Polishing small Stainless parts

[bwprice100]

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Any recommendations on polishing small stainless parts; techniques, media etc.

Cheers Brian

[CaptainVee]

I have this done for me at the moment and am looking to build my own equipment.

Mine is done to increase resistance to sea water and as far as I know vibrating with stainless balls is the quickest and best.

But filling a tub with stainless balls is expensive... And I have yet to locate a source.

It takes the company that does it 20 minutes to get it done. Up close you see that the surface is dented.

If you want a high shine, electrolytic polishing may be better.

[bwprice100]

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Hi Sven

Thanks for the reply. Stainless balls seem to be worth a try,; there are some suppliers on eBay.

I looked into electrolytic polishing but could only find one machine and that was expensive. Do you know of any suppliers?

Brian

[CaptainVee]

I bought a "fitness vibrator" (powermaxx) for eu 10,-- yesterday to give vibrating a quick try. I see two alternatives for balls: Punch scrap (is that the right term?) and stainless blasting gritt. Balls continue to come up expensive but I only need 5 liters which would be about 20-25 kilo.

If I remember correctly electrolytic polishing is also expensive because the individual parts need to be racked up.

[bwprice100]

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I was thinking more along the lines of tumbling rather than vibrating and perhaps using small stainless washers as I can get hold of them easily.

[CaptainVee]

I have tried tumbling over a decade ago and it did not work for me. I also think that vibrating will work a lot quicker, you get more hits per second. I think that washers, just as punch scrap will have less of a polishing effect because the edges are sharper, giving deeper dents. But I would love to see your results!