My latest contraption .. vibrating parts polisher

[AshimotoK0]

Built a parts polisher two 50p bowls and a 30p funnel from Wilco plus a bit of big boys (or girls) Meccano. Motor is from an old Vibrasaun massager  with eccentric disk on it but one from a dishwasher pump would probably do. great for polishing pre-plating and after zinc removal using the Ashimoto 'witches brew'. I am using glass bead media as I don't have any ground walnut shell type. It sits on 4 CB250K clutch springs !

'Potty talk'  removed by author   

https://youtu.be/0skTq5b5Vt0

Ash

[mike the bike]

I like that,  several questions arise though -
do you use the glass beads dry; it looks dry.
Where so you acquire the glass beads from?
Would a load of steel balls work better?

[AshimotoK0]

I like that,  several questions arise though -
do you use the glass beads dry; it looks dry.
Where so you acquire the glass beads from?
Would a load of steel balls work better?

Dunno .. using it dry at the moment .. just feeling my way. Any advice would be great. I think the pro's use ground walnut shells dry.

Got two 5kg bags  of glass beads (two grades) as free samples from Vixen post free . not bad eh.

[UK Pete]

Great contraption ash, how long do you need to run it for to polish up the parts?
pete

[AshimotoK0]

Great contraption ash, how long do you need to run it for to polish up the parts?
pete

Dunno Pete only got it working last night. I saw a 'pro one on one of those Sky USA car resto programmes last weekend.

Anyone got advice on media or wet or dry use?

[SteveD CB500K0]

Back when I was a 16 year old (riding a Raleigh Runabout) I had a holiday job at a local sheet metal place.

Their main line was ally parts (I believe they were destined for the dialysis machines of the day)

All the parts were stamped from sheet ally and bent on a press. The act of stamping the parts left a sharp edge which had to be manually removed by a bunch of incredibly hardworking older women who sat all day removing the burrs with sharp scrapers.

Long story short, for the really small brackets we had a machine like an enormous (18" dia) hollow cottonreel, into which you put a load of parts, some water and a load of abrasive 1/4" cubes. The whole lot was left on a rotating motor for 24 hours, after which the water was dumped down the drain and the immaculate polished and de-burred aluminium parts were removed.

[Bryanj]

If you can find an old shooting magazine and look at case polishers for reloaders they are similar. I built me own with a smallish motor bolted to the bowl and a pice of flat bar bolted to the other end with one leg longer than the other to give an offset vibration to shake the bowl and media (crushed walnut shells is ideal

[AshimotoK0]

Got the back from USA site:

'If you're trying to clean and polish steel, brass or copper parts, I use stainless steel jeweler's pins in a wet bath solution.  Check out ammo reloading forums and sites for a recipe that includes Lemishine in it.  I have no idea if Lemishine is available outside the US.  I get it at Walmart.  Steel parts come out looking like they were nickel plated'.

MY ANSWER  ...

Great advice on the SS pins
According to Google
Lemishine  == basic ingredient is citric acid hemihydrate