I need to put pieces in the tumbler with very small openings and
spaces to be polished, the media I use is average 1inch big. My
question is: can I put in the tumbler silica sand and have the
same results ??, Can I use shampoo ? just like regular media ?
Thank you very much
Gus
Gus the smaller and lighter the media in a tumbler the less work
it performs. So you can use sand but the action will be very
slow and probably not what you are looking for. Shampoo
depending on the brand may be too sudsy which will also reduce
the cutting action of the media. If the areas you want to poish
are too small for the edges of 3/8" triangular media to get into
than you will be better off hand finishing. That is unless you
have a magnetic tumbler then you can burnish very fine detail.
Jim
@jbin
James Binnion Metal Arts
4701 San Leandro St #18
Oakland, CA 94601
510-436-3552
Gestrada, I haven’t tried this but spoke with someone who says it
works: she puts water over her pieces, just enough to cover the
tops, barely. Then she adds sugar to her tumbler. She tumbles
it for a half hour to let the water/sugar mixture become thick,
listens (too slushy a sound is not good, as it means there’s not
enough movement of the pieces in the media, the sugar/water mix
is too syrupy), and then opens the lid of the tumbler and
rechecks visually. If necessary, she adds more water, tumbles
and listens again. The sugar/water mixture purportedly works
well.
Hope this helps.