On Oct 31, 12:47*pm, "Steve W." wrote:
Butter wrote:
*By big i am thinking capacity of 1000 lbs. This is to tumble steel
parts coming off our plasma cutting table. My boss came and asked me
to be on the lookout for gearbox and 5 or 10hp motors. I'm well known
for scrounging around here. He wants us to build something to tumble
and debur the parts coming off the cutting table. The largest would be
1in thick and 12in by 12in.
*So i want to look into this since i have little faith in our recent
grad of an "engineer" to design this well, and i think it would be
interesting to get involved in this.. So are there any sites with info
on these? I'll i find when i search are "Rock Tumblers"
About all my boss said was these things sort of self destruct and
we'll be replacing chains and parts. *What we have is our Plasma
table, large rolls, and welders.

They don't usually self destruct IF they were built right. The ones we
had were real simple.
They had a large drum made of 1/2" thick steel panels welded along each
edge, with one that locked in place with simple dog locks. The end caps
were the same steel and welded all the way around. On each end were two
pairs of pillow blocks with stub shafts that bolted to the tumbler body.
Power for rotation was a simple hydraulic drive motor that connected to
one stub shaft with a sprocket.
Had a control lever that allowed you to roll the drum either way.
Used to tumble a LOT of stuff in there, Abrasive wise it used a standard
ceramic media just like the vibratory units.http://www.thermalfab.com/manufacturing.htmTake a look at the picture
of their tumbler about half way down the page. Ours was almost a twin to
that, Just a bit more "used"http://www.kramerindustriesonline.com/barrel-finishing-systems.htmhttp://www.almco.com/main.html

We also had a medium sized vibratory unit. It worked great on things
that you couldn't tumble but it was N O I S Y!!!!! You couldn't run it
during normal production hours because it was so loud. Had to run it on
third shift when you could load it, hit the switch and get well away
from it.

http://www.vibratoryfinishing.com/v12.htm*And here is a used one just
like it!

--
Steve W.

Thanks for the links. We will probably use 3/8 since we have so much
of that size steel scrap and roll a drum i'm guessing.