Tumbling media assistance

[polarbearforge]

Greetings all! I have a question that I hope you all can give me some suggestions on.

I have a rotary tumbler. It was easier to build and fit my needs better than building a vibratory tumbler. I have have been using a relatively aggressive triangular tumbling media.

When I first ran it, the parts were "dirty". (Note: I'm tumbling dry). It was almost like any little bit that was removed, was shoved back into the parts. With soap and water they could be washed relatively clean. I'd like to avoid an extra step of washing all of these.

The parts are smaller laser cut pieces out of stainless and aluminum. It happened on both materials, originally. I played around a little bit, and ultimately it seemed that adding saw dust did the trick. I only needed a slight rounding of edges and it worked well for that. The finish was more akin to sandblasting on the aluminum, but at least it took away the brushed finish. It worked well until I decided to try something different. I cleaned everything and started from scratch. Now I can't seem to get the same finish again, even though I'm almost certain that I have about the same ratio in the tumbler.

Stainless parts are now fine. It's the aluminum ones that are somewhat dirty again. I'd like to avoid either cleaning them afterwards or setting up a second tumbler, but I have a feeling that might be the end result. Anybody have any suggestions on how to clean these up? Thanks!

Jamie

[MBG]

The way I clean after the vibratory is ultrasonic cleaner.

I highly recommend NOT running the media dry. There is cleaner that is designed to just wipe off. KCM industries I believe it is.

Are you using ceramic or plastic? The plastic is the better stuff.