Recommend a good 7 liter or so rotary tumbler.

[Dualkit]

I figure this is the place for this question. I have been more than happy with my vibe bowl USA made Thumler U-V18, but unfortunately they don't make a rotary as large as the size I want and also their rotary tumblers don't have screw on lids on the barrels. So I would like a well made rotary tumbler 7 liters or slightly larger with a barrel that has a screw on lid, does such a thing exist.? I got a couple months usage out of a Chinese POS National Metallic until I decided to push the limit on the recommended max weight of 30# and put 27# in it and in stripped out the cheap plastic drive gears. I probably use a rotary tumbler a couple days a month on average if that. I was just going to get another pair of those and never put more than 20# in it, but it seems they are out of stock and no back orders, so I bought a Frankfort Arsenal. Within it's first hour of running in a 80 degree shop it overheated and stopped with 27# out of the max of 30# in it. After the thing sat for a while it restarted. I took some out probably, down to 20#, left the shop to come back in and find it on the floor. It seemed the gear started slipping causing it to start vibrating and dancing across the table. I would just return the POS, but managed to scratch up the timer knob. It now seems to be running ok with a measly 15# in it. From looking around it seems wanting a screw on lid is a sticking point. Can anyone recommend something, PLEASE HELP!

 

[Delw]

Try dillion the reloader guys.
I have 2 od there org biggest tumblers I bought in the 80's still going strong use one of them with small ceramics for Stainless, the other is for plastic media and of coarse ammo, but im running that in my Mr deburr now.
the chinesse embassy has a few desecnt ones I have one going on 3 years now.
we use all our tumblers, vibration type every day.
The dillions work wet but have no drain, the chinesse embassy works wet has a drain.

 

[Dualkit]

I just see vibe bowls on Dillions, I want a rotary.

 

[Delw]

Sorry I put that number in yahoo and saw the vib bowl you talked about.
when we looked for a smaller tumbler(like the mr. deburr we couldnt find one. ended up going to the mr. deburr 300.
it tumbles the parts like a rock tumbler, youd have to watch the videos. to see it work.

One redneck tip, grab a 5 gal bucket, mount it in a hand lathe and go slow speed . it works I tried it years and years ago. A buddy of mine showed me how, he welded up /made a barrel to fit his lathe (was a 18" chuck about 60" long)

I have no idea what your using it for but I'm going to assume machines parts.

 

[Dualkit]

I have no idea what your using it for but I'm going to assume machines parts.

The most common part I tumble is 2" long parts from 3/4" hex 12L14 that are tapped through. The whole hex is left intact and the material from the local place with free delivery is always rusted to the point it is close to pitting the surface. I tumble with glass beads or aluminum oxide and ceramic media, no liquids.

That Mr. Deburr is almost 85 liters if those conversion calculators are accurate. Way too big for my needs. In fact that 2" x 3/4" part is toward the large size of what I make and with those "large parts" I usually never run more than 400 or so at a time.

 

[Delw]

youd probably do 50 at a time about 15 mins per run to be safe otherwise your going to get part edges nicked up.
I run some stainless parts that are flat 1.5 x 2.0 x .200 and .050 thickness all around, about 40-50 at a time max. otherise we get nicks from bumping into each other. Same with our alum parts 1 x 3 x .750 about 50 at a time other wise nicks. yeah I can put more in but then they look like crap due to the nicks and get rejected.
people think because its big you can just loaded them up, which you can but youll scrap parts.
most of my alum 4 x5x 1/2" thick plates I can run 3 to 4 pcs and not get knicks anything over 5-6 and parts bang into each other.
I generally load 150 lbs of 5/8 synthetic cones in it makes it full, for ceramic I can get about 150 lbs of 3/4 triangles but it only fills it up just a little over half.
basically I thought our mr deburr was way to big and its not even close, I am probably going to get another one this year but bigger or get one of the round type but they take up a ton of room 6 foot dia I think? would run about the same amount as the mr deburr.

just did one job 60+ pcs 4 pcs at a time for 10-12 mins

 

[Vancbiker]

.........One redneck tip, grab a 5 gal bucket, mount it in a hand lathe and go slow speed . it works........

Pretty much what my tumbler is except I’m using a ~2 gallon bucket and a dc gearmotor to turn it. All from junk I had picked up free over the years. Yup, I’m a redneck for sure

 

[Dualkit]

Looks like those MrDeburrs are the microwave oven and mine are cooking with wood including the time to cut down the tree and split the wood. I put about 60 in the 7 liters with the media and run them 8-16 hours. Putting in 70 killed the first tumbler, even though it was still a couple pounds under max recommended load. As for redneck tumblers I once had the junk to make one, but either scrapped or gave the stuff away. I might try the barrel on the lathe set up, wish I would have kept the first dead tumbler for some parts. When something breaks especially well before it should I like using the items for target practice. My largest maual lathe has a 14" swing and 6" chuck , will have to cobble something up.

 

[Doug]

I figure this is the place for this question. I have been more than happy with my vibe bowl USA made Thumler U-V18, but unfortunately they don't make a rotary as large as the size I want and also their rotary tumblers don't have screw on lids on the barrels. So I would like a well made rotary tumbler 7 liters or slightly larger with a barrel that has a screw on lid, does such a thing exist.? I got a couple months usage out of a Chinese POS National Metallic until I decided to push the limit on the recommended max weight of 30# and put 27# in it and in stripped out the cheap plastic drive gears. I probably use a rotary tumbler a couple days a month on average if that. I was just going to get another pair of those and never put more than 20# in it, but it seems they are out of stock and no back orders, so I bought a Frankfort Arsenal. Within it's first hour of running in a 80 degree shop it overheated and stopped with 27# out of the max of 30# in it. After the thing sat for a while it restarted. I took some out probably, down to 20#, left the shop to come back in and find it on the floor. It seemed the gear started slipping causing it to start vibrating and dancing across the table. I would just return the POS, but managed to scratch up the timer knob. It now seems to be running ok with a measly 15# in it. From looking around it seems wanting a screw on lid is a sticking point. Can anyone recommend something, PLEASE HELP!

Used Machinery & Industrial Equipment | HGR Industrial Surplus (hgrinc.com)

 

[Dualkit]

Used Machinery & Industrial Equipment | HGR Industrial Surplus (hgrinc.com)

Except that what looks to be homemade and ugly one for $699, they are all way too big. I wonder what they paid for that thing? I might watch it.

 

[g-coder05]

As for redneck tumblers I once had the junk to make one

Nothing wrong with redneck engineering. I used to machine a lot of torch cut parts and hated knocking slag off. I had bought a concrete mixer to do projects around the house and shop and it was just kinda sitting up on the mezzanine. One day sweating my ass off de slagging parts I just happened to look up and thought “hey, that and some gravel would make life much easier”. Yep, a few shovel loads of #88 gravel from the parking lot tumbling torch cut parts worked like a charm.

 

[Mud]

A friend with a fab shop uses punch slugs for media to tumble torch cut parts.
Here I'm tumbling a Model T gas tank to remove rust. I used 22 lbs of 5/16 lockwashers and Awesome cleaner

 

[g-coder05]

Now that’s proper out of the box thinking

 

[g-coder05]

A friend with a fab shop uses punch slugs for media to tumble torch cut parts.
Here I'm tumbling a Model T gas tank to remove rust. I used 22 lbs of 5/16 lockwashers and Awesome cleaner

after watching that on my phone it looked like a commercial mailbox. Come to think of it a mailbox could be a quick and easy rotary timber.

 

[Mud]

after watching that on my phone it looked like a commercial mailbox. Come to think of it a mailbox could be a quick and easy rotary timber.

A 50 year old mailbox maybe, made from real steel.

 

[g-coder05]

A 50 year old mailbox maybe, made from real steel.

yeah, I don’t care to much for those store bought stamped boxes.

My house in the sticks of Tennessee was a target of weekend mailbox baseball. After replacing and repairing a few times I decided to roll up some 1/4” hot roll and make my own. I was the Danley distributor so I had a few thousand springs on hand and figured I could generate some “recoil” if I put a few rows of die springs on the side covered with another piece of plate.

I never got to see the reaction of the batter but I bet they were a bit rattled

 

[Mud]

USPS requires that mailboxes be approved. Best solution I saw was a medium size box concreted inside a large box. Both were postmaster approved, so nothing got said. You could see a few bat marks on the outside, and the flag got knocked off a couple times over the decades, but it survived as long as I knew about it.

 

[Mud]

BTW - a friend straps his tanks to the wheel of a tractor with HF ratchet straps to do the same thing.

 

[g-coder05]

USPS requires that mailboxes be approved. Best solution I saw was a medium size box concreted inside a large box. Both were postmaster approved, so nothing got said. You could see a few bat marks on the outside, and the flag got knocked off a couple times over the decades, but it survived as long as I knew about it.

I never had a problem with the postmaster, I guess since my house is up in the sticks where they use contractors in Jeep Cherokees to deliver it never raised any flags. The sherif used to come over and we would go fishing up in the creek and he told me if someone got injured I was skating the line of boobytrapping.

Then again, there’s a hole through the center of my hand from a misfire on one of my window boobytraps......

 

[LOTT]

Dualkit, Why do you want to stick with rotary tumblers? Before anyone doubts my redneck credentials, we flat wore out three Harbor Frieght concrete mixers before moving to vibratory. On one the tub fell off, the bottom was just gone. 8 hours a shot, two runs a day. (We killed a couple 18lbs HF vibatory bowls in there as well)

We finally got a Mr Deburr DB300, and it is better in every respect. Faster, better quality finish, more convienent. We recently got a second to keep one set for stainless and one for aluminum. I'm sure the big round ones have advantages, but for a small shop the Mr Deburr is great.