Rock tumbler

thingiverse

This is a rock tumbler I made to bring out the qualities of brass and copper printed filaments. It probably spins too fast here so you can either drop the supply voltage to the motor to 9 Volts (which I did and works well) or increase the amount of cutting material (I used zinc plated small screws) inside the tin with the object to be shined. It takes a few hours spinning to get results but generally works well. The only thing I would add would be a chain guard to keep the chain jumping off the sprockets which I will design and upload at a later date. As for now this does the job for me and beats paying $100+ for a commercial tumbler. The motor can be found cheaply on ebay here http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/161777108766?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AI A video of it running can be seen here https://youtu.be/5z37JXI47kM Instructions The motor I used is a 12 volt dc motor available cheaply on ebay here.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/161777108766?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AI I used a Lindt milk chocolate tin which should be available where ever you are in the world. I used a 9/16 threaded rod that I cut to size which was only about $2 from my local hardware store and bolted the tin with two nuts and two spring washers at the motor end of the tin. I drilled a hole in the lid and the other end of the rod pokes through and sits freely in the tumbler bracket. This is also the end where it is loaded with the object and I use small zinc screws inside the tin to wear away at the object to bring out its shine. I used a small screw used for securing motherboards to pc cases to secure the sprocket on the motor and 2 nuts to secure the top sprocket and just used small wood screws to secure it to the wooden base. The tumbler probably spins a bit too fast so you can either drop the voltage to the motor to 9 Volts (which I did) or just add more screws inside the tin to create more weight