblers or my electric RCBS Pro here at the house. We've had our coldest month since 1977. Could your higher bill be for the same reason?

I only run a load of brass for an hour in my tumblers. Cleaner is not important. If I can see any split cases and they run smoothly in my progressive load machine, they're good!
EW

[scrapcan]

You can also try one of the liquid cleaners.

But for a tumbler using solar power, you could fashion one up on the lines of a thumblers tumbler. YOu can use a 12 volt slow rpm motor (something on the order of 100 rpm or less. You can get the motor from surplus center. You then can run the motor direct from panel in full sun.

But by the time you have put it all together you could have run the commercial tumbler for several months.

I agree with some of the above statements about having a less than efficient appliance somewhere.

On thing you might look at is to clean the evaporator coils on you refrigerator and freezer. They work on getting rid of heat in the coils, if it is plugged up with lint, it will not be very efficient at that and will run more often. Another one is if you have a filter in your forced air furnace that is clogged.

[Springfield]

Her hair dryer is gonna suck up way more electricity than your tumbler. Anything with resistance heating, like the electric oven, are the worst.

[KYCaster]

Your wife has it in her head that your high electric bill is the result of running your tumbler. If you show her the math, she will see that it can't be true.CM


:confused: Rotsa ruck with that Charlie. In 25 years of marriage I never found math to be the cure for ANY domestic dispute. If his wife has it in her head then that's all that matters and he may as well chuck the tumbler in the trash.

I think Springfield is on the right track...it's the hair driers. Why does anybody need three or four hair driers? How many hair driers can you use at one time? (OK, you can say the same thing about guns....buy geeeeez, gimme a break!! You know what I mean.) And the ones that quit working???....I'd clean the lint and hair out of the air intake and they'd work fine. I'd put them on the service truck and use them to thaw frozen pipes. I've been free for nearly fifteen years now and I still have more "broken" hair driers than I'll ever use.........................Ummmm, kinda starting to sound like a rant, huh. :oops:

Of course I'm basing my comments on personal experience. (probably why I'm single now) If your experience is different then consider yourself lucky and go out tomorrow and buy her a dozen roses and tell her how much you appreciate her. She'll spend so much time trying to figure out what you did wrong that she'll forget all about the tumbler.

But, take my advice and you may end up in the same situation I'm in. (not necessarily a bad thing...works OK for me) :drinks:

Jerry

[beagle]

Had a friend that rigged his tumbler with a DC 12 volt motor and tumbled his stuff in a wooden box in his truck bed to and from work every day.

Only in Kentucky...../beagle

[Three44s]

Get the solar panels, take a battery out of your wifes car ......... (since she's objecting to your tumbler's power usage) and hook the panels to the bat. and then run a power inverter (they are at Harbor Freight for cheap)

This way you can hook your existing tumbler to the inverter.

The first time your wife can't go somewhere ...... she'll let you back onto the grid with your tumbler and all will be well.
.......... NOW, if you believe that last part ........ I've got a cousin with some ocean front property for sale in Arizona!

Ain't married life GRAND???


Three 44s

[Willbird]

That would be less than ten dollars per month if you never turned it off.

Your wife has it in her head that your high electric bill is the result of running your tumbler. If you show her the math, she will see that it can't be true.



I had to chuckle at this a bit, any married man knows trying to use logic to over rule emotion is often folly ;-).

Bill

[gefiltephish]

Well, if it's just one month's bill that was unusually high, it may have just been a "bad" reading and will be reflected in a lower than usual bill the following month. It could have been a "guesstimated" bill as well, they're always high.

Maybe your wife likes to work in the kitchen with the fridge/freezer doors wide open the whole time. Don't even try to talk logic....you'll wind up feeling stupid and hating life, just because you tried. Ask me how I know.

[Dannix]

Her hair dryer is gonna suck up way more electricity than your tumbler. Anything with resistance heating, like the electric oven, are the worst.
That's what I was thinking. You got a space heater, or is she drying her hair for a hour every evening to warm up? ...don't ask me how I came up with that last part. :mrgreen:

[docone31]

Simple,
Make one of these
http://theepicenter.com/tow082099.html
except,
Replace the lawn mower engine with a bicycle. Tell her, it is SO GREEN for her to generate electricity. PLUS,
She can stay trim, fit, and be the envy of the neighborhood. She can wear the Coctail Dress, with all the goodies. Go out on Ladies night. Meantime, you can slip the tumbler into the wall socket while she is gone.
Then, to burn off the calories, next morning, she can work off the hangover on the generator!
Problem solved.
She won't do it, you will have won without starting a fight.
Not a bad trade off.

[DLCTEX]

My electric bill for my shop last month was estimated, said so on the bill. Compared to the same month a year ago the KWH were double. I called to complain. They could give no reason for the estimate or why they doubled it( even more than double the past month)and finally had me read the meter and call them back. The new reading was 30% less than last year.

[Echo]

Your wife has it in her head that your high electric bill is the result of running your tumbler. If you show her the math, she will see that it can't be true.



Yeah, Right...