Comments on: Titanium Grinding vs. Tumbling

By: MrTitanium

MrTitanium — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:29:54 +0000

I recently bought a fancy flow-through RayTech vibrator, but have yet to try it. I'm sure that it will work to get a shine. For smoothing and deburring, a cheap one with ceramic media will do just fine. Just don't use a barrel that had been used to grind to try to get a shine. Residual grit will fight you. You'll need one to grind, and another to polish. I see others use many barrels for multiple grits and load sizes, to go from machined parts to shined.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:14:31 +0000

I wonder if a metal barrel could be purchased to fit into the Chicago Power Tools Vibratory Tumbler, and if that would solve the difficulties that you experienced. The price is certainly right.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:35:28 +0000

Ok, so all things considered, especially time, what brand vibratory tumbler, and what kind/size of media, gives you the best results for the buck?

By: MrTitanium

MrTitanium — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:56:01 +0000

Bill at ReactiveMetals uses a vibratory tumbler (with continuous flow) to smooth and polish their parts, like ear hooks.

I’ve since experimented with stainless steel shot in my latest vibrator. It polishes and deburrs (rounds sharp edges) nicely. The hard part was separating the non-magnetic shiny shot from the same-size shiny metal pieces. A flat tray helped a lot.

Also, the abrasive media picks up plastic from the cheap barrel of my latest tumbler. I had to run the now-shiny media in my old vibrator for a while to grind the soft goo off, to prepare them for another polishing run. There is a reason this last one is so cheap: Wrong resin barrel for my needs.

I may try putting shredded paper in with my next run, in order to keep the media cleaner. Then I’ll report how that works.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:29:56 +0000

Would this proccess work with small pieces of Titanium like wire, without bending the wire itself?