"Sand Tumbling"... anyone tried it?

[LatakiaLover]

It would be easy enough to plug a stummel's chamber with a chunk of tight-fitting hardwood, insert a short, false stem without an airway to protect the shank face, then toss the assembly into an old style, rolling cartridge case tumbler that's filled about a third of its volume with some sort of sharp/aggressive blast media.



I have all the stuff to do it (except the media), but don't want to waste the time if it's one of those ideas everyone has had but simply doesn't work.

It FEELS like it should... complete and even media contact, checking on progress would be easy, and so forth. And briar's response to abrasion should stay the same (meaning alternating hard and soft areas would still exist).

It's one of those things that makes an experimenter go, "Hmmm..."

[caskwith]

I have no direct experience in this but I really doubt it will have the effect you are looking for. I don't think there would be enough energy in there to affect the briar without it taking an age and the effect would be very rounded and soft as there isn't a huge amount of difference between the hard and the soft grain, hence why good blasting is such an art, getting that balance just right.

[archaggelosmichail]

I've allready tried it on a friend crazy scientist's own make machine from a clothes washer.


It' doesn't work, at least not efficient.

[oklahoma red]

Basically you will round over all of your sharp corners and wipe out any other sharp details. As Chris pointed out there is not enough energy at play. I use a vibratory tub in my business that is about 3 ft x 1.5 ft x 1.5 that is made by the same company that made your belt grinder-Burr King. I use it for that very purpose-rounding over sharp edges on machined acrylic control panels. I run a triangular shaped ceramic media in it. The major effect of the coarseness of the media is how fast it does the job. The unit you show is a lapidary polisher and runs at low rpm and like you say does a good number on brass cartridges.
There are some here that are doing sophisticated rustication to give the appearance of a blast or natural plateaux but IMHO things don't get much more tedious than that tho reportedly J.T. Cooke spends hours on his multi-step blasts. It is whatever floats your boat.
Chas.

[wisemanpipes]

i thought todd mentioned that cheap pipe factories use this technique to get a very shallow looking blast finish. i have no idea though.
-evan

[RadDavis]

The one Todd was talking about is a tumbler with a fixed nozzle spewing blast media. Kaywoodie uses one like that. The idea is to blast dozens of stummels all at once by just turning the machine on. Works well for factory pipes.

Rad

[wisemanpipes]

ahhhhh i see rad. thats actually pretty cool. i was wondering how blasting media would effect the briar without pressure, like chris said.

[LatakiaLover]

Part of my brain kept saying, "If it was better than high energy techniques, everyone would be doing it. Duh." But another part kept insisting I ask. Sometimes a pig finds an acorn, and all that.

Thanks for indulging me.