Harbor Freight 3lb "Rock Tumbler"....Is this worth the money?

[BlastFromThePast]

So I'm looking to invest in my first ball mill and have come across Harbor Frieght's 3lb rock tumbler. I'm wondering if anyone else who has bought one or knows someone who has can give me an idea on how durable this product is. I know HF's stuff is notorious for being cheap and part of the reason why some buy their tools is because if it breaks it's not that expensive to replace with yet another cheap-o tool. I don't have a lot of money so I'm trying to make sure this thing won't break on me leaving me with a $40 paper weight...Can anyone speak to it's durability? Thanks!

[mathiasxx94]

The first question I would like to ask you is: In what scale are you planing to make fireworks? If you are going to make 3 inchers maybe 4" or smaller, not huge quantities, I would say that this is a perfect mill for you. I have this myself and I have to say that I'm very satisfied both with the quality of the blackpowder it produces and the durability of the mill. I have used it approximately 450 hours, and it's still like new, not that this is a lot of time for a mill.

 

But if you already know that you are going to scale up soon I would go for a mill with larger capacity. I did this mistake, started with this mill and made 3 and 4 inch shells and it worked perfectly, now I'm planning to scale up and I have already started with my first 8" shell I can testify that it's a real pain in the arse to make blackpowder for 6" and 8" shell with a 3lbs mill. But overall I think it's a great mill for the people new to the hobby.

[BlastFromThePast]

Well for the time being I'm planning on doing 3 and 4 inch shells. Thanks for the quick response and I'm glad to hear that yours has worked out for you, so I'm gonna go ahead and get it. One other thing. People talk about the belts breaking all the time. Does this one use a belt or is it direct drive? If it is belt driven, has it ever broken? Should I purchase a replacement belt along with the mill?

[eb11]

i have the same mill and have no issues with it made alot of bp through it i think it ran for almost a month staight with no issues

[mathiasxx94]

I did also hear that the belt was going to break after a while, but it has not happened to me yet. Anyway I would order a replacement belt to be on the safe side.

[BlastFromThePast]

Yeah that's what I think I'm gonna do assuming I can get the mill and belt + shipping at or under $50 cuz I have a $50 pre-paid card...So we'll see. What kind of media do you guys use in your mills?

[californiapyro]

My belt broke on that 2 or 3 times. I like alumina nonsparking media for that one, because lead tends to make the jar overweight and bog down the motor.

[Mumbles]

I used one for about 7 years continuously. The belts on mine did break regularly. I finally found a large o-ring designed for a water purification system, and used that for about 3 years total with no issues. I wish I wrote down the brand name or part number of what I used now. If you can find the right sized o-ring, McMaster or Grainger would probably have them cheap. I think Pyro Direct or Pyro Creations sells a nice replacement belt too for a couple of bucks.

 

You can do about 200g or so at a time. I had to let mine mill for about 8hr per batch. I had mine filled with about 200 .50 cal lead shot.

 

Many people have had good luck with this mill, though it is easy to outgrow. Once I got a bigger mill, I still found it useful to have this one around for milling smaller batches of chemicals. It also worked out that I could just toss this jar on the body of my bigger mill (which was much more efficient), and it would drastically cut down the milling time. Some people do enlarge the powered roller with tape to increase the rpms. I don't know what effect this has on the lifetime of the mill.

[Bobosan]

Check the alignment of the drive and driven pulleys before operating the mill. I found that misalignment will cause belts to break. Also, if you overload the drum with media and material, it will cause belts to break. Lead media especially. The replacement belts I picked up are actually O-rings from MSC but any industrial supply house should have an adequate substitute. I think I read that the new mills have 1 or 2 extra belts included. Cleaning and applying a drop of light oil to each bearing before a mill run will make the plastic bearings last longer which also helps to reduce belt breakage.

 

http://www1.mscdirec..._-SearchResults

Edited March 19, 2013 by Bobosan

[Arthur]

Rock tumblers work in general, but too much lead media overloads them and shortens their life. Try to source ceramic media..

If you prepare snap top bags of the correct mix while the mill is turning you can reload the mill almost instantly, so you can get 2 x 12 hour or 3 x 8 hour runs per day, according to the time your mill takes to mill a batch completely.

 

Usually a rubber mill jar with ceramic media is quiet enough that the neighbours will not even notice it. Quiet is GOOD!

 

OK a conventional mill with lead media will mill faster, but it will likely need a bigger motor and make a noise.

[BlastFromThePast]

Just picked it up from HF!!! I'm SO excited...It's hard to contain myself right now hahaha

[BlastFromThePast]

Can I go smaller than 50 caliber lead shot?

[Shadowcat1969]

The 50 caliber is just about perfect for these. I use 200 in mine, which puts it right at 1/2 full.

 

I suppose you could go with smaller, like .44 or .45, but I think you'll have a little performance degradation. Not sure how much. You're also going to have more weight in the jar to fill an equal volume of space with your media.

[Mumbles]

I've used smaller, down to about 000 buckshot. It worked well still, however the smaller you go, the more crushing power you lose. I had to pre-grind my nitrate and charcoal to about -20 or -30 mesh for it to work very well. Otherwise, you end up with unmilled clumps.

[nater]

I use .45 lead balls in my small mill from Harbor Freight. The reason is because they were in stock and work just fine.

[Algenco]

muzzleloader balls will work but remember, they are pure soft lead and wear quickly

I guess I need to make another bunch of hardened lead balls and sell them, they last a lot longer

[nater]

I would place an order for about 35 lbs, if we could meet up somewhere at a shoot. (Although Nelson always picks bad days for my schedule.) My mailman is nice and does not deserve handling a box full of lead for me.

 

I am using ceramic cylinders in my larger mill now, but would really like a jar of each kind of media. Lead mills BP faster, but I like my individual chems to stay white.

Edited March 21, 2013 by nater

[BlastFromThePast]

Man, I turned on my mill today for the first time and it ran for about 1 minute and 30 seconds before it stalled. I tried messing with the belt tension and it still kept stalling. Even when I got the thing going by manually spinning it, it would run down and stall within 5 seconds. Needless to say I took it back and swapped it for the only other one they had in the store. What do I do if this happens again?

[nater]

Get the 6lb model, but run it with only one jar full. It has a stronger motor than the 3 lb and can turn a heavier jar. With mine, I often have to spin the jar to get it to start, but it turns just fine once it is going.

[Algenco]

clean the outside of the jar and the rollers, even a tiny layer of dust will cause them to slip

[Bobosan]

Have you tried to adjusting belt tension by moving the motor?

 

You have to get underneath the motor covers to do this, usually from the bottom.

 

How about spare belts? Any included? Replace the one on the unit...it may be stretched too much and lost elasticity. While belt is off, check free spin motion of the shafts. They may be gummed up with chinese fish oil.

 

Does it stall with an empty barrel?

 

Get the 6lb version if you continue to have problems and run one drum.

[psyco_1322]

I've used a Thumblers Tumbler for several years, it's also a 3lb jar. Whether it holds the same, I'm not sure. I would load my jar about 1/3 with media, and I could mill a 300g batch in it.

[BlastFromThePast]

When I said it was stalling I meant that even without the drum on the roller the motor wouldn't spin. I tried tightening and loosening the tension by moving the motor mount yet it wouldn't go. This new one I got after exchanging the first seems to be working properly...knock on wood but I'll just have to keep an eye on it. Does anyone oil their ball mill? I know it doesn't say that it needs to be but it might help in the long run... Edited March 21, 2013 by BlastFromThePast

[Bobosan]

One drop of light sewing machine oil on each bearing where the shaft enters. Doing this before each mill run will help a lot.

[nater]

I could swear the instructions said to keep it lubricated. Even if they don't, I think lubricating moving parts is a given on a machine.