Hi guys. Today I’m going to be building a very simple,
cheap but effective vibrational tumbler for cleaning small metal parts and castings.
I bought an electric sander for just £20. I already had a plastic bowl, some scraps
of wood, car body filler and a few bolts. Other than that it was just a matter of putting
it all together. I initially wanted to be able to keep the
sander for its original purpose as well as making a tumbler from it, so the only tricky
bit was working out how to make it stand upright. This build was initially inspired by a suggestion
from fellow YouTuber CaptainJerk. He was the first to recommend I get a tumbler and since
then several other people have also made the same suggestion, so my thanks to them
all I hoped by using the Hook-and-loop fasteners
on the sander I could attach the vibrational platform on a temporary basis.
This is dry coarse sand. I hoped it would be a good medium.
After running just half an hour I noticed the hook-and-loop patch had worn free, so
that spoiled the temporary fixing plan. However, drilling a few holes and adding some bolts
made a much stronger connection. The tumbler seemed to be working well, but
I found if I fitted a small funnel, it reduced the amount of sand I needed and seemed to
help the content circulate. In absolute honesty, the sand didn’t do
a brilliant job of cleaning things up, though it removed some of the patina and plaster
remnants. So my search for a better, more abrasive media continues for the moment.
However I had already but some walnut shells which are said to be excellent for polishing.
As you can see, the tumbler works. Some of that patina is still there because
the sand wasn’t the ideal choice, but the walnut shells seemed to do a nice job of polishing.
So that’s it for now. Take care guys. Thanks for watching.