Rotary tumbler

M

Maplehead

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Hi All
Anybody have/use a home style rotary tumbler? (The ones under $200.)
I would use one for small brass parts and .060 guage steel plate.
If yes, what do you think of them?
What material would I use for the brass, snd for the steel?
 
I have a Thumler's Tumbler No. B. Works well cleaning brass and rusty small steel parts. I'm using walnut shells as the medium, over night tumble cleans stuff right up. The wing nuts are a little tough on your fingers, need to make some replacements one of these days.

Bruce
 
Hi Bruce
Will the medium you use deburr the steel?
Will it round the steel edges?
 
I use mill swarf and non-detergent motor oil in my tumbler to clean up steel parts. I haven't done it myself but I had a friend who used walnut shells to clean brass for reloading. Neither one seems to wear the edges down. I imagine regular rock tumbling medium would.

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For cleaning up small and rusty parts I have in the past just put them in a sealed container with some grit blasting media, chuck it in the lathe, engaged the backgear to show it down as much as possible, and let it run for a couple of hours. Worked surprisingly well - to the extent that I have thought of acquiring or building a tumbler just for that purpose.
May be an option for you to experiment with some media types and see if you get the results you are looking for before pulling the trigger on buying a tumbler.
 
For cartridge brass polishing I use walnut shells with an ounce or two of red rouge. It does not deburr, just polishes.
 
BGHansen said:
I have a Thumler's Tumbler No. B. Works well cleaning brass and rusty small steel parts. I'm using walnut shells as the medium, over night tumble cleans stuff right up. The wing nuts are a little tough on your fingers, need to make some replacements one of these days.

Bruce
Click to expand...
I have some ceramic media also which is more abrasive than the walnut shells. It does a pretty good job on sheet metal with a burr. If I have large burrs, the part goes over a Dayton 2 x 42" sander.

Bruce
 
Some people are using this for a tumbler. With a 20% coupon it is pretty cheap.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-14-cubic-ft-cement-mixer-61931.html

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