vibratory finnishing question

Hi, I just bought a vibratory part finnisher (bowel type) ,added some plastic finnishing media and threw in some aluminum parts. After about 20 min. they came out very smooth, burr free with what looks like a dull galvanized lookikg finnish which was exactly as the salesman described. My question is is this a good finnish for color annodizing. I was told a shinny finnish will dull when the annodizer dips the part in acid anyway. I would appreciate any pointers or comments. Also how long should I leave the parts vibrate for. I am doing this dry, should I be using a liquid compound also?

I have a sweco and a deburr and use ceramic media wet with a flow through system and it works great I get the same galvanized look I have had parts done black oxide straight from the tumbler and they look fine I think you might want to run walmut shell to get a more uniform finish after the plastic.

Hey Norb,

I'm doing the exact same thing right now. I have a centrifugal tumbler, which really is too aggressive for aluminum parts that contain sharp corners. It leaves a pretty strong "galvanized metal" look, more so than a normal vibratory tumbler. After the dip in lye, it looks much more uniform, but you can still see a little bit of a pattern after color anodizing.

I'm now playing with going to the next step in the polishing process, either burnishing with non-abrasive porcelain, or walnut shells impregnated with compound, or both, and then going backwards with the lye.

I did a few over the weekend and they came out with much more of a uniform matte finish.

A actually just won a nice Burr-King tumbler about an hour ago on ebay, and am going to try doing it all in that as soon as I receive it.

kpotter:

I have a line on a used 4 cubic foot bowl sweco. How do you like yours? Any input as far as available parts are, etc?

Thanks,

Burt

Sweco is very much still in busines and will supply you with any parts available, However......they are not cheap.....most all parts are supplied to them....and if you do some in depth research you can find the same parts you need in other places....at a much more reasonable rate....

now if your making money with this item.....why dick around? just buy it and your return will exceed your savings by looking for parts that will fit

Mick

you may want to try corncob media. It a bit softer than nut shells. Personally, I've never done aluminum with my home tumbler, but at work there is only ceramic, The results have already be described.

I clean and shine my reloadable brass with corncob and a polishing agent at home.

The sweco kicks butt it will grind my parts in half the time as the deburr the sweco is at least 50 percent faster I got the sweco first and then the deburr for the long parts that I make I do steel and I thought somthing was wrong with the deburr because the cycle times were nuts I run 10hour cycles and only about 3-4 hours in the sweco and it is much more energy efficient. If you can find a good deal on one go for it but they are real expensive I paid 1000 for mine with about 4000 lbs of new ceramic media which was an amazing deal.

The smooth, dull finish is what you need. When you anodize, you have to make sure you have no scratches or imperfections. Anodizing will make them really stand out, so you need a very smooth surface. The dull shinny finish, should look like a brand new aluminum intake for your car. Adding a surface finish, such as powder coating, cerakoting, parkerizing, or anodizing, require a surface prep that allows them to bite into your part. The dull finish, gives your finish something to bite into.

I would suggest, for anyone interested in doing their own surface prep or needing a quicker way to deburr their parts, have samples ran, before you purchase any machine or media. That way, you know exactly what you're going to get, before you spend a penny. I have access to several factories and can get these samples ran for you. After they run them, they'll ship them back to you, so you can physically see them, with your own eyes. This is a lot better then some person, who has never been in your shop, talking to you over the phone, saying the words "good quality". What is "good quality"? Everyone has their own definition or what a "Good Quality Part" looks like. But at the end of the day, YOU have to live with that definition.

If you need any help, my name is Bill and you can contact me through our website AccuBrass.com

norb said:

Hi, I just bought a vibratory part finnisher (bowel type) ,added some plastic finnishing media and threw in some aluminum parts. After about 20 min. they came out very smooth, burr free with what looks like a dull galvanized lookikg finnish which was exactly as the salesman described. My question is is this a good finnish for color annodizing. I was told a shinny finnish will dull when the annodizer dips the part in acid anyway. I would appreciate any pointers or comments. Also how long should I leave the parts vibrate for. I am doing this dry, should I be using a liquid compound also?

Click to expand...

Trying to run dry is never a good idea. Parts come out dirty etc. Out of the 1,000 plus customers in my database I might have a half dozen that try to run dry. (I'm speaking of deburring, not polishing.) Plastic media is good. Even though a normal vibratory finishing compound will work for your application I would use a burnishing compound for better results. This will normally be used at a flow thru rate of 1 gallon per cubic foot per hour of water. And mix in 1 ounce per gallon of compound. There is no need for a second step. They say the better it looks before annodizing, the better it will look after. Rick

Vibratory Finishing Mass Finishing Ball Burnishing Deburring Media Compound Equipment

These are anodized right after finishing with green triangles in a Mr. Deburr. Finishing is a bit of an art in itself. Doing it wet, with some sort of flow through helps quite a bit. It's sort of the equivalent of wet sanding. If you have a liquid to flush away the worn media and residual from the parts, it keeps the media cutting efficiently. The best is to honestly experiment and find what works for you. Once you have a 'recipe' it's pretty repeatable if you keep everything relatively consistent.

Can anyone tell me approximate lifespan of the green plastic triangles when doing wet vibro tumbling aluminum parts? I suspect the modes of operation will affect this of course, I'm looking for a ball park figure, like tumbling for 2-4 hours daily it would last a month, 2, 5 etc., just an average figure from experience

And what wears out - sharp corners of the media get rounded over too much so they can't reach inside corners on parts etc

jz79 said:

Can anyone tell me approximate lifespan of the green plastic triangles when doing wet vibro tumbling aluminum parts? I suspect the modes of operation will affect this of course, I'm looking for a ball park figure, like tumbling for 2-4 hours daily it would last a month, 2, 5 etc., just an average figure from experience

And what wears out - sharp corners of the media get rounded over too much so they can't reach inside corners on parts etc

Click to expand...

I use plastic media from CM Topline. They carry plastic media in different hardness. The media wear hasn't been an issue - I mostly use the 3 cubid foot machine. I seem to remember reading somewhere that plastic media wears wears about 1 percent per hour. It will depend some on the weight of the parts too, I'm thinking. If you want to get into corners, I'd suggest small media, if you can live with that. Smaller media will give a finer finish, but can be a problem getting stuck in holes. It's a compromise.
Using fairly small plastic media with 6061 I can get soft anodize colors looking like Christmas tree ornaments. Hard anodize colors are a little duller, but still really nice.
I do use the soap additive suggested by CM Topline.
I've used barrel tumblers from Diamond Pacific in Barstow California too.
I'm sure there are suppliers closer to you that can be of help. Good luck!

jz79 said:

Can anyone tell me approximate lifespan of the green plastic triangles when doing wet vibro tumbling aluminum parts? I suspect the modes of operation will affect this of course, I'm looking for a ball park figure, like tumbling for 2-4 hours daily it would last a month, 2, 5 etc., just an average figure from experience

And what wears out - sharp corners of the media get rounded over too much so they can't reach inside corners on parts etc

Click to expand...

They'll last considerably more than a month at that rate. The corners round a bit, but mostly they wear by getting smaller. Which can be a problem if the parts have holes (the media jams) but the media will last a long time. I just run mine till they disappear.