Part tumbling and vibratory cleaning.

[1-tonmudder]

Sounds kinda dirty don't it?? Anyway has anybody ever built their own tumbler for cleaning parts??? I have been looking for a used one for a while and havent been able to find a used one and a new one is not in the budget so I wanting to build one.I am mainly wanting to clean yokes and bearing retainers so it wouldnt need to be too big.I had thought about an old paint shaker but I dont think they have a variable speed engine and at full speed it would probably damage the container pretty quickly with a couple of yokes in it.

 

[sledheadak]

if you found a air powered one you can put a valve on it to control the amount of air going to it.that will control its speed.

 

[BLIDVL]

Might be a bit "backwoods" for you but old clothes dryers work great, I put what I want tumbled into a drywall bucket with some black beauty and let it spin, cheap easy and with a little cardboard/common sense it works pretty good. I also have a dishwasher I rigged up for a hot tank, kicks butt, maybe I'll do a redneck tech article on that.

 

[tRustyK5]

We had one at one place I worked, not sure if it's exactly what you're describing though. It was probably about 30 gallons in size and filled with small round pieces of ceramic. They added soapy water and a mitt full of small aluminum parts and after a few hours they wasn't a sharp edge anywhere...they were all perfectly deburred and quite shiny.

The crudest I've seen was a place where they'd take the flame cut parts and throw em in a cement mixer for a few hours. Pretty interesting finish on those parts when they were done...

Rene

 

[1-tonmudder]

I'm not sure I'd want to listen to some 1350 yokes bouncing around in a dryer tub.

 

[1-tonmudder]

We had one at one place I worked, not sure if it's exactly what you're describing though. It was probably about 30 gallons in size and filled with small round pieces of ceramic. They added soapy water and a mitt full of small aluminum parts and after a few hours they wasn't a sharp edge anywhere...they were all perfectly deburred and quite shiny.

The crudest I've seen was a place where they'd take the flame cut parts and throw em in a cement mixer for a few hours. Pretty interesting finish on those parts when they were done...

Rene

Yeah same principle,they just use corncob or walnut shells and do it dry.It's pretty popular with the ammo reloading crowd,but I think they use the vibratory cleaners more.I have a blast cabinet but my current compressor won't support it for long.

 

[BLIDVL]

they live in the drywall bucket, pad the tub to hold the bucket accordingly. backwoods man.

 

[1-tonmudder]

pad the tub to hold the bucket accordingly. backwoods man.

10 cans of spray foam????

 

[Avery4jc]

Have you checked on CL? After a quick search here's one that looks decent north of me.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/tls/1505152958.html

 

[1-tonmudder]

Craigslist around here sucks,hardly ever do they have anyting any good.

 

[Wasatch K5]

This is a bit off topic, but ties in with the dishwasher. This was NOT one of brighter ideas!

Several years ago I changed the water pump on my then girlfriends car for her. When I was done I had a whole bunch of dirty, greasy tools.

So I loaded all my dirty and greasy tools into the dishwasher and, because it works well in the sink on greasy pots and pans, I put Joy dishwashing liquid in the dishwasher, turned it on and walked away.

I came back about 30 minutes later and there were soap bubbles all over the kitchen floor. It was a huge wet soapy mess.

 

[ryoken]

subscribed.... I'd be interested in one of these.. either new and reasonably priced, or homebrewed...