I'm the hard-head who has spent years hand polishing various bits from my games. After reading about polishing tumblers and seeing some impressive photos of polishing results, I've decided to throw in the towel and get my own tumbler. I'm thinking of the Harbor Freight 5 lb. model. One question I haven't seen addressed is how many parts can be polished at the same time. For instance, I want to polish 8 leg bolts and their 8 washers. Can I put those items in a single batch without risking having the parts bang into each other and do more damage than good?

What guidelines should I use for "sizing" a batch of items to be polished?

Thanks,
BCB

#2 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,362 268 14

Hardware basically gets group together in small batches.

For brackets and whatnot with large flat surface areas, I do those separately so they don't get scratched.

#3 7 years ago

AXE

YeOldPinPlayer

Inactive member

Unknown

8y 111K 6,454 4 12

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=polishing+tumbler+media+ratio

Many variables to consider. One site says 3 parts media to 1 part metal, fill the unit 75-90% full.

#4 7 years ago

RJP

Patofnaud

Pinside member

Tilton, NH

11y 67,150 3,621 7

OP
Quoted from BlackCatBone:
I want to polish 8 leg bolts and their 8 washers.

Yes you can, but, 8 bolts can be a bit heavy if they get to one side. Think a pair of heavy jeans in a washer on spin cycle.... You will want to keep an ear on it so it doesn't walk off the bench..

#5 7 years ago

KRN

Kronlar

Inactive member

Houston, TX

8y 49,050 233 2

Another good option for smaller parts is the HF drum tumbler for rocks of whatever it's for. It's a wet tumbler you can use with the stainless pin media. Parts come out sparkly clean.

I stainless tumble, then follow up with corn cob with a nufinish/mineral spirit adder. Overkill, but it's what I use for multiple thousands of pieces of reloading brass per year. Works on pin parts too.

Buy the biggest tumbler you can get and have room for. There will be parts that don't fit a smaller one and you might kick yourself for not going bigger. I say that with four tumblers at home because I learned the hard way.

#6 7 years ago

JEF

jeffc

Pinside member

12y 91,550 2,167

I think you'll be fine. I load mine up about 1/2 to 2/3 full. I put it on the floor so there is no chance of it falling.

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