Having been disappointed with the Harbor Freight rock tumbler, I won this one on auction locally.
This is clearly a great rock tumbler, however the barrel is kind of big. We (me and kids) do not have as much rocks to tumble. Can we substitute sand for some rocks? What exactly happens if the barrel is mostly empty, would there be no tumbilng action at all? The barrel is hexagonal and not round.
i
Its also a great part deburring machine, with proper media, its a damned fine cartridge case cleaner with the proper media and so forth.
Sand? Whatever for? All you will do is scratch the very rock you are trying to polish, and/or turn the sand into dust.
Simply hose the thing out after tumbling whatever amount of rock you polish up, and then after drying, load it up with crushed walnut hulls and then your brass, after thats done, blow it out with a air hose and dump in media and parts, ad neauseum, ad infinitum
Thats a very nice machine. It will tumble a couple pebbles, or a bunch of rock. Doesnt really make much difference how much is in it, as long as it can rotate the contents easily.
Okay, well, that's awesome. Thanks a lot. It looks like a long lived machine to me. New it costs over $1,000.
i
Just add more rocks, though with a hexagonal barrel it should work pretty well with a smaller-than-normal load. It would be interesting to see what large gravel, chunks of granite, marble, odds and ends picked up from the side of the road would look like after polishing.
It's also possible to make black powder for less than $1 a pound in materials cost, assuming that one can locate 50-lb bags of 13-0-44 fertilizer**. Best to read up on that prior to any attempts, and run the tumbler at a distance... :-)
**AKA potassium nitrate-- Best -- Terry
Well, I used this tumbler today to mix some 10 lbs of thermite. (worked great) That's much safer than gunpowder.
I would rather just buy gunpowder, which I do not really need anyway, than risk anything messing with it.
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