OK, here it is, my simple little vibratory tumbler.
I started off with a car buffer by Kinzo. Took it all apart and found a 100 watt motor with an aluminium off center weight. I had some nice stainless steel channels that seemed to fit so I cut them to size and fit the motor inside, yep perfect shape. The motor had a shaft with M8 on the end, opposite of the counterweight. So I cut off the counterweight and now I can adjust the imbalance by adding or removing weight from the shaft, using a M8 locknut.
Mounted the stainless steel channels on a roughly square board and mounted a scooter tire on that. Screwed it down with a lot if screws around the bead. I trimmed off the other bead, this gave me a bigger opening at the top.
Glued and siliconed a sheet or rubber inside to cover it all up and now I have a nice rubber interior. I intend to put a central post in there and cover that with rubber as well, but have not done so yet as my old trusty Shopsmith has spit out it's speed control. My Dad bought this Shopsmith when we were in the States. That was 1957. It is almost as old as I am and it is still going strong (except for the speed control quadrant). I want to use it to turn a nice cone shape out of wood for the center pillar.
The stainless steel channels needed to be 8 cm off the base plate, to make room for the weights and shaft. So I mounted the whole thing on rubber silentblocks. I could only get 4cm high ones, so I doubled them, thinking that if the vibrations got too wild, I could always tune it by removing a block or two and replacing it with steel.
(These silentblocks cost me so much time. You would think they are easy to get, but nobody here on the island could tell me where I could buy them. I just could not get them here! It seems like such a simple thing. Eventually I ordered them via RS Components)
Next post, pictures!
Lykle