Well, I am at a loss, and I need some advice. I am currently finishing up the design for a small product I am producing out of 6061 aluminum. Problem is, i am anot sure how to go about deburring it. it has some holes, and pockets in it, but nothing too intricate. The thing is, I am not looking for it to be polished when done, just generally deburred edges. I may be anodizing these parts as well, but I have yet to decide on that. Where I am now, is I just don't know what to look for. My parts volume is low, maybe 100 a month, and the parts are a bit small. Roughly 3in x 2in x 1/2in. Not huge, I am just concerned with 2 things, cost, and effectiveness. I also have no experience with media, so that too is another knotch in the question belt. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, since spending thousands of dollars on a tumbler is out of the question.

I make faceplates out of 6061 and have reasonable luck with Raytech 5/8 ceramilite v cut media available from MSC. You might try different sizes tho. I toss the parts in an old cement mixer with equal parts sand and some Dawn detergent and TSP to get rid of the oil for a later alodine finish. Tumble to taste rinse and done.

I have a small tumbler that the drum is made from expanded metal. I have it perched over my Safety Kleen parts washer tub. I have never used it for aluminum but steel parts turn out excellent.

I usually stert them tumbling, splash them down with a bit of cleaner, tumble for a few min then run fluid over them for a couple min. to rinse them off.


Below is a pic of some 1 3/4" X 2 3/4" X 3/8" steel parts that were tumbled about 15 min.