Not getting the finish I want from vibratory finish.

[woodchucker]

I have a HF small vibratory tumbler. I have 3 different medias. The plastic triangle, the ceramic traingular "dog bones", and some round ceramics my son got me.

I am not getting the finish I want. I had the part slip from non tightened clamping and filed it to fix it. I through this in the tumbler with the plastic ones, and it did not do the finish I wanted. The dog bones are too rough, they really rough the part up. So I went with the round ceramic some water and simple green.
It did debur it, but the part came out blacker and not as high a polish as I wanted.

So what do I need to do, to get a higher grade finish from the tumbler. My media rate is about 3:1 .

 

[Firebrick43]

I have a HF small vibratory tumbler. I have 3 different medias. The plastic triangle, the ceramic traingular "dog bones", and some round ceramics my son got me.

I am not getting the finish I want. I had the part slip from non tightened clamping and filed it to fix it. I through this in the tumbler with the plastic ones, and it did not do the finish I wanted. The dog bones are too rough, they really rough the part up. So I went with the round ceramic some water and simple green.
It did debur it, but the part came out blacker and not as high a polish as I wanted.

So what do I need to do, to get a higher grade finish from the tumbler. My media rate is about 3:1 .
View attachment 413620

If you want fine finish, you need something like corn cob or walnut with a good dab of polishing compound in it. It will take a while. There is no way around that for fine finishing.

 

[woodchucker]

If you want fine finish, you need something like corn cob or walnut with a good dab of polishing compound in it. It will take a while. There is no way around that for fine finishing.

I have walnut ground up for sand blasting... I assume that's too fine? Do I need shells? In reading the tumbler manufacturers and media sites I thought they were not recommending either of those.

 

[Jim F]

At work we sent some handle out to be tumbled, due to qnty., they came back looking almost chrome plated.
They used cast iron pellets, not very good deburring action, but sure did polish them up.

 

[Firebrick43]

The walnut shells is just to carry the polishing compound. The most common use of vibratory polishers is for ammo brass, and they use corn cob and walnut almost exclusively. Some use Stainless steel pellets with water but that is usually in a rotary tumber, to heavy for a vibratory polisher. Also, do you have to much weight in the polisher? They don't work well if overloaded.

 

[woodchucker]

No just that small part, the hanger for the tool.
So is the fine ground too fine? I know you said it's just to deliver the polish.. but do I need shell or ground walnut.
Also what type of polish, and how much, and do I use water?

I don't need this part chrome like, but would like to learn to get it that way without sitting on a buffer.

edit: oh, I see you said SHELL.... my bad, I glossed over that.

 

[Firebrick43]

Coarse rubbing compound will remove 600 grit scratches. medium 1000, fine 1200. The corser it is, the faster it cuts, some do coarse then swap out the media and do fine. You can save the media and use it for a while to a point. I use denatured alchol or liquid paste wax to moisten it depending if its going to be painted or left bright. Steel is going to take a while in a vibrating tumber of that power

 

[woodchucker]

Coarse rubbing compound will remove 600 grit scratches. medium 1000, fine 1200. The corser it is, the faster it cuts, some do coarse then swap out the media and do fine. You can save the media and use it for a while to a point. I use denatured alchol or liquid paste wax to moisten it depending if its going to be painted or left bright. Steel is going to take a while in a vibrating tumber of that power

thanks, it's aluminum. pretty simple then using rubbing compound.

 

[Boswell]

A jeweler friend of mine polishes his work in a tumbler. He uses a small drum tumbler. He does it in several stages with different media at each stage, He includes water and some sort of liquid additive. the first few steps/Stages use ceramic shapes but the final stage is small Stainless steel shapes. While this is a fair amount of work, he get a polished finish and no longer uses the buffing wheel. This may not be the best for steel. My friend is working mostly in Silver. However, I did try his method on some Brass (see my avitar) and it worked great.

 

[IamNotImportant]

A jeweler friend of mine polishes his work in a tumbler. He uses a small drum tumbler. He does it in several stages with different media at each stage, He includes water and some sort of liquid additive. the first few steps/Stages use ceramic shapes but the final stage is small Stainless steel shapes. While this is a fair amount of work, he get a polished finish and no longer uses the buffing wheel. This may not be the best for steel. My friend is working mostly in Silver. However, I did try his method on some Brass (see my avitar) and it worked great.

prob Lime Shine