New idea? for pick finishing...

[digital_blue]

I have no idea yet how this is going to work, but I'm testing it right now. While sitting discussing pickmaking with a couple of my LSI chapter members, it was suggested that the finishing could be done with... wait for it... a rock tumbler. Evidently, an acquaintance of one of my members makes jewelry for fun and profit, and this is a method he uses to finish the items he makes.

Load a rock tumbler with silica sand (probably one third to half full). Drop in picks. Tumbler for (insert time frame... still testing).

Once the picks have tumbled to the point where any sharp edges, burrs, etc are gone, remove picks. They should be smooth, but dull. So far, so what? Now what he does to polish surprised me... apparently (and I'm still going to follow up to confirm this) he then loads his tumbler drum with liquid hand soap and tumbles again (for an undetermined timeframe... still working on it). The jewelry that he makes is very good, and very highly polished. I can't wait to see if this works on picks, as the longest, hardest part is not cutting out the shape, but polishing and sanding.

Has anyone else tried this before? Does it work? I expect it to take at least a day or two with the sand to get the desired effect (if I get it at all) but she's a tumblin' right now, so I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.

db

[Chrispy]

Sweeeeet. Now, where am I gonna get a rock tumbler....

[Shrub]

This is a common way of doing it for various process's,

You must check regulary to make sure the picks arent being ground away and rather than soap and water use that brass orniment polish stuff that comes on a cotton stuff (like cotton wool) stick a tins worth of that in for a few hours (depending on speed) and they will come out like a mirror,

To deburr start with a coarse builders sand and then when the burrs have gone swap it for the finest silica sand you can find to finish them off, then use the polish of your choice.

Dont over load the drum or you will bend the picks or burn out the machine.

A home made drum is easily achievable with few tools if you have the inginuity

[abrannan]

Sweeeeet. Now, where am I gonna get a rock tumbler....

Check the children's section of an arts and crafts store, like Michael's.

[pip]

.

by liquid hand soap
do you mean the stuff with pumice in it

[TOWCH]

Wouldn't this bend the picks?

[digital_blue]

My understanding about the liquid hand soap is that it's just plain old liquid hand soap, but I'm still waiting on confirmation of that. I guess the idea is that the metal is already smooth at that point, just not polished. I think I'm going to give it a shot (as opposed to the brass polish that Shrub suggested) for no other reason than I have a big tub of it already.

As far as bending the picks, so far, not at all. And I don't think it would, because they are just tumbling, and not very fast at that, so there would be little opportunity for there to be enough force to bend the pick.

I pulled out two picks that I'd made in my very early days of pick making. They had already been sanded, but poorly. They are currently still tumbling. By tonight it will be 24 hours, though I have no idea how long it will take. According to the instruction on the tumbler, rocks take FOREVER! With rocks, they recommend a 4 step process of progressively finer sand, but for my my purposes, I am just using one step, so it may well take several days do achieve the level of smoothness and roundness that I'm after. But... the tumbler is doing all the work.

As far as where to get the tumbler... let me tell you, that was a LOT of running around last night. I was at 5 places in two different ends of town last night. I tried Michael's first, but I'm told they are perpetually sold out. After several failed attempts, I went into Superstore on a whim, and what'dya know.. they had them. I paid $30 and this thing is a piece of junk. It's so loud I had to lay a blanket over it last night to get some sleep.

One of my LSI members has agreed to build one for the purpose but I think I'll have him hold off until I see if this works. The biggest problem with this kids toy is that the barrel is not long enough to accommodate a 5" pick, so I had to pull out some shorter ones that I'd made. If the process works, I'll get a quieter, larger model made up and I'll be set.

Anyway.. back to tumbling....

db

[Shrub]

You can get away with making one out of a piece of drainage pipe (the 5" type) and mount 3 rollors on a woddern frame, fasten a motor on the back with a small pully wheel on it, run a rubber o ring or at a push an elastic band around the pipe and the pully and hey presto one tumber,

You can buy end caps for this drainage pipe which one is glued on one end and the other taped on,

For those who have a load of lego a frame can be made from that and the motor used etc if you want to experiment before commiting yourself.

[Kodiak]

This subject is covered in Eddie the Wire's "Home Workshop Professional Lock Tools." He recommends it for finishing large quantities of picks all at once. He mentions what abrasive to use but I can't recall what it is. Good reading though.

[Shrub]

I had a thought in the thinking room that an old record player has all the bits to make your own except for a drum which you could use some of the afore mentioed pipe with bits of plastic strip glued along the inside.

[Shrub]

After chrismas i guess all those tombola spinners are going to end up motorised now

Tombolas are those things that are a hexigan barrel that has a handle on the side, you wind the handle thus rotating the barrel and stop it with a flap in the side on top, someone then lifts the flap and reaches in to pull out a winning raffle ticket

[digital_blue]

We are now well past the 24 hour mark, and I would say that these things are nowhere near what I'm aiming for. I have no idea just yet how many days I'll need to tumble them for, but it's doing all the work, so I guess I just wait.

db

[triman247]

Thats a neat idea. I'd try it too to help make more solid data, but my kiddie rock tumbler got thrown away a few months ago when we cleaned out the garage. I'll be interested to see how well this new idea works out and might even go get another one if I like what I see (providing that you put pictures on after completion?)


triman

[Chrispy]

Hehe, nice sig edit there db.

[digital_blue]

You can count on pictures.

db