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How long to tumble

paddythegreek

paddythegreek

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Joined
Aug 30, 2011
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Location
Leicester
Alias
Ken
I got a new tumbler i swapped for a bagatelle game with a mate. He bought it brand new and never used it. No soddin instructions either.
It's a Smart Reloader made in Italy. How long should i leave the bits in for to get them clean? Thanks Ken
 
Well the bagatelle game inc pins to repair it stands me under a tenner so i'm not too put out. Any positive replies before i hit the vodka bottle
 
I use walnut and a teaspoon of Brasso overnight (6 to 8 hours) to clean dirty bits and then maybe 2 hours with corncob and a sugar cube sized dollop of Autosol.

It will always be quicker by hand but the tumbler works whilst you sleep or do something else.
A sewing pin glued into a stick will be your best friend for removing the grit from tight spots / corners after tumbling and a magnet is handy for finding any little odds and sods.
 
Yea only had it running to test it and got " if thats the noise it makes you can shove it in the garage" from her indoors. Well i stood my ground and said "its not". Abeit i said it from behind a locked toilet door. We've reached a compromise, i'm running it in the garage.
 
However long it's too long, there's more to life than waiting for a tumbler to clean metal.
Get a polish wheel, metal like brand new in seconds not days.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to come round to his way of thinking :thumbs: I've done plenty of games where I've tumbled for days and spent hours picking media out of screw heads but for the TZ I'm doing at the moment I've ordered new screws, nuts, washers etc for the top side and will fire up the bench grinder in my dads shed with a polish wheel for the bigger bits.
 
I have actually gone the other way. I used to believe in the polishing wheel, but now I give the tumbler 3 to 7 days first instead. Some stuff will still need the polishing wheel, even after a week of being tumbled but you can very quickly give it a quick whirl.

Also, like above, I try to have a good supply of new hardware so I can just bin difficult nuts/ screws etc
 
Walnut and a teaspoon of Brasso (4 hours)
Corncob and a sugar cube sized dollop of Autosol (2 hours)

Edit: For clarity the top picture is what I had at the start. The bottom picture is after 4 hours of walnut and 2 hours corncob. Assemblies where just broken down and all bits added to tumbler.

Before.jpg


After.jpg
 
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So corncob is the way to go from those results??? Ive used Crushed Walnut media for years, and whilst the results were always good after a few days, the above is startlingly interesting :D
 
The walnut and Brasso seems to the most effective at cleaning. The corncob and Autosol seem best at polishing.

Although the parts were dirty its primarily surface dust as you can see from the finger prints in the first pic. The final results could obviously be improved upon on the bench but I am happy with the way they came out.
 
Ha, Amazon refunded me £4.50 to buy an adapter that fits over the plug.

100% + their customer service.
 
Moonbus said:
The walnut and Brasso seems to the most effective at cleaning. The corncob and Autosol seem best at polishing.

Although the parts were dirty its primarily surface dust as you can see from the finger prints in the first pic. The final results could obviously be improved upon on the bench but I am happy with the way they came out.
Click to expand...

That's exactly it walnut for removing crud and cleaning corncob for polishing
 
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