[mhackney]

Frederic, Not that I'm an expert but here is what I've learned:

I am using porcelain ball media. The vendors tend to use the term "ceramic" media for a ceramic media that contains abrasive and cuts and "porcelain" for media that does not contain abrasives and burnishes. The porcelain is really more like a light weight steel ball and leaves the surface nice and smooth. After running the pyramid media (which cuts) you get a nice even but textured surface. The porcelain balls then burnish this to a smooth, almost shiny surface. You can get the porcelain balls and read about the different media on Shor's web site.

The last step is to take that to a shine and that is what I am working on now. So the process, at least for me at this point is:

green pyramids to debur (cut)

porcelain balls to dull shine (burnish)

walnut and some sort of abrasive to shine (polish)

For the last year I had been going from cut to polish with less than satisfactory results. The cut works great but the polishing step just didn't look that good, probably because the surface was still too rough from the pyramids. So, I omitted the polish and did that by hand on the buffing wheel. The time saving with the pyramids was worth it though. Now, with the porcelain balls, the parts only need to be polished with Flitz or Blue Magic metal polish by hand. But, I think if I find the right polishing media and cycle time, I can eliminate that too. At which point I am getting a second HF polisher! Right now I have one and 3 bowls so I don't have to clean out every time.

cheers,
Michael

EDIT: I bought 20 pounds of mixed 2mm to 4mm porcelain balls from an eBay vendor who lives nearby. I don't know him but the service and quality has always been great. He actually measured the balls for me (they were not exactly , 2 and 3 mm as it turns out). He does not have any listed right now but I emailed him on Monday and he had some in stock, just hadn't listed them yet. So contact him and let him know I sent you! Also, it took 20 pounds of ceramic balls to properly fill the 18# HF vibrator. I also just ordered 10 pounds each of the TumbleDry Red and Green from Graves yesterday. I had some raw walnut shells and weighed what it took to fill the bowl and 8ish pounds was about right.

[mrcodewiz]

mhackney-

I weighed my tumble-dry green and it looks like I have 5 pounds worth. It isn't enough to fill the 17 lb tumbler as full as it should be so I will probably be getting another 5 pounds. My guess is it needs somewhere between 7.5 and 10.

[mhackney]

Thanks, I actually took a swag at it by weighing some raw walnut shell in the bowl and came up with about 8 pounds! So I ordered 10# each of the green and red (I do both brass and aluminum). Thanks! The saga continues.

cheers.
Michael

[mhackney]

I thought I would share a couple of photos and some minor mods I made to my setup. My extra 10#s of porcelain balls came in, combined with the 10# I had, it is the perfect amount as seen here (20# total):



One thing that has been a pain is removing the bowls to change them. HF sells extra bowls pretty cheap (you need to call to order) and I have three so I don't have to clean out after each media. Here's the problem:



The bowl is held down by a big plastic nut that has to be threaded down that long shaft. The shaft gets a bit crufty so it is not easy going. So, I made a Delrin spacer with some scrap 1.25" rod I had. It is bored out and has a recess at one end for the little standoff at the bottom of the lid:



I have a little Lyman unit too and it works the same way so this trick should help there too. Now I just have one nut to unscrew that holds the lid on. It presses against the spacer and the bowl to hold it in place. I've run for 2 days now with this and it works great and holds securely.



Here's my makeshift flow through system for the pyramids and porcelain balls:



I've made a plywood disk that screws to the 5gal bucket's lid so I can attach the vibrator to it - it will sit on top of the bucket. The filter is a 5micron bag filter from McMaster and the outlet runs in to it. It filters all the grunge out. The pump is a little aquarium submersible. It pumps too much volume so I have a flow restricting valve to control the flow to a constant drip - not too fast.



Once I have everything in place I will experiment with recirculated vs flow through. For now, I recirculate and have not had any noticeable problems. The parts come out nice and clean from both the pyramids (2-3 hours) and porcelain. I need to determine the run time for the porcelain, I've run over night twice (12 hrs) and the parts looked great. I think a shorter time would work well too. I have a test going on now.

The final step is to using a polishing media, it should be here next week. I did learn something from a gentleman at Shors today - he actually called me when I emailed a question about adding ruby powder to walnut shells. I was simply adding my rouge and ruby powder to the walnut dry. No wonder I wasn't getting good results! The fellow told me to load the shells and add "a couple of drops" of mineral oil and let it run for hours. The idea is to coat the walnut with a little oil so the abrasive sticks to its surface. But not too much oil. He said a couple of drops, I'll try that first. Then when the walnut is coated, you add the powdered abrasive. It makes perfect sense! This might be why you read about so many failures with polishing with rouge and walnut. Like me, most people probably just add them dry.

Anywho, this was a long post! But, I wanted to capture my results as I go.

cheers,
Michael

cheers,
Michael

[bjm323]

Do you think the 18# tumbler could do a 8 1/2 x 1 1/8 x 1/8 piece?

[TXFred]

Do you think the 18# tumbler could do a 8 1/2 x 1 1/8 x 1/8 piece?

It might work. I checked my tumbler with a measuring tape, and your part will fit. You would be limited to doing two parts at a time. And I'm not sure if the part will circulate through the media correctly.

Frederic

[TXFred]

Michael, do you have a part number for the spare bowls?

Also, I've been running some steel parts to debur them. The problem is that as I'm deburring the outside, the drilled holes start to rust. So I'm thinking about setting up a recirculating system like yours, and using coolant as my liquid. I wonder if it will interfere with the abrasive action of the media. Any thoughts?

By the way, I've been getting great results with the flow through system, although it is messy. I'm anodizing my finished parts, and have found that the green pyramids alone are enough to create a good looking finished part.

Frederic

[bjm323]

It might work. I checked my tumbler with a measuring tape, and your part will fit. You would be limited to doing two parts at a time. And I'm not sure if the part will circulate through the media correctly.

Frederic

Kind of a crap shoot if it would work or not. Guess I'll save my money. Thanks

[mhackney]

Frederic, I don't think there would be a problem using coolant as your liquid. You could also add a rust preventative additive to the water. Worth a try anyway.

The part number for the bowls is 10322-2VGA. They were $21.15 each when I ordered them. They came with the lid and gaskets but not the plugs or pipe fittings for the flow through. Those are standard 1/4" NPT fittings though, I got plastic one at my local Ace.

I think the green pyramid finish would be fine for anodizing with my parts too. Right now, I am trying to go for a shine on aluminum and brass. My green and red Tumble Dry came in last week while I was on vacation. I'm looking forward to trying it in the next few days.

Also, at my Reelsmithing Workshop in NH a few weekends ago, a gentleman in my class and his wife are silver smiths. They use SS balls in a tumbler and get great results. He polished his aluminum reel that way and sent me some photos. He offered to do some parts for me so I can see how it turns out. I will take him up on it.

Cheers,
Michael

[thedave]

Do you think the 18# tumbler could do a 8 1/2 x 1 1/8 x 1/8 piece?

I did some longer parts a while back and there was a rum mark where they went around the hub of the bowl.

[rocketflier]

I did some longer parts a while back and there was a rum mark where they went around the hub of the bowl.

How much rum do you use when vibrating?

[cornbinder23]

How much rum do you use when vibrating?

HAHA! Enough to liberally coat the operator internally, but be careful too much and things will start to haze up no matter how much you vibrate!

JTCUSTOMS

[Gundawg]

I need to add a tumbler for some parts I make but my parts are a little bigger than most of you are talking about mine are 5.1" x 2.25" X 1" and I have some others that are 12" x 1 " round stock with a 4" x 2" x 3/16" flange tig welded to the end. I ran across this one from Northern tool that is a little bigger than the 18# HF but is more money but less than the expensive tubs.

Mike

Shop Tuff Vibratory Deburring and Finishing Tumbler, Model# STF-18VT | Deburring + Polishing | Northern Tool + Equipment

[bjm323]

Does anyone have the part number for the extra bowl on the Harbor Freight 18 lb tumbler so I can just call the order department direct instead of dealing with customer service?

[mhackney]

Here's the part number for the bowl: 96923 VIBRATORY BOWL WITH LID

This has been working so well for me that I bought another vibratory polisher at the 20% off sale on Saturday. I have 2 vibrators and 4 bowls. I keep green pyramids in 1, porcelain balls (2mm to 4mm mixed) in 1, TumbleRed for brass in 1, and TumbleGreen for aly in 1.

Cheers,
Michael

[bjm323]

Thank you. $27.00 sound right?

[mhackney]

I paid $21.15 back on 11/21/2011. I bought 2 and shipping was $9.99 for both. Great deal IMO.

cheers,
Michael

[bjm323]

What is the lifespan of the walnut shell media with green rouge? Will basically just be used on aluminum.

[mhackney]

I don't know (yet). I've done hundreds of parts (3" disks) and it is going strong. I don't know what to expect for lifespan.

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

Did your extra bowl(s) come in bjm323? I have 2 vibrators with an extra bowl each. I can run either one with a wet bowl using my setup. I need to make a sound deadening enclosure with old ceiling tiles I have laying around to cut the noise a bit.

But I have to say these are saving me a lot of time and providing very consistent results. My process for both aly and brass is something like:

1) 2-4 hours in green pyramids with burnishing solution

2) 4 hours in 2-4mm porcelain balls with burnishing solution

3) 12-24 hours in either TumbleGreen (aluminum) or TumbleRed (brass)

I am experimenting with black Delrin polishing now and the results are great - a nice satin finish.

cheers,
Michael

cheers,
Michael