I just put this tumbler together using a 55gal drum that I had. It works very well! The large #8 chain not only turns the barrel with ease but also vibrates the media inside in addition to tumbling it.

Edited July 3, 200916 yr by mod07
Photo edit

Thanks for sharing your tumbler with us,good job,it looks like the drum is plastic?....Over and out

I like it ... I was planning on building one with heavy sewwer pipe ~24". How did you attach the chain to the drum?.

brad

Can you post some more pics of some of the details, please? It looks like a great job.

Looks nice. Got an example of a finished piece coming out of it?

The chain is a good idea. I built a tumbler from a 55 gl. steel drum with the removable lid. I drive it by running a belt over the drum and down to the motor pulley for right at 37 RPM.

Vibrating it with a chain too is a MUCH better option.

Frosty

Wow, very nice!
When I see the results of people

Nice tumbler....

Great idea! Would love to see more details, like what media, finished product, motor/pulley combos. Been needing a tumbler for a while now!

very nice i am planing to make some thing like this maybe smaller tho but i would also love to get more close up pics and if you would teel a bit more about what you did ?
and what do you put inside so that it works??..

DC

Excellent post. I have long considered making one myself from a steel 55 gal drum.

Couple of questions:

My wife's silversmithing tumbler has an octagon interior to help scoop up the medium (and items) so that they are impacted by the medium more effectively. Is the interior smooth or did you include small paddles or other fixtures to do something similar?

What medium are you using? (Black beauty, steel shot, ceramic shot, etc)

Another thing I've done with her tumbler when I use it on small steel items (such as horseshoe nail rings) is to have a tumbler drum loaded with lightly oiled sawdust for a final high polish that lightly coats the items so they don't rust while awaiting sale.

Great job nice to see good work, time and skill
Onya Mate;)

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delay, I have been out for a while. I'll take some more pics for you to look at and post them sometime this week. Here are the answers to some of the questions. The pending photos will help explain more.

The barrel is a thick heavy grade plastic. It used to hold floor wax. I chose plastic because I thought it would be quieter and hold up better than the steel drums. That being said, with the chain it's pretty noisy.

The chain is held on using compression. I put on a 2" x 1/8" strip around the drum and then wrapped the chain around that. I then squeezed the heck out of it until the two ends of the chain came together. I then put 2 pop rivets into the strip just to keep it from sliding.

The media I'm using is very fine glass beads because I like the high luster finish. It's important to give the work a couple day soak in vinigar to remove all the oxide so that the media will have an easy go of polishing.

I have 3 fins inside made from the plastic concrete edgers that you can buy at Home Depot. I like them because they have reinforcing supports that run the whole length.

I don't think this was a question but I'm using an industrial sewing machine motor to power the tumbler. I got it off Ebay and chose it because it has 2 ways of achieving different speeds and came ready to work with an on/off switch, rubber mounts, bolts, and adjustable belt tensioner attached.

Now... "Leeeets get ready to tuuuuuble!!!"

I should add...

The barrel is held down using gravity alone. That's another nice thing about using gears to bite the chain as apposed to a belt which has to loop both around the barrel and a pulley. With the chain you can just grab hold of the barrel, lift it off, and you don't have to worry about undoing any belts or things of that nature. That being said, big chain may be hard to stumble on and if your looking to buy one the belt is a much cheaper option. Of course with the belts you don't get the cool Mad Max look...

I like your design and have been toying with the idea of making one but have hesitated because I am not sure how do it. Maybe you could do a blueprint of this project.

Thank you for this post. I now know what to do with #60 chain and gears off a worn out Vermeer hay baler, and the old cloths dryers behind the shed.

OK I know I said I would post more photos but I have been busy getting all of the bugs out. Things coming loose and stuff of that nature. I'll get some more pics up as soon as I'm sure it's working at 100%

Question, I was using glass beads to achieve a polished look but it does not seem to be working all that well. I'm thinking of using saw dust or small wood chips, the kind you use in hamster cages, and mixing that with some kind of inexpensive polishing compound for ferrous metals. Does anyone know of a good compound?

i didnt realise you could tumble metal things! scuse my ignorance but is this process for getting it polished ? would love to see some pics of the pieces when they have been tumbled and would they have differnt quality to pieces polished in other ways? thanks! :)

I have seen rigs to blast paint off using baking soda, it's inexpensive and mildly abrasive.

I like the idea of using metal saw dust or skarfs or what ya call em in English.. and a light oil..
and also the idea of a octagon shaped interior

DC

The guys at the beach use small bolts,nuts or small plugs of any kind of metal. the best I've seen was a 16" tire on a strait spindle with 1/4 & 3/8" plugs from a punch press turned at about 5 rpm.
Travis