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vibratory tumbling question

I have a couple of vibratory tumblers, one is a big home built one, and the other is a Raytech Tumble Vibe 10. Both of those machines I use 3/8" plastic cone type media with a FLOW THRU type rinse that moves water and special tumbling soap.

Now I bought the smaller Tumble Vibe 5, and I need to run some zinc die cast parts in it. The media I need to use is grit type marked 220/ F. I had it left over from some grits and pre-polishes I had bought long ago for use with a table top Lortone rotary tumbler.

So with this system, I am not going to have a flow thru system, so I need some suggestions for how much water and if I should put some soap in there too? How long do I leave it in there, etc. I remember shredding Ivory soap for use in the rotary tumbler, so I guess I will try that again with the vibe tub?

Thanks for all who post useful and positive ideas!

Reply to
rbce2003
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--Is the smaller one you just got a bowl type tumbler? If so there's a trick a pal of mine came up with: drill a hole near the bottom, just big enough to squoosh a rubber tire valve assembly in it. Remove innards of tire valve, then attach a hose to the outer threaded section where the cap would normally go. Do the same to the removable lid and you're good to go with inlet and outlet, then hook up a fountain pump from the hardware store. Put the small tumbler on something tall enough that you can put a decent sized bucket beneath, for the drain hose to dump slurry and let it settle out so pump can suck up relatively crud free stuff.

Reply to
steamer

Yes just a bowl type tumbler. I really like that tip! This grit sure is small, so I would have to put fine screen on the drain I guess... to keep most of the grit in the tumbler. I thought when using the tiny grits that most people just leave the soap and water in there for

5 or 6 hour run time, then rinse and repeat... Speaking purely out of ignorance, is having the flowthru system superior?

thanks!

Reply to
rbce2003

I have a 1cuft bowl job. I do not use a flow thru system. I add 1/2 to 3/4 gal of water/juice stuff and run 1 hour. then drain and repeat with next batch of parts, If I let the solids settle out I can reuse the juice once more.

By the instructions if you get suds showing you are using too much liquid.

Maybe you will need to dump out into a towel or old shirt to separate your grit from your liquid if it's that fine.

Flow thru is an option on mine, don't really know if it's that much better or not.

Thank You, Randy

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Reply to
Randy

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