How to polish resin dice in a tumbler: the final update!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- This is the big one, the wrap up video for using a vibratory tumbler to polish handmade resin polyhedral dice. The first half of this video covers some common problems, challenges, and troubleshooting for tumbler polishing. The second half contains a complete set of directions for how I use my tumbler to polish dice, so be sure to watch to the end! All materials are listed below with links to amazon (non-affiliate).
If you like this content and want to support things like buying supplies to test and review or improving my filming and audio equipment, you can contribute any amount at www.ko-fi.com/....
For a look at what I'm making and selling these days, check out my instagram @PierceFamilyResins or etsy via my linktree: www.linktr.ee/...
Materials used for tumbler polishing of dice:
- Frankford Arsenal Quick-N-EX 110V Vibratory Case Tumbler: smile.amazon.c...
-NON-ABRASIVE ceramic sphere tumbling media, about 5 lbs total: smile.amazon.c...
- Chemical Guys V34 polishing compound: smile.amazon.c...
- Large Aquarium media bag: smile.amazon.c...
-Silicone brush: smile.amazon.c...
I am inspired to try this method this summer. Thank you
Hey! I know these video are a few months old now, but I just wanted to say thank you so much for making them. I'm working on my own resin crafts (not dice, but still need to be polished), and your vibration polishing tutorials were a godsend. You deserve way more views!
Hey I'm doing the same have you Done anything? With the tumbling let
Thanks for posting this, a couple of notes:
11:25 - Yes, compound build up is a huge pain. I've had a lot of success using pressurized water to clean my dice faces.
11:50 - This is partially correct. Most automotive shampoos are actually PH balanced and don't quite have the "bite" to remove oily polishes. They do this with shampoos so that you don't remove automotive wax/sealants from the car. In your case the shampoo you are using is not PH balanced, and is used for tougher cleaning, chemical guys citrus wash and gloss is also a non-PH neutral soap and can work well. Best bang for your buck is dawn dish soap however as the PH level there is just over 7, about 7.8 if memory serves.
Again, thanks for posting this!
- Jason
Gamemasters Guild LLC
My friend who makes dice with me recommended using a water pick to clean the compound out of the dice, & it works like a charm! My hands began to cramp using a toothbrush & soap, so this really saved me some pain.
I’ve tried the water pick without much luck. How do you do it without making a mess???
@@KaitlinPierce I just end up making a mess haha, but I use a silicone apron for dice making anyways.
@@KaitlinPierce an air compressor/air brush thing might work!
Did you try an ultrasonic cleaner to clean them? How many sets can you tumble at once?
For the medium in the numbers, I find just letting them soak in water for around a half hour losens it enough that it wrinces right out with the tap.
Questions: How often do you fully clean your medium? I've recently gotten into trying out a tumbler, same brand as well as 5 pounds of the Porcelain balls and do wonder how often you find you need to fully clean it? After every round or a few rounds?
If you use a funnel for the center rod, is it best to put it in where the narrow part is sticking up? Or flip it so the funnel is upright?
Did you try a non ceramic polishing medium? Walnut shell, or similar material, will put a mirror polish on soft metals in a fairly short time. I imagine it would work great on resin.
Thanks for this, just curious how much media you are using? I'm using 3mm ceramic spheres about 4lbs. My tumbler is rated for that much. However I'm getting limited to no flow. I used 2 TBLS of plastx. I'm wondering if perhaps 1 TBLS would be better? I'll try less tomorrow after I wash out the media and dry it. Thanks for the great video, I just need to tweak my mix any advice would help.
Great explanation, great content. However that background music was too load.
I have the same tumbler as you do and using the same amount (judging by what your level is in the tumbler) and type of media (ceramic beads, 6,6 lbs). I have a good circulation, but not a vortex. And I have tried alot of different ratios on water/polish. The dice want to stay on top of the beads towards the center. Im using a funnel as center cover. Do you have any ideas on what im doing wrong? Could really use some help.
I'd been waiting for your conclusions on this method so thank you so much for this!
Love your dice making abilities.....wished you sold them...would buy HEAPS
If I wanted to bring my dice to a mirror-smooth polish, how can I do that? I have a rotary tumbler. Thanks! ❤
Really interesting video. I learned a lot so thank you! I make resin jewelry as a hobby and I would like the first stage to round off the corners before polishing - what sort of coarse aggregate would you suggest?
Thanks so much for this video. I have rheumatoid arthritis and love making dice but they were just piling up because it takes me so long to finish them. Your video series helped me so much. I started using my tumbler 3 days ago and am almost caught up. A few questions:
Any thoughts on whether the media should be dry when you start? I’ve been just washing and reusing wet and it seems to work fine.
How many normal sized dice can be done in 1 batch?
Thanks.
Thank you so much for this follow-up video. Your advice has helped me SO MUCH and saved me so much time.
I’m so happy to hear that!
I'm a medical science student, so I've had to put aside dice-making because of being busy, mostly because sanding and polishing takes me hours. I've decided to try using a tumbler so that I can chop that time significantly. Your video was the most comprehensive that I have found. Thank you for including your method as well as remedies to possible scenarios that we might encounter.
Thanks for the update K!
Very informative 😎
Thanks, this video helped so much!
Anybody tried this method with mini dice? I'm going to try it soon, but if anybody's got tips I'm all ears!
Update: it worked well for all of the minis except the caltrop d4, which consistently got stuck to the sides above the media line. Recommend hand polishing those, but the rest are good to go in the main polisher
I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge on this. I used to work at an art foundry, and we used those tumblers to polish smaller bronze pieces. I’m going to try this out on some resin prints and see how it goes.
Do you have a rough estimate as to total cost? If someone is starting from scratch, about how much will all the equipment and materials cost? Bonus points if we can total up the number of hours needed for clean up of dice and machine per polishing run.
Asking the math questions! Ok so…
Takes me about 1 hour to clean 4 sets of dice out of tumbler IF I don’t let them sit.
Cleaning the tumbler and media itself is quick, only 15-20 minutes.
The tumbler has gone up in price, most recently it was around $70 on Amazon (in USD). Media has been around $20-25 per 2.5lb bags, so let’s estimate high at $50 for media. V34 isn’t bad as it’s usually around $17 for 16oz, and my 4oz sample has gotten me through probably half a dozen runs and still has a good third of it left. So really, per run the compound is only gonna be a dollar or two. Dish soap is a negligible cost and most of us have it anyway, and you can get a big plastic bowl for rinsing for a dollar.
So $70+$50= $120 for the “permanent” supplies (ones I haven’t had to replace yet and show no signs of needing to be after almost 6 months). $17 for a bottle of compound that at my ROUGH estimate would get you at least 32 or so runs would be about $0.50 per run.
So a decent output of investment for equipment but pretty negligible running costs after than. As for time, it takes me maybe 20 minutes of hands on time during a run to maintain the tumbler plus 1 hour/4 sets so 15-20 minutes per set of dice. Compared to $12 per pack of zona paper that would get me about 6 sets taking about 6 hours per set to complete.
In my opinion, if you are selling dice steadily, the monetary cost of starting equipment for this are well worth it when considering the opportunity cost of your own time lost during hand sanding.
I'd be interested to see what happens if you used similar media, but in a rotary tumbler (aka a basic cheap rock tumbler)?
I’ve thought of that, but looking around for evidence, I found someone who tried it and severely rounded their edges and corners. Which makes sense to me since the dice are continually dragging along the flat sides of a rotary tumbler as they cycle.
Thank you so much for this series. I cannot find the 3mm ceramic media in Canada at a reasonable price, so I used popcorn kernels. It worked well after 14-16 hours. I also added a practice master (SLA) just for fun and it went from 100% raw to like 1000 grit polish. Will test more next week, I want to know if I can get masters to mirror finish :P
You’re not the first to mention popcorn! It’s definitely on my “need to experiment with” list. How does it stand up to the moisture from the polishing compound though?>]
I only added some compound (about 80 or 100 ml) at the very beginning, it remained wet for about 10 hours. I remember once I was done it was still a little sticky
I can totally test again and make a video for you :D
Interesting. I never would have thought of that, but it sounds promising.
Do you need to wash the media before your first use? Thanks for this video!
That’s a great question. I did not and haven’t had problems, but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt!
This has been very helpful, but I've got one problem. The microbubbles on the top face of my dice get filled with compound, and nothing I've tried (toothbrush, soaking in soap and water, soaking in ipa and water) has worked. What can I do to clean these tiny spots?
Hi! Thank you so much for your vids, they've been extremely helpful and I've been able to get my setup ready. Sorry for bothering you, I've watched all your vids at least twice but my dice still come out with some very unflattering scratches (that weren't there before), even after tumbling for so many hours! Do you have any advice?
It seems like my dice are gathering toward the middle of the tumbler. Would you advise fewer dice at a time? Or more media maybe?
Hi, I was wondering if you figured out the solution to this problem? I've been trying everything to get my dice to rotate properly, it seems like the media itself isn't rotating like the videos I've seen.
@@GamerShifty I have not tried again! I got frustrated with dice making and have taken a break. I want to get back to it though! I will try fewer dice and more media when I go back to it.
@@heatheralexander3065 I totally understand, it feels like one step forward two steps back sometimes. I hope you find your inspiration again!
Excellent video series! Thank you for the insight! I'm looking to eventually start making my own dice once I am able once medical and life issues hopefully settle. Definitely going to take this info into account!
I was wondering if you had tried an ultrasonic cleaner for the cleanup process afterwards? Thinking it might be helpful, especially for immediate cleanup?
Thank you again for the videos and for your time. Have a good one!
I have tried the ultrasonic cleaner. It hasn’t worked as I had hoped but I also bought the smallest cheapest model I could find, so I can’t fully write it off at this point
An ultrasonic cleaner is probably not the best bet if you want to retain the finish. It uses the same mechanism as the pistol shrimp and basically creates a small explosion on the surface of what you are cleaning to break whatever you are cleaning off. It will create small divots on that surface if it is too soft of a material. You may not be able to see them with the naked eye, but overall it will likely present a cloudy appearance.
@@Asher5250 Glad I read this, thank you for the info!
@@Asher5250 it has nothing to do with how a pistol shrimp works.
@@IcsulX How do you think it works? It's on the same basis. The both use ultrasonic (above sound) waves to cause cavitation. In the pistol shrimp it causes extremely fast movement. In an ultrasonic cleaner it loosens grime and grease extremely fast. The drawback is that it does cause a small pit or a line (depending on where the energy goes). Microscopic, yes, but it is there. I have seen them under a microscope. Again, what is your reasoning on how they work? Not being an ass, really do want to know what your reasoning is.
I wonder if the rock tumbling community would have any useful insight on this. There are some major differences, but they've been doing this for ages...
Thank you so much! I struggle with joint problems and also sensory processing dysfunction to where sanding 'causes full body pain from the sound and texture. I sanded my first set of dice last week and after I couldn't hold a fork from the joint pain. x.x;
Anyway, I know what I'm asking for Christmas!! Thank you so much for the experimenting, fine tuning the technique and making the video to share! Hope you're doing well, and hope to see more videos from you in the future. :)
Hello, I have followed this video to a T, but my dice still come out cloudy. Before they go in they have the clarity you want on a die, except for the sanded areas, but when they come out they are uniformly cloudy. Any suggestions?
Late to the party as I’m just investigating how to make dice myself and haven’t even started yet. Have you by chance tried a different tumbler? I know you said in your first video there are “nicer” ones. Have you noticed a difference in tumbler options?
is there a text breakdown for this? I keep trying to go back to certain pieces for reference and would love a step by step to read
Thank you so much for testing this out. With starting a new dice business, we have felt overwhelmed by sanding and polishing the dice. We are looking into the tumbling method and this is really helpful information.
When do you ink the numbers in this process? And would you sand at all if running it at 24 hours?
I wonder if one of those Sonic jewelry washers would expedite the clean off at the end
Would a plastic water bottle work as the middle “funnel” part?
Very nice series of videos. Have you tried a powder polishing compound meant for tumblers? Thank you for the videos.
Excellent video! Has anyone else tried popcorn kernels?? I would love to know more in depth!
Have you tried them as yet?
I've been considering using cherry stones, they're all over my garden from the neighbour's tree
This media is sold out. Should any 3mm ceramic sphere work? And, how loud is the tumbler (can I run it overnight in an apartment?)
The main thing is that it needs to be non-abrasive and large enough not to get stuck in your numbers. I’ve had some people have great luck with 4mm or even 5mm spheres (though I personally wouldn’t go more than that as it decreases surface area contact). As for sound, it’s about on the same level as a quiet compressor. If you put it on a folded towel and make sure all your bolts are tight, I think you could get away with it
I have a question, I 3D print items with resin and they don't have any flat sides, I don't mind sanding convex surfaces but I don't like sanding concave surfaces because you tend to make flat spots when you over do it. Any idea on how long you would have to have them sit in the machine for if you choose not to do any sanding at all with a resolution of around 25 micron layer height?
This is from several months prior, but 25 micron is around the range of 300-400 grit sandpaper, so I'd expect it to take quite a bit of time. It may be easier to do these in a closed(rotary tumbler) system instead
Have you ever tried painting the numbers and then tumbling the dice? Like trying to make sure the numbers completely full and then letting the tumbler polish off any excess?
Not with my dice. But, of the chonks Jason sent me to try for him, one had been I think spray painted roughly in the numbers. That one most of the paint polished off but not all.
You bought the set of liquid grits from 32-38. Did you use each of the grits in secession from course to fine?
Nope, just the V34. I have tried the V32 as well and it also works.
Awesome
Can anyone tell me why folks are using these vibratory tumblers as opposed to the drum tumblers?
Drum tumblers will round edges. Which is probably fine if you do rounded edge dice, but not for sharp edged dice if you want to maintain the sharpness
@@GamerShifty the action of the tumbler shouldn't matter, it's the type or media I thought. She had rounded edges in the vibratory tumbler as well
14:40 I was looking at rice cleaners, the bowl strainer thing, and that might help for cleaning your medium
Music was a lil loud for my neurodivergent brain, trying to concentrate on the words, but auto generated closed captions helped. Thank you for the series
I’m so sorry about that! I will definitely be more aware of the music going forward. Thank you for the valuable feedback ❤️
Great tips! Thanks! One small caution so others don’t make the same mistake I did… Check that your Solo cup is in good condition before you let the tumbler run overnight. Mine must have degraded after a few polishing sessions, and it fell apart. In the morning, some of my dice had big gashes where they ran into the center stem (but they had a great polish! 😂).
Also, do you have any thoughts on how soon you can put the dice in the tumbler after they come out of the mold? I’ve been waiting until they’re “fully cured”, but wonder whether I need to. TIA!
Oh gosh I’m sorry about your solo cup mishap! I’m not sure there’s a hard rule, but I know with other polishing techniques, you won’t get a really good finish until the resin is fully cured, so I would imagine the same applies here. Also, if you’ve ever tried to paint numbers before full cure, you may have noticed the lint is harder to clean from the faces. I would expect the same would happen with the polishing compound
@@KaitlinPierce I would thin a piece of clear poly tubing slid over the stem should also work. or at least a backup in case the cup disintegrates
I've been thinking about trying tumbling to sand dice, so your videos on them have been a boon. Have you thought about using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your medium or dice after tumbling? I've been debating getting an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning 3d resin prints, and watching your videos made me wonder if it could work for cleaning the media and dice...
So mixed results in that. I bought a super cheap ultrasonic cleaner to try and was not super impressed. BUT, that could be because of the weakness of the model combined with the depth and narrowness of my numbers…
@@KaitlinPierce Oh well, that's a little disappointing. I'll just have to think up a better excuse to justify buying one then. Thanks!
@@KaitlinPierce came here to ask about that; what cleaner and solution did you use? We use them in our lab a lot, all the way up to the pretty intense probe sonicators, and I figured the bath sonicator should work great for that, and maybe just needs a different solution to accelerate the dispersion
Thank you! My partner and I were looking at making some dice as gifts without hours of sanding and this video was a huge help :)
With how much patience and attention to detail you have, you should try carving a dice set out of stone. Wouldn't polished resin dice get scratched after the first use?
Hi, professional dicemaker here. I've been creating (and using) resin dice for many, many years now. Resin is not (at least when it's properly cured) soft enough to be scratched in normal dice-rolling use. The only way your finished dice are gonna get scratched is if you have them in a bag with something rough/sharp that they're rubbing against frequently, or any similar circumstances.
Resin, when properly cured, is a solid plastic, and is not soft enough that just rolling a resin die will scratch it. The finish is really not that dissimilar from standard chessex dice, in terms of the durability of the material.
Stone dice will actually be much more fragile, as stone is usually prone to chipping/fracturing in ways that resin simply is not prone to. Likewise, the process for creating stone dice is Entirely different from that of creating resin dice; youtubers like Rybonator show off the resin process very well, while HedonRockworks is a creator who makes stone dice--and if you watch a video from either of them, you'll see how the entire resin craft is a completely different animal from lapidary work, which is the cutting of rocks/gems. The skill sets are not overlapping pretty much at all--and lapidary work requires even more expensive (and loud) equipment than resin work does, along with a great deal more training, and craft space requirements. So suggesting that she switch to lapidary dice is really just suggesting she do something harder, more cost-intensive, and less compatible with the busy life of a working mother than what she already does... which kinda defeats the point of her making these videos to try to educate on a way to efficiently cut some corners lmao.
@@daarka- Wow. Okay...