Vibratory Finisher For Polishing Aluminum

[HimyKabibble]

I have been going NUTS trying to find out how to use a vibratory finisher to polish aluminum (6061) parts after machining. I first contacted Raytech, who advised me on which machine to buy, and which media. I bought the machine, and $100 worth of media. The machine was about 3 sizes too small! The roughing media, green pyramids, worked well. The polishing meda, walnut shells and rouge did absolutely doodle-e-squat. So, back everything went. I then bought a Vibrahone Model C. MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better machine. I was told to use the same green pyramids, and then ceramic cylinders, with pumice. The ceramic and pumice, like the walnut shells and rouge before, did NOTHING!

What is the secret recipe, and why does nobody seem to be able to tell me how to do such a simple thing?

Regards,
Ray L.

[timmydabull]

i have been in search of the same info,the rep we are dealing with promised the moon and when the parts got back they were exactly the way i did not want them,then they start talking about bigger machine more money yada yada yada.

i read on a post somewhere that someone run parts ofr 7 days in the walnut rouge deal and get perfectly chrome looking parts.

thats a long time

[timmydabull]

just checked out the model you purchased,looks like a small benchtop model,may take longer to achieve same results than a floor type model.

keep us posted on your findings

[crayner]

I've had no luck with this - running a burr-king model 33 with all kinds of media - seems like if you overload the tumblers, the parts make contact occasionally causing marks... same deal with the suppliers - promise the world.

Anyone know about chemical-polish before bright-anodizing?

[SteveinAZ]

Call Dan Lord at C&M Topline in CA...send him samples and he will develop your process. I have only bought media from him for our little Burr King, but they have a full line of product, and are significantly less money than anyone else. Finding the right combination of products is not easy with the numerous choices of media and juice, so rely on Dan, but support him with your purchase. In a previous life, we had one of their 3 cu/ft tumblers...ran daily for at least a half a dozen years with ZERO problems - I am not affiliated, just a satisfied customer.

I haven't run any aluminum (only brass) in a polishing application, but everyone I have talked to says hours to polish with walnut shells, like 10-12 hours, but they look like chrome when they're done.

Steve

[HimyKabibble]

Today I spoke with the owner of Tagit, which manufactures the VibraHone machine I have. I am sending him some of my parts, and he is going to develop a process for me. He feels I do have the correct media, but apparently the amount of water you use is very critical, and sometimes some minor additives, like soap, are required. He has promised to get back to me in under a week with the "recipe" for doing my specific parts. He certainly seemed a lot more knowledgable than anyone I've spoken with so far.

I'll report back when I hear back from him.

Regads,
Ray L.

[HimyKabibble]

The C&M Topline website has more useful information than any other site I've come across. I've e-mailed them to get their advice as well. They have some good information on how to deburr and polish 6061, so it should be an easy question for them to answer. Unfortunately, I've already figured out I was sold (again!) the wrong media. The ceramic media I have is 1/8" slant-cut cylinders, and the C&M site recommends balls for aluminum. 1/8" is also too smal for my parts, which have several holes and a long 1/8" wide by 1/8" deep groove, which ends up with the littel cylinders wedged in very tightly. They're VERY difficult to remove.

This has turned into a VERY expensive, VERY time-consuming problem....

Regards,
Ray L.

[timmydabull]

Himy,the steel or ceramic balls do not polish like you are looking for they provide a luster but the biggest issue with the balls is they leave a peened finish kind of like a microscopic golf ball dimple pattern on the surface.

i personally didnt like it myself.

as mentioned the 10-12 hour walnut and rouge solution seems to provide the near chrome look we are after,the other types of media are use for deburring and light cutting.

i am looking into building my own vibratory finisher and anyone who has any links pleas let me know.

thanks
tim

[Telle]

Hey Guys!

I know the secret for success... ... I have tried a lot of stuff and have figured it out... first of all you must have a VIBRATORY tumbler... they are way more effective then an ordinary tumbler, maybe 10 - 25 times faster.

The media you should start to use is a plastic media... mentioned above as green pyramids... There are many types of plastic media depending on how hard you want to sand the part. I first use a plastic media formed as pyramids for very rough sanding of the part, and later another type of plastic media for nicer finish of the part. The final media to use is walnut or corn cob. Walnut does not give as good finish as corn cob, but almost... but if you want that true mirror shine you should use corn cob. Also what is very important is that the walnut or corn cob is treated with a polishing liquid/creme. One of you tried walnut but couldn't see any results... maybe you didn't have any polishing liquid/creme with the walnut media? You must have that... you can't run it with untreated walnut, if you do, you won't see any differense at all.

And that's it... you can't fail if you follow that instruction...

Two other things that I have heard, but what I think don't matter as much is the water part and soap part.

Some say that you must have water that is circulating... I say that it's not that important... okey that you need water, but you don't need circulation as much as thoose people claim.

Same is with the soap thing... okey that you will get a better finish if using som special soap, but the difference is not that great so you could skip this step.

[SScnc]

Originally Posted by HimyKabibble The C&M Topline website has more useful information than any other site I've come across. I've e-mailed them to get their advice as well. They have some good information on how to deburr and polish 6061, so it should be an easy question for them to answer. Unfortunately, I've already figured out I was sold (again!) the wrong media. The ceramic media I have is 1/8" slant-cut cylinders, and the C&M site recommends balls for aluminum. 1/8" is also too smal for my parts, which have several holes and a long 1/8" wide by 1/8" deep groove, which ends up with the littel cylinders wedged in very tightly. They're VERY difficult to remove. This has turned into a VERY expensive, VERY time-consuming problem.... Regards, Ray L.

Ray,

Did you ever get this figured out and if so, how are your results ?

[BobWarfield]

I'm curious too. Have done the deburr/satin finish work with the pyramids. Worked great. Tried the little ceramic balls with no success.

A friend who does tons of vibratory finishing is somewhat convinced it is very hard to polish in the smaller machines. He claims the weight of the media on top of the part plays a role, and there just isn't enough media in a small machine. He said small ones can take up to 48 hours to do much polish.

I haven't tried again since talking to him, but would be interested in a successful recipe for small machines.

[SRT Mike]

I use the plastic green pyramids for parts right off the CNC machine, and it definitely takes out all the machining marks in maybe 2 hours. I am using a Burr King 200SX (I think that's the model, it's 200-something or other).

I didn't have any luck with the walnut shells for polishing, then I realized - duh - I was running them bare, without any polishing compound. At Eastec, a Burr-King rep told me I obviously need to use a polishing compound in the walnut shells.

Question... I have seen companies that sell treated walnut shells, and they are VERY expensive. Can I just add my own polish to the walnut shells? I was thinking if I could find some powdered aluminum compound, I could just add an appropriate amount to the walnut shells and that would do the trick. Anyone know where I can get it? Or could I just use off-the-shelf aluminum polishing compound (which is usually a paste or liquid, not a dry powder)??

I also have to say I didn't notice a ton of difference running the green pyramids wet vs. dry. I got some sort of soap liquid that you're supposed to mix with water. It maybe makes the finish from the green pyramids a little better, but it's not night and day.

I did notice that if I take a part, run it in the pyramids for a couple hours, I can take it right to the buffing wheel and get a mirror finish with the jewelers rouge and a flannel wheel, so the green pyramids are definitely putting on a great pre-polish finish. I just need to get the right compound for the final polishing.

In my case, the parts will get anodized or chrome plated afterwards, so the better finish I can put on them first, the better they come out with less manual labor later.