I have mounted a few ducks and have not tried tumbling yet, I have read alot about it though. I was looking to maybe make one at home that I could use manually. I have the tumbler made but do not really know what to tumble the skins in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.Thanks.
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Check out the Van Dykes or McKenzie's catalog for hardwood tumbling mix. Run it for 5 or 10 minutes and it comes out great, I have tried corn cob mix, but it seems to take longer.
I have heard people say to use sawdust. Do they mean just plain old sawdust like from a mill?
Yes, but, use only hardwood sawdust, softwood has resin in it and it would get all over your bird or animal.
Thanks. I have a ton of that around. I guess I'll add some borax to it and give it a go. Thanks again.
Oak, hickory type of wood they dont have the resins of softwood.
These hardwoods also dont leave long curls that stick in the down.
Softwoods will normally have long curlie almost shavings and not the small sawdust chips.
You want a coarse sawdust. Sift the saw dust with a fan at your back and the tiny dusty mater will blow away.
I am just learning taxidermy, but I'm lucky enough to have some of my questions answeared by a veteran of the art. I was told hard wood saw dust only or corn cobb granuels even cork granuels but never softwood saw dust.
Not sure how you built your tumbler but I will past this on anyhow:
I have found that a sales priced cement mixer (don't put inside vains in when assembling it) worked really nice. You will have to make a leak-proof cover for it, highly recommend expoxy painting over the factory paint on interior due to grit/abrasives, and someway of gearing down the speed either through a multi-step pulley from an old drill press or using a speed reducing electrical controller or reducing gearbox. Unit works really good for birds, small mamamals, deer capes - upto mid-size capes. If you go this route, if you use it a lot - think of re-epoxy paint once ayear.
As for wood -YES HARDWOOD ONLY.
Good Luck.
PS: not to discourage you but you may want to consider cold blow drying your birds instead. Cuts on time and makes a nicer mount if done right.
I made my tumbler from an old elc. dryer. you have to take out the heating coils, and fill some holes . works great though!