Vibratory finisher project

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Leeway:
Thanks, Guys.
No problem on the pics. They were just a bit large, so I posted links.
They aren't extemely large in byte size though, so it works for me. :D

I got my first batch of media in yesterday. It's the 1/2" ceramic type. Bought 25 pounds. It's not much. It's only about 5" by 10" by 10".
Not nearly enough.
I'll need at least 100 pounds. I need to find a better source than Mcmaster Carr. :(

Several years ago I bought a large lot of 8" grinding wheels. Some were the wrong size for my machine. Others were too fine to do any good. Some where too course. I used the ones I could out of these, but still have about 20 to 30 of them just taking up space. I am going to crush them up and use them as media as well. Should really help to make the fill.
The barrel is 23.5" OD. I will have a 4 to 6" PVC pipe in the middle. That is still quite a bit to have to fill up. I expect this media will last a good while too. My test with 10 minutes in lava rock in a concrete mixer showed good results, so the burrs I am removing aren't that tough.
More to come. Stay tuned.

Noitoen:
Hi,

Being lurking a little around the here :wave:and remembered this site. http://desiredcreations.com/howTo_TLTumbleSand.htm For small stuff I think it will do.

Leeway:
Thanks for that link. Good to know about just plain Jane rocks.
I will need a much less abrasive when I make a smaller one for my aluminum parts. All those are fairly small.
I ordered 50 more pounds of media today.

I also busted up all those old grind wheels I had and tried that stuff in my concrete mixer. I ran it for 1/2 hours and almost all the burrs were gone. I am confident that these store bought media will do the job I want.

zeusrekning:
looks good. I will put my 2 cents in. At my last job we started doing a good bit of tumbling and I was amazed at how much can be involved.

Main thing is you want the media to roll. This has a lot to do with the shape of the bowl and the action of the motor/weights. You want a smooth action. You don't want the media bouncing around. For the media ( tumbling rocks) Get real stuff. It last practically forever.

Here is a link. Im not affliated or advertising so :wack: http://www.masfinishing.com/Media.html

Feel free to call and get help with media or compound selection. I think the owners name is Bob.
But you have the ceramic media for deburring. The plastic works great for softer metal deburring but wears a lot quicker. Never run the tumbler dry. Im not sure I would buy the compound (liquid) for just deburring. What we have done with the small tumbler at work now is add a little bit of degreaser to a 5gal bucket of water and let it drip into the tumbler. Just enough to keep the media wet but have no standing water in the bottom. What the deburring compound does is remove the gunk from the small pores in the ceramic media. The polishing compound is the opposite. You use it for tumbling in porcelain media to make the shine come out. The polishing compound actually packs the microscopic pores in the porcelain so that there is no cutting action. I was impressed with the shine we achieved in aluminum by tubling for 1 hr in plastic then polishing for 1hr in porcelain. I dont think it was quiet as good as a good polish on the buffing wheel but def. cleaner and easier.

Good luck and keep us informed. I too think the comercial units are to pricey.

Leeway:
Thanks for that advice and link.

I did get rid of those grinding stones that were taking up space in my shop. I tried them out after breaking into small chunks in my concrete mixer. It worked pretty well on the deburring of things on steel, however it left pitted surfaces from all the sharp points. This was 30 minutes in the mixer with just a water slurry. Served to prove a few things.

My deburring needs can quickly be taken care of with a decent machine and the correct media. Use these grinding stones as backfill for the headwalls on my driveway culvert headwalls. ;)
I hired a guy to do this. I recently had to replace my old culvert. It was undersized and storm damage just washed it all out. I have had my fill of larger scale concrete work. Like roofing, I hire it done when I can. :)

Got all the parts together for the machine. Initially I was going to weld the frame using 2" x 3" angle iron. Now I think I will bolt it together instead. I may still tack it after the bolts are in place, but dowels may be a better option.
The bottom shelf eluded to in my drawings will be for holding weight. I have about 10 buckets of scrap steel sheet offcuts that would all a bunch of base weight to the frame. I use one under my grinder and it really helped that station out.

I also thought about using a paint shaker for a machine. I don't think the up and down movement would be very beneficial though. If someone has a small one though, it might be beneficial to try at least for a small aluminum finisher.
I hope to get to building the big machine this weekend. If this all works out okay, then I will scale the machine to do a smaller version for my aluminum parts.

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