I tore down the top side of my Harlem Globetrotters and threw all of the metal parts in the tumbler. Last night it had been running for about 48 hours and I took a look at the parts. The hardware is not shining up much if any at all but all of the other metal parts look great! I'm using walnut shell media and added some Flitz to it before I started the tumbling process.

So, my question is, is there a plating on the hardware that is gone and no amount of polishing will make it shiny again or maybe am I using the wrong type of media?

I think I've only used it on one tumble job before this so 2 to 3 days max.

Yes, the bolts and screws. They weren't real nasty going in just kind of dull. I never thought about buffing but currenlty don't have a bench grinder setup. Is it pretty quick, just a quick buff or do you have to work at them for a while?

What do you use for a polishing compound?

does this method make screw and bolt heads shine like new?

Wow! Everything except for my hardware (screws, bolts, nuts) looks close to that shiny. Is the mothers mag wheel polish that much better than Flitz I guess?

This last batch of parts was just oxidized. I turned it off last night after 72 hours and about everything polished up great except for the hardware is still dull looking. I'm going to probably try a few on the buffing wheel to see what happens. Next time I run parts through the tumbler I'm going to have to try to add the mag polish. Is this what you guys are using and if so how much would I want to add for one of the large tumblers?

https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-05101-Mag-Aluminum-Polish/dp/B0009H519Y/ref=sr_1_3

Last night after work I picked up some Mothers Mag & Wheel Polish. The day before I bought a buffing wheel from Harbor Freight which I mounted on my bench grinder; it spit strings everywhere for about the first 45 minutes, but that's another story. Anyway, I lightly locked each piece of hardware in my vice grips, dipped the head in the Mothers polish, hit it on the buffing wheel for a few seconds while turning it and the results speak for themselves- before and after picture.

I would like to try adding the Mothers to my tumbler for some other hardware and maybe some old balls I have sitting around. I have one of the large size tumblers. Does anyone know about how much polishing compound I would add to my media? Not sure if it would matter or not but my media has Flitz in it from the last 2 tumbling sessions.

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