Vibrating polisher

G’day, Orchidists; I had a bee in the bonnet about polishing
chains, and the difficulties thereon. Undoubtedly stimulated by
past postings on the topic, I had (too much) time to think about
it whilst lying on my back staring at the ceiling waiting for the
next nurse to come around, stick needles in me and pullme about.
So, scooting around my workshop on my trusty wheeled
office/workshop chair, I made a vibrator. It consists of a
little light wooden platform around 6"x4"x 1/4" which is
supported by 4 fairly light, 3 1/2" long springs (from our
village garage) about 4" above a similar sized but heavier piece
of wood used as the base. Attached to the underside of the
platform is the perfectly good DC motor from one of those
hand-held ‘dustbuster’ vacuum cleaners which went sproing a while
ago. (I hate throwing anything away) I fastened an eccentric
weight on to and at right angles to the (downwards pointing)
shaft. I put a mix of 2, 3, and 6mm ball bearings in an old Kodak
slide box, fastened the box on to the little platform with rubber
bands, and to try it, put in a 5cm x 5mm scungy-lookingrod I’d
just cast (in home-made moulds of course) from recycled sterling
scrap. I connected the contraption to my trusty battery charger
with a voltage controller on the mains or input side and pushed
the button. I soon found the resonant frequency of the motor
which gave the biggest vibration (had to clamp the base to the
bench to stop it going walkabout) I couldn’t stand the racket,
so went down the road on my crutches for the present customary 100
yards, talked to the neighbours,harrassed my wife, had a cup of
tea, and returned to my workshop 2 hours later to find that
scungy rod gleamingly polished - at least as good as I could do
on the buff, but without having to chase it round the room, then
try and get rid of the black deposits in the little pits from
the crude casting process. Even the little pits were polished.
So I tried it out on a sterling chain-and-leaf necklace of my
wife’s I made years ago - and that too came out of the kodak box
healthily shining. So there you are. The whole contraption
cost about $14 of your dollars, most being the ball bearings.
And like they keep saying on TV, “It reallyworks!” Oh; this
isn’t intended for the rich (!?!?) professional jewellers, but
for the deserving poor. So they can make one too! Cheers,

    /\
   / /    John Burgess, 
  / /
 / //\    @John_Burgess2
/ / \ \

/ (___)
(_________)

Now John, the challenge becomes how do you mass-produce this
beast.

Ringold’s Jewelers since 1908 9865 Bustleton Ave/ Phila, PA 19115
215-671-8190 Fax: 215-969-1803 Ringold@IX.netcom.com
Http://home.aol.com/REGALITE Manufacturing / Mining / Product
Development

I am delighted to see someone has started the ball rolling on
home built lapidary tools. I was thinking of posting a message
asking for any plans/tips on home built equipment as
I am sure many people out there have dabbled with making their
own slab-saws or tumblers or polishing machines or whatever! Come
on share your experiences with the rest of us who can’t afford
shop bought equipment but have the ability to follow instructions
and fabricate the required items - besides it is often more fun
to have built the tools as well as use them. In case you are
wondering I have not designed or built anything yet myself but
who knows what we may be stimulated to build given a little push
from those who have sharing their successes ( and failures?? )
Mike Lilley

I’m sure that someone will mention this eventually, so I might
as well get it over with now . . .

I believe it was on this list, a good while back, that someone
mentioned placing a liquid-filled container (probably
Tupperware) on top of a clothes washer / clothes dryer /
dishwasher while the contraption was running. Apparently, the
vibes were good enough to make a pretty good “tumbler.” Also
works as a cheap “ultrasonic” cleaner for jewelry.

If anyone remembers more details about this old thread &/or has
direct experiences to talk about, please post.

Joel Kahn <@Joel_Kahn>
Comptroller for Maxon’s Jewelers
Diamond Merchants & Estate Jewelers
Authorized Dealer for Rolex & Tag Heuer
2622 S Glenstone, Springfield Missouri 65804 USA
Voice: 417-887-1800 or 417-887-1809
Fax: 417-887-3422