Home built vibratory cleaner?

[HoMade]

I got this bright idea to take an old "jitterbug" sander I have laying around and make a small vibratory cleaner/polisher for things like bolts, etc.

Anyone ever made one? If so, is there anything I should know about getting it to work well? Is the shape of the bowl extremely important? What kind of media for old paint and light rust?

Thanks.

[KeithW]

I've built a couple using small AC motors. I use an about 2 quart metal bowl. Line the bowl with old inner tube rubber. Support the whole thing by springs so it can shake away. Sand blasting sand seem to be a good media to use. One thing, it takes a while. Sometimes I will leave stuff in it for days. With the more powerful sander motor it might go faster. I just got a Harbor Freight air powered paint shaker. Going to load it up with sand and rusty bits and see how it works.

keithw

[Pacrat]

Harbor freight has one on their website for $59.99 #93252-ovga. 5lb. capacity. Thinking about ordering one. They don't have it in the local store.

[MoRo]

I once worked in a plant that made farm equipment. They had a tumbler, which was an enclosed drum with a door. It had blasting sand in it. You could tumble a lot of rust off stuff. It did take a while. Sometimes a bucketfull of small parts took half a day. Got 'em shiny though!

[Mark B]

I work in a metal shop where we routinely do vibratory finishing of metal parts to remove burrs. Occasionaly employees bring their own rusty/dirty junk in for clean up. It takes virtually no effort at all. An analogy would be like throwing one pair of your socks in with someone else's full load of laundry. The reason I mention this is that I'll bet if a person asks shops in their area if they do vibratory finishing that they might be surprised to find that they can get stuff cleaned up for little or no $. I would do it for free. Probably the smaller the shop the more they would be willing to cooperate.
PS, If you do this be prepared to prime or dip in oil immediately. This is a wet process and things will rust very fast.

[HoMade]

I put my little device together last night. It shakes alot harder than it needs to, but it seems that it will work.....when I get the switch fixed which is one reason the old sander went to the back of the cabinet years ago (which I had forgotten). For the few minutes I had it going, the sand and bolts vibrated and rolled around great.

Once I get the switch fixed( read: wire past it) I will have to find out a better way to mount it. I had it clamped in my bench vise, but it shakes the whole bench.

I could buy one...but what's the fun of that? Oh yeah, actually getting the job done, but besides that....