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Tumbled finish?
- Thread starter gixxer
- Start date
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- Jan 6, 2007
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- 4
Did you ever settle on a media to polish with?
- Joined
- Sep 26, 1999
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I have been thinking of building a tumbler to take scale off my forged blades and Damascus bars.Had a idea of how to build one but wasnt sure if it would work.I will tell you guys my idea if you dont laugh to hard
I thought about taking a old clothes dryer,and building a stand that would lock into the tumbler drum that had a center set of rings with a locking split ring to hold the bucket or small drum.This way the bucket could be taken out and another one with medium and steel could be set back in.Then just bypass the dials on top with just a on/off toggle switch so the dryer could run for as long as needed.I figured the dryer was designed for heavey loads and already geared to tumble at a set speed,with parts easy to find at local junk yards.You can get one for free by hauling it away from a neighbors when they say it wont heat anymore,it doesnt need heat so it would work for this.
OK I know I am crazy....But would it work? Or atleast some of the parts like rollers from the dryer work to build one?
Man I have been thinking to much
Bruce
One of the guys in my Blacksmith guild does this to clean scale from pieces before he sells them. He bought a concrete mixer from Home Depot or something on sale and just started tossing small steel scraps, nails, screws, etc into it as a media. Once he had a bit in there he just started tossing work in there and letting it run for a few hours. Supposedly works really well. I'll try to remember to ask him about it this weekend.
-d
I got the large and small non grit ceramic from here:
http://www.stoneageindustries.com/ceramic_media_small.html
http://stoneageindustries.com/ceramic_media_large.html
to fill my average sized reloading tumbler, I needed like 4 bags of the small and 2 of the large to fill the bowl. You are supposed to use 2 different sizes of media to keep the whole "tumble and rotation" going while tumbling.But for sure I can get the knives of alaska frosted look easy. That only took like 8 hours and the blade was not even finish sanded at all. It will look smokin when I get to toss a 600grit finished blade in there.
Wow. Too violent for sure. I had contelplated getting a concrete mier from northern tool (think it was northern) for $125, it rotates @ 25rpm which is the magic number apparently to get the media spinning up the side of the bowl without going over the top so to speak. Think when you watch the food network unwrapped and they show how they tumble hard candies and build up the layers. how that looks is how the media is supposed to tumble. I did some research and if you did get the concrete mixer, you should line it with felt so you do not piss off the neighbors at lunchtime! the ceramic media is loud stuff. It is even loud in my reloading tumbler with teh lid attached.
I thought about taking a old clothes dryer,and building a stand that would lock into the tumbler drum that had a center set of rings with a locking split ring to hold the bucket or small drum.This way the bucket could be taken out and another one with medium and steel could be set back in.Then just bypass the dials on top with just a on/off toggle switch so the dryer could run for as long as needed.I figured the dryer was designed for heavey loads and already geared to tumble at a set speed,with parts easy to find at local junk yards.You can get one for free by hauling it away from a neighbors when they say it wont heat anymore,it doesnt need heat so it would work for this.
OK I know I am crazy....But would it work? Or atleast some of the parts like rollers from the dryer work to build one?
Man I have been thinking to much
Bruce
Mr Bump, there are different grades of abrasive for ceramic. From non abrasive to heavy cutting/fast removal. If you convert anything that big, you are gonna need a 5gal bucket of media alone. The good thing is the stuff never wears out as long as you keep it clean. It turns black after a while (unless you are using a black media already!). check it.
http://www.steelmedia.com/ceramic-media.htm
http://www.royson.com/medias.htm
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- Sep 26, 1999
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- 4,486
gixxer,Thanks for the info....Wrong Bruce But thanks anyway...I was wanting to set the dryer up to hold either a 5 gallon bucket or possiably a 10 gallon bucket,Just for length....Setting up to hold a piece of the larger PVC pipe sounds like a good idea though...
Bruce
But thanks anyway...I was wanting to set the dryer up to hold either a 5 gallon bucket or possiably a 10 gallon bucket,Just for length....Setting up to hold a piece of the larger PVC pipe sounds like a good idea though...Bruce
gixxer,Thanks for the info....Wrong Bruce
Bruce
Boy, do I feel small...:foot:
:foot:
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- Sep 26, 1999
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- 4,486
gixxer,Dont feel bad,People have been getting us mixed up for a long long time now.I can only wish to do as good of work as him some day....Plus we are really good friends:thumbup: We even did a collaboration knife years ago,The Bruce and Bruce Knife....
Now back to the tumbler......Does anyone know what speed the dryer tumbles at? if the rotation is a factor that may be something I will have to take into consideration,The cement mixer sounds like a cool idea also.Bet it could be modified to hold a bucket to keep noise down to a minimum and not use as much of the abrasive.
Bruce
Now back to the tumbler......Does anyone know what speed the dryer tumbles at? if the rotation is a factor that may be something I will have to take into consideration,The cement mixer sounds like a cool idea also.Bet it could be modified to hold a bucket to keep noise down to a minimum and not use as much of the abrasive.
Bruce
- Joined
- Dec 2, 1999
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- 9,910
Did I hear my name in here? The Bruce and Bruce team need to do another one sometime.
My uneducated guess is the dryer goes faster than 25rpm. As far as modding the concrete mixer, it looks in teh pics like the agitation fins are bolt in, you could remove em and pop rivet an individual homemade support in on all of em so you could slide a bucket in and be supported on 3 sides evenly. Like a rail on each of em square to the mouth of the tumbling bowl. Maybe even have flanges to bolt the bucket to the supports. Nothing huge, just enough to keep the bucket secure and be easy to remove so you can remove the bucket for dumping/seperation. Giving you ideas?
- Joined
- Sep 26, 1999
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Guess I need to give this more thought...The cement mixer sounds good,might be able to find a old used one pretty cheap...
Hey Bump,I agree:thumbup:
Bruce
Hey Bump,I agree:thumbup:
Bruce
Okay, It has taken quite a while but I have blades picked out for the tumble after I get em back from HT, they hopefully go in the mail friday or sat to Mr Bos. I have settled on this lineup for handles. Walnut burl guard, .02 brass spacer, and ipe handle. The parer, and the skinner that looks too big to be a skinner, and the slicer are going to be a 3 knife set, all same handle. The smaller skinner is going to get a silver twill guard, .020 stainless spacer, and black G10 handle with one 1/8 stainless pin. I took the pics so I have a reference for the shape I want for the front of the guards, and I was marking spots for pin holes, hidden and exposed. Although after looking at the pic of the slicer, the curved shape on teh guard looks kinda nasty with the flat clean ricasso bottom. That might just be straight lined after all. If I had the room, it would get a 9 inch diameter plunge, but I cleaned up the ricasso before I finished the plunge. Dont ask me why, who knows.
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- Mar 2, 2006
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Try some steel BB'S for an air rifle. Also if you have a bulk oil supply place near you they get small 25gal barrels available. I used one years ago to make a shell casing tumbler. Used 2x4 peices inside lag bolted from the outside for the paddles to roll the BB and corncob mix. Good luck