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You have probably seen the rolling action with your brass and walnut shell media; this is what you need to see with your steel parts and what ever media you choose to experiment with.I have been wanting to try using the walnut shell media that has the red rouge added to it for deburring and polishing tiny brass model engine parts; have you tried this?Dave
Quote from: RonGinger on November 06, 2016, 03:15:27 PMHow are you going to finish all those track pieces? I think a short ride in a tumbler would give them a perfect texture and knock off all the sharp corners. They would look a lot like the original castings.I was wondering about tumbling them to give them that cast look. I have a vibrating tumbler for cleaning pistol/rifle brass, but I don't think the normal walnut shell media would do more than polish them. What works for smoothing parts like these, some sort of ball bearing media? I draw the line at hand sanding each one, and the shop elves just laughed and rolled off the bench!
How are you going to finish all those track pieces? I think a short ride in a tumbler would give them a perfect texture and knock off all the sharp corners. They would look a lot like the original castings.
Quote from: crueby on November 06, 2016, 04:20:51 PMQuote from: RonGinger on November 06, 2016, 03:15:27 PMHow are you going to finish all those track pieces? I think a short ride in a tumbler would give them a perfect texture and knock off all the sharp corners. They would look a lot like the original castings.I was wondering about tumbling them to give them that cast look. I have a vibrating tumbler for cleaning pistol/rifle brass, but I don't think the normal walnut shell media would do more than polish them. What works for smoothing parts like these, some sort of ball bearing media? I draw the line at hand sanding each one, and the shop elves just laughed and rolled off the bench!Chris, How about using a portable sandblaster to give them a cast look: http://www.harborfreight.com/portable-abrasive-blaster-kit-37025.htmlI've got a similar one that I've used through the years for larger parts. I'm going to try it on some small parts sometime, but I think it might work good. What kind of steel are you using for the tracks?Jim
Quote from: Flyboy Jim on November 08, 2016, 03:02:54 AMQuote from: crueby on November 06, 2016, 04:20:51 PMQuote from: RonGinger on November 06, 2016, 03:15:27 PMHow are you going to finish all those track pieces? I think a short ride in a tumbler would give them a perfect texture and knock off all the sharp corners. They would look a lot like the original castings.I was wondering about tumbling them to give them that cast look. I have a vibrating tumbler for cleaning pistol/rifle brass, but I don't think the normal walnut shell media would do more than polish them. What works for smoothing parts like these, some sort of ball bearing media? I draw the line at hand sanding each one, and the shop elves just laughed and rolled off the bench!Chris, How about using a portable sandblaster to give them a cast look: http://www.harborfreight.com/portable-abrasive-blaster-kit-37025.htmlI've got a similar one that I've used through the years for larger parts. I'm going to try it on some small parts sometime, but I think it might work good. What kind of steel are you using for the tracks?JimWould that kind of setup do a good job of deburring too? The ball end mill left small burs every time it passed the edge of the fingers. I have a friend who has a small tabletop sandblasting rig that I can borrow time on. My compressor is too small a volume for it.The steel parts, including the tracks, on this build will mostly be 303 stainless, a few 304 parts that come out of the plate stock I have.To do some experiments, I am picking up some ceramic media for the tumbler to see what it does, if anything. If nothing, I can always throw in a shop gnome. Not any of my elves, a buddy has some gnomes that hang around his production shop!
You have just solved one of my problems with the excavator tracks. I will make up one of those tools and do my track pins the same way.Tom
There's a lot of work in those tracks, but it looks like you have got it sorted Still following along
That looks good Chris, but that is a lot of washers to make Bill