Harbor Freight Rock Tumbler 4 Months Later || Beginner's Tumbling Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 พ.ย. 2021
- Doug doesn't think this will be of interest, but I think it's always great to get a user's perspective on equipment like this. So tune in to find out what works, what he had to fix, and how the Harbor Freight 3-Pound Rock Tumbler is behaving after four months of use (three almost continuously). Maybe we'll be back for another check-in when he's a year on.
#lapidary #rocktumbling
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i have owned the same tumbler for 11 years now. all it requires is simple maintenance. remove the bushing end caps, clean everything up, reinstall. i have been using the same light oil lubricant on this tumbler and my tried and true lortone tumbler. the motor and pulley on the harbor freight are adjustable. the can of lubricant is military grade light oil. one drop on moving parts is all i add. I run 1234, seven days between grits. sometimes i will run a polish for ten days. it's all about weight, balance, and maintenance. FYI. take the silly aluminum covers off and let the machine breath. polish on people. and shine on!!
Good advice. Most helpful.thank you.
My dad just gave me the same rock polisher today and I had to watch your video to see how it performed thank you.
I also started out with the Harbor Freight Tumbler about 5 years ago. It was OK, and I had the same issues. Then 4 years ago my friend give me a box of polished rocks. They all had a glass like surface and larger than an rocks i had tumbled. I was instantly hooked. He introduced to me to a new world. He suggested The Rock Shed online for larger tumblers and grits Today I just replaced the belt on both my Loratone QT12. The best site to get information and questions answered is the rock tumbler forum. I hope this lights the fire in you as it did in me. For me, it's the hunt and I see real beauty in rocks.
Said he’s digging them back out after 30 years because of you my boy good shit
Great sense of humor thank you for talking to us. We appreciate explanations. 👍
I appreciate the honest review from honest people. Thank you, this is very helpful to me.
make sure the pullys are aligned. Mine werent and that will certainly cause belts to fail.
This is my time to shine! I have a little mini box fan I have blowing on the motor keeps it from overheating.
Just got my rock tumbler back from when I was a kid. It's this exact one! And it's running perfectly at the moment. It's 20 years old
Wonder if a vacuum cleaner belt would work. I use them on my radio control boats and they are really strong. Nice video thankyou guys..
This guy has a great voice! Thanks for the video :)
Your father in laws review lines up pretty well with my experience. The belts seems to be the biggest issue and having to oil the rods pretty frequently. I have three of the double barrels tumblers, two have been running for over a year now and the other one has been running for about 3 months now. For the price, I don't mind minor repairs here and there.
One year at one sitting ?
I just wasn't happy with the HF design on lots of levels. So I bought a 5/8" x 4' poplar dowel and four cheap Chinese flanged bearings with a 5/8" ID. The dowel was cut into 6.5" segments, enough to make three complete tumblers. I've been extraordinarily pleased with the results. No belts to break, and no bearing servicing ever. The HF unit drew 65 W. This one draws 4.5 W.
Picture of it please
Good info. Thank you.
The black translucent one is Apache tear
it appears the mystery rock pebbles are quartzite and the triangular chips obsidian. get a loretone belt as a fix on these tumblers, you will need to slot the chasis to adjust the belt, but it is an easy fix. the motors seem to either burn up quickly and if so you get a replacement, otherwise they last
Very good review. Thanks
Thanks for the great video!
Eh, why not? 😂😂 love it❤
These things are apparently very hit-or-miss. The belts are a very common issue, but it may be the belts themselves. Better quality silicone belts are out there. Another youtuber bought two tumblers, one of which was flawless for months. The other was breaking belts left-and-right like yours. It also ended up having one of the rollers freeze up completely, even oiling it regularly. If you buy, plan to use it heavily during the return period to weed out the bugs. The price is right, though, especially on the two drum models. In general, the models with the external rotary motors (look like a garage air compressor motor) tend to work better for continuous use.
And a question. Do these use tire rubber for the drum (like a thumlers), or are they hollow plastic?
Rubber drum
Retired granny here, looking to get my first tumbler, Zero mechanical knowledge so the maintenance concerns me. Short of oiling I know nothing. What is a good resource for learning to troubleshoot and repair a tumbler. Thanks.
If you have the income, I'd recommend getting a better quality tumbler which will require less maintenance. I'm not a tumbler but have found this forum very helpful: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/
@@DonohueLabs Thank you very much!
I have the 2 barrel one from Harbor freight and I had it for 7 months no problems, you do have to oil the bearings. Other then that all good! But my first time using it I accidentally put too much weight on it and it broke, that was my fault and thankfully it was a day or two later when I bought it lol but I hope this helps or it goes better for you!
Got an update that the tumbler has almost given up the ghost. However, an almost-year's worth of near-constant tumbling isn't too bad for ~$40! Probably could've made that back if we were selling stuff.
I have two exactly the same tumblers, it just doesn't say the brand on it. Maybe because i bought them in Europe. One is working fine, the other is on it's third belt already. I'd love to know which exact o-ring to buy, because there are tons of different sizes and materials. I'd like to know the inner diameter, the thickness and the material (rubber or silicone).
Nice video. These Chicago Electric tumblers are so hit and miss. I've got the double barrel. It's been running 5 months pretty much full time. The original belt was holding up quite well. It did seem to have stretched a tiny bit, so I replaced it recently. I keep the shaft bushings oiled and have installed a better centering tab to keep the barrel top from rubbing. That's the extent of maintenance, I'm very pleased with mine!
I just got mine for Christmas and your video is very helpful while we’re setting ours up. We are brand new to this. Do you run the tumbler 24 hours a day for the whole week?
If it's cool enough, you can run it constantly. He turned it off during the hottest time of day since it was in a garage. My one piece of advice is to use the run times as estimates. It may say to run for a week on a certain grit, but harder stones may take longer, softer may be shorter. Take out a rock or two to check progress after a week or so.
That tumbler seems to be spinning very fast.
سلام عليكم جميل جدا جدا ورائع إبداع جميل ورائع أحسنت صديقي 👍👍👍
Id just leave that cover off in the summer.
💎💎❤️❤️👍
4" ID O-RING???? What is the ID measurement on that O-ring, PLEASE??
He wasn't sure and never measured it, just brought it in to the store to compare against. The o-rings were the same kind used in air filters.
He said 4 inch in the video
Where do you buy a tumbler?
Harbor Freight has them :)
...or Amazon.