What's new
What's new

Rotary tumbler vs vibratory tumbler which to buy

AARONT

Stainless
Joined
Feb 19, 2013
Location
Madison, WI
Hey everyone. We are getting ready to pull the trigger on a tumbler but I don't have a lot of experience with them. Which is a better route to go and why? We have a small vibe from HF that does work after some time, but it really sucks. Does vibe take longer or rotary take longer? Which will give us the better finish? I do like how the rotary's are quieter but that's not going to be the deciding factor unless everything else was split down the middle.

Most of the material that will be going in will be steels of some sort. Most of the softer materials we run typically are deburred in the machines. The reason for steels would be for getting scale off post heat treat, or dealing with laser cut/waterjet edges. :cheers:
 
Vibratory is the only tumbler I would have. The little toy bench top tumblers are no comparison to a real vibratory tumbler, say 3hp and up. Getting one that you can change the weights in is very good, adjustable motor speed would be nice but never had it. A good vibratory tumbler should be around 10 times faster than a rotary one.

When I had to tumble a lot of steel parts I started using the decorative river rock around the shop. The shop was real cheap and I didn't want to use up all of our media on the coarse steel parts. The rock worked just as well as the ceramic. When it was about half the size I started with I would swap it out for new. If you have a bunch of holes or features that trap media rocks are not such a good idea.
 
Mass finishing is about all I've done since 1978. My experience is with larger vibes than the HF market. Vibratory is generally at least twice as fast as tumbling, but a HF vibe is slow. Just doesn't have the power of a real vibe. I have had people that ran parts overnight in a HF. Normally parts should be done in 15-30 minutes. A tumbler will work but aren't used much anymore. Not as fast and not user friendly. If you have any vibratory finishing questions you can call me at 501-897-1110 Rick Vibratory Finishing Mass Finishing Ball Burnishing Deburring Media Compound Equipment
 
A tumbler will work but aren't used much anymore. Not as fast and not user friendly.
You need to get out of Arkansas more. Still a lot of tumblers out there for big/long parts. You'd need a huge bowl to run a 2ft long part. Tumblers are also cheaper to maintain. Lots of tumblers also used in polishing/plating of brass and aluminum.

As far as cycle time, we had a family of parts that needed a 6 hour cycle time in s 4' Sweeco. Deburr and clean of a baseball sized 8620 part that couldn't have any scratches in it. That was automotive and almost 30 years ago.
JR
 
I used to work with a medium sized Sweeco vib unit. Great thing but you have to learn the process and deal with soaps and finishing compounds. What I'm really fascinated with is Harperizing, but have never seen an actual machine. Should be way faster. Surface Finishing | Barre, MA - Harper

I have ran several Harperizers. I like them. They are something around 5-10 times faster than a vibe. Really good on small parts. Can't do a zillion parts a day but they have their place.
 
You need to get out of Arkansas more. Still a lot of tumblers out there for big/long parts. You'd need a huge bowl to run a 2ft long part. Tumblers are also cheaper to maintain. Lots of tumblers also used in polishing/plating of brass and aluminum.

As far as cycle time, we had a family of parts that needed a 6 hour cycle time in s 4' Sweeco. Deburr and clean of a baseball sized 8620 part that couldn't have any scratches in it. That was automotive and almost 30 years ago.
JR

There are still some tumbler jobs out there. Seat belt buckles and flame cut parts are a few. Of the last 1,774 customers I talked to very few had a tumbler. Long parts are done in a vibratory tub as opposed to a bowl because as you said, it takes a big bowl to run a 2' long part. I sell a lot of tubs for big or long parts. 6 hours would be a long cycle time for a 4' SWECO. But some parts (like wrenches) take that long or more. Yes, tumblers are cheaper to maintain but almost nobody has one. They just don't want to wait twice as long to get their parts done. (They run seat belt buckles overnight so time is not a problem.) I have one or two customers that tumble aluminum bicycle frames and make them look like jewelry. Better than a vibe could do.
 
My experience is vibratory finishing machine you can check the surface finishing when the machine is running
Vibratory finishing machine should be faster than rotary barrel machine
However, in term of finishing, rotary barrel machine create better and smoother finishing.
You can send your parts to a local job shop to see the difference. Most shop has both machines to test.
You can also find more information at Inovaatec Machinery Website.
 








 
Back
Top