The little motors that RCBS uses in their brass tumblers often seem to fail well before the rest of the assembly does. Generally, the spacer that keeps the rotor centered in the tiny ball bearings turns to powder and the rotor begins to rub on the bearing housing, and it grinds to a halt. I took mine apart thinking it had a failed bearing, but upon closer inspection realized the bearings were fine. Long story short, a .020 shim cut with scissors and used inside the lower bearing flange put the rotor more or less back on center in it's mount and it's on again. I'm fairly certain I know of two of these units that went in the trash for this reason.

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"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

I had a similar deal with the blower motor on my furnace...the repair guy wanted almost $400 to fix it and all it needed was a new shroud and a $1.50 shim, both of which I was able to have shipped to my door for a little over $20. 10 screws later I bolted it back in place and been fine ever since.

Good on you for finding and fixing instead of pitching it out and buying new. I think it stinks that America has become such a "throw-away" society.

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Ask me about QDMA.

I too believe in tearing it apart before sending it out for repair. It is broke now, so I ain't gonna hurt it. As above, I may actually stumble onto a simple fix. Good work Unclepaddy. Of course y'all made me feel bad since I just threw a tumbler in the garbage without attempting to fix it.

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A truely successful life is mostly based on how well you handle PLAN B.

My Thumlers motor broke something serious near 20 years ago. Bowl and everything else where fine.

A landline call got a new motor/assembly sent to my door at no charge. Is still running fine.

Is "nature of the beast" that a tumbler motor runs in a "out of balance" condition.
I,m kinda impressed that they last as long as they do!

Good on you Unclepaddy. Saved one from the dumpster.

Cheezywan

An interesting aside:
Before I got ambitious about this fix, I had asked my wife to stop into an industrial parts dealer near her work and see if they could match up the motor. The kid behind the counter had never seen anything like it, (trust me, I stripped off the confusing eccentric weight first) and had her call me to find out what it was for. I was in a hurry and just said, "It's off my case cleaner." They didn't have it, so they gave her a hot tip on where to find it, and even printed out a map. When I got home she handed this info to me. It was directions to our local Case Tractor dealer. I just can't fathom the thinking of our youth.

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"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

Well, I can about guarantee you that kid doesn't fix a whole lot of thing.

My wife would have known we dont have a tractor.

I've always wonders about making my harbor frieght grinder into a large tumbler as it vibe rates a lot harder than my tumbler.

Heh-heh! Funny.

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"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

My wife would have said the tractors she drives are newholland and johndeer so I know case tractors is wrong.

When reading this I thought you were going to say he printed you the Google maps directions to China where the motor came from.

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Gun Control should come in three flavors: Safe, Semi and auto.