Plastic pail parts polisher

[andyvh1959]

When in my shop ideas suddenly hit me. I have some five gallon pails, if one was tipped at say a 60 degree angle, attach a shaft to the bottom center with a pulley from a dryer, open end of the pail supported on small rubber wheels, then mount it to a piece fo plywood and mount a small electric motor with a small pulley. Kind of like a portable concrete mixer image.

Fill the pail with some sort of abrasive beads, walnut shells, baking soda, whatever, put small parts in the pail power the motor and let it churn for hours, a day? Would that work to clean/polish small metal parts?

 

[MileHighRover]

Yes

 

[Stuart in MN]

There are numerous plans and videos online for building exactly what you describe. I'd buy some cheap replacement rollerblade wheels (or go to the local Salvation Army store, get a pair of used skates and harvest the wheels from them.)

 

[CraigStu]

Search for brass cleaners or polishers in gun ammo reloading websites. That is how many clean their brass so there will be sources for the media needed.

 

[paredown]

At my dad's metal stamping shop we used a parts tumbler (which he made). Pretty much all stamped parts that were going to be handled went in and were tumbled with sawdust to knock of any burrs that would cut or make the parts hard to handle for assembly or whatever.

I can't remember what size of steel drum he started with, but he mounted it on A frame ends, with his support axles on what had been top and bottom of the barrel. He put in some vanes, and cut a nice rectangle hatch/door --he may have just picture framed the piece that came out of the barrel with some flat stock--that could be bolted shut,

It looked more or less like some of the compost bins you see around now. Pretty easy to put a pulley on one end and motor slung below.

So it was top load, throw in a couple of scoops of sawdust, bolt the door shut and fire it up. Damn thing was noisy though, so it lived in the insulated room with the air compressor.

We had a big tray with handles and a perforated bottom, so gravity did the unloading and we would have to shake the tray to clear the sawdust and then box up the parts...

 

[Pete D.]

Worked with a tile setter that had a small mixer to mix thin set mortar had to use the 31/2-gallon buckets. Worked just like a concrete truck but had an arm that went inside the bucket.

 

[50of4064]

Sounds like your going to have to give us some progress photos...now that you have peeked our curiosity and have our attention. Can't wait to see it.

 

[southalabama]

You can certainly build one. I know guys who use HF cement mixers to tumble brass.

I use this

Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Case Tumbler

The Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler delivers a new level of brass cleaning performance. The small stainless pins easily penetrate...

ads.midwayusa.com

 

[50of4064]

For lack of a better reason, or a better plan, I cobbled a small parts/brass tumbler out of scrap I had . Basically a much less sophisticated rotary tumbler, but built on that same principle of.. make it go around, and keep the liquid and bits sealed inside. It uses SS pins for the burnishing, a 6" pvc tube, capped off on one end, and a reducer from 6"to 4" to fit a no-hub clamp/cap on the mouth...A little Palmolive, lemishine and the pins...and your in business. Pillow-blocks and pully's run by an old electric motor and a 60 min light timer/switch.
I still want to see this bucket polisher you have in mind to build...hope this helps out with your build. Looking forward to it Andyvh1959