Thread: Vibratory Tumbler Media

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well consider that the rock tumbler medium silicon carbide powder (SIC) is what I use to flatten and dress Arkansas stones I would say it is potentially too aggressive. You can wear out a diamond plate on an Ark. Probably even the very fine powder would be quite aggressive. It is the same thing, just smaller particles. It would be interesting to test out some on a worn out junker blade just to see exactly what it would do.

By the way, I take all my pictures with my phone.

Hi Paul, Sorry for the late response, I was traveling this week and didn't have much of a chance to do hobby stuff. I was thinking I'd start with some 1400 grit Aluminum Oxide rock polish my kids already have and see how it did. As suggested I'll use a junker blade to see how it does. It's pretty mild so I might have to experiment some and work up to a more aggressive media but I'd rather work up slowly. Who knows, some of these might produce interesting finishes.

Happy Easter,

Scott

Crushed walnut shells media you can get them at outdoor stores

LOL 2008

That was an old thread you dug out

Tumblers work really well for cleaning and polishing

If you look I have a start to finish using Buffers too

The more you ask of the Tumbler, the better the Buffers look, that is just a fact, but the finish from the Tumbler is near flawless

I would like to try the vibratory tumbler. I have not seen the aforementioned thread about buffers but I have one and have used it, still do occasionally, but what I keep coming back to is hand sanding and polishing. As with any machine skill is needed to use them properly. That said it is really easy to round off your grind lines and make the definition look muddy.

For precise, detailed, crisp work I just don't know that there is a substitute for hand work. I would like to find that magic machine or combination of them but as of yet have still not found one.

This does not mean that there is not a place for these machines in the process. I have found the sanding drum attachments for drill or grinder to be very useful in shortening the time in sanding but like other machines great care is needed to keep them from getting away from you.

Love to try that tumbler though.

Should you tape your edge before tumbling?

Thank you for your replies and I apologize for the delayed response. I've been helping a friend relocate his new sailboat and was far enough away from civilization that internet access was sparse. I'm back on the hard now and have chosen a razor to do some photos on showing the process to those who haven't seen it.

To be clear, I use the tumbler in combination with a buffer (with greaseless) and hand sanding. The tumbler seems good for finishing but I think the media needed to do any removal of steel would be too abrasive and would damage the blade. So far it seems there is a time and place for each. I have found, as gssixguns pointed out in the old thread and in his post here, that the tumbler finish is amazing if I don't ask to much from it. No scratch lines whatsoever, even under magnification.

I'm particularly interested in possibly using the tumbler with different media to produce different finishes. There is refrence to something called a "starburst" finish in the tumbler article in the Library. I'm anxious to try and reproduce this and see what it looks like.

Cattleman02- I haven't been taping my edges but I've been working with razors that were having a lot done so I expected them to need reset bevels. Doesn't seem to have damaged anything yet but as I am new to honing I'm going to send a couple out (hopefully to Gssixguns) and after I see what his impression is I'll know more.

I should be home in two days and I'll start getting those pictures up.

Scott

I have not done much restore work for some time. I did do quite a bit for a few years. I used the vibratory tumbler a fair bit. I used walnut shell and rubbing compound and it did a great job on cleaning blades. It would get all the black devils spit out but would not cut the steel. It seems the steel is too hard for the medium, but not the rust. I also used it with corn cob and mother’s polish, which was also very gentle, did not remove any major scratches and left a semi gloss finish. Sometimes I would clean a blade in the tumbler, do a full sanding progression, then a semi gloss finish in the tumbler. The tumbler is not fast but requires no participation from me during the proccess. It was all with stuff that I already had, so it was zero expense messing around.