Tumbler Build - For cleaning plasma cut parts.

Thanks for the response.

I agree with the comments about the tractors. We are in a rural industrial area as well. Out here noise is not a major concern.

I also agree with employees grinding parts. I have the same issue. I have been not cutting smaller parts on purpose since it is way to time consuming to clean the small part up by hand. I get get roughly 700 or so of a small plate we use everyday out of a sheet but my guys said last time they were a pain to clean.

I have read that most parts should be ready under 10 minutes. I will do some testing soon. I find your comments about the gravel interesting. I will keep it in mind.

Also with your mixer, I bet you can just tilt the drum down and the parts slide out. Any advice on removing parts?

I was planing to have a steel shelf under the drum that I could open the lid and jog the drum around so the parts fall onto the shelf then I can remove them with a forklift.

tumbling is a timed process. with a cosmetic part the tumbling method and media type factor in. i have to agree any kind of hand work on parts equals added expense to the process. this kind of tumbler is on the extreme side of the spectrum. the ones we use are more precise and use a vibration method of moving the media over the parts in conjunction with water and additives with rust inhibitors in it.

After I build a laser cutter I might built the type of tumbler you are talking about. Lots of local fab shops have my kind of tumber in their yard to clean up plasma cut parts. It scratched them but a good majority of the time it does not matter for the parts that are put into it.

I am going to play around with different speeds and timing to see what gets the best results.

Small update.

Installed key. Nice tight fit.

Mounted the drum door and got most of the drum welded.