How do you automate deburring?

[Swami]

Right now I am hand filing all these little parts I am making (1" square)

I have been looking into getting a Vibratory Tumbler. Anyone use this? Will this deburr all the egdes? What kind of media should I use to do that?

Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Swami

[Rekd]

I do 90% of my deburring on the CNC using a 45° cutter and/or rounding corners with the EM as I machine the part. Gives great consistant results, is fast, is not prone to human error, (an easy way to scrap a $2,000.00 part is to have your deburr guy gouge it or 'over-deburr' it or drop it or scratch it etc etc..), and frees up man hours to be doing something else to make money.

I also have a small rock polisher (about 10" dia.) with plastic media for occasions when the print calls out tumbling. That should work nicely for your parts provided they're alum or non-clear plastics or most light to moderate steels. I've never tumbled exotics, it might or might not work.

[buscht]

It depends upon what the parent material is and how rounded over you want the edges.

You could put them in a rock tumbler. I've seen someone freeze rubber parts in dry ice and then put them in a tumbler.

Media changes depending upon how smooth you want the finish. Usually its some kind of ceramic cone or ball bearings.

A less severe method is to use a vibratory bowl.

If you just want corner chamfering, you might be able to set up a fixture and use a flat bed sander.

[Cold Fusion]

I'm in the same boat at Swami. Most of our parts are small aluminum pieces with simple curves. All I would like are smooth edges and corners since the faces are already being polished.

[Graham S]

I saw a site where they showed parts going into a chamber, this was flooded with gas and ignited, the "explosion" melted all the burrs off the ali parts as they are much thinner than the bulk of the metal.

Perhaps not one for home use.

This site is about home anodizing and you need a good finish for that, he uses tumblers and some are homebuilt. I think he mentions a supplier of media that is suitable. BTW the anodizing booklet he sells is quite good (no affiliation).

http://www.focuser.com/atm/anodize/anodize99.html

Graham

[Cold Fusion]

Explosion, hmmm. That sounds right up my ally. I'll give it a try and get back to you

[Swami]

A chamfer bit would make it look really trick, but the faces would still need work.

So does it sound like a Vibe bowl/Vibratory Tumbler is the ticket?
Some sites I have found you can't buy less than 20lbs of medium.

Does anyone have a specific media suggestion for deburring aluminum? And what would be even better is a site where you can get it in 5lb bags, lol.

I would be happy with very rounded corners for most of these parts.


Swami

[Ken_Shea]

Glass blasting de-burrs quickly, removes small machining marks and leaves a very nice satin cast like finish, media is available in most any grit from x-fine to course.

[ty1295]

We vibratory deburr exotics here on a daily basis.

Works good, but time in the machine determines amount of edge break.

It does have it's limitations though so be careful.

[Rekd]

ty,

Any more limitations than doing alum or mild steel? Thanks for the info.

[DareBee]

If you have rough or non-crititcal weldment parts (ie plasma cut). I have thrown a scoop of sand in cement mixer and tumbled. This is really frickin noisy though.
Also if you are doing mostly square or straight edge parts you might want to invest in a "Bur-Beaver" its kinda like a wood jointer where you slide the part over a cutter for your deburr/chamfer operation.

[ty1295]

You gotta be carefule with aluminum.

It will eat it up quickly sometimes. Just gotta watch it and figure out how long to put it in.

Timers can be a big help, so you don't forget.

Some internal corners, etc can be hard to reach, requiring different shape media. They sell everything from rounds to triangles.