Tumbler Questions ??

[twocik]

I normally belt or hand sand my parts and now I'm at the point where I needed to get a tumbler.

I bought a 18 lb tumbler from Harbor Freight about 4 months ago and so far love it. I'm only running aluminum parts with the little green triangles they sell for deburring. I've been reading that I should be running this wet for a faster better finish, but have some questions about that. I'm running a submerged 125GPH pump into a 5 gallon bucket.


18 Lb. Vibratory Bowl with Liquid Drain Hose

4 Lb. Metal Vibrator/Tumbler Replacement Bowl







- What kind of filtration system can I put on this so that I get rid of the nasty gray foam and mud water ?


- It seems that anything I put this on it wants to vibrate off. Right now it's on the floor on a few 2 x 4s, but that's is high as I can get it without wanting to take off on me. Any recommendations ?






Good idea or not - I bought a little 4 lb bowl for polishing. I drilled out the center to 3/8 to fit my larger 18 lb tumbler. I tighten the large bowl to the base, then slide on the little bowl and locked that down. So basically it's a bowl inside of a bowl. The only thing that both bowls touch is the thread rod they're attached to. See any reason this would be a bad idea if I don't exceed the 18 lb ?


Yes I know I need another tumbler, but right now I want to set this up and make sure it's good to go with just one bowl. Most likely I'm going to buy one of the better quality tumblers.

[doorknob]

I have the same HF 18 lb. unit that you described. I have really only used it a few times, so my experience is very limited. I can not really answer your questions, but I'll be interested in seeing any replies that you get.

When I used it, the unit was sitting on a concrete floor, and it did not move at all over the course of almost two days. I was doing an experiment to see how well I could deburr several 4" x 5" x .5" aluminum plates into each of which I had drilled a dozen holes. I filled the bowl with the green pyramid media, and used water with a cap-full of Dawn liquid dish detergent. It was probably at or close to the 18 lb capacity. I did not try circulating the water/soap mixture through a filter, but it would probably have been a good idea (because, as you have noticed, the water becomes very dirty after a while).

As for results of my test, I believe that my parts were too big for the bowl. I got inconsistent surface treatment from one plate to another (probably due to some of the plates sticking to or rubbing against each other). Small burrs were removed, but a few larger ones were not, and I probably should have attacked those with a quick turn of a countersink before putting the plates into the bowl.

I'm not sure that I understand the goal of using the bowl-within-bowl approach...

[twocik]

I bought 2 HF 18 lbs tumblers for less than $300. After a few months of using these tumblers I'm pretty impressed. I ran 8 1" x 1" x 3.2" parts with a little DIY flow system I made and came out almost prefect for deburring. A few inner pockets the media was too big to get in there, but no big deal for now. I was only running 15 lbs of media not 18 lbs. Or maybe I can find a smaller type media.


As for the second HF 18 lbs tumbler for polishing, tool almost 24 hours and I'd say the surface is about 65% to a mirror shine. I use treated corn cob from raytech and only used about 10 lbs of that, I might need to add more as well and run the parts longer.


If anyone here has recommendation, tips, tricks, etc.. please feel free to post ...

[twocik]

Ran a few more tests. Filled my polishing bowl with at least 13 lbs of treated cob and wow in 8 hours my parts look like the 20 hour batch before I filled it up. Ok so weight definitely plays a hugh part and now the parts seem to be on a track vs on top of each other. Running them all night to see where I'm at on the 20 hour mark. Hopefully I'm not just talking to myself and someone else finds this info useful


Would love to hear and see others parts with this style bowl or similar..