Life of Wry

Jim. I’m tellin’ ya. The man makes stuff.

Exhibit A:

This is a rock tumbler. I don’t know impetus for this, but apparently having a rock tumbler was high on Jim’s wish list. Or maybe it was just about finding a use for the motor he stripped out of an old lawn mower. Neato either way, right?

I must say, this is really clever. He’d do a better job of explaining how he came up with this implementation, but for my part, I’m just impressed with the ingenuity. I would have not the first clue about how to convert a lawn mower motor to something that powers a rock tumbler, never mind how to construct a spinning vessel strong enough to run continuously for 7 days and endure tumbling *rocks*.

Check out these belts and other gizmos:

Here’s the set up in the storage unit off the garage, right next to Jim’s Stairmaster (he says it’s so loud it drowns out NPR… the station he listens to while working out and working in his garage). You see bottles of grit, spare cylinders of various sizes, the motor and rack upon which the tumbler spins, maneuvered by those belts. I think. What you can’t see is the heat/fire sensor which is mounted nearby and which sends a signal to Jim in the house somewhere if all that energy gets coverted to fire! He’s an industrial designer who thinks of everything. 🙂

The rocks are supposed to be “ready” on May 13. Jim’ll do an unveiling and I’ll post a picture, no matter how they turn out. Stay tuned.