Quoted from cottonm4:I probably burned up my little 5 lb. Berry's unit. I loaded that thing up to the top with media and parts.
Thank you for talking positive on the Harbor Freight unit. I bought the 18 lb. tumbler this afternoon. HF had a 20% coupon. That and what you said helped with my decision.
I had a heavy load tumbling when my tumbler went bad. I placed that load into my new HF tumbler and that load has only filled up 1/3 of the bowl.
You made a good call. I've replaced bearings, and have made two work from three of the Berry/Cabelas ones. The 18lb HF has been holding up great however I still have another Berry/Cabela that I'm using for smaller loads. I expect it to die too. These 5 lb. of most all brands probably will hold up for the once or twice a year tumble, but that's about it.
Def. get a jam nut/nylock nut for the 18lb HF. It has a plastic wing nut and came home to see it got loose and the lid was off blowing dust in my back basement room.