Rock tumbler for small wood pieces?

258 Views 14 Replies 7 Participants Last post by builtinbkyn2, 4 d ago

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · 5 d ago (Edited)

Hello all,

I've been working on a couple chess board/chess piece sets and have found that the most time consuming part is hand sanding the chess pieces. I can get some of it done on the lathe but I've found that I have to sand with the grain to be able to not see scratches in the end (even going up and over 600 grit). As I was sitting there trying to get out some chisel marks on the indented part of the rooks, I couldn't help thinking about a sand blaster I used one once at a welding shop (a friend let me work in his shop for a day or so on a motorcycle). So I started to wonder if small sandblasters for woodworking exist. I thought about the ideal size for my situation and realized that a rock tumbler/polisher might actually be an even better solution. I've never used a rock polisher before but I assumed that it's just a spinning drum with some type of sand inside which does appear to be the case.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing for small wood pieces? My biggest questions are would it work at all? Would it turn out nice since you can't sand with the grain (my guess is yes since it would be similar to how an orbital sander works)? Would it sand away too much material or sand unevenly on elongated pieces?

If you've had any kind of experience with this idea, please share. If it works, it would be a very cheap purchase for me (or even a reasonable DIY thing) and would save me A LOT of time and frustration.

Thanks,

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Bob Bengal

· #2 · 5 d ago

SomeDudeOnline said:
I've been working on a couple chess board/chess piece sets and have found that the most time consuming part is hand sanding the chess pieces.

Can you post photos of the chess pieces? Seems like a tumbler might knock off the corners etc more than you like.

Maybe a sanding flap wheel in a drill? One of those belt sanders with really narrow belts?

Reactions: 1

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · #3 · 5 d ago

Bob Bengal said:
Can you post photos of the chess pieces? Seems like a tumbler might knock off the corners etc more than you like.

Maybe a sanding flap wheel in a drill? One of those belt sanders with really narrow belts?

These ones are already done but the set I’m making is basically identical. I think the only corners I don’t want rounded too much would be the tops of the rooks and bishops. Even if I had to hand sand those, not hand sanding the rest would still be a huge deal.

As far a flap wheel in a drill goes, the ones I’ve seen are too big to get in the little areas like the top of the rook or around the necklace of the queen. A belt sander with a really narrow belt has the same problem and I can't imagine it would sand the inside of the curve of most pieces well without trying to flatten the top and bottom of the curve.

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JayArr

· #4 · 5 d ago

Take a look at "tumblers" from Eastwood Company (or from any gun/ammo reloading company for less $$).

They don't actually toss the part around, it's more like it's submerged in a media like walnut shell bits and then it's vibrated so the little bits of walnut clean and polish the part.

www.eastwood.com

Eastwood 18 lb Vibratory Tumbler

Eastwood 18 lb tumbler

www.eastwood.com

it may be just what you're looking for.

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · #5 · 5 d ago

JayArr said:
Take a look at "tumblers" from Eastwood Company (or from any gun/ammo reloading company for less $$).

They don't actually toss the part around, it's more like it's submerged in a media like walnut shell bits and then it's vibrated so the little bits of walnut clean and polish the part.

Eastwood 18 lb Vibratory Tumbler

Eastwood 18 lb tumbler

www.eastwood.com

it may be just what you're looking for.

Oh my, that’s a bit pricier than the simple rock polishers I’ve found on Amazon. Do you know if this one you’ve linked or the cheap ones would actually work on small wood pieces though? Definitely sounds like either will do the trick (with varying levels of quality I’m sure) for rock and metal, but I haven’t found much info on their usage with wood.

JayArr

· #6 · 5 d ago

Well we all know what kind of quality you get from Amazon. LOL

Take a look at this one, it's a smaller bowl but a good name brand.

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I don't know about wood but I've polished steel, aluminum, brass and plastics with these things using the mild walnut media.

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · #7 · 5 d ago

JayArr said:
Well we all know what kind of quality you get from Amazon. LOL

Take a look at this one, it's a smaller bowl but a good name brand.

You are being redirected...

I don't know about wood but I've polished steel, aluminum, brass and plastics with these things using the mild walnut media.

That’s a much more reasonable price for a test that may end up actually being used to polish rocks haha. I haven’t gotten any feedback saying it won’t work so I think I’ll give it a shot. Thank you for your input!

R B Fishin

· #8 · 4 d ago

MidwayUSA has vibratory and rotary tumblers. I've had one for years, and gotten good service out of it. (Never tried it on wood, though.)

www.midwayusa.com

frankford arsenal tumbler - MidwayUSA

Shop MidwayUSA for the best frankford arsenal tumbler

www.midwayusa.com

Bob Bengal

· #9 · 4 d ago

SomeDudeOnline said:
I haven’t gotten any feedback saying it won’t work so I think I’ll give it a shot.

I don't have experience with any kind of tumbler. But I wonder what difference wood being softer than metal or stone will make. Maybe instead of abrading the surface the wood will just cushion the impact of the particles?

builtinbkyn2

· #10 · 4 d ago

May want to try a Dremel tool with these. Link I've used them to sand parts. They are not very aggressive and you can control how much material you remove.

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · #11 · 4 d ago

Bob Bengal said:
I don't have experience with any kind of tumbler. But I wonder what difference wood being softer than metal or stone will make. Maybe instead of abrading the surface the wood will just cushion the impact of the particles?

That’s definitely one of my concerns. I plan to start with some reject chess pieces so I’ll come back with results from those in a few days to a week.

builtinbkyn2 said:
May want to try a Dremel tool with these. Link I've used them to sand parts. They are not very aggressive and you can control how much material you remove.

Those look like they’d be extremely helpful. If the tumbler idea works then I’ll stick with that because I’d just drop them in and walk away but I’ll definitely give these a shot if that doesn’t work out (I’ll probably end up getting these for other applications anyway though).
Thanks!

Reactions: 2

FrankC

· #12 · 4 d ago

I have heard of people using crumpled up sandpaper and also sheets cut into 1/2" squares as an abrasive in their tumblers instead of loose abrasive that attacks the softer grains of the wood. Never actually done it so YMMV.

Reactions: 1

sunnybob

· #13 · 4 d ago

You havent mentioned what the wood is. Soft wood in a walnut shell tumbler will lose all detail pretty quick. A really hard wood like bubinga might work, but to be honest, having used ammo tumblers on millions of brass cases I'm doubtful you will like the result.

SomeDudeOnline

Discussion Starter · #14 · 4 d ago

sunnybob said:
You havent mentioned what the wood is. Soft wood in a walnut shell tumbler will lose all detail pretty quick. A really hard wood like bubinga might work, but to be honest, having used ammo tumblers on millions of brass cases I'm doubtful you will like the result.

Well that's unfortunate. The woods are Hard Maple and Black Walnut. The Hard Maple is decently hard but the Black Walnut is very soft. Assuming the test with the walnut shells doesn't go well, I'll try chopping up a bunch of sandpaper as suggested by @FrankC. Worst case scenario, I've got myself a rock polisher that I might use for nifty rocks I find.

builtinbkyn2

· #15 · 4 d ago

SomeDudeOnline said:
Those look like they’d be extremely helpful. If the tumbler idea works then I’ll stick with that because I’d just drop them in and walk away but I’ll definitely give these a shot if that doesn’t work out (I’ll probably end up getting these for other applications anyway though).
Thanks!

I'm not sure how well the tumbler will work, but I think these will give you quite a bit of control over the end results. The come pretty fine too, so you can actually polish the wood to a nice luster. But you do need to have some kind of rotary tool like a Dremel or similar, to use them.

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