Making your own tumbler

[ktbi]

I have way too many bottles now that need cleaning and want to give it a shot myself. I know what a tumbler costs, but what does it cost to build your own tumbler (ball park anyhow)? I'd like to be able to tumble multiple bottles at once - one at a time would be a drag. How many is too many though? Is a four bottle machine about right or can it get bigger and still be reasonable?

Thnks for your input......Ron

 

[tombstone]

Ball park $150.00. You could get lucky and be able to do it for much less, or luck could run the other way and it cost a lot more. If you're looking to get parts off the web figure it will cost more, if you can get parts (like the motor) locally figure a little less.

I'm running five canisters on a 1/3 hp machine without blowing the motor, but i wouldn't want to run any more than that without more hp. I also use glass beads instead of copper (cheaper and lighter so more canisters), but if running copper my machine would be limited to three canisters with possibility of overheating my current motor. If you get a 1/2 hp or 3/4 hp motor you should be able to run a lot more canisters.

 

[ktbi]

Thanks Tombstone. I haven't heard of using glass beads - but then tumblng is new to me. I'll do a little more research. Thnks again for the tip......Ron

 

[Tony14]

if you want to make one for cheap talk to spencer (bottlenutboy) he rigged one using a cheap engine and a walmart skateboard

 

[ktbi]

I don't feel like waiting two weeks for a bottle to get clean so I'm taking an old washing machine tub and hooking it up to my truck with a pulley. Should be able to load 20-30 at a time and clean/spin dry those suckers over the weekend!!! Ron

 

[Bottle tumbler]

Hey dont laugh, i saw a guy who took a drier and took it all apart and just used the motor and the tub and cut the front and back off the tub and made and x with steel bars and used large hose clamps to attach the tubes to them and used it for tumbling, it was in glass work magazine once

rick

 

[tombstone]

just strap the canisters to the tires of your car and tumble your bottles on the way to work[]

 

[bottlenutboy]

i built mine for free. but i had everything i needed, including the ingenuity, sitting right here what i have going on is a treadmill motor i think it spins 1725 RPM alone, a few different skateboard parts a torque converter off of a large go-kart (to gear down the motor alot, wheels from a Sharper Image brand electric scooter and some scrap pieces of wood we had lying around, a light switch to turn it on and off, mine turns a 3" tube between 64 and 68 RPMs

patience makes it cheaper, all you have to do is wait till someone is throwing something away and look to see if it has anything you could possibly use on or in it. thats how i got the treadmill motor, and the go-kart torque converter, and also the pieces of wood we had here... patience is a virtue

 

[madman]

hey spence was wondering what you use for stopples i made my own but the left grooves in the base mike

 

[madman]

what do you use to polish cut ive got the tumbler built just having problems mike