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Lidls finest dishwasher tab + spoon of citric acid works a treat, never even opened the bottle of lemishine!

That is a handy tip for the future. I have just built a stainless steel media tumbler and will be running it all weekend to confirm operation

ovenpaa wrote:That is a handy tip for the future. I have just built a stainless steel media tumbler and will be running it all weekend to confirm operation

Cool!

I bought the tumbler from the States but made my own annealing machine!

It's what I've said for a while, citric acid and 2 squirts of washing up liquid (Ecover if you want) does an excellent job. The washing up liquid works out a lot cheaper than using dishwasher tablets

Brought my tumbler back from the US on my last trip in Jan/Feb, I also brought a few bottle of Lemishine back but even at $2.60 a bottle Citric acid granules work out much much cheaper, I got 5Kg off Ebay for about £18 and that's a lot of teasponns

I used Citric acid in my early efforts with an ultrasonic cleaner, it worked well.

Building your own SS tumbler is certainly not a cheap option but I wanted to build something which was more robust so mine has stainless shafts running on sealed roller bearings and a robust gear motor driving through a timing belt, if nothing else I know it will last a while.

I have made an annealing machine, the first one was interrupted motion using a Geneva X drive which was interesting to design and fun to build, I am half way through my second one which is of a more conventional design.

You need to post a picture or two

Ovenpaa, is the SS Tumbler gong to be a SHED item or just personal project?

One thing I forgot to mention. after tumbling I rinse in clean water with 1 or 2 tsp of Bicarbonate of soda to neutralise the citric acid, then a final rinse in clean water before letting them dry.

Mike357 wrote:Ovenpaa, is the SS Tumbler gong to be a SHED item or just personal project?

The parts alone cost more than the Thumler units so I doubt I could sell them in any numbers. It could however compete against the upmarket rotary polishing systems. The one I have built has 12mm thick machined aluminium sides and 12.5mm 316 stainless shafts supported by sealed roller bearings and has butyl rubber rollers sitting on 6082 T6 centres and a silky smooth German Doga drive system, it is massively over engineered in many respects however I know it is going to be quite capable of being used for the next ten and more years.

It has two different sized drums, one for SS media and one for coating bullets so you just drop a different drum in and adjust the speed accordingly, it is also low voltage which I chose as a safety precaution, I just hate the idea of 240 volts and water being together.

I can PM you a picture if you would like to see it.

ovenpaa wrote:I used Citric acid in my early efforts with an ultrasonic cleaner, it worked well.

Building your own SS tumbler is certainly not a cheap option but I wanted to build something which was more robust so mine has stainless shafts running on sealed roller bearings and a robust gear motor driving through a timing belt, if nothing else I know it will last a while.

I have made an annealing machine, the first one was interrupted motion using a Geneva X drive which was interesting to design and fun to build, I am half way through my second one which is of a more conventional design.

You need to post a picture or two

K you asked for it!
Just remember one thing, it was made out of parts that I had to hand and only took a few hours to build.
It is real easy to use, drop case in holder, hit the button it then drives the case into the flame for pre-set time then removes from flame!
I use a pair of fine nose small pliers to remove the cases.

I'd love to see a picture of it. I am so envious of those that can build stuff. Even watching two members put a new door on our target shed was fascinating!