6 replies to this topic

[MSwiss]

I have some brass items that could use the tiniest bit of deburring.

 

I have just been lightly sanding them, on both sides.

 

Can you tumble stuff, with the ceramic media, dry?

 

It's not worth it for me to tumble these particular parts, if I have to dry them off, afterwards.

 

The sanding would be quicker.

[Pablo]

I've never tried it. My first thought was, I could try a similar piece here and try it dry. 

But then I realized it won't work unless I remove all the media and dry it.

They way I do my chassis is, rinse the water afterwards until it's clean and the soap bubbles are gone, then tilt it over the sink until almost all the water drains out. A little water remains in the bottom and doesn't seem to hurt anything. Removing the media and completely drying it would defeat your goal of saving time.

 

In other words, it's going to be more challenging to get the media dry than to dry the parts after a normal wet tumble.

 

Buffalo Arms accidentally sent me some steel pin thingies once, maybe those used dry would do the trick. I gave them to John Streisguth. Or maybe submit the question to Thumblers Tumblers people, or Buffalo Arms.

[John Streisguth]

You could always just put them on a cookie sheet and pop them into the oven to dry them.  But I see no reason you couldn't tumble them dry.  The surface would probably just be a little coarser than if you did them wet, and they may have a bit of dust on them.

I still have those steel pins.  They don't do deburring like the abrasive media does, the cleaning action is much gentler. I doubt they would do what you want them to do.

[Matt Sheldon]

I have always been under the understanding that a vibrating media is better for de-burring and typically done dry. Centrifugal is use more for finishing and preferred wet. I too have never tried it dry. 

[boxerdog]

You could dry tumble (or vibrate tumble) using walnut shells or corn cob. Might take a while. 

[Dave Crevie]

You can tumble dry, but you probably will be left with a fine dust on the parts. A company I worked for had to dry tumble

gold plated electrical contacts, which had to be carefully blown off after the process. 

[MSwiss]

I have always been under the understanding that a vibrating media is better for de-burring and typically done dry. Centrifugal is use more for finishing and preferred wet. I too have never tried it dry.

I tumbled C43 chassis, the same way you would tumble a Retro chassis, and it does a great job of deburring.

I do leave it in, 24 or more, hours.

I've never tried it. My first thought was, I could try a similar piece here and try it dry. 
But then I realized it won't work unless I remove all the media and dry it.
They way I do my chassis is, rinse the water afterwards until it's clean and the soap bubbles are gone, then tilt it over the sink until almost all the water drains out. A little water remains in the bottom and doesn't seem to hurt anything. Removing the media and completely drying it would defeat your goal of saving time.
 
In other words, it's going to be more challenging to get the media dry than to dry the parts after a normal wet tumble.
 
Buffalo Arms accidentally sent me some steel pin thingies once, maybe those used dry would do the trick. I gave them to John Streisguth. Or maybe submit the question to Thumblers Tumblers people, or Buffalo Arms.

I drain, rinse, and redrain my media when I am done.

I thought it was fairly dry, or dry enough, so I tried it with 4 pcs. of these .012" thick brass parts.

After 3 or 4 hours, I opened it, and there was a ton of lather, and the 4 parts were stuck to the rubber on the lid, spaced almost a perfect, 90 degrees apart.

And while they were deburred somewhat,(I didn't bother to check them very closely) they still needed to be sanded as they were now dirty, I assume from not using new / fresh soap.

So a failure, but not quite the end of the world.lol