Tumbling small teflon pieces. Any hints on what type of media?

gwbolton · Apr 8, 2020

Parts are .031 diameter x .17 long. I have to make 500k of these. Trimming them to length using a 4-slide machine. End condition has small burrs. Can I tumble these or am I just dreaming? Thanks

DavidScott · Apr 8, 2020

I tumbled thousands of slotted 5/8"ish cube Teflon parts for archery so have some experience. I used a plastic media that I haven't seen often. It was a solid color, as in not translucent like most green plastic media I have seen. It was more aggressive than most on aluminum, so I guess you should look for an aggressive plastic media. I think I used the smaller tumbler with an 18" bowl that was gentle, vs the 6' bowl tumbler. Anyway, it tumbled fine, a bit slower than aluminum but it still rounded the edges. Sounds like it is going to be fun digging those parts out of the media.

Limy Sami · Apr 8, 2020

Try washed fine aquarium sand (what us brits call silver sand) and it MUST be well washed (cos PTFE stains - ask me how I know) in a DRY tumble / vibrate I dry my sand in the oven and also put it through an ordinary kitchen type flour sieve to keep the big bits out - which also an easy way of sorting small parts from the media.

It works for me in a rotary tumbler but I warn you it is slow.

EPAIII · Apr 8, 2020

I have no experience or idea on tumbling teflon parts, but I can suggest that I have used a large, kitchen strainer to separate numerous small parts from walnut shell media. The strainer caught the parts and the media fell through. The reverse process may work with your situation where the parts are smaller and the media is probably going to be larger. You may need to get screen in a size that works and fashion your own strainer.

gwbolton · Apr 10, 2020

Thank you all. I think I will try the sand that was previously mentioned. I tried small glass beads and it works fine but the glass is the same color as the teflon and very hard to separate parts from glass. The strainer idea is great. The screen I have is too open and doesn't help at all.

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Tumbling small teflon pieces. Any hints on what type of media?

gwbolton

Aluminum

DavidScott

Diamond

Limy Sami

Diamond

EPAIII

Diamond

gwbolton

Aluminum

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