[TheForge] Re: Tumbler

[Roger Olsen]

Every shop I have been in that has a tumbler has a small room just for the
tumbler.  They are noisy no matter what you do.  Mine is in an extended add on
room to my shop that was built just large enough to work around the tumbler.
It is well insulated and sheet rocked and it would be deafening to be in that
room while running but get 100 feet from it and it all but cannot be heard.
This is a must for me because I have one neighbot about 200 yards fom me.    I
can work in the shop while it is running and it is an irritating noise but well
within levels of tolerance.   I have thought about stapling commercial egg
cartons on the walls and / or covering the outside of the tunbler with old
carpet but have done neither to date.

All that being said I love my tunbler and cannot imagine being in business
without one.  Mine is 5&1/2 feet long built from 5/16th thick steel pipe 18" in
diameter.  I have 3 pieces of 3/8 x 1 welded the length of it for lift and
fall.  The door is a quarter panel cut out for about a 4&1/2 foot section
leaving me integrity on both ends.  The door has a pipe hinge and is held shut
with two pieces of angle iron meeting each other towards each end.  Holes are
drilled thru the angle iron to accept a 3/8" bolt.     It was built around a
full length of shelby 1"ID and 2"OD.  sticking out of my endcaps about 6" on
each end.  After construction I cut out the shelby so just about 2" stub out on
the inside.  The end pieces rest in pillow blocks and I have a fan with the
intake attached to a pipe that slips loosly over one end of the shelby and
sucks the dust out and gets rid of it.  I went thru about 3 shop vacs before I
got smart and converted to the fan.  My tunbler turns at 28  RPM and a usual
run is about 30 minutes.  The medium is knockouts from an ironworker and small
cutoffs from around my saw.      When I open it up there is no dust, just
polished glistening metal ready for a final clear coat.  I hate wire wheel work
on a hend held side grinder and even more on a pedestal.  Now my work comes out
even better looking than I could do it the old way and I can be forging or
swimming in the river while it happens.

Roger Olsen
__________________

Jerry Frost wrote:

> Interesting . . . Hmmmm.
>
> I'll be testing my tumbler today or tomorrow too.
>
> I used a 55 gl. storage/shipping drum, the one with the clamp on lid. I
> welded a couple pieces of 1/4" x 2" flat in it for lifting lugs and will
> paint it with bed liner paint today. The bed liner should quiet it down and
> make the drum last a lot longer.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob Ehrenberger" <eforge@marktwain.net>
>
>
> > I finished my tumbler today and plan on testing it tomorow.