Harbor Freight vibratory tumbler for 6061?

[KIMFAB]

I make faceplates out of 16 ga 6061 ~1"X4". I tried a tumbler like the HF and found it to not work well. I bought a small plastic bowl cement mixer from Home Despot and use 5/8 ceramilite from Raytech mixed with silica sand and some dawn to cut the oil. I put in just enough water and mix for about 20 mins. I use an Alodine process tho to finish them. I have to agree with others tho. It looks like the as-machined finish is more gooder.

[LeeWay]

I'll try to run a few parts tomorrow and take a couple pics.

This will dull that finish big time. Not only dull it, but darken as well. Even more so than bead blasting. I actually liked the glass bead finish I used to get. Pretty time consuming though.

I did run some water through the drum this evening and cleaned out most of the dust. It is much quieter with a little water inside.

[LeeWay]

I didn't get any new parts ran as planned, but came across this thread that may be helpful.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67225

[KIMFAB]

I guess I didn't stress properly in my last post the right amount of water is essential. Too much and it affects the finish - too little and it comes out black or dirty.
Use just enough Dawn soap to cut the oil and maybe a touch of TSP.

[LeeWay]

Here are the images of some of my parts. I vibrated these for an hour. Could have stood another. I had less than a pint of water and a few drops of liquid cascade. They came out ready to powder coat once rinsed. The milling marks on the ends are covered up by PC, so that is fine for my needs. For the other parts shown on here, I imagine it would take a few hours per cycle. Depending on what color the parts will become, it might work okay.

[Caprirs]

Leeway,

Thanks for the images. A few hours cycle would be acceptable if I could put a few hours worth of parts in. The parts I'm working on take about 10 minutes to complete. Might be worthwhile.

I'm going to the anodizer tomorrow so I will ask them some questions while there about tumbling. Maybe they can show examples of other parts that may shed more light on this.

Kimfab,

Is the water and soap a trial and error process? Or is there a general rule based on the amount of media being used?

[KIMFAB]

I'm afraid the water and soap is trial and error. For my stuff I have the sand and media in the mixer and the water is just barely to the top of the mix. The soap is added till it just barely has foam. I add TSP to clear it up and once in a while add a little clay to make it clean up the oil some more. I use mobilmet gamma for my punching but occasionally have to use omega because of the alum, that's when the clay comes in

[Caprirs]

I wouldn't mind spending the few hundred bucks it would take if I knew I could get the intended results. I may just blast these first ones and see how they sell before investing too much. Or I may see if someone local will run them through their equipment for a reasonable price.

Thanks for the help so far.

[LeeWay]

Definitely a trial and error thing. This is why when you want to buy larger machines, the sellers will develop a specific process or recipe for your specific needs before you buy.
In my case, I started building a much larger machine for my steel parts and then stumbled upon this 18 pounder at HF. I had intended to build a smaller one about this size for my aluminum parts. Working out the recipe in this smaller one is a whole lot cheaper than it would have taken in the larger. I knew though that I needed the rough grade ceramics in the larger one, so bought those. I have 100 pounds in it now. Probably a little more than $150. The machine cost me maybe $200 in parts, but I had a lot of parts on hand. Most of the bought items won't even be used now with a newer simpler design.

By all means, if you can get someone to run a batch of your parts for you, that will save a good deal of money and frustration.
When this will work best for me is when production is ahead of my finished needs. Then I can just throw a dozen parts into the drum every time it quits. That would be about 60 parts a day in two hour cycles. That is about a weeks worth of shipping. for me. It will start to show it's labor savings pretty quickly I think. Free up a lot of time normally spent at the sander. It's a little safer than the sander as well. No dust with the tumbler.