With a little care your rock tumbler will run for a long, long time. One of the first things to wear out is the lid. This was a surprise for me as I was more concerned about the plastic bearings on the idler shafts. But, the center of the lids wear through after about 6 or 8 weeks of use.
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A Hole Worn In An A-R12 Lid
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I had expected the wear to be most severe near the rim of the lid - about one rock radius back in. I've had a lot of lids wear through and they all wear through at the center. Tumble and learn.
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If The Lid Leaks, You Will Have A Mess
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It doesn't take long for the glop on the inside of the tumbler to get out the hole that wears open in the center of the lid. This pile of mud surprised me as I had just checked the machine about 30 minutes before I found this very interesting but very frustrating pile of mud.
The glop on the bottom is flowing in two directions. It turns out that it is mostly water. The more solid mud remained at the upper levels.
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I Just Checked This 30 Minutes Ago
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The moral to the story is check you lids each time you service your tumbler. Examine the center carefully as that is where it will wear through. If the center is very thin, you might want to put on a new lid to avoid a spill like the one shown on this page.
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