Sanding small parts in a rotary drum

[genek]

Does anyone do any rotary drum sanding of small parts. If so what material for the sanding solution do you use. And what is the gear ratio of your drum and how big is the drum itself.. Need to build one. To many small parts to sand by hand.

[paul_z]

I wonder if a vibrating drum would work? If the parts a fragile, the vibrating drum might cause less breakage.

Paul Z

[genek]

Possible... But have had a large company close it doors and left large void... Have put multi products into production to meet the needs of the state parks in the surrounding states... Have orders that are huge.. And sanding each is just to time consuming.

[kartracer63]

How small are your parts?

[genek]

They range from .5 round and 6 inches long... The type of drum sander i am talking about looks like a 55 gallon drum that has a door on it and you put product in with sanding grit or rocks etc... Then you let the tumble for a while...

[Brady Watson]

Gene - Just slap one together yourself. Get a used treadmill (that works) off of CL and take the motor and variable speed control out of it. You can pretty much make the rest yourself on the bot etc if you are crafty.

-B

[Ajcoholic]

I know this is done often to burnish metal parts (and give the surface a treatment). They use some sort of medium - from metal balls to abrasives.

I imagine, for wood, you would want a fairly fine medium as not to put dents and coarse scratches in the wooden parts.

It might be something like walnut shells, or other "organic" material.

Othwerwise, I was thinking, if you lined the interior with sand paper (something like taking a wide belt sander belt and turning it inside out - then mounting the belt securely to the inside) the tumbling parts would continually rub against the abrasive surface and take the sharp edges off. As long as they are exterior edges.

Maybe it would be as simple as taking some cloth belts, and tearing them up into strips and tumbling the parts along with the abrasive strips? If I had time I'd be interested in some experimentation.

All I know is the drum would have to turn slow. Like 10 rpm or so I'm guessing.

AJC

[donek]

We use one of these for small aluminum parts. 30 to 60 minutes with the right medium and they're deburred.
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-lb-v...ose-96923.html

[genek]

That would work... But i would like to be able to do some larger items... Would need to do up to about 14 inches.. Like a rubber band gun. Lol... I have a large order for rubber band guns... A large woodworking company decided they wanted to retire and closed up.. No notice to the end users.. Left huge void... The state parks that i deal with are screaming for me to get the 8 different rubber band guns into production... Plus about 14 other items...the cnc has been doing nothing this week but cutting the pistol and pop gun... 12 and 16 hour days none stop. They need to be full stocked by memorial day...lol... They waited till last sunday to call for a meeting... There are other items that will have major void in.. Also.
So check with your local state parks... I am sure ky, tenn, wva, and ohio are not the only state parks that are coming up short.

[knight_toolworks]

might be time to hire some kids to do the work.