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| Vibratory finisher project |
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| Leeway:
I posted this at the CNC Zone as well, but thought it might work okay here too. It's not a cnc project. ;) I'm at the point where it takes me nearly a couple days to clean up maybe a week and a half worth of parts. I have thought about these for a little while and I was hesitant at first, but the more I saw, the more I think these will work fine for me. I'm gonna built at least one, maybe two. I tried just some lava rock in my concrete mixer for only 10 minutes on a couple parts. I saw some good results from that test in that time, so I know a proper vibrator and media will do the job I need. I have several of the items I will need on hand already. I have a propane tank from a fork lift. About 3' by 15" dia. I have a plastic 55 gallon drum. Even a failed sand blasting tank. I think I will use the drum. These are typically lined with plastic anyway to keep from damaging parts. Cut it to maybe 16" depth. Stiffen the new top with aluminum on the outside. Install an 1/8" aluminum plate underneath for mounting. The curious part will be the motor. I have several to choose from. I have a new 1 HP Leeson motor I bought for my old band saw. I think it is 1750 RPM. I have a mini mill or a mini lathe DC motor, both with the controls. I am thinking I would like to use one of these. They may not actually be strong enough. Then again, how much torque would something like this need? The drive mechanism will be key I think. I have some thoughts on different ways to do this, but haven't seen many designs. I would like to see more if someone has one or a link. I really like the idea of variable speed for this thing. That way I can make it vibrate just right to get the best out of it. The plan is to finish 5 to 10 pounds of steel parts in 25 pounds of media. For steel I will use the 1/2 coarse ceramic type initially. I may add some smaller stuff to the mix depending. If this all works okay, then I will make a smaller one for aluminum parts. Far fewer aluminum parts and not nearly the burrs on those, so much smaller media and of a different type. For mounting, I would use maybe 6 springs around the bottom of the drum. For the motor drive, I am thinking of a simple cam lobe on a steel disc. Not much of an offset. Maybe 1/2". Then mount 6 or 8 roller skate bearings around this cam. With the motor mounted solid to the frame and the tub on springs, this should work. May need to refit a different cam or something, but I think it might just do what I want. I will get an drawing up of what I was thinking sometime. Any input will be great appreciated. Thanks. |
| Leeway:
Here is an initial image of the tub design part. The red things are compression springs. I was looking at my motors and the one I thought was 1HP is actually only 1/2 HP. It is continuous duty though. I don't think my mini mill/lathe motors will shake 35 pounds of stuff. :doh: |
| shred:
I've had several little vibratory 'tumblers' about 1-2 gallon size (they don't tumble, but they call it that anyway). In all of them the vibration-source-of-choice was mounting the motor to the bottom of the bowl and clamping an offset weight (and usually a fan blade to cool the motor) to the shaft. Vary the weight/distance to change the vibration strength. The bowl+motor is supported on springs. I'm not sure that design carries over to the big vibratory bowl units, but I might be able to check a commercial one in a few days. Doesn't require a lot of power though. |
| Darren:
I have heard of a short length of plastic pipe with some end caps being used on the lathe rotated slowly, obviously for small parts only. Vibrators work well, have used them in the past and have been thinking about one for a while. Well a "rumbler" anyways. Be interesting what you come up with... :thumbup: |
| bogstandard:
The large ones I have worked with actually worked on an electromagnetic principle. Just a coil bolted to the base frame with a metal plate bolted to the bottom of the tumbler drum which was mounted on springs. The speed of the 'vibrator' was just a small knob on a variable pot turning the magnet on and off at different rates thru a bit of electronics. No moving parts to wear out and basically they were just all waterproofed and could operate in all sorts of environments. They had a capacity of about 5 gallons and used a mixture of water and detergent plus a variety of different shaped stones. The other type was rotary and consisted again of a plastic 5 gallon sized drum and a stand that it sat slightly tilted on. Four main wheels supported the drum, while a very small rubber powered wheel rotated the drum, which was filled with the same sort of medium as the other. The actual tumbling time took from an hour to many days, depending what finish was required. It is many years since I used them, but if sketches would help, just ask. John |
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