Vibratory finisher project

[SRT Mike]

I know for the 200SX, Burr King sells the bowl for $45 or so. The bowl has a specific shape so that the parts are constantly rolling around in there... they move towards the center, go down against the shaft, roll around the bottom, then appear back at the top but on the outer edge. Essentially they follow the outer curve of the bowl.

Other than that, it's pretty simply... just the bowl mounted on springs, with a motor on the bottom providing vibration. But I do think you'd need to buy the bowl, otherwise as mentioned above, the parts will just sort of sit there shaking and banging into each other.

Good luck - keep us posted.

[LeeWay]

Thanks, Guys.
I did look on the Burr King site, but found prices in the two to three thousand dollar range for replacement bowls. If you have a link to the one you mentioned, that would be great.
I did see a profile drawing of the bowls they use. Mine is less rounded of course, but basically the same shape. I was considering what I could use to to fill the outer and inner edges to achieve something similar in shape.

I think a washing machine agitator might work good in the center instead of the 4" pvc pipe I used. I don't have one, but will keep my eyes open.

On the outer barrel edge, not really sure. Nothing comes to mind there.

I will say that I did have some decent movement with just the offset weights I initially installed on the machine. It was enough movement to give me at least some hope. I will mill the new shaft offset this weekend and see how it goes. Still need to add l brackets for bolting it down and need to finish the machines concrete pad. I do have my fingers crossed on this. Most of the material for this is stuff that I had left over from other projects, so no real big investment to this point. The media has cost the most. Still far less than new and used machines I have seen at this size.
I will keep it updated here with progress.
Thanks for the feedback.

[LeeWay]

Nothing more to report on the project machine except that I won't need to build the smaller one.
Took my scrap to the yard today. I was out of buckets and room to hold it all.
Went by HF to pick up some gloves that were on sale and just happened to see a larger vibratory shaker. I had seen the smaller ones they carry, but never the 18 pounder. It was normally $170. It was on sale for $140. I had a 20% coupon, so that came to $112. With my scrap cash, this cost about $15.
It is actually about the same size as the one I had intended to build for my aluminum parts.
Picked up 10 pounds of plastic media (1/4" pyramids) and ran 1 cycle for an hour on a dozen parts. They look great. I need to put a timer on it.
Looks like it would easily do 60 of these parts at once and maybe 30 of my other parts at a time. Cool!

I was also enlightened by the design of this one. Everything basically the same as my big machine, but the way the motor attaches is different.

The motor is upside down with the shaft on bottom. A U shaped bracket attaches to the bottom of the drum and the face of the motor to the bottom of the U. Then two small weights are on the motors shaft. This is a third design option and one I had not considered before.

Here is the link at HF.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=96923



I also found some part listings or exploded drawing on the big machines and tumblers at Burr King.
It too was enlightening and tells me my design is not far off from theirs, only smaller and not nearly as well engineered. Might just do the trick though.

http://www.burrking.com/schematics.html

[mikenuke]

Greetings to all of you out there...
It looks like everyone is finally going on a market solution machine.

I also have made a DIY Vibratory tumbler which hopefully I will present to you in a dedicated thread.

Keep on DIYing!