# Free Tumbler



## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

I posed, as an intellectual exercise, the problem of building a tumbler from junk in my garage (without spending any money) to my old friend Professor Sneed Hern, scholar, explorer, raconteur, elderly but active.

 He came up with this:


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

You will see that it is powered by an old backyard barbeque rotissirie motor. My original thought was to file a square on the end of a bolt and put it through the bottom of the gallon plastic jar. My best friend, though, is a welder/machinist. He took a big bolt, put it in the lathe and cut it short and drilled a hole in the end. Into the hole he welded a piece of square stock. 

 The purpose of the water is, obviously, to avoid having to buy bearings. The water makes an essentially frictionless bearing. With a different container I feel it would be possible to do bottles insides and outsides.

 Now, the hitch. I'm sure you are already thinking that this turns too slowly. Well, you're right there. It turns 4.5-5 rpm. I put in an S.O. Richardson's bitters that was quite sick inside. I ran the tumbler for 3.5 days, with 2 mm beads and a teaspoon or so of 600 SC. At the end of that time, a good deal of the overall sickness was pretty much gone. There were still wavy lines of sickness. At the end of two weeks, the bottle is much improved (see picture to follow.) I figure to run it another two weeks and feel sure it will be completely satisfactory. Whether I'll have to run it for weeks with some polish, I don't know.

 Obviously this tumbler is extremely slow. May I point out, though, that it is infinitely faster than no tumbler at all. And it was FREE. 

 I figure this tumbler will take approximately 10 times longer to do a bottle


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

By the way, the Professor calls his design the " Prof. Sneed Hern's Great South Sea Bubble Mystery Tumbler."

 Thanks BarbaraInCalif for the beads and the advice.

 Incidently, it occured to the prof. that someone could simply pack their chicken basket with wrapped (and media-filled) bottles and tumble on the barbeque (fire optional and not recommended.) That's just the kind of off-the-wall ideas the prof. comes up with.


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

In defense of the Mystery Tumbler, it would probably be much more effective if copper were used, instead of glass beads. Those beads are Soooooo neat, though. I don't know whether to call the beads "things" or "stuff." (Accurately) call me a nut, but I think a bag or pan full of 2 mm glass beads is a beautiful thing.


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## GuntherHess (Feb 20, 2010)

not bad innovation.
 I think the biggest flaw I see is there is nothing to hold the bottle inside the canister.
 Probably not too much of an issue for something like a cylindrical hobbleskirt coke but I would be afraid to tumble a rectangular thin walled pontil medicine like that. Likely to end up with a bottle puzzle when you open it.


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  GuntherHess
> 
> not bad innovation.
> I think the biggest flaw I see is there is nothing to hold the bottle inside the canister.
> Probably not too much of an issue for something like a cylindrical hobbleskirt coke but I would be afraid to tumble a rectangular thin walled pontil medicine like that. Likely to end up with a bottle puzzle when you open it.


 
 I forgot to mention, though the second picture illustrates, that the bottle is packed in plastic grocery bags - also free. I believe that if a person wanted to try this for doing the outside of bottles, a container closer to the diameter of the bottle would be required. Also stopples and fingers or some other means of holding the bottle.

 Believe me that, the way I'm using the tumbler as we speak (and turning so slowly,) the S.O. Richardson is as safe as on the shelf.


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## cyberdigger (Feb 20, 2010)

Very clever!! Things like this really get my wheels turning.. floating it in water is a neat idea!! []


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  cyberdigger
> 
> Very clever!! Things like this really get my wheels turning.. floating it in water is a neat idea!!Â []


 
 On behalf of Prof. Hern, I thank you. I will convey to him your complement. Due to his extremely busy life of scholarship and exploration, the prof. doesn't publish his whereabouts. Should anyone need to correspond with Prof. Hern, I'm afraid that messages must be relayed through me or BarbaraInCalif, or Oklahoma Bottles (Who also know the prof.)


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## ombudsman (Feb 20, 2010)

I notice that Surplus Center (www.surpluscenter.com), with whom I have dealt a number of times and have found very reliable and efficient, has AC gearmotors that turn at a more reasonable speed for tumbling (30-50 rpm). These motors are as low as $3.95, less shipping.


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## athometoo (Feb 21, 2010)

here was my idea about a yr ago . i did clean 3 bottles this way on the inside , but it took 1 week per bottle . yup that got retired very quickly . oh yeah and we made ice cream too . []


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## Oklabottles (Feb 22, 2010)

So you finally posted the proffessors tumbler very eccentric and inovative idea I think it did a god job for what it costed.


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## ombudsman (Feb 22, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  Oklabottles
> 
> So you finally posted the proffessors tumbler very eccentric and inovative idea I think it did a god job for what it costed.


 
 Thanks, Justin. It might not be a good front-line tumbler, but since it cost nothing, I think it's just fine. If it takes a month to do a bottle, so what? That bottle wasn't getting clean sitting on the shelf. As you know, I now have a much more effective and practical tumbler, but the ole Mystery Tumbler will still be in constant use.
 Dave


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