Vibratory tumbler media

Hello good people,

I am building (almost finished) a vibratory tumbler using a rear scooter tire and an old electric motor from a car buffer machine.

I live in Cyprus and I am having great trouble finding the right material as media. I want to use the machine to clean and debur small stainless steel parts I am making.

Does anybody out there have a good idea what I can use? I was thinking of just trying sand with a little water. They also have a lot of granite grit here, will that do?

The problem of course is that I might be able to find the nice ceramic cutting piramids etc, but I will have to order on-line and the postage to the island just makes that far too expensive.

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions. Thank you in advance.

Edited By Lykle Schepers on 24/09/2012 15:35:43

All depends how big the bur is? We used everything from scrap pieces of steel down to gravel off the road!

I would use the granite and sieve it to a suitable size. It will work best if there is an even grain size .

Say 4mm - 6mm. Most of the pyramid madia are ceramic or silica based and that is the main constituent of most granites.

Make sure you take out ny soft rocks as they will quickly form a sludge that dampens the general tumbling action.

The other thing tou could do is look at lapidary ~( rock polishing ) suppliers and buy carbide grit.

Fleabay?

Regards Clive

Lykle,

If you ever want to use the machine for finer work ... I believe that broken Apricot stones are commonly used. [readily available to you, I suspect]

MichaelG.

Roasted Corn on the Cob centers that are then broken up into pieces polish well, also walnut shells.

As said Apricot shells, for more aggressive action you could use small pebbles off the beach. As long as they are graded for size.

In fact a mixture would do as well. Pebbles and shells mixed.

Clive

> you could use small pebbles off the beach

My mum always wanted one to polish pebbles with!

Neil

I would try the local harware or garden supply for some of those little rocks found in pebblecrete and give them a try on some scrap .

What ever you use needs to be dry otherwise it will form a clump of media in the tumbler / rumbler .

There as far as i can see there is a difference between a tumbler and a rumbler as the first rotates ( can also vibrate at the same time ) and the contents tumble , hit each other and what ever media you are using , a rumbler vibrates but does not rotate but the result is similar .

I use a tumbler to moly coat my bullets and a rumbler to clean cases .

I use corncob media for rifle cases and it is also used as labaritory bedding for lab animals , i then add some cutting compound used to restore car paint and rumble for 1 hour to dispese then allow 1 day to dry .

If it is not allowed to dry it sticks to the inside of the case and is a mongrel to get out !

This would also be good for brass , copper and aluminium .

Ian

Edited By SLOTDRILLER on 25/09/2012 05:21:10

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions!

These are more than enough ideas to go and test with.

I called the local nuts company to ask what they did with the walnut shells, but ran into a language barrier, I will try again when I have more time.

So, garden store, pet store and builders yard. OK, great.

All I need to do now is finish the thing so I can get a good finish.

Lykle

To remove some fairly heavy rust from some components I used a hand full of small old rusty self tapping/PK screws, it worked OK, and I got a hand full of clean screws as well. Ian S C

Hi Lykle,

The idea with the scooter tire looks interesting to mee. Is it possibel to get a picture of your creation ? I use rubber lined PVC tubes as barrel for my rotary tumbler but it wears rather quikly. I think rubber from tires is more wear resistant. I use small ( about 1 cm ) triangles cut from stainless or brass cut offs with a spoon of sharp sand and soap water. This gives a very nice satin finish without rounding the corners to much. The best advice is : Try everything what possibly works and keep the best.

Regards, Johan van Zanten.

Do you have some ridges on the inside of the tyre? Otherwise it just slides round.

OK, Here are some photo's.

The tumbler is not finished yet, still want to add covers and I also need to add a central pillar inside the tire. So that stuff will rotate nicely.

Then I need to fill it up with medium and product and start to tune the counterweight and speed to get the right vibration going.

More images in the Album, Images by Lykle

Lykle

Hi Lykle,

Thanks for the photo's. They tell me more than 100 words. The project looks promissing. Perhaps is suspention by steel springs a better solution.They don't absorb so much energy as swing rubbers. I am very curious about the results. Please keep us informed.

Kind regards, Johan.

Have you considered crushed olive stones as a medium? Might be too 'gentle' for your purposes but will be in plentiful supply in Cyprus

Are you North or South? I lived in Limassol for several years

Regards

CB

I live near Limassol, up in the mountains.

Crushed olive stones! Never thought of that!

When we go and deliver our olives to the oil presses I will ask if I can get some. great idea.

Say hello to Peter for me, he's in Limassol today, I should have asked him to get me a sack of olive stones!

Neil