Vibratory brass polisher for aluminum parts?

[flyweightnate]

Got some stuff from the machine shop, and I want to polish for ano. Anyone try a vibrating brass tumbler and some walnut, and have feedback?

[latches109]

put it in a jar with some media and attach to a drill. tape the drill trigger on.

edit: here is an example : https://youtu.be/_Z0pwIcSx2Y?t=385

[BlindFaith429]

Shouldn't be an issue I would think. I did some life-testing on vibratory tumblers with brass casings in the walnut, and after many days in the tumbler, the stampings were barely legible.

Vibratory with walnut may take too long for deburring though, as that's more meant for polishing.

Ceramic media might work too, but that's more aggressive. Would have to keep a much closer eye on it to watch for part break-down.

[Lane]

I think a vibratory tumbler with walnut would be a good solution for these. May not get the highest gloss finish but should get it a good way there without alot of effort on your side. Maybe look into polishing reloading brass for more insight on this. Walnut does a pretty good job but knock off any large burrs if they exist and I wouldn't expect the walnut to remove any heavy tool marks.

[flyweightnate]

I picked up a Harbor Freight shaker (with a warranty, because it's from China and has a motor) and 25lbs of fine grit walnut. Maybe should have gone with coarse.

I'll see what 8 and 18 hrs does. My reading suggest rouge doped media, but I don't have any of that lying around.

[flyweightnate]

No noticeable difference after 4 hours...

[flyweightnate]

A week later and it's shinier, but even faint machining paths are still visible. I don't know if my mistake was getting fine grit or trying walnut first.

[latches109]

try the green triangles, then ceramic polishing balls

[flyweightnate]

A rock tumbler and a media of mostly 1/8" stainless balls in some water did a great job at smoothing the mill paths. Gonna out these back in some walnut next.

[BlindFaith429]

The steel balls did a process called burnishing i believe. I didnt think the walnut was going to be aggressive enough.

there's stuff called ceramic media that you can put in with water into the vibratory tumbler. As I said before, that media can remove material, so shorter cycles and a keen eye are needed.

[flyweightnate]

That's what I'd heard - there was a small mix of "UFO" shaped pieces in the media (sort of a ball with an equatorial ring) in there too. 18 hours was pretty effective.

[BlindFaith429]

Regardless of what you used, glad it worked out

[Spider!]

You might ask LukeAO . He uses some pretty course stuff. It leaves marks, but they don't survive a deep anodizing.

[LukeAO]

You might ask LukeAO . He uses some pretty course stuff. It leaves marks, but they don't survive a deep anodizing.

I use plastic media but it's for deburring and removing minor machining marks, its not meant to be for polishing, steel wool wipes the tumbling marks off in just a few seconds.

I use several different shapes depending on the parts in the tank, here's an example of one of them: