243 replies to this topic

[Tex]

Did you ever wonder where "Grape Nuts" cereal comes from?

[gascarnut]

What does one do with the media in between jobs? Does it need to be removed and dried, or ?

If you have only tumbled one or two frames, then there's no need to do anything - just leave the media in the tumbler with the water and soap suds. The suds will dissipate after a few hours.

Once the water gets dirty, then just rinse off the media and replace the water and soap. I use a collander so I don't lose media down the sink.

[dc-65x]

I had a bad feeling the other day. I get lots of foam seeping out when I first loosen up the tumbler lid. The tumbler drum is steel with a rubber liner. Moisture must be getting between the liner and the drum. What does it look like in there? My bad feeling was that it would be a rust bucket .

Sure enough, when I tried to remove the rubber liner it was glued to the drum with rust . I forgot to take pictures as I was panicking to get it cleaned up. What a mess! I used Naval Jelly and a wire brush on the steel and an SOS pad on the rubber liner. After a few hours of work they look like this again:





I decided to prime and paint the inside of the drum with Rustoleum in the hopes slowing down the corrosion problem:



We'll see how this works and I'll report back. In the meantime, you Thumblers tumblers guys have been warned... BEWARE.

[Pablo]

Thanks, Rick T.

A clean tool is a happy tool,

Stop using so much soap!!! Or we will have to call you "Foamy" and you don't want that.

[Jairus]

Rick,

Do you count the forks when you pull the dishes out of the dishwasher by any chance?

I'm just asking...

[dc-65x]

Jairus, so that's what I should be doing.

OK, from now on I'll count the suckers! I'm down to four forks and I started out with eight.

Where the heck do they go.

[Pablo]

Don't let him fool you, Jairus. He mikes every tine +/- .001 then discards the rejects.

[Dave Larsen]

Hi Rick,

I would like to say... "Thank you" to you, and Mr. Steube for all of this great infoe here I have this "Thumbler" and ceramic media on its way I'm going to use this process on these Fly'n "A" chassis...



... And on the Dave Fortner "steel" chassis built for Dan De Bella in 1969, where Dan won his first "Pro" race at Finish Line Raceway in 1969. This car will be brought back to its glory!



... and these beautiful chassis built by Chris Burlew...



Along with a host of other chassis by, the Fly'n "A", Lee Gilbert, Russ Boynton, and others.

Again, Rick you have saved me a LOT of time with this thread, and the info that you, Mr. Steube, and others have posted here on this topic.

A "tumbling" I will go,

Regards,

Dave

[dc-65x]

Hi Dave,

Mike Steube helped me and I'm glad this post with his info is helping others . Watch out for the rust issue I pointed out earlier. Steve Okeefe checked his drum and it was rusted even worse than mine .

I was looking at your "Dave Fortner "steel" chassis". Does it have the same logo as this chassis I showed at the beginning of this post?



We have several chassis with this logo from the Oakland Speedway collection and we aren't familiar with the builder. Can you help ?

Thanks in advance,

[Dave Larsen]

You bet it does, Rick!

I took a little wool to it and cleaned it up a bit for you to see...



Rick, speaking of Oakland Speedway (a little off topic) here's a race report from back in the day, the "pros" ...



... The "amateurs"...



I have no idea what happened to me at this race. I could have been still at the HO track or I could have been at the counter getting a "REL'S" sandwhich from Les, which were the to grub on at the track! Great times and memories for me thats for sure!

I was given a "time capsule" by Dan DeBella and this report was in there.

As far as Dave Fortner goes, he was a racer and chassis builder from Arizona and was a great chassis innovator, as his "steel" chassis made for Dan back in 1969 shows. Thanks for the "heads up" on the rust propblem, I will get my drum powder-coated and this will put a end to the problem before it starts. I will still just dump the media solution in a container until I need to use it.

As always, Rick,

Regards,

Dave

[dc-65x]

Wow, that race report is like a who's who of '70s Bay Area Pro slot racing! I see Rick Hine's name, I work with him now. I've bugged him about finding his old slot box but so far he says he can't find it .

Thanks for solving the mystery of the, as we were calling them, "Bug-I" chassis. They are really nicely made. I have the one pictured and an Iso.

Thanks again,

[Dave Larsen]

Rick...

You bet that's a race report of the who's who of "Pro" racing from back in the day. I have more...

Rick Hines was a gentleman back when he raced the slot A very polite man , always helpful to anyone that needed help! I remember his green 610 that was BRE tricked-out, like Freddy's 510. It was a bad little ride, long before the "rice" rides of today!

Let Rick know that there are some of these "Pro"racers on this report, that are building chassis/cars to race in NorCal D3. It would be great to have him come and join some of his "old" racing buddies! I'm sure he will enjoy the time and hanging out with some of his friends from back in the day,

As always, Rick,

Regards,

Dave

[Pablo]

What does one do with the media in between jobs? Does it need to be removed and dried, or ?
--------------------

Paul Wolcott

Note to self: Rinse, remove, and drip dry the media in a separate container between jobs, remove rubber liner, clean and dry, clean and dry steel tub thoroughly, coat with WD-40 or similar. Ouch, Rick T. , that was painful, thanks for the heads up

[dc-65x]

Hi Pablo,

Powder coating is probably the ultimate solution. A stainless steel drum sure would be . I've already done the RustOleum primer and paint so I just going to let her go for a month or so and see what happens. A RustOleum torture test!

[Rick]

Has anyone ever tried the vibratory WET tumblers? Harbor Freight has a large one, about 15 pounder, and it says in the write-up, that it is faster than tumbler type. I found it in one of their catalogs but is not listed on the web site. Pretty pricey at $200!!!!

They also list ceramic tumbling media for it.

I am thinking about it for not only cleaning chassis' but for deburring larger numbers of parts...............

[Horsepower]

Why this one is made of rustable steel and most of the smaller tumblers are made of rubber is beyond me. The rubber drums are much quieter, too.

[slotbaker]

The steel drum has a rubber liner, so it is pretty quiet.

I'm sure with a bit of care, i.e. dry the drum after use, it will last long enough to pass it down to the next generation of builders.

[gascarnut]

Thumler's have another slightly different tumbler too, the AR-12:



The drum is a rubber molding with no steel casing at all, a simple styrene disc to close it, and a large hose clamp to ensure it seals.

I have one - it works great, can take two or three 1/24 frames at a time and no corrosion problems.

[Dave Larsen]

Shoot, Rick!!! You didn't tell me I had to put the thing together ...



.... Just joking around with you, Rick. I got the "B" model, I found they made a "H/S" model (Hi-speed) and bought it. I was told that the motor had a little bit more grunt for extended periods of use. A few things that I have done with this machine when using it: I have marked the top and its rubber gasket so it goes back in the same place every time. I tighten the cover nuts as you would do when you tighten up a 1:1 wheel, in a star pattern. ...



Well, Rick, after four hours of tumbling... out comes the Flying "A" chassis.





VANTASTIC!!! is the only word that comes to my mind, Rick! Next up will be Dan DeBella's car (Fortner chassis) that he won his first "Pro" race with at Finish Line in '69, against California's best of the time.





There was a little repair work that had to be done to the back of the chassis. With that being done...



I'm going to bring this car back to its glory for Dan. Rick, I won't do it here on your thread, I will find some place to post it But... I will post pictures of the finished chassis here.

Again, Rick and Mr. Steube, thanks for all the great info here.

As always,

Regards,
Dave

[dc-65x]

Hi Dave,

Your chassis looks great and I'm glad you're happy with the tumbling process . I'm guessing you didn't use any type of liquid polish that Cabela's or others sell. It will make the brass REALLY shiny but we've had problems with the steel corroding after a while. We're not sure but suspect the polish.

Steve Okeefe's latest post shows his chassis tumbled with water and Tide HE low suds liquid detergent for front-loading machines. I have some but haven't yet tried it. I'll report back here when I do.

Tumbling onward, one chassis at a time...

[68Caddy]

Vitter ,

I don't know how you get cars like Dan DeBella's car? He was one of the best of its time, and still ranks in top 50 best racer list in the world. Dip that sucker in the tumbler, can hardly wait to see how it comes out. I wonder how it stands up to time? Heck, I bet that car still kicks a$$.

Philippe, that would be such a cool car to have in the museum.



Thanks for sharing that car of Dan DeBella's.

Respect (WEI),
Nesta aka 68Caddy

[Bob Campbell]

Has anyone ever tried the vibratory WET tumblers?

I'm getting ready to build one soon. We have about ten of them in assorted sizes that I can look at and figure out what to do. Very simple in design! Another neat thing is the vibratory tumblers work much faster than the rotarys.

I am also building some barrels for a rotary tumbler that I got for next to nothing. This tumbler is long and will hold about three of the tumbler barrels.

[dc-65x]

Sounds interesting, Bob. Please share some before and after pictures with us.

[gascarnut]

I'm guessing you didn't use any type of liquid polish that Cabela's or others sell. It will make the brass REALLY shiny but we've had problems with the steel corroding after a while. We're not sure but suspect the polish.

I use the soap that comes with the ceramic media from Buffalo Arms, and I have not had any problem with the steel corroding. In fact it seems to me that the steel is more rust-resistant after tumbling. Just don't forget to oil the hinges...

[dc-65x]

Hi Dennis,

We've had real corrosion problems with the Cabela's liquid polish . I'd love to use the Buffalo Arms polish without fear of corrosion .

How long have you been using it with good results: weeks, months, years???

Thanks in advance,