Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?  (Read 1250 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ivanhoe

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 86
Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« on: December 29, 2018, 07:53:26 PM »

Dear Friends ... Recently purchased a used Mt-4 Minisonic Tumbler. This has a variable speed controller. When the speed controller is turned on I can get the tub to oscillate. However when I need maximum vibrations/oscillations the tub/machine will make a loud chattering sound like metal upon metal. So I have to back off the speed controller to lower the vibrations to make it tolerable. :icon_scratch:

Is this normal or is there someway to adjust out this chatter at or near maximum settings? Any and all suggestions, assistance will be very much appreciated. Thank you very much for taking the time to help with this matter. IV  USAF 62-66
Logged

lithicbeads

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3214
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2018, 08:54:32 PM »

Mine have always been noisy even before I wore them out . If there is no load or a small load it makes more of the sound you describe. All my vibe tumblers drive the folks in my house who can hear crazy.
Logged

55fossil

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 849
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2018, 05:55:28 AM »

   I have two Minisonic's and they were extremely noisy. The top and bottom pieces are held together with crappy little sheet metal screws. On my Sonics the top and bottom beat on each other at certain vibration / loads and made terrible noise. Until.....  I took them apart, cleaned out all the crap inside and put them back together tightly. On mine it was easy to tell it was the case making the noise. When it was running I could just push certain places on the top section and the noise would drop considerably. I hope you are so lucky.
PS:  You can cheat and just put some small pieces of rubber between the top and bottom like a gasket. Just a few small strategically placed pieces will stop the pieces vibrating against each other.
Logged

ivanhoe

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 86
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2018, 07:32:29 PM »

For all intents and purposes I placed my finger on the metal platform above the electromagnet assembly. I can feel the chatter and it appears to be coming from that area on max or high setting.  :sad: When i back off the setting I get a normal vibration sound. I don't run it max or wide open but when I try to use small wood cubes or dri shine compound these do not rotate.

I've noticed that there is a gap on my other mini sonics between the plate or platform & electro magnet assembly. This gap can be adjusted by using the bottom opening on the machine an/or the top nut/bolt within the heavy spring.

However, at this time, I haven't been able to find/get the ideal gape space. Then use my feeler gauges to get it close. This is all conjecture right now? Maybe DP can help?

Thanks very much for the information. Glad to hear you were able to trace & come up with cause & solution. I'll try to update as we go?  May have to get a rebuild kit and go over the machine. That I'm not looking forward to this year ... maybe next year :)
Logged

ileney

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 639
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2018, 01:16:29 PM »

I have one of these machines too. It’s the kind that has three barrels or you can use one small barrel and one extra large barrel that fits in the space normally taken by two. I’ve noticed that only the contents of the first barrel rotate no matter how I change the amount of slurry, thickness or rocks. In fact, I can move the tumblers so they switch places and the one in the first position always rosters and neither of the others do. What could be causing this and what can I do? The machine is probably 35 years old or older.
Logged

ivanhoe

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 86
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2018, 09:59:11 PM »

I have one of these machines too. It’s the kind that has three barrels or you can use one small barrel and one extra large barrel that fits in the space normally taken by two. I’ve noticed that only the contents of the first barrel rotate no matter how I change the amount of slurry, thickness or rocks. In fact, I can move the tumblers so they switch places and the one in the first position always rosters and neither of the others do. What could be causing this and what can I do? The machine is probably 35 years old or older.

That's interesting and is similar to what the unit of mine does. It does not handle dry material. There are some adjustments that can be made but best to contact DP and speak to Don the tech support. I couldn't get the dry material to rotate. High setting I got a scary metal to metal contact coming from somewhere. So I had to run it down to get the wet material to work.

After agonizing about this I finally completely disassembled my MT-4. It is scattered on my work bench. In a way I'm glad I did as the rubber supports, grommets & O rings are all hardened and deteriorated. Not much life left in them. Will probably order a tune-up kit as the unit had a complete mess of dried residue covering the grommets & rubber components.

In my opinion they are a fantastic unit and will work even though there are some comings. Hope this may help somewhat. I'll try to keep posted. 
Logged

ileney

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 639
Re: Mini Sonic Electronic Tumbler Help?
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2019, 10:54:17 AM »

Thanks. I will do that when I have the space/time to take it apart. Dried up grommets and such are probably a problem in mine too. It probably does need a tune up.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.087 seconds with 39 queries.