Cleaning tumbler
 

Hello, Im in the market for a tumbler to clean bolts and small items. I have about a million of the little c-clips that attach to the fender, and I would rather just have them cleaned then have to buy new. I was going to get the 5lb from harbor freight today but they didnt have any in stock so now im on the search on the internet and was wondering if you guys had any input on what works really well for dirty and rusty bolts. It gets old having to use a wire wheel to clean bolts and certain things you just cant clean with a wheel.

Bolt cleaner
 

This may sound too simple but it really works. I was bolting on a used Tune Port set up and needed to clean about 20 bolts and small brackets. I put them in a Gatorade bottle (it has a large cap / opening). Then I put in about a two cups of a 50/50 mix of silica sand and kerosene. Then shake it like crazy. You can play with different grits to get a desired result. I used a pretty heavy grit a little smaller than a pencil lead. Either way, it cleans them really good. No need for a wire wheel or brush. When I get the bolts out, I just put them in a second bottle with hot soap and water. Shake it like crazy, take them out and dry accordingly.
It's cheap and works great. What else can you ask for?

Are you talking about the sand used for sand blasting? I have some of that stuff sitting around and Ill give it a try. That would probably work better on the c-clips then a tumbler anyways, bolts on the other hand im still a skeptic, but ill give it a try anyways.

Here's another choice: http://www.midwayusa.com/find?sortby...ensionid=11893

My buddy has an automotive machine shop. One piece of equipment in there is a tumbler set up with steel shot and a compartment that has steel hoops welded to it. You put your hardware in the compartment with the steel shot latch it up turn on the timer for 20 minutes and it rotates the compartment in a bath of cleaning solvent. This is the greatest piece of fastener cleaner I have ever used. After the gunk and rust is off....I take my parts to a plating shop for zinc plating and pickling to normalize the hardware after plating. I have done some bench testing against new grade 5/8 fasteners to check for problems of hydrogen embrittlement and loss of hardening....make sure your plater knows what the heck he is doing if you have fasteners redone that way. I am going to buy or build one of those tumblers if I ever move away.......

Grit
 

I used a Black Beauty Sand Blast abrasive fine grit 20 40 abrasive. You can find it on ebay. It will work great on the bolts too.

tumbler
 

I purchased a tumbler for the brass during reloading.
did a lot of research and ended up buying a unit from
Cabelas, great price , great unit !!

After going through 2 tumblers for car parts I ended up buying a cement mixer from harbor Freight. Load it up with ceramic polishing media, garnet, polish soap and what ever you need cleaned up.

I use it to deburr mostly. 2 lbs at a time. Much faster han a tumbler.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/atta...-199-mixer.jpg

never thought about using a cement mixer as a tumbler. great idea Vince.

great for cast aluminum brackets too....i tell you though Mike, if your neighbors like you now they may not so much after you run it for a few hours. :innocent:

I don't have any neighbors close so I don't care. what media do you use on castings? I have always blasted my stuff using #6 or #8 silica

I did end up getting a tumbler, I forget what brand but it was a nice one. I used crushed walnuts for some little c-clips and that didnt work out to well then jumped up to blasting sand and that was a bit better. Does anyone know of something a bit more harsh then the sand?

Same stuff but I add tumble soap. Been using Garnet with nice results. I have a blaster too but its a bit of a mess.

How big are the c-clips? Thin stuff you may be better off with a chemical cleaner like evap-o-rust.

Walnut shells are for removing paint off something you don't want the actual material finish to change on.

Bead blasting will alter a parts finish -- and the walnuts or plastic media will just clean things without that resulting in an altered finish.


"Tumblers" are normally used for deburring and or polishing parts... although, I guess, with the right media they can be used for cleaning too.

The problems come with cleaning small parts - or any part - with something that will or does remove the parts original plating etc -- and you end up with small parts that used to be zinc or cad plated - that now RUST within a week because they're now just bare steel.

Personally I toss old fasteners into the scrap bin and replace them with new stainless steel or the correct Grade hardware for the job. I figure my time is worth "something" (although the wife thinks differently). And when restoring or building a car I want the final product to be up to snuff. I DO spend an awful lot of time polishing small button head stuff.... but I got a kool tool (Polishing Grip) from a buddy of mine (Timmy Diver) that makes this pretty quick and saves my fingers!

http://www.notchead.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

More or less this was just an excuse to buy another tool. I have 2 entire cars worth of these little guys to clean so I wanted to see what I could do. They are not horrible dirty or rusted and I soaked them in wd-40 first. I almost got them as clean as I would of liked. I think a bag of 20 of these little guys is just a few bucks but its fun to play around and learn something. This picture is what they looked like before I put them in the tumbler.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps64355c20.jpg