# My recently built tumbler



## appliedtop (Jan 8, 2007)

Not knowing what I was doing I thought I would try my hand at building a tumbler. Can't be that difficult right? Here is the nearly finished project. Waiting for a link belt from Harborfreight and we're off and running. Got the motor on Ebay for $15. Had some steel laying around that I used to weld up the frame. Got the 8 pillow block bearings on Ebay for about $7 each which was 1/4 the price of my local hardware store. Bought the shafts for about $20 for all. Went with 2 1/2-inch and a 3/4-inch drive. This way I can put a rubber hose over the 1/2-inch shafts. I found the pillow blocks to be a bit stiff so I used a vacuum cleaner belt to drive the idler shafts and it works well. You can see the design in the pics. The belts that are currently on the machine were made from bungy cords and work well. The machine turns a 6-inch canister about 20rpm on the slow pulley and about 60 rpm on the fast pulley. A 4-inch canister is a bit faster. Built on the cheap but works great.  Now I am working on the canisters.


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## appliedtop (Jan 8, 2007)

A picture of how the vacuum cleaner belt works between the idler shafts and drive shaft.


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## Gunsmoke47 (Jan 8, 2007)

Cool design! It otta work great! Canisters... no problem,  stopples are tougher. Looking forward to seeing your completed unit! Kelley


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## stinger haut (Jan 8, 2007)

Nice job of making a tumbler. I've always made my own as well.
 What does the small shaft on the very front of the roller bar for? Does your idler bar/s need the extra belt to make them drive?
 Stinger


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## appliedtop (Jan 8, 2007)

Yeah, I found the bearings to be a bit stiff so I needed to put the vacuum belts between the drive shaft and idler shafts.


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## capsoda (Jan 8, 2007)

Great looking tumbler. Your bearings will lossen up after a short time. Use friction tape on your center shaft and it will save your canisters from wearing on the outside.


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## appliedtop (Jan 8, 2007)

Hope you're right on the bearings but just in case I ground grooves into the drive shaft and installed a vacuum belt on each idler shaft.  This way all the shafts are powered and the canisters won't slip at all. Works like a million bucks.


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## stinger haut (Jan 9, 2007)

What are the RPM's of your electric motor?
 Stinger


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## appliedtop (Jan 9, 2007)

The motor is 1725 rpm. I had a 3450 rpm motor but found it to be way too fast.  Sold it on ebay and bought this used one.  It looks beat but runs excellent.


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## stinger haut (Jan 9, 2007)

Warren in his earlier post is right about your bearings loosing up. I recently added more roller bars to expand my tumbling capacity. Those pillowblock bearings look exactly like the same ones I bought off of ebay for a very reasonable price. They took about 6 hours to lossen up.
 What size of pulleys do you have on your center roller?
 The friction tape works very well for saving the wear on your cansiters. I use sch 80 PVC pipe for all my canisters since I tumble a lot of bottles. They last a lot longer than the Sch 40 PVC and don't go out of round as easily, however they do cost more.
 I live in the tropics, so I use a wood frame because metal rusts so easliy here.
 Stinger


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## Bottleman (Jan 13, 2007)

Scott, whatâ€™s the black stuff you wrapped around your rollers? How long does it last before it wears out? The rubber coating on my rollers is so scratched up that it wonâ€™t turn my canisters if they are too heavy or if I have too many canisters on the tumbler. Thatâ€™s a great setup you made there!

 ~~Tom


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## epgorge (Jan 13, 2007)

Guys, 
 I have a coule bottles I wish to have tumbled. I mentioned that to a friend who is into bottles and he told me it would devalue my bottles. I said they are already devalued. Does Tumbling take away value of an old bottle?
 Joel


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## bottlenutboy (Jan 13, 2007)

i dont think tumbling devalues bottles at all unless they get ruined by careless use of a tumbler but some people like the "dug" look so its really just whatever you like but thats just my opinion


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## appliedtop (Jan 13, 2007)

What I did on the rollers is wrap the drive shaft in water pipe insulation and then wrap stretchable electrical take over that.  Then I bought a can of vehicle rubberized undercoating and turned the machine on while spraying the rubber coating over the tape.  It works great and if it gets worn you just spray more on. Has a good grip too.


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## capsoda (Jan 14, 2007)

Tumbling does not devalue a bottle but raises the value. A well cleaned bottle is worth far more than a crappy stained one.


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