Do not buy a Harbor Freight "rock tumbler"

I went through the usual labour pains before I decided on mine. Rather than going the cheap way I splashed out on Thumler's UV10 (Industrial) and so far I have not regretted it. BTW do not use cat litter silica crystals wet...or dry for that matter (the dust is awful).

Take them out to where the water is. Took mine just on a side trip and there are all kinds of colored volcanic glass in Escanaba Mi.

Lost me Ig. You had a mill stuck in a corner with your lyon tool box and then getting a bigger mill, but you buy a broken china rock ...

Extended warranty! You can reach little no neck monsters from Ill.? No more MIG fighters? Or AK's?

SW

I just chuck a plastic container in my lathe that has a couple of wood slats mounted on the inside of it and run it at the slowest speed. I use the tailstock to hold the lid on. It also works great for deburring parts.

John

isn't this a metal working group? to make a rock tumbler all you need is an old BBQ motor, a couple of steel bars that you cover with tight fitting flexible hose, and some bracketry to hold the mess - direct drive one of the rods with the BBQ motor. use any plastic jar for the tumbling jar.

"Bill Noble" fired this volley in news:htkmhg$l1g$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Right. Read something on Ball Milling. There's something more to it than what Horrible Fright might tell... and it doesn't take two weeks to "tumble" a bunch of dull, worthless rocks into shiny, worthless rocks -- It takes about 24-36 hours in an optimized mill. In fact, it takes about the same time to change loads and wash between grit charges as it does to do the actual grinding. If you wanted to do the whole job in three days, you'd be working after midnight two of them.

LLoyd (who _actually_ wrote the book on the subject)

Lloyd, I am intrigued, what is that book?

I can't believe you bought one when you could have cobbled something together in half an hour from your junk pile.

The mechanism is straightforward, but it is not as easy to make a rubber barrel.

Sections of a truck inner-tube?

Jon

That is a vibratory tumbler, and mine was a rotary.

I actually do have a vibratory tumbler, called Nova 501HT (see novafinishing.com). It is not as good for rounding rocks, however. Otherwise it is great.

No, A whole tire!

It looks cute in a redneck kind of way, but in actuality it is very inconvenient and the tire wears out.

When I was working in the sand and gravel business a salesman gave me a sample of a urethane sheet that had an adhesive back on it. The product was available in different durometer ratings and thickness'. Once applied to a piece of steel it was extremely difficult to break the bond between the two. I don't recall the manufacturer of the product. It seems like the ideal thing to line a barrel with. Steve

Yes, that would be cool.

Anyway, I actually do have a 1/3 HP "real" tumbler from an old dirty factory, it is just a bit too big. I wanted to have a little tumbler that would be more friendly to my kids.

Barrels of rock tumblers ALWAYS wear out. Particularly with 50 lbs rock in them.

Gunner

McMaster Carr sells the rubber barrels for the Thumler's Tumbler, in 2 different sizes.

RogerN

Ah. Several people sent me links to the HF vibratory tumbler. I did not know they did the rotary ones too.

But thanks for the links. That Nova 501HT looks a serious machine. BTW is this where you get your media from? $1.50 +/- per lb of ceramics is very good. I wonder if they ship to Canada...

Well, if only in name.

I got the media on the cart with the machine at the factory that went bankrupt. Two half full buckets and a box of ceramic media of various coarseness, and this vibratory tumbler. I also have some corn cob media (way too much; anyone wants some cheap?). I was going to polish a big jar's worth of pennies with the kids this weekend.