Abrasive parts tumbler

If you are like me you have rusty parts or tools that you cant read the numbers off of. Or a vast collection of nuts and bolts that would otherwise be taken to the scrap pile.  Well I do not like to throw away anything, so I have all of the above, and no time to take each piece to a wire wheel.  The solution a huge rock tumbler for these things!!  I also added a welding table to the top.

Note: This Ible was made after the fact and I apologize about using the same pictures over and over, I will be adding more but they will be of the finished product.  I also will be outlining the process that I used so that you can adapt this to what you have.

Step 1: Parts List

Tools that you will need to complete this project:

Angle grinder
Tape measure
Straight edge ( T-square is recommended)
Hammer
Welder (only if you want it to last a while)
2 part epoxy

I used what I had laying around for materials but this project is scalable to whatever size you need/ want/ or have room for.
List of materials:

A 45 gallon drum
              - i suggest a steel drum of whatever size you want
A Bodine gear motor
              - Was picked up some time ago for $10 and was doing nothing
A belt
             - belt length will depend on what size of drum you use
             - I attempted to use a bike inner tube but got frustrated and bought a belt... 
Wood
2"*4"*36"  8
2"*4"*72"  4
            - these will be the test stand

A selection of angle iron and re-bar the dimensions of which will come from the test stand.

2" long piece of square tubing
3" long piece of round tubing
A piece of tubing or round stock that is about 6" longer than your barrel.

A section of another barrel the about 1/2" larger than you want to loading door to be
A hinge
Some of the foam for sealing around doors

2*  break shoe springs
4" Long of 1/2" aluminum tubing

Various nuts and bolts from 7/16" to 9/16"

Comments

[jcsevero]

Congratulations and this idea of true Instructables

[heathbar64]

Nice build. I use a somewhat smaller but still large rock tumbler for cleaning parts too. It was built by my grandfather who actually polished rocks. For abrasive, I use a bunch of nails. it takes from 12 to 24 hours to clean rust paint etc off stuff. Perhaps I will do an ible on building one like it.

[jmrock]

Under the welding bench!!!! Ah haaa that's where it'll go. Very nice ible. I with they had a section just for welding/ fabrication/ and general metal working... Thanks

[pfred2]

Yeah but then where do I keep my welder?

[HWACK]

about the gear motor :
what speed ?
what voltage?
what amps ?
available torque?

without this info the range of operation is way too wide
,
regards