The Arbe Magnetic Polisher – let’s give it a spin. Hey guys,
A frequent topic I get questions about is polishing. Polishing something well can
take hours to achieve, so looking for a quick and easy approach is something most of us do.
In the past I’ve tried barrel tumblers and if I’m going to be honest, whilst they’re okay, they take
forever. In fact they’re so slow I gave up using them and went back to manually cleaning pieces,
even though this can be messy and fiddly. So when Arbe asked me if I wanted to review their
Magnetic Polisher, I was dubious. I mean, it’s just another tumbler, right? What’s the point…?
But I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t like Arbe products.
They’re always well made and always win me over with their quality. So of course I said yes…
And damn it’s a solid piece of work right from the off. Sturdy, clean metal construction.
It’s compact but quite heavy and that’s because it
contains a heavy-duty electric motor. There’s really not much to look at.
All the controls are on the front – and all fairly obvious really.
A chunky waterproof switch that feels like it will last forever.
A variable speed control which so far I’ve just left roughly in the middle.
And a timer. You can turn this permanently on, or select from a range of minutes on the dial.
Like I said, easy, simple, obvious stuff. There’s a thick plastic bowl that sits on
top of the polisher. It comes on and off with ease and can even be removed during operation
without any concerns of fowling up a mechanism. It has a removable lid and inside,
when you first get it, are a packet of very fine stainless-steel pins.
On the outside of the bowl is a water level indicator, so we know what’s going inside here.
When the pins are poured inside the bowl, you can see just how small
and fine they are. These pins measure just 5mm long and an amazing half a mm thickness.
And it’s these pins that really do the work.
Ordinary water is added up to the level mark. Then a polishing fluid is added.
I got this one from Cousins here in the UK, but there’s various brands available.
It’s effectively a liquid soap that acts as a polishing agent
and only a spoonful is needed each time, so it should last a good while.
The lid is replaced and the bowl positioned on top of the polisher.
A time is selected on the dial and the switch pushed on.
And that’s it. Nothing highly technical here, but the polisher is doing its job, or will be
when items are added. And it’s surprisingly quiet. That’s a background noise that’s easy to ignore.
As the name suggests, the polisher contains strong magnets. These turn smoothly, pulling
on the metal pins through the walls of the plastic bowl and dragging the pins in continuous circles.
And here is where the difference between magnetic and barrel tumblers really comes into play.
Standard barrel tumblers essentially polish through planishing the work,
striking it like thousands of tiny hammers. They roll continuously and agitate ball bearings,
various shot or even pins and these effectively fall or roll over the item being polished.
Things are different with a magnetic polisher. If we stop time, we can see that the pins are
jutting up at all angles thanks to the magnets. Some are practically standing on end. This means
during rotation these pins can be driven, point first at times, into the work being polished.
This enables the pins to get into all the nooks are crannies of the piece – even filigree work.
That’s why, in theory at least, magnetic polishers tend to be more effective and much
faster than barrel tumblers. So lets test the theory.
Here’s a few copper coins. These are each over 20 years old, so there’s plenty of grime build up.
At any time, we can lift the lid of the bowl and gently drop something in.
Immediately we can see swirling motions taking place inside the water,
driven by the movement of the magnets, pushing those steel pins into the coins.
Twenty minutes later I decided to see how things were going.
The water was certainly dirty. But look at this coin. That’s not spotless, but it’s looking much
cleaner. So much so that I decided to test things out on a few more items I had knocking around.
This is the second piece from a casting video I did a couple of weeks ago.
It’s twin got polished the hard way, but let’s see what happens with this one.
This is a test casting I did a while ago and could never bothered to clean up.
This is silver casting that I was not happy with.
They can’t all be winners and this one wasn’t, but it should polish up okay.
This is Stormbreaker, Thor’s axe. It’s very dirty and could do with a clean.
Again this is silver ring I never really liked. It’s very flat and dull at the moment.
So things were spun in the magnetic polisher. Water was changed,
fresh polishing solution was added, and no piece was spun for more than an hour.
In fact, some had less than half of that. But let’s look at the results.
Remember, the purpose of any tumbler is not to polish to perfection,
but to remove tarnishing and prepare the piece for final polishing,
and I think in all cases here we can agree the Arbe has done a job very good job.
I know it’s hard for you to see, but the insides of these rings are as clean as the outsides,
which is incredible. All the nooks and crannies are ready for final polishing.
These are results I genuinely couldn’t achieve by other means. I’m very impressed.
So what do I think of the Arbe Magnetic Polisher?
Well, it’s just what I have come to expect from Arbe. It’s solidly built and exudes quality.
In terms of performance, frankly it’s surprised me. I thought one tumbler was as good as another,
but this Arbe unit has shown me that there’s a reason why professionals
generally go with magnetic polishers. However, these machines aren’t cheap.
Here in the UK these polishers are £315, so that’s not an ideal choice for amateurs
on a hobby budget. They’re aimed at those that can offset time against cost.
In fact, let’s try and prove that. I polished this Raven ring in my usual manner a couple of
weeks ago, and I think I can do away with the coarse, medium and fine polishing stages here
So, let’s finish this one off.
What do you think? At least as good if not better, and certainly more uniformly polished.
So yes, using the magnetic polisher is easier, quicker, and more effective.
And critically, according to Arbe, this polisher can polish up to 8 rings at once.
And that’s a time and efficiency improvement most professionals can’t afford to ignore.
So yes, I’m a convert. Magnetic polishers are a fabulous tool for those with the budget for them,
and this Arbe unit ticks all the boxes and promises to be
in your workshop for many years of service. And that’s it for this one guys. I hope you
enjoyed this look at magnetic polishing. If you have any questions, as always drop me a line.
So take care and thanks for watching.