Hello all,
So I recently bought a used Mr. Deburr DB300. Wonderful machine so far. Having a few issues achieving my desired finish. I run a metal finishing business and quite often have to take cast aluminum parts and polish to a mirror finish. My hope was that a deburring machine could reduce the time it takes to smooth out castings. I'm tumbling all media with water and a detergent.
First issue I'm having is getting all the casting marks out. Starting out with a general cutting ceramic media. After 24 hours surface finish is not bad but could be better. I believe a more aggressive media could be the solution there. Has anyone ever used a fast cutting media on cast aluminum?
Next I switch to green plastic triangles and no problem with the finish there.
Final step im using porcelain balls. This is where I'm having my biggest issue. After 24 hours the part turns dark grey. I'm wondering if I should be using a burnishing fluid, could that be my issue? I've even went as far as to throw a mirror polished valve cover in and it turned grey.
I've attached a few pictures here to give an idea of what's going on.
Part before going in tumbler
After ceramic tumbling
Third and 4th pic are after porcelain balls
5th pic is a comparison between what cover went in as vs what porcelain did
Finally the finish I want to achieve
I know I will not get away from buffing the pieces but I want to take some of the sanding and prep time out of the job. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
So I recently bought a used Mr. Deburr DB300. Wonderful machine so far. Having a few issues achieving my desired finish. I run a metal finishing business and quite often have to take cast aluminum parts and polish to a mirror finish. My hope was that a deburring machine could reduce the time it takes to smooth out castings. I'm tumbling all media with water and a detergent.
First issue I'm having is getting all the casting marks out. Starting out with a general cutting ceramic media. After 24 hours surface finish is not bad but could be better. I believe a more aggressive media could be the solution there. Has anyone ever used a fast cutting media on cast aluminum?
Next I switch to green plastic triangles and no problem with the finish there.
Final step im using porcelain balls. This is where I'm having my biggest issue. After 24 hours the part turns dark grey. I'm wondering if I should be using a burnishing fluid, could that be my issue? I've even went as far as to throw a mirror polished valve cover in and it turned grey.
I've attached a few pictures here to give an idea of what's going on.
Part before going in tumbler
After ceramic tumbling
Third and 4th pic are after porcelain balls
5th pic is a comparison between what cover went in as vs what porcelain did
Finally the finish I want to achieve
I know I will not get away from buffing the pieces but I want to take some of the sanding and prep time out of the job. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.