Tumbler Use ?

Rich, I never used one. I just hand tumble in a tub of hardwood

 

Is there a big difference in quality between shop vac on blow? And tumbling? Or is it just a time saver?

 

Rich
I was initially taught with use of a tumbler. I started out with hand tumbling with corn cob grit in a tub/bag -- I tried both. At that time I decided because of more tears and dealing with "sawdust everywhere", I would try going the blow drying route. Perhaps I didn't know what I was doing with the tumbling. I just blow dry now (no gas). It works pretty well for me. Can you be more efficient tumbling (gassing ?)? I think so, but I solely look at works for ME the best and I will not be going back to gas and/or tumbling. I apologize, I know you didn't mention gassing at all. Dan

 

IMO You will may get strong opinionated answers both ways. (A lot of good taxis have left this site.) Is the person who paints the better picture the way to go? Or are they just better at convincing others?
So to not answer your question, I will pose the following questions for you:
1) To minimize the chance of damage to feathers, what would you do? Tumble or blow dry.
2) To minimize the chance of skin tears what method do you think works better?
3) To be more efficient, what method allows you to do other tasks at the same time?
4) If someone's argument is that tumbling helps produce a "cleaner" product, does that mean that the grit is debriding the feathers? It has to be doing something to get it "cleaner". (This was one opinion that I heard in the past in favor of tumbling.?)
You to then weigh the pros/cons of both and decide what route to go for YOU. Good luck. Dan

 

I've done both ways, but I have used a tumbler ( converted cloths dryer to a better homemade one ) for nearly 40 years. I would not mount ducks with out it. I use fine oak saw dust from a pallet company. They give it to me. For me it works great.

 

i have never used a tumbler in over 45 years of mounting birds. after the mineral sprits soak I roll the bird up in a towel to soak up the majority of liquid and then simply use a hair dryer on med. to fluff up the feathers from the bottom up. this personally works for me. others may hate doing it my way. it really doesn't take that long to blow dry a bird.

 

Seems to me a tumbler would be a big help with larger birds. Blow drying or even using a pet dryer can take quite a while on geese. You could be doing something else while the bird tumbles. With ducks tho, blow drying is quick enough

 

I let drip, then set it on a towel and lay another towel on top push down to squeeze some moisture out and let it set in the towels for a while, then hand tumble in a big tub of corn cob grit, then I blow dry.

 

I don't know your history on this site, but if you recall photos that Eugene S. used to post of his birds hanging outside on his "clothes line" he was off doing something else while his birds "drip dried". Not much time wasted there. : )

 

I use one that I built. 55 gallon steel drum, something about grounding the static electricity produced, gas fumes and explosions made plastic a no go. I don't wash in gas anymore so that's sort of a non issue now. I spin dry in a washing machine, which I feel every shop should have or sneak it in the house. Then tumble in corn cob grit for 15-20 minutes, air nozzle the majority of the grit off then finish with a pet dryer (air commander). You occasionally wind a wing around a few more times than desired, but if you don't run a skin with jagged broken bones, not much damage occurs. I like the time saved and the polish you get on the feathers. I have been getting a fair amount of bugs in my grit, sort of an inconvenience, vacuum off the top layer and then microwave a gallon of so at a time to wipe them out.

Just the way I do it.

 

I tumble most birds, corn cob grit. Unless theirs issues with them . tears rips in the skin. All large birds get tumbled, geese , turkeys and such. Just a big time saver for drying IMO .
Billy

 

Certainly drip drying works but often weather conditions (be it too cold or 30 mph winds) make hanging outdoors impractical. I don't have a tumbler but for larger birds I would use one if I could.

 

I use a tumbler and get great results; this is not meant to steer you either way. The only down point to it is all the corn cob grit all over the floor after I blow the birds dry. Not all of it can be shaken off back into the tumbler. You could make one that would cost 1/3 the purchase price of the large suppliers.