I've been using mine continually for over a year and no problems . If you put your machine on a small piece of carpet you can barely hear it run . Best to buy your polishing media in bulk online it's much cheaper, also you should run each batch for 7 days before you even bother to check them also after the last run with the finest polish ,run your rocks with a little ivory soap for about 2 hours it burnishes the rocks making them even shinier
I bought mind 7 years ago , I think it was $39.95 with 20% off coupon. It has never had a rock in it, SS pins, spent Cartridge brass, a bit of Limshine & Zip Car Wash. Nice shinny brass for reloading.... there some purpose made tumblers for reloading, but they are well north of $175. I'm haven't been disappointed.
Thank you for sharing this video. I just bought this exact machine yesterday at Harbor Freight and when I hit that power switch I thought it sounded all clunky. Watching your video has restored my hope lol. I'll try the lithium grease as you suggested and hopefully start polishing soon. Have a great day 🙂
I bought this item a week ago. I ran it empty for one hour and noticed the motor was quite warm. I removed the roughly machined drive rod and polished the ends with a buffer. I then packed the plastic bushings with high grade automotive bearing packing grease. This imediately reduced the motor heat. I have successfully polished one load of smooth river stones and a load of small ocean beach agates. They turned out beautifully. I read the instructions wrong and used teaspoons instead of tablespoons of the compounds I purchased along with the polisher. I think the suggested amount is a huge overkill.
Hello Nik. I have one of these machines also and found the same problem as you did, however, mine had a big appetite for belts also. I modified mine by fitting an aluminium pulley and a new fan/drive pulley. The fan was slightly larger than the plastic one fitted and keeps the tumbler very cool. As for belts I'm still on the one belt I fitted after the modifications. I also greased the nylon bearings, makes a big difference.
@@goinghomesomeday1 What happened to your belts? Did they just break, slip, or what? I heard they were a weak point, so when I purchased mine I bought like 20 belts...and just my luck, after running continuously for months the original belt is still perfect and whisper quiet.
I bought a second one due to cost of replacing the top of one barrel being almost half of what a new one is so now I can run 3 - 3 pound barrels if I desire. I do have the second new barrel reserved for the polish stage only.
I have been running my HF tumbler for almost two years and the only mod I made is I dip my finger in some regular motor oil and just touch the drum where the wear plate ( the little plastic thingy ) and I have absolutely no problem with it. It has been very cost efficient for me. Havagudun Bud.
@@natashapolyakov6328 When I first received the tumbler I did not inspect it well and thought that it would not cool properly. I drilled 6 1/4" holes in the plate directly over the motor. I have friends with the same tumbler and they have no problems with theirs. So no, no problems. Havagudun gal.
I have a leegol dual tumbler, looks exactly the same as this one. I've noticed my black cap for one of the barrels does rub a bit, if facing the motor. Are the black tabs (on both ends) made to go against the barrels?
Bummer. I too, recieved one for my birthday. I will oil/grease it, but I keep losing the other axle (not the driveshaft). It keeps getting unseated, I already took a bunch of mass out of the barrels. Im doing something wrong but hopefully it gets corrected
I just bought this same rock tumbler. My purpose for it is to clean my crusty clad coins that were found metal detecting. Question though. What about straining or classifying the used grit to seperate it from the stones so you can keep using the same grit?
The grit generally is none existant after running 5-7 days. I have no experience with using a tumbler for cleaning metal so I can't really help with that.
Anyone find out how many Kilawatts it uses up? Trying to gage the cost of tumbling rocks. Since each group of rocks will tumble about 4 weeks each. Debating if selling tumbled rocks vs intumbled would be worth it
A little late but anyway. I looked at a lot of declaration texts and most of them didn´t mention the Power draw. They vary from 16-35 W for the single drum version (Lortone model 45C even says 0,33A @ 220V on the sticker --> P = U * I = 220V * 0,33A = 72,6W). For the double drum versions one declarations stated 70W. So let´s assume full load with both drums and 70W. 4 weeks x 7 days/week x 24 hours/day x 70 W = 47 kWh In Germany we now pay nearly 50 cents/kWh --> 23,50 Euro for a continuously 4 Week - 2 Barrel run.
I bought two, different times, and the second time I bought it and even asked for it. He told me they encourage people to swap it out at end of warranty for upgrades or what might change or just to get a new one. They are usually aware of the purpose to leave this machine on for 24/7/365. I thought about it as just part of the cost of the product. Still a $100 rock tumbler that I know i'll be able to use for at least the 2 years. I'm not usually an extended warranty person, but I figured i'd probably be able to use it for either one. shhh! I wouldn't do that, though..
If they are made out of rubber there isn't any problem. The grit would wear down any other material. I made a DIY tumbler and tried glass and plastic jars. The grit would grind them down until they were paper thin and then leaked.
Hey, You can not but there is other electronics that goes in between the wall and tumbler that will allow you to limit the voltage or current. Anyway. I do not see a problem with the default speed.
If you want more speed out of it, you can put a plastic hose around the drive gear to increase its size. It will take it up from 60 rpm’s to 90. It’s a better speed if you want to use it as a ball mill.
I'm no expert but it seems to me like you need to tighten the belt. I have two of these and when the belt is loose, it sounds and runs horrible. Check the tension, keep it loobed and it should run a LOT smoother
Bought one of these piles of crap. The very first thing that happened was one of the drums got big for some reason . Now the lid wont fit. Its way to small. Why that happened i dont know. Then the shaft that idles siezed up. , yes i oiled it. Now only one drum works. That drum that grew in size wont even fit in the machine now. Both were identical when started. What could have caused that ? I followed the sheet to the nines.
Those two barrel tumblers (and the singles as well) (from harbor F or lortone or anyone elses name) have two things wrong One the belts are low quality rubber and counter intuitively the belt is too THICK! it makes it difficult for the belt to bend around the small pully Two the FATAL flaw - plastic "bearings" the smallest grain of grit gets in there and things no longer go around. The Fix - the motor is fine, the shafts and pulleys are fine. Build a new or modify the current frame with real, sealed ball bearings and use a good belt (say from an old cassette recorder) My machine can run 1-12 pound drum, 2-6 pound drums and 2-4 pound drums from that same motor and I have never changed the belts in 5 years
The little plastic tabs that are supposed to align the barrels get plastic shavings in the bushings right below them and they freeze up. Take the tabs off and stick a 1in round sticky back felt dot inside the ends and they work great.
Hello Mike - I had the same problem as you. The plastic pulleys were very bad and also ran off centre plus mine wobbled a lot. I modified mine by fitting an aluminium pulley and a new fan/drive pulley. The fan was slightly larger than the plastic one fitted and keeps the tumbler very cool. As for belts I'm still on the one belt I fitted after the modifications. I also greased the nylon bearings, makes a big difference.
Absolutely horrible annoying pain in the bitt tumbler. Best one I've found so far was national geographic with day timer. No hassle set it and forget it. The Chicago one just a hot mess and Lt of work
I've been using mine continually for over a year and no problems . If you put your machine on a small piece of carpet you can barely hear it run . Best to buy your polishing media in bulk online it's much cheaper, also you should run each batch for 7 days before you even bother to check them also after the last run with the finest polish ,run your rocks with a little ivory soap for about 2 hours it burnishes the rocks making them even shinier
what kind of ivory soap? like ivory soap bars? cut it up? how much? or liquid ivory?
@@jamiejc224 bar soap I believe. I read that you DO NOT want to use liquid (for whatever reason)
you can use the big flat washer to pry the lid off instead of getting a screw driver.
I bought mind 7 years ago , I think it was $39.95 with 20% off coupon.
It has never had a rock in it, SS pins, spent Cartridge brass, a bit of Limshine & Zip Car Wash.
Nice shinny brass for reloading.... there some purpose made tumblers for reloading, but they are well north of $175.
I'm haven't been disappointed.
Thank you for sharing this video. I just bought this exact machine yesterday at Harbor Freight and when I hit that power switch I thought it sounded all clunky. Watching your video has restored my hope lol. I'll try the lithium grease as you suggested and hopefully start polishing soon. Have a great day 🙂
I bought this item a week ago. I ran it empty for one hour and noticed the motor was quite warm. I removed the roughly machined drive rod and polished the ends with a buffer. I then packed the plastic bushings with high grade automotive bearing packing grease. This imediately reduced the motor heat. I have successfully polished one load of smooth river stones and a load of small ocean beach agates. They turned out beautifully. I read the instructions wrong and used teaspoons instead of tablespoons of the compounds I purchased along with the polisher. I think the suggested amount is a huge overkill.
Hello Nik. I have one of these machines also and found the same problem as you did, however, mine had a big appetite for belts also.
I modified mine by fitting an aluminium pulley and a new fan/drive pulley. The fan was slightly larger than the plastic one fitted and keeps the tumbler very cool. As for belts I'm still on the one belt I fitted after the modifications. I also greased the nylon bearings, makes a big difference.
@@goinghomesomeday1 What happened to your belts? Did they just break, slip, or what?
I heard they were a weak point, so when I purchased mine I bought like 20 belts...and just my luck, after running continuously for months the original belt is still perfect and whisper quiet.
I bought a second one due to cost of replacing the top of one barrel being almost half of what a new one is so now I can run 3 - 3 pound barrels if I desire. I do have the second new barrel reserved for the polish stage only.
Your also supposed to oil each ends of those shafts before using it. I have same one and that's what instructions say.
Yoy can also use the washer to pry open the tumbler.
Thank you; just what I needed to watch.
Great! Thanks for the tutorial!
I just bought the single drum one of these my kid loves it
Damn oil the shafts! Mine is almost as loud as a housefan but thats the rocks tumbling in both barrels . His is screaming!
I have been running my HF tumbler for almost two years and the only mod I made is I dip my finger in some regular motor oil and just touch the drum where the wear plate ( the little plastic thingy ) and I have absolutely no problem with it. It has been very cost efficient for me. Havagudun Bud.
Would using a little die electric grease achieve same effect?
@@kolbymartin9743 It might. I just happened to have a quart pf synthetic oil that was contaminated. It will probably last me a lifetime lol.
Do you have any problems with it overheating? Or what would you consider overheating?
@@natashapolyakov6328 When I first received the tumbler I did not inspect it well and thought that it would not cool properly. I drilled 6 1/4" holes in the plate directly over the motor. I have friends with the same tumbler and they have no problems with theirs. So no, no problems. Havagudun
gal.
I also used synthetic motor oil it's working great.
Thank you!!!👍🏽
I find its quite a struggle to get the lid off....holy crap
I just got mine today at harbor freight! Mine isn't noisy I wonder if it's a later version...?
How much water verses how much sand grit? You forgot to mention that in your video
I have a leegol dual tumbler, looks exactly the same as this one. I've noticed my black cap for one of the barrels does rub a bit, if facing the motor. Are the black tabs (on both ends) made to go against the barrels?
Yes, you want them to touch the barrels, and not the barrels rubbing agsinst the machine.
I just got mine for my birthday. It looks like it was opened previously and the instructions were not included sadly.
Bummer. I too, recieved one for my birthday. I will oil/grease it, but I keep losing the other axle (not the driveshaft). It keeps getting unseated, I already took a bunch of mass out of the barrels. Im doing something wrong but hopefully it gets corrected
I just bought this same rock tumbler. My purpose for it is to clean my crusty clad coins that were found metal detecting.
Question though. What about straining or classifying the used grit to seperate it from the stones so you can keep using the same grit?
It's the only reason I bought mine. Got 8 jars of coins that need cleaning.
The grit generally is none existant after running 5-7 days. I have no experience with using a tumbler for cleaning metal so I can't really help with that.
What kind of oil did you use and where did you get it?
It’s called lithium grease, you can get it at ace hardware
I just want to see inside the tumbler what did you fill it with ? How much?
How many rocks can be put in the tumbler and how much water?
3# of rocks and water and grit. Fill water to cover the rocks
Depends, how big are your rocks?
I just get one and that happened the barrel's cup is hard to open 😺
i use mine to tumble my yayo lol jk but this shit comes in handy for some random things
Anyone find out how many Kilawatts it uses up? Trying to gage the cost of tumbling rocks. Since each group of rocks will tumble about 4 weeks each. Debating if selling tumbled rocks vs intumbled would be worth it
A little late but anyway.
I looked at a lot of declaration texts and most of them didn´t mention the Power draw.
They vary from 16-35 W for the single drum version (Lortone model 45C even says 0,33A @ 220V on the sticker --> P = U * I = 220V * 0,33A = 72,6W).
For the double drum versions one declarations stated 70W.
So let´s assume full load with both drums and 70W.
4 weeks x 7 days/week x 24 hours/day x 70 W = 47 kWh In Germany we now pay nearly 50 cents/kWh --> 23,50 Euro for a continuously 4 Week - 2 Barrel run.
I just bought one. Did anyone buy the 2-year extended warranty? Harbor Freight said it was $20. Just wondering if it was worth getting?
I bought two, different times, and the second time I bought it and even asked for it. He told me they encourage people to swap it out at end of warranty for upgrades or what might change or just to get a new one. They are usually aware of the purpose to leave this machine on for 24/7/365. I thought about it as just part of the cost of the product. Still a $100 rock tumbler that I know i'll be able to use for at least the 2 years. I'm not usually an extended warranty person, but I figured i'd probably be able to use it for either one. shhh! I wouldn't do that, though..
I was wondering if the tubs would wear out with all the abrasive stuff sliding against it on the inside. Does it? If not, why not?
If they are made out of rubber there isn't any problem. The grit would wear down any other material. I made a DIY tumbler and tried glass and plastic jars. The grit would grind them down until they were paper thin and then leaked.
@@nikkitezla3367 you must have done a lot of tumbling
You never showed us how to fill the tumbler and how much of each
can we control the device speed? if not, is there any option to customize for our use by controlling the speed.
Hey, You can not but there is other electronics that goes in between the wall and tumbler that will allow you to limit the voltage or current. Anyway. I do not see a problem with the default speed.
It's a shaded pole gearmotor, it is synchronized to the 60 hz line frequency, this is techno- talk for no, you cannot vary this motor type's speed.
It has two speeds, on or off.
Check out stuggleville.net for all the of harbor freight coupons.
If you want more speed out of it, you can put a plastic hose around the drive gear to increase its size. It will take it up from 60 rpm’s to 90. It’s a better speed if you want to use it as a ball mill.
where are your friends now Mr. Tims
I'm no expert but it seems to me like you need to tighten the belt. I have two of these and when the belt is loose, it sounds and runs horrible. Check the tension, keep it loobed and it should run a LOT smoother
This make sense but I have this exact Tumbler and in the manual it says keep the belt as loose as possible
I got mine today for 59.99 black friday sale
Bought one of these piles of crap. The very first thing that happened was one of the drums got big for some reason . Now the lid wont fit. Its way to small. Why that happened i dont know. Then the shaft that idles siezed up. , yes i oiled it. Now only one drum works. That drum that grew in size wont even fit in the machine now. Both were identical when started. What could have caused that ? I followed the sheet to the nines.
Probable like all their other Chinese made crap, it's throw away!
Couldn’t you combine two grits to speed the process?
Lol
Yes.
You can also speed up sanding wood by stacking 2 different grits of sandpaper if you're in a pinch for time.
Camera stand?
It doesn't have ball bearings those shafts ride on plastic bushings
I had to take a utility knife and cut the plastic coating on the rollers. It wouldn’t roll without that. I about sent the piece of shit back
Mine came with like no directions whatsoever
Those two barrel tumblers (and the singles as well) (from harbor F or lortone or anyone elses name) have two things wrong
One the belts are low quality rubber and counter intuitively the belt is too THICK! it makes it difficult for the belt to bend around the small pully
Two the FATAL flaw - plastic "bearings" the smallest grain of grit gets in there and things no longer go around.
The Fix - the motor is fine, the shafts and pulleys are fine. Build a new or modify the current frame with real, sealed ball bearings and use a good belt (say from an old cassette recorder)
My machine can run 1-12 pound drum, 2-6 pound drums and 2-4 pound drums from that same motor and I have never changed the belts in 5 years
Now THIS is what a comment section is for. Excellent information, thank you for being clear and helpful!
an absolute pain to open. that's all i got to say.
you got that right..I liked to never have gotten mine open..had to use a screwdriver to get it open...
We bought one and it seized up and started smoking in about 2 hours. Avoid!
Probably should have purchased the $10 warranty
The little plastic tabs that are supposed to align the barrels get plastic shavings in the bushings right below them and they freeze up. Take the tabs off and stick a 1in round sticky back felt dot inside the ends and they work great.
Did you oil it properly?
this thing is a pos my belt broke in a few hours the tumblers kept running off center. A total piece of junk!
Hello Mike - I had the same problem as you. The plastic pulleys were very bad and also ran off centre plus mine wobbled a lot. I modified mine by fitting an aluminium pulley and a new fan/drive pulley. The fan was slightly larger than the plastic one fitted and keeps the tumbler very cool. As for belts I'm still on the one belt I fitted after the modifications. I also greased the nylon bearings, makes a big difference.
Just overhaul it soon as you get it and it will be just fine!
Absolutely horrible annoying pain in the bitt tumbler. Best one I've found so far was national geographic with day timer. No hassle set it and forget it. The Chicago one just a hot mess and Lt of work