Hello folks,
After reading up quite a bit on trich extraction with ice and water and using tumblers, I thought I'd have a go at making a tumbler myself.
The way I did it is certainly not the cheapest but it certainly didn't cost as much as a 5 bag ice system.
Firstly here are the things I used:

1 4'x2' sht 3/8" MDF
1 BBQ rotisserie motor
1 1mtr length 12mm threaded bar
8 12mm nuts and flat washers to suit
2 roller bearings
1 sheet 12xx silk screen
A load of super glue
Some paint to stop MDF dust getting in me trichs!!

Some tools are needed to do a tumbler like the one I made coz I was trying to make something that looked almost commercial.(Too much time on my hands I spose)

I started by marking out 2 16" circles and the sides that were to support the whole thing. The circles were marked by using a pencil,a piece of string and a needle in the middle.

Once I had marked out I cut very roughly around them with a jig saw and then screwed the two of each shape together to make sure they were the mirror of each other I then cut round them neatly as in the pic............

Here are the support plates.......

I then drilled a 25mm hole thro the support plates while they were still screwed together. This will be the bearing housings..........

I had to shim out the 25mm hole coz my bearings didn't fit. For this I used paper and superglue.

Next I cut out the pieces to go on the ends to hold the two support apart and make the whole thing rigid.
They were:
2 8"x 4"
2 8"x 1"

They are then glued together in an 'L' shape............

Once I had the two end pieces glued in an 'L' profile I went about glueing up the whole assembly with the spindle bolted up to hold the whole thing straight.
I did this on a work top to make sure it was flat.............

Looks like a top bit of kit.

What happened next?

Once the frame was all glued up I moved on to the disks.

While they were still screwed together in the middle I drilled 4 little holes spaced equally around the disk about 40mm in from the outside edge.

At this point I seperated the disks and drilled a 1/2" hole in the middle of them for the spindle.

I then cut 4 lengths of broom handle 6" long. These will be for making the agitators to stir up the trim.
I glued and screwed them to one of the disks putting a fillet of PVA glue around to stop me trichs disapearing in the gaps.............

Here is a dry run to check it all fitted together.............

Once I had put in the spindle and screwed on the other disk and it had all set I went about marking out and cutting the trim recovery hatch!
I used the bit I'd cut out to mark out the hatch cover on the remaining MDF and just enlarged it 1/2" all round the outside.

I didn't take any pics of this but here is one I already prepared!......

The screws are 4mm all held in place with a tiny blob of superlue nipped up with wing nuts and washers and left to dry..........

Edited to say...I found a pic showing the brace I put in to support the stretching of screen.......

cheers Chip,

Please ignore the little disks in the centre of the larger disks...This is a fuckup I made by making the holes too big!
Next I filed a square on the end of the 12mm threaded bar.............This took bloody ages and made my pinkies well sore......

Here is a pic with the bearings in place.

I think it would work if a 1/2" hole was drilled through and used as the bearing surface but as I said earlier I really fancied trying to make the thing look pro as poss and it will tumble for years at 3 rpm!!

Next I made the rotisserie motor mount which was some old wood I I found in the shed. I just hung the motor on the end of the shaft and superglued the wood around it and a spacer piece of the same wood underneath.

A couple of bits of broom handle stuck on the side and it is all held in place by an elastic band.

Looking real good buddha!

Cheers VRG

Next for the paint job to stop that nasty MDF getting to me trichs!

I masked off around the recovery hatch to stop the cover plate sticking.........

Next comes the messy bit!

I checked to see if the superglue would attack either the paint or the screen.

All was ok here so I went about Putting on the screen.

Hold the screen against the outside rim of the disk and put a blob of superglue on the edge and spread it so it goes through to make a bond. Be careful not to get bonded yourself!!
Once you have a bond the screen can be stretched around the outside edge of the disc and another spot of superglue about a 1/3 of the way round whilst keeping the tension on the screen. after this run abead around the edge then spread it in carefully with you finger.
Once this is bonded stretch the screen tightly across to the other side and glue about 2 or 3 inches at a time and so on...

My screen wasn't big enough and needed a join but this works fine if you keep the tension on.

here is a pic of the join and the edges............

Here is a pic of my trich tumbler finished and sitting on my trich catching plate. Actually it's mrs Bu's mirror but it works a treat.
The trim has to be snipped up pretty fine with a pair of scissors first and I was putting in enough to fill two 1 pint glasses.
I ran for half an hour and put this to one side.
I then put in a couple of marbles and tumble for an hour or two and keep this seperate as this in theory will contain more veg matter and not be so potent.

"WHERE'S THE TRICHS ?" I hear you ask!!

Well...........No happy ending I'm afraid..............The trim I used had been sitting in the loft for several months in a box with no lid so what I actually tumbled resembled a load of MDF dust with bits of loft insulation chucked in coz I could see glistening glass fibre!!
It wouldn't bond as a consequence so I'm actually too embarassed to post any pics of the results.

I'm going to save the trichs and do some Iso honey oil with the trim left as hopefully I should be able to filter out the crap.
It's a real shame I didn't take care of my trim coz at the time I was a complete newbie and wasn't really aware of what can be made from leftovers.

I'm waiting on a grow at the mo so will post results as and when I can.

I hope this thread inspires some folks to try something similar and I reckon it probably cost me £70 all up which isn't too bad. I spose I did it for the fun really and fun it was.

Shame about my trim!

Here she is in all her glory...............

That tumbler looks the biz, shame the trim wasnt up too much.
Would have been good to see the return you got from it.
Next time eh!

That looks stopin'!

A professional looking setup if I've ever seen one!

A couple of Q's:
Do the trichs just fall out through the silk onto the mirror?
And won';t particales of the glue be knoked of as well as the trichs and end up in the hash?

[quote=Lozzy,Sep 30 2004, 02:44 PM]

Do the trichs just fall out through the silk onto the mirror?
And won';t particales of the glue be knoked of as well as the trichs and end up in the hash?

Thanks Hydro and Lozzy,

The trichs do fall through the mirror as they are much finer the the vegetable matter and so fall through leaving just compostable veg material.
All you do is collect it up with a credit card into beautiful pile.
You can get various sizes of screen although I picked one somewhere in the middle to get a reasonable quality of hash.

Some folks still do the butane or isopropyl alcohol extraction to get absolute maximum use from the trim that remains

I don't know how tumblers compare to bubble bags or the iceolator bags. I suspect that the bags might be more complete as you can whisk round pretty roughly to knock all the trichs off.

The beauty of the tumbler is you can switch on and go and get stoned or if you really want to, just sit and watch the little babies falling through and you don't have to wait for it to dry.
Stick some marbles in to agitate the whole thing and a load more fall out. (Shame I didn't take more care of my trim though!!)

The whole of the tumbler was sprayed to stop any unwanted material getting into my pile of cream and the superglue is sealed in by the screen. :

Cheers,

Bu.

that was a quality thread m8. I can't wait to see tumbler in action as it looks very professional !

Giz :thummsup:

Amazing job!

Your obviously NOT the average DIY Artist, quality piece of kit and very well thought out.

Well done

Cheers for the nice words.

Shame trim was dirty.
Got to wait on my current grow to finish up.

I'm going to try and extract some oil and I'll post the results with pics of my progress.

Bu.

nice one man...

proppa job!

Where did you get the silk to make the screen?

Really want to try and make 1 of these ......

Hi Raz,

Cheers for the interest mate.

Here is one I found earlier.........

[URL=http://www.fibrecrafts.co.uk/pdf/screen_printing_inks_and_equip.pdf]

All the best,

Bu.

Edited to say...Got to learn how to do a hyperlink..Sorry!!

Looks like a great bit of kit.

When can I go down to MFI to pick one up?

Magpie

Cheers BU

Hi Magpie,

I would make them if any wholesaler wanted to promote them.
Not sure about MFI though...........flat pack Trich Tumblers eh?

Bu.

Am essential part of any modern kitchen IMHO

Magpie

Amazin !

A couple months ago i had the same idea after reading a few books, and was one day goin to attempt to make one.

mine wouldn't have been anywhere as good as yours.

truely amazin you have created one of my DIY dreams!

you should sell them, seriously get them sold on this website.

post back when you have another go with it. why not try it with some regular skunk?

I certainly will post some pics S Monkey..
I've got some PoG, Doublegum and a White Russian up at the moment so hoping for some big chrystalage soon!!

I can't wait to try it in anger and I would certainly love to have a go at making them to order for UK 420.

Cheers,

Bu

you got any picks of your trim?

that quit looks the dogs dangliesmate welldone!

HG

Hi HG,
My trim is just about ready to go into the tumbler and not covered in dust this time.

Will keep things up to date as I go.

Cheers,

Bu.

cheers mate

would love to see that beast in action

HG

Looking forward to this Buddha, nice work on the tumbler.

Me as well mickle

Looks a top piece of kit , if Joolz and yourself could come to an arrangement about them , I would love one .

Hopefully Soon

count me in too!




dikki

Wahey!!

Look out there's a Bu tumbler about!!

I saw a pic of OT's recently and that looks a well serious piece of kit...Completely different to the one I cobbled together with a catch tray and lid and all!
His was quite expensive tho and he doesn't think they produce such comprehensive results as the Bubble method but he prefers the taste which is good enough for me.

Cheers,

Bu.

Bump

Excellent piece of kit,any piccies of the end result & a report on the quality of smoko,and are you still up to making them to order?

Bestest Rgds Twosheds

Quality Engineering, i would love to buy one of those, i liked the bit about you can chuck some bud in and sit around smoking till its done....



Good thread

I'll post up some pics of the finished results....Cheers for the comments.
To be honest I think you can buy proper professional type tumlers for not too much cash.

Bu.

Bump .....

RAZ

where are the pics Bu?

Double bump

RAZ

Point taken and thanks for the interest.

I've got some S.a.g.e and some Afghani x Cali indica trim I can tumble and will post on this thread.
I'll do some tonight.

cheers,

Bu.

cool , i've been lookin forward to see how she goes BU. good luck

Nice one BU

RAZ

Well...I finally got my arse into gear and did some tumbling tonight!
I ended up using a White Russian lady that was flowered from being a Mum but never really given enough time in veg so small buds were the result.
I started with 60 grms of very dry rough leaf and airbuds all mixed in and tumbled for 1 1/2 hours.
I got 2 grms of cream from this but would probably have got more had I tumbled it for longer.
I would normally only stick about 15 grammes in at one time but stuck the whole two oz in together as I was a little keen to get some results probably to the detriment of final weight.
Also, I probably should have done a secondary tumble with a marble or ball bearing in to help break up the buds.

I will ISO wash the rest of the trim in my cafetierre to extract the remaining essential oils.

Here are a couple of pics and I think the results are aren't bad really considering my haste.

I will say that one downside security wise is the stink of 2 oz of herb being thrown around inside a drum is considerable!!
Just the S.A.G.E and Afghan x Cali to go.

The second pic shows the trim post tumble against the result with a pound coin for scale........Tumble on dudes.

Cheers,

Bu.

Brilliant bit of kit

Think i might have to try and have a bash at knocking one up


chunga