I manufacture a growing line of dirt bike protection products....radiator guards, skid plates, etc. using a CNC router as my main workhorse.
My volume has gotten to the point where I spend half my waking hours deburring stuff. As we all know, deburring sucks. Here's what I'm doing about it.

Web research led me to vibratory tub finishers, like the BurrKing, etc. These machines have a big tub which holds a finishing media and the parts to be finished. There is a mechanism attached to the tub which shakes the hell out of the tub and all within it. These machines usualy have a sprayer and recirculation system to wash the media as it runs as well.
A machine with a tub in the 6-7 cubic foot range seems to be selling for around $5000 new.

So what I needed was a tub, a base and something to shake the hell out of it.

I made the base out of 2"x3" mild steel tubing. Just a simple box, aprox 3'L x 2'W x 15" tall. It's got a couple cross members to provide a mounting location for the motor.

For the tub, I got a plastic 55 gal barrel laid over on it's side. I cut it open so that the barrel is like a big blue trough.

To support the tub, I made a cradle out of 2"x2" angle, 1.5" box and a bit of 1.5" flat mild steel. The cradle has 4 ribs that hug the barrel. The ribs are attached to a rectangular frame that has the same outter dimesions as the base. It all sort of looks like a nuclear beer keg.

The cradle/tub assembly sits on top of the base, supported by 8 springs. I'm using 4 pieces of angle iron bolted to the outter corners of the base to act as guides to prevent the cradle/tub assembly from bouncing off of the springs.

To shake the hell out of it, I am using a 1" steel axle supported by 4 pillow block bearing bolted to the bottom of the cradle. The axle has 2 aluminum weights at either end, and a drive pulley in the middle. It's all driven by a 220v (221, whatever it takes) motor sourced off of an old air compressor.
I'm using plastic media, v-cylindrical shaped that I got from McMaster Carr. Right now, I'm just using water. I may throw in some mild soap just to see what it does.

I need to sink some anchors and bolt this thing to the floor. With 150 lbs of sand bags on the base, sitting on a rubber mat and a carpet, it walks 3' in 30 minutes. I would imagine the finishing time should decrease if it was bolted down as well.

It's pretty loud to operate at this point. I think the bolting to the floor will help this a bit. Improving the guide system should help too. I need to get a better material for the guide surfaces. I'm using some thin plywood glued to the inside of a piece of angle. The plywood rubs against the cradle's frame to keep it centered over the springs. I think I am going to try some Delrin strips in place of the plywood, and bolt them in place instead of glue. I think I can close up the gap between the cradle and the slider surface as well. Less friction and less distance for the cradle to travel before it hits a slider should cut down on some of the racket. I'm giving some serious consideration to building an enclosure to put around this thing to try to control the noise as well.

There are a couple different variables to play with. I can change the frequency of the shake by changing out pulleys on the motor or the axle. I can change the size of the shake by adding or removing weight from the axle. I could also change the springs to provide more or less action. I could also probably affect the movement pattern inside the tub by playing around with different rate springs in different locations on the base.
In addition, there are lots of different media and washes to try. I will most likely be sticking to the media from McMaster Carr for the time being. 50lbs of media is around $135 shipped. My tub could hold 400 lbs if I filled it all the way up. Kind of an expensive variable to be playing with.

With 50 lbs of media and 2 gallons of water in the tub, the crappiest aluminum part I had in the scrap bin took about 45 minutes to get all the burrs knocked off and finished to a reasonably even finish. The media flows around inside the tub, carrying the part around with it. The water gets agitated enough that I don't think I need a circulation pump, not until I run a bigger load of media anyway.

Pics will follow soon.

Gotta have pics.

Have somewhere that I could look at your products?

Scott

yeh! pictures! I'm interested in one of these for all sorts of uses...maybe a smaller tub though...

Sounds very interesting, with a much lower cost to build than the "pro" machines!

I second (third?) the request for pictures! :)

Fellow I met a long time ago had a de-burring tumbler he made by turning an old farm tractor tire inside out, running it on two rollers one being powered up from a small electric motor. Took up very little shop space as it is verticle, cost next to nothing to make and last a life time. Be sure to use tractor tires with directional tread, not turf savers or backhoe.

Unabiker,
Sounds like your pretty close. Run a bolt through the middle of the springs, to adjust tension, and for safety.
Also bolt to the floor, it does make a lot of difference.
Drill some small holes (1/16) in one end for a drain. Then use a swamp cooler pump and hose to spray a little water over the top. Too much water completely changes (dampens) the effect on the de-burring action. You can put the pump in the bucket under the drain and change water when necessary (once a day). If you are just de-burring then Simple green or Dawn to the mix will really help by flushing the sludge. But you want a top to bottom flushing action.
I made a sound barrier out of 2 inch insulation board glued together, and raised straight up with rope when I need to load unload.
Gary

Fellow I met a long time ago had a de-burring tumbler he made by turning an old farm tractor tire inside out, running it on two rollers one being powered up from a small electric motor. Took up very little shop space as it is verticle, cost next to nothing to make and last a life time. Be sure to use tractor tires with directional tread, not turf savers or backhoe.

Hey, that is a neat idea! Bet you could get away with a smaller tires (large truck tire? Mudder?) with agressive tread too.

Wonder if that design would have much of a problem with multiple parts smacking into each other though?

Unabiker

The Commercial Vibration systems have the box sections filled with sand this acts as an antenuator for the sound

How many RPM do you think your running?

OR, motor rmp and pully sizes? :)

Greetings All - SC7500, The Mad Coater here, first post / reply;

I owned and operated a large ceramic coating facility in NorCal for over 10 years. In that time we built or bought and used several different types of vibratory polishers to finish polishable ceramic coated headers, milled aluminum parts, and other types of polishable metal.

After building several sizes for specific contract-specific jobs, I settled on a small [7 cubic ft] machine from Mr. Deburr in Goleta, Ca - using MicroBrite ceramic bead and Radiance #41 polishing soap [from Richwood Industries in Huntington Beach, CA] we were able to polish parts in less than 15 minutes time. $7K is about right, paid for it on a lease-to-own thru an agent.

The frequency and RPM is important to final finish; so is the media / soap precentage combination. By now you've discovered that the amount of water in the tank makes a big difference in sound AND performance... Kool Parts' suggestion to drill drains at one end is very good - recirculating / filtering the liquid media is key to consistently good quality product.

I have to tell ya that a factory built machine will get you a decent result FASTER, if only because the frequency experimentation is already done for you... and bolting it to the floor is MANDATORY. Even after building a soundproof booth for the machines [I ended up with 2 - the 7 Cube baby, and a 40 cubic foot monster for finishing race header pairs] you'll most likely end up wearing some sort of hearing protection and pissing off at leat one neighbor !

I hate to mention this, but it can't be avoided; whether you're doing this work at home, or in a shop in the city, there is a potential for pollution. The waste overflow has enough microscopic aluminum and zinc to set off the sewer sniffers in an average environmentally monitored drain... we ended up prefiltering the liquid waste with carbon centered wound water filters to trap 80% of the nasties... the fire marshall said okay. And, natch, hit us with a $500.00 / year permit fee for same.

If you're on a well like I am here at home [I kept the baby machine when I retired, and still finish milled parts] it's a good idea to filter the waste water after pumping it into a settling tank. Once the larger solids settle down, they can be collected into a coffee can, baked into a solid "puck" and tossed into the trash. The liquid can be evapp'd to eliminate any chance of groundwater contam.

I don't know anyone who'd want to poison their own well over 10 years' time !

Hope this helps - I'm available if anyone else has questions.

SC / TMC

Once the larger solids settle down, they can be collected into a coffee can, baked into a solid "puck" and tossed into the trash.

Great idea!

Thanks for all the replys and help!
You can see my products at www.unabiker.com

I've got a drain in the bottom going to a 5 gallon bucket. I have a so-called pump from Harbor Freight, but it doesn't have enough poop to lift a 3/8" dia collum of water to the spray bar. Gotta get a bigger pump and it should work. My spray bar is a 1/4" copper tube, currently with the end plugged and 1 tiny hole drilled in it for the water to spray out of. I figure I'll drill some more holes after I see how the first works.

I'm assuming my motor is turning at 1740 rpm or there abouts. It's a single phase motor from a 5hp air compressor. The drive pulley is 3", the driven pulley is 5". That should give me about 1000 rpm at the axle.

The neighbors should be ok with the racket. They were going to put a metal stamping line in the unit next door to me. That being said, I like the idea of a big foam box to drop over it. I'm probably going to put in in my store room, just to add one more layer of sound deadening.

I like the filtering and evaporating idea for the goo disposal. As dry as my shop is, it should not take long at all to evaporate a few gallons of water. Especialy when the heat is on.

I hope to have some more time tomorrow to get it moved into the store room and bolted to the floor. I've got a ton of stuff I need to deburr.

Here are some pics:
http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker1.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker2.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker3.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker4.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker5.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker6.JPG

Wow! That came out looking great! Once you get it all dialed in, looks like you will have yourself a nice little machine there!

That is really cool!!. So, if I understand correctly, the aluminum weights are drilled eccentrically and cause the vibartion, yes? How much weight did you use and what are the off sets? Are you going to change the weights and experiment more?

cheers.

Fellow I met a long time ago had a de-burring tumbler he made by turning an old farm tractor tire inside out, running it on two rollers one being powered up from a small electric motor. Took up very little shop space as it is verticle, cost next to nothing to make and last a life time. Be sure to use tractor tires with directional tread, not turf savers or backhoe.

holy crap - turning a tractor tire inside out! does he rip phone books in half to! :D

the idea got me seaching and i found this http://www.acc.umu.se/~widmark/bigtumbler.pdf
but its more of a tumbler i'd guess than a vibration action.

nice job Unibiker. even with the springs it still walks all over? hmm, still, wouldn't mind making a mini version for the home shop.

SC thanks for the info, are all vibratory polishers used with a slurry or are some dry?

[QUOTE=SC thanks for the info, are all vibratory polishers used with a slurry or are some dry?[/QUOTE]

Hey there. You are most certainly welcome - I'll help if I can !

Interesting question Re: wet Vs Dry ~ Sorta depends on the materials being deburred / burnished, and the end result required.

Everyone here has likely seen a cartridge case polisher used by home reloarders, yes ? That system uses materials like dry ceramic bead, ground corn cob and even crumbled cork to shine up spent carts... the guys who advertise microfinishing and "ultrapolish" services for trannie gears and such are using a dry ultrafine abrasive with a "burnisher carrier" like corncob or cork too...

The nice thing about using a wet media with soap for polishing is the carry off effect - especially with aluminum. As the surface burnishes, it is continually washed by the soapy polishing media. End result ? A mirror finish on everything from 3003 to 6061 T6.

Something I forgot to mention earlier; cleaning the polishing media. Now that everyone is gonna go and build one of these noismakers, better remember that it will need celaning eventually.

The best system we found for ceramic bead cleaning was a combination of water, laundry detergent [dry OR liquid, any brand you can stand the smell of] and Cascade dish washing soap.

I learned this method by trial and error, but it really keeps the bead surfaces ready for action... AND removes any oils or grease residue that might kill the soaping action and dull the surface !

Hope this help, y'all

Best
SC
:cool:

To guide the barrel, have you considered using parallel linkage rather than something for it to hit against?

I suspect that the barrel is losing contact with the springs when it is up as high as it can go... this will increase vibration and noise. Increasing the weight in the barrel would help, or use springs that are longer or less stiff.

I agree that it would be good to run a bolt or wire through the springs. If nothing else, this will contain the pieces if the spring snaps. Ever been around a large spring that broke? You don't want to be!

And one last item. I assume that the barrel is constrained so it can go up and down only - Have you considered shaking the barrel horizontally instead of vertically? I wonder if that would work better.

You have a great looking piece of equipment there. Hope it helps cut your time down.

Mark

I'm very impressed by the way this came out.. I was wondering if there was any advantage to vibratory polishing/deburring than tumbling. Its my understanding that tumbling takes a little longer than vibratory polishing.. About how much did you invest into your project?

A welder that had welded some large parts for me claimed that he had used a cement mixer with some alterations to deburr small parts of steel and aluminum. I think he said he used a differant media, but I'm not sure.

Good Luck to all...

I was able to spend a little time on the project yesterday.
Welded some feet to the frame and installed some concrete anchors. That made a big diff. At least I can run it without chasing it around the shop.

Bolting it down helped with the noise. It's still louder than my air compressor, though. Improving the guides should help with this. I'm pretty sure most of the racket is coming from the cradle whacking the guides from the side. I get about 1/4" of up and down movement when it's running. The springs have about 3/4" of preload. Losing contact with the springs at the top of the stroke doesn't appear to be an issue.

Using not much water mixed with some Simple Green, I was getting a reasonable finish in about 30 minutes. Still not quite there yet, though. I need to slow the action down a bit. My parts tend to "float" to the top of the media instead of staying down inside it. I think getting some more media will help this as well. Gotta get some of the liquid burnishiung compound too. I don'l like the crud that the Simple Green/water mix leaves on the parts.

There were a couple reasons I went the vibratory route instead of the tumbler route. The biggest reason being cycle time. I don't think it is unreasonable to eventualy get my cycle time down to 15-20 minutes. From what I've read, getting the same finish on the same parts would require several hours in a tumbler. I was also worried about my parts bonking into each other and causing unwanted marks with a tumbler.

At this stage, I've got well under $500 in the project....not counting time. There is about $100 worth of steel. 50lbs of media was $135. The 4 pillow block bearings were about $50. Springs and misc. nuts and bolts were another $50. The barrel was free. The motor was scavanged from my bone pile. I spent 4.99 on a Harbor Freight pump that doesn't work. I figure I've got another $50 worth of stuff to get the sprayer system sorted out. Probably going to spend another $300-$400 on a big-ass load of media here soon too. I imagine there is another $50 worth of foam insulation and lumber to make a sound-resistant booth to go around it.

Time wise, I have been working on this project for about 2 months as time allows. If I were to guess, I'd say I've got about 40-50 hours in it. I haven't really been keeping track, as this project has been a bit of play time for me.

All in all, it is a very small price to pay to gain 20- 30 hours a week.

You did a great job on the fabrication and a great design. I've designed a few but never got around to making one. I guess I was hoping some parts would drop in my lap so I would have to buy them.

Just a thought, you might consider mounting your weights to the ends of the shaft. A simple plate with a slot across the middle would allow you to adjust the offset to control the vibration. It would be an easy way to tune the machine without having to make new weights.

As I understand it, the eccentric weights causes the whole thing to shake.

Why can't the motor drive an eccentric connected to the barrel to cause it to move directly? What am I missing?

Ken

Actually you want the parts to go top to bottom. In a rotating fashion. You have a big tub, you will need (want) a lot of media. Here are a couple of places that I have got media and compounds from in the past. Very knowledgeable in all aspects of mass finishing.
Gary

http://www.vibratoryfinishing.com/

http://www.candmtopline.com/frames.html

Thanks for the sources of media. I'll give both places a call Monday.

I ran it a bit more yesterday. Definately need more media. It does have a nice top to bottom circulation going on. With this amount of media, it takes about a minute to turn completely over in the tub.

The finish isn't quite there yet. It's alright after 30 minutes. 2 or 3 swipes with a scotch brite pad cleans it up. I think with a bit more aggressive media and the propper compound, I'll be there.

I let all the water that had previuosly been in the tub drain into a bucket overnight. From 2 gallons of water, I got about a 1/4" of aluminum clay in the bottom of the bucket. I dumped the water into a large tub and put a fan in front of it to see how long it would take to evaporate.

This has me thinking that I will incorporate a setteling tank and filter into the sprayer system. I'm thinking that I'll park the pump up high in a 5 gallon bucket so that the crud can accumulate at the bottom. If I lined the bucket with a plastic bag, I could just let the goo build up to a certain point. Once it was "full", I could dump the water into the shaker tub with the drain closed and just change out the bag.

Ken,
You are correct in that the weights cause the whole thing to shake. The were a couple reasons why I chose not to just mount a weight on the motor. From the outset, I figured that different materials may need different frequencies to be adequately finished. This would mean that I needed an easy way of changing the speed that the weights spin. Using different sized pulleys to vary the alxe rpms seemed like the easiest, and most economical route.
The other reason is that I did not want to have all that weight swinging directly on the motor's shaft. The amount of force necessary to lift 300lbs of media and 100 pounds of frame, tub and parts 1000 times a minute would probably make short work of the bearings inside of a 25year old air compressor motor. With the setup I'm using, the force of the swinging weights goes through 4 1" ball bearings mounted in pillow blocks, which are all bolted to the cradle assembly. The motor still gets some side loads from the frame hopping up and down, varying the tension on the belt. But those loads are much less in size and harshness than they would be swinging the weight on the motor.


I considered the weights on the end of the axle shaft, but I am worried about something coming loose and ricochetting around the shop. My "weights" are 2 6" lengths of 3.5" aluminum tube, with a 1/2" wall. The axle goes through the tubes, and the tubes are bolted to the axle. If the weight mounting bolts were to break, the weight would just spin on the alxe. They would have to go through one of the bearing assemblies or the .5" wall tubing would have to come apart for anything to fly off of the axle. The largest piece that could come off the assembly is a bolt head.

To add weight, I figure I could use stick-on lead wheel weights. To remove weight, I will have to take them off and run them through the band saw.

The way to make your weights adjustable is to use two identicle eccentric weights right next to each other. These two weights would clamp around the shaft and their position on the shaft would be adjustable. When you adjust them 180 degrees from each other the shaft will be balanced and you will have zero vibration. When you line them up with each other you will have maximum vibration.

The weights I use are simply one inch thick steel disks with holes bored through them off center. They are a slip fit on the shaft and have set screws that allow me to adjust their position around the shaft. This way I can fine tune the magnitude of the vibration to a great deal of accuracy.

I'm not very familiar with vibe finishers.

Suppose I had 12 inch lengths of 4 x 4 (with .125 wall) aluminum extrusions. How many could I finish in your 55 gallon tub at once? At what point will they start banging against one another and be scratched?

Ken

Those are good questions, Ken.
That size, I would guess 6-10 pieces...but that's just a guess. I won't know for sure until I fill it up with a good load of media.
With the 50 lbs that I've got, I was doing 3 right triangular shaped pieces measuring about 13" x 9" x 9". They seemed to stay reasonably separated, but they kept swimming to the surface, and I'd have to shove them back down into the media.

I've made some progress the last week or so.
250 lbs of media filled the tub about as high as I need it to be. Any higher and the sprayer would get blocked. The media has a pretty good tumbling movement going on. The whole load tumbles over about every 5-7 minutes.

I hooked up a better pump. Nothing fancy, Harbor Freight's second crappiest pump. I had to add 2 more drains, for a total of 3. With one drain, it would plug every now and then and the pump would empty the bucket. The water also foams up, which also slows drainage. I've got some liquid burnisher/special soap stuff on the way. I'm hoping that takes care of the foaming and maybe speeds up the process a bit.

Right now, it takes 20-30 minutes to do a part. Parts come out with nice bur-free edges. The finish is pretty even. You can see marks from the media, but it's a pretty cool looking result. We'll see how they look anodized in a week or so.

Maybe the most important upgrade has been the sound proof box. Maybe not sound proof, but definately sound resistant. The box is made with a layer of 2" polystyrene glued to 3/4" particle board. I routed a 1" step into the foam so that the corners would sort of key together. The foam was glued to the particle board with Liquid Nails. Then the particle board was screwed together at the corners. I also made a top with a routed step in the foam so that the lid fits tightly. Before the box, ear muffs were necessary whenever the shaker was run. With the box, you can stand next to it and have a conversation without having to scream. I think I'm going to try attaching some mover's blankets to the inside of the box to see if I can quiet it down further. This box has worked so well that I'm thinking of making one for the air compressor.

"...At what point will they start banging against one another and be scratched?..."

Just wanted to toss a solution in here...

Commercial burnishers can be retrofitted with polystyrene seperators - that's one reason most of them have grooved cast-in liners. We made our own divider for the big machine when I found out how pricey the factory dividers were. Two pieces of angle iron, a 3/4" piece of white poly cut to shape, with (5) 2" holes drilled in a star pattern to let the media flow thru, and Voila - no more parts contact.

Depending on how many pieces you need to finish, and the tank length, you COULD make as many dividers as needed for a particular client's work.

OTOH, I occasionally polish custom racing vacuum pumps for a major manufacturer in my small machine, and they do just fine clumped in there 6 at a time - never had a hammer mark yet.

So - there ya go !

Best to all and Happy Thanksgiving !
SC :cool:

Hi Guys, did some experimenting some years back. I had loads of long Aluminium bars that we had to finish after milling. I built a rotating drum finisher and popped the parts inside with abrasives and set it going. results was less than satisfying! the rolling action rounded the ends much more than the middle and i had to go back to the hand finishing scene with scotchbrite and rubbing compound. i would imagine that this would be the case with the tire idea as well!
a tip for those who want to experiment with the counterweights on the vibratory finisher: add two eccentrics per side. if you then rotate the two same side ones relative to each other you can set up any amplitude between zero (two weights opposing each other) and max (with both on she same side of the shaft)

Can you really vibe Aluminum to a mirror polish?

Yes ~ most grades of smooth aluminum can be polished to a very high shine.

You must use the correct type of polishing media [MicroBrite works well], polishing soap [R43], and experiment with the water volume to get exactly the finish required for your particular vibratory polisher.

SC

Hey Unabiker, How many of thos guards can you put in your vibratory? And what about parts bumping into each other and causing damage?

Question in genral
I have some car parts that are a zinc Aluminum alloy.. I was wondering if a vibratory polisher would work.

To Unabiker
Also I was wondering if more picture could be posted of the underside of the DYI unit

any updates?
I'm going to be making something very similar soon, for polishing 24" 5/16 brass and (sometimes) aluminum rods. I have some spare 55gal steel drums, a 1/2hp 3650rpm motor sitting around. I'm also considering using a 2hp 3phase motor and a VFD. I know the 2hp will be better for large batches of media and parts and that I can experiment with speed much easier with a VFD.

I learned a lot from this thread so far, thanks.

how are your parts turning out?

G'day
I am looking to do the same and build my own machine. Just wondering with your design does the media rotate from the outsides inward to the centre? And when the drum is full do your parts still float to the surface? What difference do you think it would make if the vibrating shaft was mounted lateraly as oposed to the longditudanal? As I am considering mounting it to the garage floor ( concrete ) I dont want to damage the house through excessive vibration, do you think that the feet could be mounted on vibration damping mounts or would this just cause the machine to bounce around uncontrolably or negate the vibrations in the drum?

Cheers
Fred

G'day
I am considering mounting it to the garage floor ( concrete ) I dont want to damage the house through excessive vibration, do you think that the feet could be mounted on vibration damping mounts or would this just cause the machine to bounce around uncontrolably or negate the vibrations in the drum?

Cheers
Fred

I would think a solid mounted frame would be best to avoid losing energy in a secondary non productive vibration. Mounting the machine to your floor would be fine with concrete anchors epoxied into holes (at least 3 inches deep) in the concrete to attach it with. We use a similar mounting system for rail where I work, and its suitable for passenger trains to travel over. I doubt your concrete would suffer with proper mounting hardware and dampening of the vibrator from the frame.

But if you are really concerned about it a seperate high strength concrete "plinth", an elevated concrete pad with rebar reinforcement could be poured onto a section of your floor (after the floor surface has been prepared by roughing it and priming it) to mount the machines frame to, and that would virtually guaranty structural soundness.

Hey Unabiker you still alive? Ya tease us with your beautiful work and then vanish. How about a nod or somethin'

Hey all,
Sorry it's been so long since the last update. Went through a nice busy stretch, which meant my web surfing time had to be translated into workin' time.
The shaker has been happily chuggin away for 6-10 hours a day, about every day.
I had some welds fail on the cradle a while back. The welds were on the ribs of the cradle, on the back side. Too much force going through a section that was not supported enough. I fixed it by welding it where it broke and added some more reinforcement to make the whole cradle more rigid.
At the same time, I added some thin plywood shims between the cradle and barrel. This was to make the fit between the two more snug. I could see where the cradle was not shaking at the same rate as the barrel in some places. This is lost energy to the media, more noise created, and also tough on the barrel as it tends to pull the barrel to cradle bolts through the plastic of the barrel.
I did both of these mods at the same time, since I had to take the barrel out to fix the cradle. The net effect made the machine a bit quieter and made the media more active.
I also changed the way I attach the weights to the axle. I was using 3 M6 bolts per weight that would thread into tapped holes in the axle. This resulted in a broken M6 or three about every 4 weeks. Its a real pain in the ass to take the axle out, then dig out a few broken bolt. The weights are .500" wall thickness aluminum tube. Pleny of meat to tap 10mm bolt holes. So now each weight is held in place by 3 10mm bolts that thread through the weight and clamp onto the axle. This makes the phase infintaley adjustable. Really a worthless feature in this application. I want the barrel and cradle to jump straight up and down. Any twisting in the jump only provides more wear on the guides, and less action in the media. It would be very easy to cut the weights in half, though, and allow adjustment to the amount of force the weights generate.
I've found the easiest way to affect the flow of the media through the tub is to restrict the movement of one side of the cradle. I've been using a ratchet strap for this. The media is wierd. Some days, it tumbles in a nice top to bottome circular fashion. Other days, it just kind of sits there. When it sits there, we change the tension on the strap. It doesn't seem to matter if you add or subtract tension...it just needs to be different.
The other major improvement is in the juice circulation department. After buring up several cheapo $10 pumps, I splurged on a $50 sump pump from Harbor Freight. This pump has a float switch, giving me control over the amount of juice in the barrel. The cheap pumps just could not handle the sediment. They would clog up, then burn up. The sump pump doen't seem to care about the sediment. I'm also using a router speed controller to slow the pump down.
I'm now using a 20 gallon keg tub (leftover from a kegger) as the resivoir, which allows enough room for the float to work. The juice gets changed every 2-3 days. So far, the best finish in the least time seems to come from plain old tap water. The soap only seems to add time to the finish, and if you get too much, it leaves chemical burn spots on the aluminum.
I'll try to get some pics the next time I have the sound-resistant box off of the shaker.

I'm thinking about building a similar tumbler. I'm thinking about using some extruded alu channel for the 4 guide tracks and lining them with some teflon or delrin or something. Vibrating "cart" would have a matching teflon / delrin / whatever piece.

I would think it'd make it a bit quieter then a loose metal on metal interface.

I'm thinking a little smaller scale so I might just cut a 5 gallon drinking water jug in half or maybe take 3/8" of it out or something. Also only planning on doing final polishing so I thikn the thin wall will still last because its a very fine abrasive.

I was looking at some commercial ones today and they seem to be much the same design anyways, at least for the large ones...

Any thoughts?

where are you guys getting the microbrite media ???
it it the same as ceramic balls ?

After over a year of shaking and learning, I've developed some ideas for improvement on my vibratory finisher. When the drive pulley on my axle came apart a week ago, I decided now was the time for some upgrades.
I would often use a ratchet strap to restrict the movement of one side of the tube to help get the media to move in a cylindrical tumbling fashion. With this in mind, I got rid of the springs along one side and replaced them with an axle and bearing setup.

http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker14.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker17.jpg

I think this setup offers several advantages over the old style in that it gets rid of the guides (and the noise they created) that were used to keep the tub centered over the base, it makes emptying the media from the tub very easy, and it allows for easy access to the drive axle and weights.
On the original design, the drive axle was located just off of center on the bottom of the tub. I moved the drive axle further outboard to increase the effect that the spinning weights will have in creating up and down motion, and to create a bit more space for my drain upgrade. I also shifted the drive pulley over a bit, and relocated the motor, again to make space for the drain. The motor was relocated closer to the tub pivot axles in order to decrease the side loads on the motor created by the tub's up and down movement.

http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker15.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker23.jpg

For drains in the original version, I had been using 3 brass fittings that are threaded on one end with barbs on the other with 1/2" ID vinyl tube running to the puke tub. When the media is new, these worked ok. But as the media wears and gets smaller, it would get down into the fittings and plug up the drains. Then you would have to remove the drain lines and unplug the drains with a punch. As you can see in the pics, this makes quite a mess.
To improve this, I switched to a bath tub style drain. This drain has a metal plate with lots of tiny holes that should prevent the line being clogged by media. The larger diameter of the tubing also helps keep things moving along nicely.

http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker18.jpg

My original barrel had started wearing away at the contact points and I wanted to change the drains. Instead of patching the old one, I splurged and spent $15 on a new barrel. A lot of the noise on the old design came from various parts of the rack smacking into the barrel. To help this area, I cut several strips of 3/8" plywood to act as shims between the rack and the barrel. The strips were slid into place, with a bead of liquid nails securing each strip to the next. The barrel is bolted to the rack using stainless steel hardware. I lucked out and found some oak trim pieces that were just the right shape to act as spacers between the rack and barrel at the bolting areas.
Here she is sitting in the sound resistant box ready for action.

http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker27.jpg

The above changes all have helped increase the effeciency of the machine, as well as reduce the noise output by half. The cycle time is 20-30 minutes, depending on the shape of the objects. This load had 8 pieces and ran for 30 minutes. The number of parts varies depending on the shape of the parts. Some of my larger guards can only be run 4 at a time. I make a lot of 5" long x 7/16" rods and run them through hundreds at a time.

http://home.comcast.net/~bbennett447/shaker24.jpg

I'm in the process of trying different size pulleys on the motor to vary the speed of the axle. I've done one change so far, and it tells me faster is better.
I need to take some shots of my stuff before and after finishing, and after they come back from anodizing so you'll have an idea of the finish quality I'm getting.

Bloody hell Unabiker, those are some serious counterweights you've got there. If you're getting any decent speed out of that motor your tub must just about be taking off! Then again, if it works and it works wel, way to go man!
What would you say your shaking frequency is at present?

The motor I'm using claims 1740 rpms at full boogie. Right now, I've got a 2.5" pulley on the motor and a 5.5" pulley on the axle. That should give me about 790 rpm at the axle shaft. Using the 3" pulley on the motor gives me about 950 rpm.
If it weren't securely bolted to the floor, it would walk around the shop at a fairly brisk pace.

Unabiker
What is the amplitude of your vibrations, say at the non-hinged end of the drum? I am busy working on plans for my model and had fairly small amplitude but high Hz (more like 2 KHz+) in mind. Is there anyone out there who have one of these on a varispeed drive and took it all the way up in the speed range?

Currently, the amplitude is about .200". You can affect the amplitude by changing the speed of the axle or by playing with the weights on the axle.
More RPM's on the axle will result in a smaller amplitude at higher frequency. Increasing the weight on the axle will increase amplitude....it will also put more stress on the machine.

Unabiker,
can you indicate to me as you are due to calculate the power of the means

excuse my English

Thanks

Unabiker,
can you indicate to me as you are due to calculate the power of the means

excuse my English

Thanks

I think you are asking how I calculated the size of the motor used. That was easy, as I used a surplus motor that I had laying around my shop.
The power requirement could be easily figured if you knew how much the tub and media weighed, the size of the desired amplitude, and the frequency of the shake. Using the amplitude and frequency, you can figure the amount of accleration of the tub. Multiplying that by the mass of the tub and media would give you a required force.

I mean how I cancalculate the spring

Thanks

First, you need to esimate the weight of everything that will be supported by the springs. In my case, I needed to support aproximately 400lbs. My local hardware store had a variety of springs availabe with a 1" diameter, so that seemed like a good place to start. The softer springs had a rate of 40lbs/inch and the stiffer springs had a rate of 150lbs/inch. Using lower rate springs would yeild a larger amplitude, and the higher rate springs made for a smaller amplitude. I played around with it a little bit, and seemed to get better results using the higher rate springs coupled with a faster speed on the axle.

Hello all. I own a small sheet metal shop in NC. I have used various vibratory tumblers over the years when I was punching a time clock.
The time has come to make one for my shop. I have secured two junk gas cylinders (free) from the local gas co. A 100# and 150#, one of these will be the tub. The 100#er is pictured below.
http://www.mantank.com/products/steel_propane/50-100.htm

A buddy will be giving me a 3HP 220V motor. I believe 1 HP would be fine but the 3 is free. I'll make the frame. The only thing I haven't sorted is the tub lining. One place I worked many yrs ago "painted" on some sort of urethane. I have not been able to find anything like that yet.

Nice work Unabiker. Thanks for sharing all the info.

BTW. Did you say your axle is 1"? Looks bigger. -ted


.

The only thing I haven't sorted is the tub lining. One place I worked many yrs ago "painted" on some sort of urethane. I have not been able to find anything like that yet.

A spray in bed liner would be an effective option.

Scott

I need to take some shots of my stuff before and after finishing, and after they come back from anodizing so you'll have an idea of the finish quality I'm getting.

Yes, you do!

Got any?

Scott

Finaly, here are some pics.....
This is a batch of radiator guards ready to come off of the machine. I'm cutting using an Onsrud single flute cutter at 17,500 rpm traveling at 85 ipm, using a water-based Cool Mist mister.

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/onmachine.JPG

This is one of the pieces after bending. Edge finish is not terrible, but it does need some de-burring.

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/raw.JPG

After about 30 minutes of swimming in the shaker. My goal is for an even finish with no harsh edges. With a full load of media in the tub, I do 6 of these pieces at a time.

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/shaken.JPG

Here is what they look like after anodizing.

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/blue.JPG
http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/black.JPG

Here are a couple shots of the guards mounted up on bikes, ready for crashing...

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/07wr2504.jpg

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/07wr4501.jpg

You can see all the different stuff I make at www.Unabiker.com

Very nice products!

Scott

excellent work - very impressive. I was wondering how you hold your parts down. It looks like double sided adhesive on chipboard or mdf. We do something similar with our sheet metal parts but find it a little time consuming and tricky to release them without bending the parts. Any tips? Also from your experience have you any recommendations as to which grades of aluminium anodise well?

Cheers,

Neil

My hold-down technique has evolved over the years.
In the beginning, I was spraying down the back side of the aluminum with 3M Super 77 adhesive and gluing it to the sacrificial board. Once everything was cut, I would heat up the aluminum with a torch, which would cause the spray adhesive to release. Then everything had to go into a parts washer. The results were acceptable, but the process was a pain in the ass, and it made my shop smell like a meth lab.
My current method involves no glue. I have a 3/4" MDF sacrificial board on the top of the machine held in place by 18 countersunk 1/4" bolts. This board gets surfaced as needed to maintain a +/- .007" flatness. I have to do this once or twice a week, depending on humidity fluctuations and the amount of stuff I'm running. This board gets replaced about every 3 or 4 months.
For the actual hold-down technique, first, I put 8 holes in the scrap areas in each 4'x4' section. After that, I run 3/4" drywall screws through those holes. These screws serve to keep the aluminum from moving around while cutting. I made a system that has (2) 2" steel tubes attached to the gantry that roll on either side of the cutting bit. These tubes are spring loaded to provide downward pressure on the aluminum. All of the parts are connected to the sheet by 3 or 4 .020" thick tabs per part. After each run, the parts are clipped off of the sheet with a pair of tin snips and the tabs are buzzed off on with a disk sander. All scrap, both sheet chunk scraps and chips are collected once a month and sold to a local metal recycling company. The proceeds normaly cover a month's worth of race entry fees and an occasional set of tires for the bike.
As far as aluminum that anodizes well...I cut all my parts from 6061-T4 and make my rods from 6061-T6. I think the grade of aluminum doesn't really matter much...it all anodizes fairly well, as long as it is not cast aluminum. For cast aluminum, powdercoating is the way to go.

Thanks for the tips regarding the grades of aluminium. The roller idea to prevent the sheet from lifting while machining is interesting. Looking at the before and after anodizing photos the two finished ones look to have an even and flawless finish. Close up is the finish as good as it looks in the photos after just 30 mins of duburring? I ask because my application is a cosmetic one and I require as close to a flawless finish as possible. I'm seriously considering building something similar. At the moment we outsource to a vibratory polishing shop but the batch costs are quite high and it's a process I'd be happy to bring in house for quality control. They're also a vibratory machines and consumables supplier so I shouldn't have too much trouble obtaining media. Would it be possible for you to take a close up of the finished anodized part that shows the surface finish, if convenient of course.

Thanks once again,

Neil

A spray in bed liner would be an effective option.

Scott

The purpose of the liner is to suppress noise and keep the parts from banging into the tub. I think bed liner would be too hard. Plus the inside of a tumbler is a pretty hash environment, I doubt it would hold up. -ted

.

interesting read!

Would it be possible for you to take a close up of the finished anodized part that shows the surface finish, if convenient of course.


Here's a shot of one of my blue parts. When the parts come out of the shaker, it is not uncommon for them to have a sort of random galvanized steel look to them. After anodizing, the surface is smooth and uniform throughout. Part of the anodizing process includes dipping the parts in an acid bath. I believe this step helps to even out the surface.

http://www.unabiker.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/close.jpg

Unabiker,

I think you've hit the nail on the head regarding the acid bath. I'm now wondering whether we can get away with some light vibratory deburring and then acid etch prior to anodising rather than the 24 hours of vibratory polishing that we're currently paying for. Lot's to think about. Thanks for the info.

Cheers,

Neil

I'm very familiar withe the "random galvanized steel" look. It was visible thru the anodize on the parts I did years ago. So I guess the anodizer was not etching them properly or maybe I was using more aggressive tumbler media.
The finish on the Unabiker part is beautiful.


Got my gas cylinders. I'll probably use the 100 gal (the small one) for my tub.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/ted383/gascylinders.jpg

An easy way to cut the top off a cylinder is with a torch. It's also an easy way to blow yourself up. I'm told that the only safe way to deal with an "empty" cylinder is to remove the valve and then fill the cylinder with water. Only then can you be sure it's safe.

From past experience, these tanks will sometines have dregs of mercapten (spelling?) in them, so do this outdoors where the stink can dissipate.

Ken

You shouldn't need much of a support structure around the tank, that's for sure.
As far as a liner, I've seen some spray-on architectural coatings that might work. I think truck bed liner would end up leaving unwanted black marks on your parts.

The 'Paint In' lining was probably Devcon Flexane. Get it at any good industrial supply in different grades.
Dave

The saws-all will be my weapon of choice for cutting the opening. I will be filing the cylinder w/ water before cutting.

I think Ken is right about the dregs. I've flushed that cyl with water twice and it still stinks to high heaven.

Thanks for the Devcon tip Dave. Man that stuff is super pricey. Then again, urethane in any form is. I priced out sheet @ Mc-carr. I may end up just gluing a bunch of rubber door matts together :)

Ted383, after you cut the tanks open, they should air out pretty quick. Otherwise you can light a torch and burn the smell out (not sure how safe it would be for your application, but so far, for me, it has worked fine. But then again, I have never worked with used tanks with god-knows-what chemical residues in them.) Be safe, and good luck!

Oh and Unabiker, your guards look great! If I had a bike, the check would be in the mail.

Do you have the plans for that large shaker/polisher..

I do ceramic coating and i want to build a large polisher..

I allready have a 55gallon plastic drum and a 55 gallon metal drum (i hope to use as a shell for the plastic drum) and a small electric motor

Im looking for a list of materials to build the framing.. and detailed pictures of the pulleys and motor setup..

Thanks

Brian

yes i am about to start construction a a tub as well and i like your design the best.

any info is appreciated.