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I Forge Iron

Show Me Your Tumbler.


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Recently I have had a couple of questions from people on my tumbler. So here is mine. I did not make this one. I bought it from a smith who was going out of business. If I had to make another it would be based on this one. The barrel is made out of 1/4" floor  or tread plate, and  the tread is on the inside. It is also 6 sided so you do not have to put baffles on the inside, which means less maintenance. It will fit 48" pickets and this one turns very fast. Almost to a point it will centrifugal force the parts to the outside, but not quite. I have been told by more than on smith that this the way it should be, because it takes less time to do your parts. Some argue that it should be slow. For me about 20 to 30 min a load. The down side at a higher speed is it will beat up very delicate parts. But even items like small leaves it will do a great job on. It is a must have if you are doing production type work. It also will soften up the edges on your parts.So Let me see yours!

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Neat Harold!

Could you do us a rough rev per minute estimate, you know, so we may copy this excellent design more accurately ;)

Are the bits of steel inside the drum shown in your 3rd photo 'grit' to do the peening?

Would you like some pics of propriety tumblers here for comparison?

thanks,

AndrewOC

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Neat Harold!

Could you do us a rough rev per minute estimate, you know, so we may copy this excellent design more accurately ;)

Are the bits of steel inside the drum shown in your 3rd photo 'grit' to do the peening?

Would you like some pics of propriety tumblers here for comparison?

thanks,

AndrewOC

 

Andrew, it's about 44 rpm. Yes I would like to see some pics of propriety tumblers from down under.  :) Yes the bits are the media. I have saved them out of my ironworker. There are some bigger pieces in there and as I get more slugs from punching I keep pulling the larger pieces out. Ideal for me would be to have all slugs. You use to be able to go to a fab shop and get there slugs for free. Now with the cost of scap steel nobody gives it away any more.

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I bought this at an auction last year, and haven't gotten around to repairing it. The motor mount is broken, but it has an adjustable speed gearbox.

 

One thing that is very wrong with it: the door is very small, and I must cut open one whole side and make a decent door so that it is easy to get the stuff out. Price paid was less than scrap value, and I got with it 8 bags full of commercial ceramic media.

 

But I do not at present do much steelwork, so I use the concrete mixer for the occasional batch.

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Here is a tumbler I made out of the head roll of a conveyor and some scrap iron. The access door is pretty small but I seldom tumble large parts. I run around 23 rpm which is slow enough to give good tumble and roll. It only has a 1 hp motor on it with a bunch of mechanical reduction. I have it fully enclosed with insulation board to keep the noise down. I mostly use nickle slag for the abrasive. Here's a pic.  Ed.

 

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  • 2 months later...

I am developing a large tumbler without welding or machining. The barrell is a black pickle barrel with screw lid. For the liner, I shall use treads of automobile tires that have the inner diameter of the barrel (23 inches). Turned inside out, the treads pop into place inside the barrell. I remove the side walls of the tires with a utility knife. I am hoping that there will low noise.

 

 

 

 

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