Tumble deburring

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Futher observations.

The drum at work had for want of better word..paddles..built into inside…to lift parts/media. .this action I suspect is crucial.
( larger drum also will give longer fall time thus greater velocity .more action. .)

A smooth drum seems to have little or no effect..indeed a friend used to make drums for rock tumblers..re purposed for coin cleaning..he added paddles and an internal diapham..thus making two compartment and allowing two process to run concurrently. .
Thw media he used/ supplied. Was a mixture of short steel pins ( 1 mm or less dia. 5-6 mm long) and what I will describe as flying saucer shaped bits..think smarty having swallowed a ball.. again major dia about 5-6 mm..
This seemed gentle enough for coin enthusiasts.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

In short. .the smaller drum of tge 5″ rock rumbler.. will be more gentle than the 14-18″ drums of light industry. . ( the machines in the mint are massive)

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by jason udall on 10/09/2015 10:53:27:
Futher observations.

… a mixture of short steel pins ( 1 mm or less dia. 5-6 mm long) and what I will describe as flying saucer shaped bits..

.

That sounds very promising, Jason

Thanks

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 10/09/2015 11:33:13

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I would have thought play sand would do a decent job. If too soft sharp sand. The rock people use a range of abrasives easily found on ebay but shot blasting grits work out a lot cheaper.

Ideally for easy separation something which floats in water would be ideal – hence nut shells I suspect. You could buy a load of pistachio nuts and enjoy eating them. I think Liddl do them loose – not sure I only buy the cashews.

John

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[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Here are some pics of the shaker and tumbler deburring machines at my place of work. You can see the ceramic media.

Murray

[JonParticipant @jon]

That's the concensus I was getting Murray, and see 10 tumblers with different media to suit the application and finish plus the vibro.
I gave up on the idea due to little work space, cost of shipping of the media, shear number of medias to try, time taken for each stage with lapidary type machines and more importantly not damaging or rolling the edges of the parts required to a mop polish finish.

The gun type meant for cleaning up brass cases are pretty useless but didn't experiment too much would have done something eventually.
Think I was going to import a rotary tumbler from US over the vibratory, even with the constant media changes would have took a week.

Pro ones work a lot better than the lapidary types, some conveyor off the part when done in no time but know how to charge for the service £1.25 to £1.5 a part no bigger than 1/2"sq x 1 1/2"lg 8 years ago. Mind a s/h small vibratory industrial machine in excess of £1k back then. Lapidary types from £50 to £400.

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