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#1
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| Which type of tumbler is better for Al? We are really trying to answer this question for our small production Al parts. We need to bring them off the VMC and hopefully run through a couple stages of tumbling to acheive a nice polish or near polish. Are the cam type box shakers better or faster or are the bowl types better? I think the bowls are quieter but what about the job they do? Brandon |
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#2
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| I like the bowl type better. We use rotating barrels and a vibratory bowl type. For a nice polished surface on aluminum, you will need to rough and finish tumble it. We use a plastic type of media for the rough tumbling. It leaves a soft, matte surface. It's a good surface to anodize. For a bright polished finish, ball burnishing is the best. We send a number of parts out for this process. There are some hard, ceramic media types that will put a nice finish on aluminum, but not as good as ball burnishing does. It approaches a hand buffed finish. Good luck |
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#3
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| When you say ball burnishing, what type of ball are you talking about? The stainless balls? what size? Can walnut shell do it but take longer? I know the ball media is expensive so I would need to be sure of my purchase for sure. Thanks for the reply. |
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#4
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| Vibe Finnisher Tub type I use work's great Noise is an issue but if it dosen't make noise it isn't going to doo anything for you plastic media leaves a good finish but if you have rough cut's ceramic first then fowellowed with plastic might be more to your licking Good Luck Kevin |
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#5
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| Ball burnishing media is a small very hard, steel media. It lasts almost forever, but is very heavy. That's why we send our products out for this process. You would need a heavy duty machine for ball burnishing. You would also need to have a machine with a continuous flow of fresh soap and water to keep the parts clean. I think a vibratory bowl type would be best for this. http://www.vibratoryfinishing.com/media.htm |
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#6
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| for my anodizing I use a vibratory tumbler with the 1/4" plastic triangles to remove machine marks (i use the green ones), it will leave a matte finish. From here I then run it in walnut shells with rouge for about 36 hours. It brings the part to a very high shine. Since I want my anodized parts to look almost translucent I need to have a high polish before they go into the tanks... |
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#7
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| The plastic media is good, but for ball burnishing to a mirror polish shine I use ceramic balls. They have to be run wet (water with a couple drops of a special soaplike solution) to keep the black crap from clogging up thier microsurfaces but they work like nothing else. I like the bowl systems for the pyramid plastic and the ceramic cutting media, as it is much fatser than tumbling. However, the ceramic balls are the opposite. I run three bowls in a row with descending order of cutting grits, followed by a rotary tumbler with the ceramic balls for a final mirror shine. Only two caveats; The balls need to be broken in first - easy to do, just run them with some scrap for an afternoon. Second, the surface needs to be pretty smooth before the balls will shine them up - the balls don't actually remove much material, they just remove the matte finish, so make sure they are well vibro'ed down to a fine grit cutting media first. |
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#8
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| hey stepper do the ceramic ball get in small areas? how big are they? The reason I go with the walnut shells is that they get in every nook and cranny. thanks! |
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#9
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| The balls are 2mm for the smallest, so nearly everywhere anyway. They do like to get in every little slot and invariably on every piece a few want to stay wedged in a narrow slit or hole, so a dental pick to knock them out is always by the tumbler! Don't know if wlnut shell does the same. |
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#10
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| Can we get some folks to post some pics of the before/after, please? . Include info on what media and what type of equipment and maybe some pics of the equipment and media, too. Thanks! Scott
__________________ Consistency is a good thing....unless you're consistently an idiot. |
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#11
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| they can get stuck in some very tight spots, just depending on how tight the area is...usually they dont get stuck at all...here is a sample shot no the best pick but you will get a good idea of what it can do. please note that the middle pic says bead blasting although this one was put through the tumbler with the 1/4" green pyramids... Last edited by KOS; 07-03-2007 at 10:38 AM. |
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#12
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| Hey Scott Sorry I will have to take some pics of my set up and media for you, I only have an old shot of that part to post for now.... that is done with the set up i mentioned before... |
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