OK, I guess a two stepper here. First, wondering if anyone here has built a large bowl type tumbler? We are looking at this style because it is my understanding they work better for polishing with the higher frequency and low amplitudes. We are looking at taking a plastic 55gal drum, chopping in half, and mounting just like the small bowl tumblers. I also thought this type was MUCH quieter as well.??? We need a fast polish with a very light deburr on corners of Al parts.
This brings me to my next question--Media!! Wow, there are a bunch and we have tried the walnut shell beads so far. They do pretty good for a high polish but they don't deburr or scrub AT ALL. Are we asking too much? Hoping there are slightly more abrasive products that can be wetted, or soaps or something to help us out. We produce racing parts so shiny sells. The more pop the better but we also don't want this to take 2 days per run. I am hoping for 2-3 hours for most parts and up to a day for special parts.
Hoping we have some media experts here that can shed some light on the media questions. Also, we are considering making two or more tumblers to step the proccess if that can help speed progress. thanks
Brandon