Tumblers

[Grefla]

I’ve not been having much success with my tumbler. I have walnut media in there. I read that a bit of mother’s mag polish was good to put in there, but I can run it for 48 hours with no real polishing happening.  The media is really dry and dusty. I think I need to put some other polish in there but not sure what I should use. For those of you with tumblers, what polish do you put in there, and how much. 
 

cheers. 

[c_mario]

I replaced my cheap tumbler with this tumbler https://www.horsleyparkgunshop.com.au/product/4123-lyman-1200-pro-turbo-tumbler, thought it would be better. 

It wasn't. It takes days to have an effect. I tried various media types, walnut, corncob, added autosol to media etc. I found it faster just to polish on a grinder with a polishing buff and some green compound. 

The drawbacks, polishing wheel makes quite a mess, but is fast.

Tumbler is easier but takes a long time and if you are doing screws you waste time picking media out of the philips heads.

If I left the tumbler long enough, and had the right amount of parts in there of the correct shape , i.e not getting tangled with each other then after a long time you get a result.

Personally I am not convinced they are worth the money for what I was doing (pinball parts screws posts etc) but for what they are designed for mainly bullet shells then they work well for that.

[kayakkingoz]

I have the same tumbler , Lyman 1200.

I use walnut & corncob.

Empty a bottle of Brasso into it , Maybe another if it needs it. I cant remember. I have been using same media for years. Leave going for at least 2 full days , 3 is better. If it is dry & dusty it needs more polish added

Works great for me

Edited August 13, 2021 by kayakkingoz

[furballx]

I had a similar problem with slow results.  I have the Lyman 1200 that @c_mario  shows above.

You need to remember that these machines are designed for tumbling rifle cartridge case mate from brass, not pinball parts made from steel.  Is does not seem so, but brass is MUCH softer than steel.  The simple solution for me was to replace the regular media with the walnut media with polishing rouge.  This media has a polishing rouge coating around the walnut.  Instant turnaround in results for me.   Most parts were good in 24-36hrs, 48hrs at the outset.

I use the rouge first, empty it out replace the media with plain walnut and put it in for a bit more, just to get some of the red rouge off it.  I then put it all in for a few minutes with no media to shake loose all of the bits of media stuck in the cracks and crevices.  Results for me have been awesome.  

For the record, I tried walnut plain media with polish added and all I got was a goopy mess.  

Dave 

[Brendo 78]

I Squeeze a bit of Autosol into my tumbler every time and have had good results.

[ctucker]

Doing a playfield refresh on a Sopranos. I use a Lyman 1200 and walnut media. I dumped a bottle of Brasso in there,  I leave it running non stop and as I dismantle the playfield piece by piece I toss most parts in there for a polish for a days. Does alright on most parts. 

 

[Manny65]

On 14/08/2021 at 9:05 AM, furballx said:

I had a similar problem with slow results.  I have the Lyman 1200 that @c_mario  shows above.

You need to remember that these machines are designed for tumbling rifle cartridge case mate from brass, not pinball parts made from steel.  Is does not seem so, but brass is MUCH softer than steel.  The simple solution for me was to replace the regular media with the walnut media with polishing rouge.  This media has a polishing rouge coating around the walnut.  Instant turnaround in results for me.   Most parts were good in 24-36hrs, 48hrs at the outset.

I use the rouge first, empty it out replace the media with plain walnut and put it in for a bit more, just to get some of the red rouge off it.  I then put it all in for a few minutes with no media to shake loose all of the bits of media stuck in the cracks and crevices.  Results for me have been awesome.  

For the record, I tried walnut plain media with polish added and all I got was a goopy mess.  

Dave 

Hey Dave - any links to the polishing rouge that you use?

[Rich]

for what is worth, and that's probably nothing, but tumblers in my experience are used to de-burr rather than to polish.

to get a beautiful shiny finish a rotary barrel say the size if a shoe box filled with a few cups of 3mm bearings and a little soap powder with water will work.

so your rubber lined barrel has a lid held in place with wing nuts.

after say 5-10 minutes you remove the lid, empty everything into a filter/sieve tray that will allow all the media and liquid to fall through except for your items, give them a rinse and a dry. But soap powder is an alkaline and given enough time will remove any zinc plating. Zinc plating is quite thin as opposed to nickel, but nickel is more porous.

no more picking out 'tumbling media' from the heads of Philips screws.

but what's happening is all the parts are hitting each other and in essence removing what existing plating is on the items.

same with tumblers, depends on the condition of the items prior to tumbling, they may look great afterwards, but unless there is plating left on the items, they will rust again, nature guarantees it.

you can see when plating, whether it be chrome/nickel/zinc is removed as the dull spots are where the metal or other plating is.

and Brasso ain't what it once was, it's now a thin crap liquid where it used to be like oil.

 

[wiredoug]

 

44 minutes ago, Rich said:

same with tumblers, depends on the condition of the items prior to tumbling, they may look great afterwards, but unless there is plating left on the items, they will rust again, nature guarantees it.

thats about it really.. they're not magic.

i havent used my tumbler since i got the ultrasonic and a buffer.   

[furballx]

On 12/05/2022 at 7:38 AM, Manny65 said:

Hey Dave - any links to the polishing rouge that you use?

Hmmm, could not find it on the site, but here is the link to the media page at Horsley gun shop where I got it.

Maybe give them a call and ask if they still have the crushed walnut with the polishing rouge coating in stock?

Search Results (horsleyparkgunshop.com.au)

 

[ermitepesky]

Every time, I squeeze a small amount of Autosol into my tumbler with positive effects.

slime rancher 2