Vibratory Tumbler/Polisher | Using to Clean & Polish Honda Z50 Parts
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ธ.ค. 2021
- First time using a vibratory tumbler/polisher... testing a 5lb vibratory tumbler from Princess Auto to use for cleaning and polishing parts for my 1969 Honda Z50 restoration. Results shown with crushed walnut shell, resin pyramids, and steel shot.
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You must fill the bowl to above half full for the media to move properly. Two thirds is best. Also, two hours is too short. Three at a minimum for most work and four or more for harder parts. This takes patience. Plastic media is for aluminum or brass. For steel, use ceramic media. Always use with water of liquid for tumbling, not dry. Stainless shot, pins, or whatever is for peening surfaces, not for rust removal as it doesn’t grind against the surface, but rather smacks into it. Walnut shells is not intended for heavy cleaning or polishing of hard materials. It’s a delicate media for materials that will easily get damaged from other, more aggressive media. I hope that helps.
Thank you for this. I recently uploaded another video sort of touching base on this as I’ve learned the same over the past couple years of using it.
Thanks for your advice. I am about to clean a load of bolts and nuts. What type / size of ceramic media would you recommend?
@@leondantuma7123 nuts and bolts are always a problem for this sort of cleaning. The difficulty is that the threads can’t really be cleaned. The only media that could do that with any success is a very fine fruit such as aluminum oxide. But the grit must be fine enough to work itself between the threads. Otherwise nothing will happen. But I really don’t advise it. First, how rusty are they? You don’t want to reuse them if they’re really rusty. The grit grinds the metal away, remember. So the resu,t are thinner, weaker threads which are rough and won’t tighten properly. But if you insist in reusing them then the best way to clean those is to first get any oil, paint or grease off using a cleaner first in a heated sonic bath. Then use a product such as Evaporust, in the sonic, to remove the rust. Those will damage the parts the least. It only takes 15 minutes, or so to remove grease or oil and 30 minutes to remove the rust if it is t too bad. If it’s bad them maybe another 15 to 30 minutes should do it. But if it’s that bad, bite the bullet and throw them away and get new ones. The problem is that people who do one thing think that nits the only way to do it. That’s wrong. Vibratory cleaning isn’t really acceptable for finely detailed parts such as threaded surfaces. I guarantee they will damage them, no matter what anyone here might say otherwise.
@@melgross Thank you. Solid point on the threads, I'll use a sonic with an equivalent of Evaporust instead. The bolts are not that badly rusted but I want to clean them up before I put my bike back together.
@@leondantuma7123 unfortunately I have never actually tried ceramic media… seems to be hard to find in small batches for a smaller machine like this.
Awesome results. 👍
Thank you, and thanks for watching!
Thanks. Very informative clip, something I did not find on many other channels.
Happy to hear that you found some value in this video. Thanks for watching and leaving this comment!
Great video. Nice to see your different trials with the media. I was surprised on your findings. My bet would have been the stainless steel shot to show the better choice.
Thanks Ja Ke! Agreed…. I was really expecting the steel shot to give the best results… turns out it didn’t do much of anything… maybe it would have worked better in a rotary tumbler 🤷🏼♂️
Interesting to see the different results with each media type. Seems like you’re getting it figured out to work quite nicely for you.
Yes, I was surprised to see the results… different than what I was anticipating.
Watch the dust when you are doing dry, don't what to breath any of that dust. I normally wait 30 minutes before I open container. Thanks for the video on the different media. I use the rust cutter all the time, but will try the walnut shell with polish.
Excellent safety tip!
i use wet sand in a bag in my tumble dryer ... works great
Sorry, what exactly do you do??? Do you use your clothes dryer?
Cermaic balls and corn cob work the best. will come out like chrome
@SpaceRanger187 I’ve hear of the corn cob, but never seen it done. I know of a wheel refinishing place that uses the ceramic balls which work miracles on wheels. Not sure how well it would do in the smaller hardware with crevices.
Great video
Just bought the tumbler and trying to figure out the best option. Sounds like the walnut shell with medal polish worked best.
Thank you. And yes, the walnut shell with metal polish works best for the final stage of giving that shine. If you are trying to clean grease/grime and/or rust, the triangles with a little soapy water do the trick. I have however found that nothing I’ve tried compared to using the parts washer with varsol, then sandblasting (or taking to the wire wheel), then using the buffing wheel with various metal polishing compounds. That is all certainly more work, requires more equipment, and different to polish tiny parts that can easily be tossed in the tumbler. Thanks for watching!
in your opinion from testing, which combination yields the best results for steel automotive hardware ? dry resin pyramids? Thank you for the great video
Hey, thanks for watching and dropping the comment! All depends on the current condition on the hardware you are trying to clean/polish, and the end result you are looking for. If your goal is simply to clean rust and polish, then yes… dry resin pyramids to remove the rust, then crushed walnut shell (with metal polish added) to bring a shine. If the parts are dirty, you will need the water and soap added to the resin pyramids. Unfortunately after many attempts and testing different scenarios, I cannot however really recommend the vibratory tumbler for the best results on hardware. It doesn’t clean between threads well, but rather leaves residue in between the threads. Best I have found it to soak parts in cleaning vinegar for ~24 hours, lightly scrub with a brush to wipe off the rust and dirt, rinse, blow try with compressed air (this will often leave them spotless), then finish cleaning up using a wire wheel or a blast cabinet. If you are painting the hardware, use something abrasive like silica sand or copper slag. If it is stainless hardware, use glass bead to leave a smooth shinier finish. I am actually working on a follow up video right now to show different methods for cleaning and polishing coins and hardware… hope to have this uploaded within a week or two.
Great info, thanks. Question: Will the tumbler / polisher work with torx bolts? Asking as I have an older BMW motorcycle and looking to restore the rusted bolts which are mostly torx types.
Hey, thank you for watching. Yes, it will work on any bolt type. HOWEVER… the media residue always gets stuck in the crevices. On any nut/bolt you need to take to a wire wheel or clean with a wire brush, or use a tap/die set after to clean the threads. The same issue would happen with the cavity of the torx head, so you would need to use a brush or needle to scrape the inside clean. I actually haven’t used this tumbler in over a year now as it doesn’t work as nice as just cleaning in parts washer (solvent based) first, then cleaning in the blast cabinet, then finishing up with a wire wheel or buffing wheel on the bench grinder. Also, if you are looking to re-plate any of the bolts (I’ve done a bit of that… nickel and zinc plating), the parts need to be thoroughly cleaned then blasted with clean media, then cleaned again with acetone… the tumbler/polisher won’t clean then enough for plating.
you need to incorporate a chemical in water to make it shiny then pour it in tne machine
I’m curious what type of chemical you had in mind. And what media do you suggest adding that in with?
I’ve been doing this coins and stainless shot and a detergent. Great results, especially with silver.
@martinphilip8998 I could imagine that works quite well. Are you using a vibratory tumbler, or a roller style one?
@@JMKGarage I have a Tumble Vibe 5 and use ShineBright. I buzz for about 30 minutes. Get that lid on tight or your machine will try to walk away.😆
@@martinphilip8998 🤣