Vibratory cleaner recommendations

[sammass]

[rsrocket1]

Almost any cleaner will do that but you need to give it good air circulation. Heat is the enemy of these cheap little bathroom fan motors with offset weights. My HF has gone through many tens of thousands of cases and the motor is still going strong. I am on the second bowl/lid and made some modifications to hold everything more securely in place. Loose parts are what causes the plastic parts to crack and break. I make sure it sits on level concrete with no obstructions and good air circulation around it.

[bigbossman]

............Heat is the enemy of these cheap little bathroom fan motors with offset weights.............

And as an aside, you can buy those motors just about anywhere for cheap. Home Depot, for example, has cheap bathroom fan units for something like $12. Just pull the motor and swap it for yours.

I did just that with a eurospec tumbler I got a while back. While cruising the swap meet one day, I picked up a used fan unit with 2 motors in it for $5. I swapped one into the tumbler and it worked great.

If you do not want to fool with fixing the broke one, that's cool..... but don't throw it away, send it to me!

[BigBronco]

And as an aside, you can buy those motors just about anywhere for cheap. Home Depot, for example, has cheap bathroom fan units for something like $12. Just pull the motor and swap it for yours.

I did just that with a eurospec tumbler I got a while back. While cruising the swap meet one day, I picked up a used fan unit with 2 motors in it for $5. I swapped one into the tumbler and it worked great.

If you do not want to fool with fixing the broke one, that's cool..... but don't throw it away, send it to me!

Heck where were you with this info 3 years ago?

[bigbossman]

Heck where were you with this info 3 years ago?

In a van, down by the river.

[sammass]

If you do not want to fool with fixing the broke one, that's cool..... but don't throw it away, send it to me!

If I thought it was worth it, I might. But... the base of the RCBS Magna(?) is plastic and the motor apparently was so hot it melted the base and fell down. The original lid was missing so I just used a piece of terry towel to cover the opening to keep the dust down. Wasn't draped to the ground, so not sure what heated it up, other than long run time.

The motor idea is great. I'll see about retrofitting a metal base to the remaining parts & pieces.

Meantime, a couple of full shovels of walnut media into a 1.5 cu ft poly cement mixer is working. Neighbors might need earplugs. :-)

[stilly]

If I thought it was worth it, I might. But... the base of the RCBS Magna(?) is plastic and the motor apparently was so hot it melted the base and fell down. The original lid was missing so I just used a piece of terry towel to cover the opening to keep the dust down. Wasn't draped to the ground, so not sure what heated it up, other than long run time.

The motor idea is great. I'll see about retrofitting a metal base to the remaining parts & pieces.

Meantime, a couple of full shovels of walnut media into a 1.5 cu ft poly cement mixer is working. Neighbors might need earplugs. :-)

You can prolly get a thumler or rotary tumbler and dump in the media and shells. My thumler is a workhorse and I know I can put rice in it and dry clean brass that way.

[rsrocket1]

Yup, I think the towel contributed to the death of that motor. If the base got hot enough to melt, the heat wasn't escaping properly. I heard about the bathroom fan motor a few years ago and kept that idea of replacing a burned out motor myself if it ever came time to do so. But unless the bearings wear out, there is no reason why one of those motors won't last for years if run continuously. My kids leave our hall bathroom fan on for hours at a time every day.

If you want to start over with the 5# HF tumbler, they have 20% off coupons all the time and you should get back into business at around $44+tax.

[bigbossman]

............. But unless the bearings wear out, there is no reason why one of those motors won't last for years if run continuously.......

Years ago, I had a "workhorse" Midway tumbler motor fail. Not one of the earlier recalled units, one of the post recall ones. What happened was that the vibratory agitation eventually caused the thin wire windings to separate at the beginning of the winding after the thicker gage wire stepped down. So, there is another way a motor will fail...... bathroom fans in the ceiling aren't subjected to the constant jiggling, so I would expect them to last longer used for their intended purpose.

I almost bought a new tumbler then, but being a tinkerer I tried my hand at fixing it. Dang - that wire was thin, and it was a real exercise in frustration and patience...... but eventually I prevailed with a small hemostat, a pencil thin soldering iron, and just sheer stubbornness. That was over 10 years ago, and it is still going strong and doing main duty on my workbench.