Whether you're deburring, forming radii or polishing metal parts, the right tumbling media is crucial. The shape, size, abrasiveness and composition of your tumbling media will affect the result you get from your tumbling process.
You may choose from a wide variety of tumbling media shapes, sizes and grits for your particular deburring or tumbling project. There are ceramic cylinders, plastic pellets and sintered tumbling nuggets, all of which can be used to cut, polish, burnish or shape metal.
Filling the barrel with enough tumbling media to create an evenly distributed mix of rocks and tumbling grit is critical for the best results. Without a proper mixture the rocks will tumble unevenly and not wear down properly.
The amount of tumbling media you use will depend on the barrel size and how much rock you're tumbling at one time. You want to start with a barrel that's about 2/3 full of the tumbling media you're using and then gradually increase that level as the tumbling process progresses.
Once the tumbling barrel is full, you need to make sure you stir in your tumbling media before each step so that it's distributed well amongst the rocks you're tumbling. Tumbling media also improves the tumbling action by filling in spaces between the rocks, improving their contact points with each other. This helps them grind more effectively against each other, making the whole tumbling process go more smoothly and more quickly.
