fur tumbler

[mr. finch]

i was curious to see if anyone would be willing to post pics of there fur tumblers going to build one myself and was looking for differnt ideas about what people are building them out of. thanks

[Bristleback]

Ask Cam2 nicely, he built a dandy.

[RiverRat]

I found an old dryer with out any holes in the drum , cut the heating element put a garbage bag over the blow out vent threw some saw dust in and hooked it up for 110 instead of the 220. Works great.

[mr. finch]

May 17, 2008 22:55:20 GMT -6 Bristleback said:

Ask Cam2 nicely, he built a dandy.

hopefully he will see this and post a pic or two

[bfflobo]

Here is the one I built. 2" pulley on motor drives a 12" which drives another 2" which drives the belt that goes around the 38" drum. Two paddles inside to lift the fur and drop it.Turns at 11 r.p.m. Have been using some corn cob media that is used in polishing rifle brass and a couple boxes of borax. Seems to be working good on coyotes and cats.

[flatlander (Jeff Yancy)]

I'd sure like to see Tracy's too! How about some inside shots! My question is; What is the best drum rpm to run?

John, are you satisfied with your rpm?

[Bristleback]

Cameron2 should be with us soon..........LOL
I just told him I was going to "taint" his fancy new tumbler with my coyotes........understand, he's not in much favor of coyotes..LOL Understandably he's partial to those fancy NV cats.

[bfflobo]

Flat, 11 r.p.m. is good. Slower might be better. Had a 3" on the motor to start with and it turned 17 r.p.m. if I remember right. Worked o.k. but a little to fast for that diameter of drum.
I tanned a somewhat heavy hide last year and used the drum with a couple of tennis shoes put inside to help break it. Saved alot of elbow grease.
I tumble coyotes for about 20- 30 min. Cats for only 5-10 min. They are both already clean. Really puts a shine on them and makes the hair stand up.

[mr. finch]

are hides put into the tumbler while still wet?i am wanting to build one thats pretty big like a 110 gallon drum or bigger for all the coons i will be doing this comeing season

[cameron2]

Here's one that I built a short time ago.

Many national fur houses drum their fur prior to the sale, and there's good reasons for that. It makes the fur look fluffy and clean. Tumbling is the process of rolling the fur around in a drum, with a corn cob/Borax/sawdust mixture.

So here's what I came up with in terms of building a fur tumbler.

First, I needed a drum of sorts. In order to get enough "drop" to knock the tumbling media from the fur and agitate it, I was thinking that a 4 foot diamater tube would be the minimum. I went to my local steel and concrete supplier, and picked up a piece of Sonotube. Sonotube is the laminated cardboard used to form concrete columns. It's durable, and it comes in 4 foot diameter sizes. Here is a picture of the guys cutting my Sonotube. I bought a 6 foot length, and then had them cut off 2 feet (which I will use for a door and other uses).



Next, I cut a sheet of plywood in half, leaving me with two pieces 48" X 48". I cut the two pieces in a circular shape for the "ends" of the tubes. I found the center of the two sheets, then drove a nail in the center, and tied a piece of twine on the nail, with the other end of the twine tied around my pencil at 48". After drawing the circle, I cut it out with a jigsaw, and shaped off the rough spots with a rasp.

I then glued and screwed a 2"X6" block of wood one each end to act as a support for the axle. In this case, I had an old tumbler that was real small, so I cannibalized the axle wheels off each end. However, you can see they are really nothing more than lawnmower wheels with a half inch steel shaft through them. The bearings can be purchased at Lowes, HomeDepot or any other hardware store that carries evaporative cooler parts. I bolted the two axle wheels to the 2 X 6 blocks on the ends.





Next, I went back to my 2 foot piece of Sonotube and cut two pieces, three inches in width to reinforce the 4 foot drum. Here are the two "bands."



I wanted to put a "band" on each end, so when I attached the end circles, the plywood end pieces would be flush with the total length of the drum. The Sonotube is coated on the inside of the tube with layers of lacquer to prevent the concrete from saturating the cardboard or sticking to it. This will be a big advantage to the tumbler being smooth (like the inside of your clothes drier). However, it prevents the glue from sticking to the drum. I took a wire wheel on the end of my drill and buffed off the lacquer layer everywhere I wanted to glue somethig.



Here's my son Brennan applying the glue to the inside of the drum to glue the bands. You can also see that I installed 4 "baffles" or "lifters" in the drum. These will lift, agitate and tumble the fur. Two of the baffles are 2 X 4's, and two of them are 2 X 2's. They also added strength and rigidity to the drum.





Here is the drum with one of the ends installed.






Next, I turned to the frame on which the motor would be mounted, and which would rotate the drum. As I said, I had an old tumbler, so I took the frame of 1 inch square steel tubing, and extended it. Here is the old frame.



I have since completed the fur tumbler, but I haven't yet taken any photos of it. I'll do that in the next day or so and post them here.

[Stef]

are hides put into the tumbler while still wet?

I've an old dryer.
I use it just for cleaning and drying my wet and green hides ( for some muskrats to the largest coyote. )
I use hard wood saw dust.

here's the way I use mine:

Let say I wash a coyotes... I wash it let it dry couple hours and I flesh it than just before putting it on a stretcher ( its still humid ) I put it in my tumbler with a couple hand full of dry saw dust and I let it in there the time i flesh another coyote and after that, its ready to be put on a stretcher and its clean, dry and it smells great.

For my fox... I don't wash them... I skin and flesh them and put them in my tumbler 10-15 min.... Wow.... ready to be put on a stretcher.

Heavy wet muskrats can be put direct on the carcass in the tumbler before skinning ( use more sawdust) if you don't want a hear to many bang bang...LoL

etc..........

Stef

[GUTPYLZ]

Man! I want to come play at your house for awhile.

[mr. finch]

so youcan put wet hides in it to help speed drying times and you can also put dry hides in it to help get them all clean and nice looking?

[Stef]

and you can also put dry hides in it to help get them all clean and nice looking?

I never tried it with dry hides in a modified dryer.
I think its a little small and anyway... Auction houses are better equipped for doing that on dry hides.
I would build a big one if I was selling in the country.

But for cleaning, drying the fur before skinning, fleshing, after fleshing etc... it works just great and I won't be without one anymore... so cheap and readily available everywhere.

[mr. finch]

thank you very much to all that have replied......

[bill1306 (Phil)]

I'm also curious, if you are doing coons for an example, do you tumble them fur side out, leather side out or do you do them for a while one way and then the other? I have seen where tumbling coons and skunks really removed the grease and moisture from the hides and helped them to dry faster.

[flatlander (Jeff Yancy)]

Thank you, Tracy and John! We appreciate the pics and input! You guys are always a big help!

[foxcatcher1]

Tumble coons fur side out after fleshing to get excess grease out of fur and clean the fur. If you tumble for about 60 seconds with leather out it will help drying time but you will ose alot of corn cob grit. It sticks to the skin and gets everywhere. I only do it on coons that are in bad shape and might not last a full drying time before they start to slip. It works really well.

Don

[GUTPYLZ]

May 19, 2008 21:46:59 GMT -6 flatlander (Jeff Yancy) said:

Thank you, Tracy and John! We appreciate the pics and input! You guys are always a big help!

Butt kisser!

[Stef]

I'm also curious, if you are doing coons for an example, do you tumble them fur side out, leather side out or do you do them for a while one way and then the other? I have seen where tumbling coons and skunks really removed the grease and moisture from the hides and helped them to dry faster.

Yes you can do whatever you want with it and it works.

If for example you want to tumble some skunks or coon fur in when you're done fleshing you want clean saw dust ONLY ( i use saw dust ) because if you tumbled some dirty hides fur out in it before.... It will stain the leather with maybe some mud etc....

When I'm done fleshing.... I put my hides in the tumbler before the stretching job but like I said, I'm using saw dust... even if the fur in side out... there's still some saw dust that will stick on the leather on the head and butt area.
No big deal.... it can be easily removed, when the hides are on the stretchers with a small hand flesher.

Good luck

Stef