Tumbling with Tumblers
Aluminum is fairly easy to polish with a decent machined finish. After milling/turning it's
straight into the tumbler.
I use a UV-45, 4.75-gallon vibratory tumbler from Thumler's Tumbler (yes, that is their real name). If your parts have a lot of burrs, you'll want to start out with plastic media. I don't recommend ceramic media as it may cause pitting on the surface of your parts.
Final polishing should be done with walnut shells with rouge. Corn cob is not nearly as effective in my experience. 18 hours of tumbling yielded these results...
I use a UV-45, 4.75-gallon vibratory tumbler from Thumler's Tumbler (yes, that is their real name). If your parts have a lot of burrs, you'll want to start out with plastic media. I don't recommend ceramic media as it may cause pitting on the surface of your parts.
Final polishing should be done with walnut shells with rouge. Corn cob is not nearly as effective in my experience. 18 hours of tumbling yielded these results...
