I am a small jeweler, but I have a lot of output. I am a stone setter by trade, so all of the clean-up that comes from getting my pieces casted is taking waaaay too long. I am looking into getting a vibratory tumbler or a centrifugal tumbler to help me deburr my pieces. I am not looking to burnish, I am looking to actually remove the casting lines on my pieces to save me some work by hand.
Does anyone have any advice? I am willing to make a good investment if I can help me save time. I just don’t want to buy the wrong thing.
Take a look at the cmtopline.com website…click on the “finishing 101” tab and check out the articles and video. They will even do part testing and evaluation, and suggest process and consumables.
“C&M Topline offers part testing and evaluation at no charge to customers interested in purchasing a tumbling machine. Send us your test parts we will send you back sample finished parts with a recommendation report. The report will include the media we recommend, compounds, run times, parts per load and the machine we used
Turnaround time is usually Two to Three Weeks. We are often very busy with test part evaluations and so turnaround time will vary. We operate the part testing machines on a first come first served basis. NO EXCEPTIONS.”
I purchased my tumbler from them…they are very knowledgeable and helpful. they have small machines as well as large machines, and sell media and compounds.
you can also search the web for jewelry mass finishing, and click on the websites of the various companies that sell equipment…the websites are often very informative and provide lots of information. this is what I did before making my purchase…it helped me to become familiar with the various types of machinery and finishing processes, the media and compounds used, and the general terminology.
the different equipment, media, and compounds do different things…it is best to get the right match for your needs.
Either a vibratory or centrifugal machine will work for you. You will need abrasive media that works for your particular machine - vibratory tumblers are far less expensive and don’t require the maintenance of centrifugal finishers. Centrifugal finishers are much faster - like 15 minutes opposed to a several hours with vibratory ones. What material are you processing - silver, gold, brass??? Are your castings clean and sprues removed and ground? Judy Hoch
Julie thank you so much for this! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I will take a look into C&M. Are you using your tumbler for finishing gold pieces straight from casting? I just don’t want to invest all this time and money and find out what I am trying to do isn’t even possible with a tumbler.
Hi Judy!! I was hoping you would see this. I was trying to get my hands on your finishing book but its sold out on Amazon. We are mostly doing 14k gold, and platinum. We use Carrera for our casting, they do 0 clean up so we get it with the sprues still on. We have no problem removing the sprues by hand, we are mostly just trying to save some time on removing casting lines, instead of using rubber wheels which takes me forever.
You’ll find clean up of castings quicker if you start with files before moving to abrasives. A file will take down a parting line much faster than a rubber wheel or emery on a mandrel. It will also remove the cast surface much quicker. Then follow with emery sticks and wheels.
Of course, whether files will work for you depends on the shape of the piece: how much detail, how complex the surface, etc.