Tumbler Build - For cleaning plasma cut parts.

Stefan,
Good job with your tumbler build.
Years ago I built my tumbler for part on part tumbling.
Sometimes I add steel punch slugs or crushed gravel etc.
Needless to say, it is located outside at the back corner of the shop. Makes people ask "what's going on in that barrel?"
I had scrapped an old dump truck, and salvaged the front steering axle for mounting the barrel. I made the large sprocket with welded square bar (before I had built my plasma cutter). I changed sprocket size till I had a speed that worked. VFD would be nice.
Earl W

flamecutter wrote:

Stefan,
Good job with your tumbler build.
Years ago I built my tumbler for part on part tumbling.
Sometimes I add steel punch slugs or crushed gravel etc.
Needless to say, it is located outside at the back corner of the shop. Makes people ask "what's going on in that barrel?"
I had scrapped an old dump truck, and salvaged the front steering axle for mounting the barrel. I made the large sprocket with welded square bar (before I had built my plasma cutter). I changed sprocket size till I had a speed that worked. VFD would be nice.
Earl W

Thanks for sharing that Earl. Its great what can be built with a bit of imagination.

Why do you add steel punchings or gravel? What kind of parts to you mostly tumble?

you need to have lots of parts to make this a usefull
NOICE to the next shop is to considder
TIME if it takes 24hr Energy waist
Surface if you got blank surfaces you see scratches

Why do you add steel punchings or gravel? What kind of parts to you mostly tumble?

If I add steel punchings or gravel when I tumble large or heavy parts it gives it more of a rolling effect rather than a heavy hit. Also it helps clean inside corners and holes. I tumble a variety of parts, Large and small, heavy and light. It works good for all.

NOICE to the next shop is to considder

It does make noise, but I don't know of it being offensive to anyone. That's one advantage of not having a shop close to a residential area. The neighbors would say it isn't worse than the noise of their 250HP tractor working land. I have thought of building an enclosure for it, but so far it's pretty far down on the to do list.

TIME if it takes 24hr Energy waist

I never tumble for 24 hrs. If you tumble for too long, the corners of the parts start to become peened. If you have just a few parts it's probably better to just clean the parts on the belt grinder, but if I need pay an employee to stand at the belt grinder for a long time cleaning lots of parts. I'm sure we would both choose the tumbling option.

Surface if you got blank surfaces you see scratches

Fragile parts or parts that can not be scratched will mostly be cut out with laser rather than plasma and is not a good candidate for tumbling.
EW

Thanks for the response.

I agree with the comments about the tractors. We are in a rural industrial area as well. Out here noise is not a major concern.

I also agree with employees grinding parts. I have the same issue. I have been not cutting smaller parts on purpose since it is way to time consuming to clean the small part up by hand. I get get roughly 700 or so of a small plate we use everyday out of a sheet but my guys said last time they were a pain to clean.

I have read that most parts should be ready under 10 minutes. I will do some testing soon. I find your comments about the gravel interesting. I will keep it in mind.

Also with your mixer, I bet you can just tilt the drum down and the parts slide out. Any advice on removing parts?

I was planing to have a steel shelf under the drum that I could open the lid and jog the drum around so the parts fall onto the shelf then I can remove them with a forklift.

tumbling is a timed process. with a cosmetic part the tumbling method and media type factor in. i have to agree any kind of hand work on parts equals added expense to the process. this kind of tumbler is on the extreme side of the spectrum. the ones we use are more precise and use a vibration method of moving the media over the parts in conjunction with water and additives with rust inhibitors in it.

After I build a laser cutter I might built the type of tumbler you are talking about. Lots of local fab shops have my kind of tumber in their yard to clean up plasma cut parts. It scratched them but a good majority of the time it does not matter for the parts that are put into it.

I am going to play around with different speeds and timing to see what gets the best results.

Small update.

Installed key. Nice tight fit.

Mounted the drum door and got most of the drum welded.