I am looking at making a small parts cleaner for nut, bolts, etc, which I will set up in my lathe, on low speed. Anyone suggest a medium which can get rid of rust, but not be too severe on threads? I was going to just use dry sand to start off with, but wanted to see if anyone has some other ideas.
Crushed walnut shells. Pet supply stores have them, some people use them for bird cages. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Pea gravel for polishing really crusty pieces. Do an eBay search for "stone tumbler" to get some ideas. You'll find some pretty nice, stand alone machines with rubber tumblers, to run quiet, for about $70. And the same search will turn up various grit and polishing media. (They aren't just for polishing stones.) Many years ago, when I was a pup, I worked for a while at an investment casting shop. They had a thing called a Pangbourne Machine that used triangle shaped stones and abrasive powder mixed wet with water in a big rubber tub. It used vibration instead of tumbling. Parts went in rough and came out smooth.
I'm a cheap a$$ so bare with me ,I bought a garage sale rock tumbler for $4 and added a little diesel fuel and a couple of handfulls of thumbtacks . It still works good ,years later
Harbor Freight has a vibrating cleaner that uses plastic triangular shaped media - works fine. Media is probably sold separae.
Hi. Go to any gun shop that sells reloading equipment. They likely will have either crushed walnut shell or have crushed corncob. Some shops do trade in's on reloading equipment and may even have an inexpensive tumbler. OOps, just saw you are in AU. Not sure how much of this stuff is still there with your country's gun laws. Jimmie
I'll second nobull's suggestions using the brass tumbler. I leave the bolts and washers in for about eight hours and everything comes out clean with a nice dull gray finish. Might have to wire wheel some threads once in a while, but overall good stuff.
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