tumbler
Hi,
Ihave been using the ones from HB for about 3 years. I started out with the small 5lb one and when that quit on me, had the insurance on the machine, paid a small amount to upgrade to the large one. It works great. Get the green media from HB, half the price from Eastwood but look at the Eastwood additives. the first one works quite well and cuts the working time much shorter. The second for polishing, I have not used yet, next batch will try it out.
Try and wash out as much grease and dirt as you can before putting them in, it helpa keep evrything a litttle cleaner. I leave my stuff on overnight for about 4-6 days depending on how bad the rust is. I then change the media to crushed walnut shells for the final polishing. After 4-6 nights of that, they come out pretty shiny but still need some sort of protective coating. Everything that I do goes out for different kinds of plating so I not sure about just leaving the hardware as is. Eastwood does have a clear coat spray that is suppose to workquite well.
I would never start with the small one now that I know how well the bigger one works better. I would get the insurance as well, worth the extra small amount.
Copper and brass come out of the walnut shells really, really shiny and lot's of bling.
I have included a picture of a bunch of stuff getting ready to go the platers but all of these were either rusty or painted over. When I mean rusty, I mean that a bolt is rusty but not lost it shape or the threads are too worn out. Don't expect a bolt so rusrty, it looked like it came off the ocean floor , to come out pristine. But they will come out really, really good if they are halfway decent going in.
Not too noisy, sit it on a rubber matt, don't overfill them.
If you have a lot of bolts and hardware to do, it is well worth it, I ran all sorts of different things through mine. Even rubber, works not bad at getting that old overspray off grommetts and small rubber seals.
Hope this helps, Good Luck
Thanks,
Rick
