Inkjet tumbler for $0!

Oldsjunkie

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So I've been thinking about buying a tumbler for my clad, but didn't really want to throw down the $35 for the HF one. I have a bunch of squirrel cage motors and other misc. electric motors but they would need pullies, belts, and the like. Plus there is an issue with RPM and energy consumption. So this is my solution. I've had an old HP inkjet printer sitting in the closet for a couple years that had no ink cartridges but I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. I tore it down to the paper rollers, the motor, and the mounting brackets. I attached them to a beautiful piece of ash hardwood flooring ;) I hooked the motor up to a PC power supply I had laying around. It's quiet, uses very little energy, and the motor would cost a couple bucks at the most to replace if it burnt out. Seeing how this setup is geared, and that the motor never gets hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch while running, I think I've got a winner here! Thanks for looking!
 

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That is a very nice setup you invented... Congratulations. I have an old printer myself, I do have a vibrating tumbler but not a rotating one. I like your idea very much so I will try and see if I can do it.
Thankyou for this great idea.
 
That is a very nice setup you invented... Congratulations. I have an old printer myself, I do have a vibrating tumbler but not a rotating one. I like your idea very much so I will try and see if I can do it.
Thankyou for this great idea.

No problem! I've run a load of copper pennies through an hour with a handful of masonary sand and a squirt of hand soap and I can't believe how well they came out! I weighed it down with shiny clad at probably two pounds to see how it does and it doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat. The only bad thing I see so far is that you WILL end up with ink on your hands! Good luck and let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.
 
thats some McGiver stuff right there, way to think outside the box, looks like it would work well...to bad i already bought a HF or i would be making one of those right after this post...GL+HH.....cliff.
 
great job, thanks for sharing. I remember now I have an old printer around here...
 
I like it to I just threw out a old computer and printer I didn't even think about this thread but I did take apart the harddrive to get the rare earth magnet out of it.
 
I like it, cheap and it works...nice job....now if I can just snag the old priinter from my GF........
 
I would think any printer would work. This was from an HP all-in-one. There's two motors in most of them. I kept the second motor in case the first one frags. The other day I used a bigger container, from a large bottle of protein powder. Slowed down the revolutions a little. I've also been putting a long section of copper wire bent into a whisk shape to keep the contents stirred up nicely.
 
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