Vibration/tumble polishing?

[TomJ]

There's a lot of overlap between flute making and jewelry making. I've read that jewelry makers use tumble and vibration polishers, using various polishing media from steel shot/pins to walnut shells. Do these have any use for cleaning & polishing flute parts?

[JButky]

There's a lot of overlap between flute making and jewelry making. I've read that jewelry makers use tumble and vibration polishers, using various polishing media from steel shot/pins to walnut shells. Do these have any use for cleaning & polishing flute parts?

Yes, they are used by some techs. Not a majority but they are in use...

[mirwa]

I have and use one, its only suitable for keys and only after pads have been removed, mine is large enough to fit 4 complete flutes in (as I do saxophone keys) but I would not put the body in one as they need to be able to tumble through the mix, the machines are circular so it makes it bit unsafe for flute bodies

[TomJ]

So what medium do you use? And how long does it take? Also, does it work on plated flutes?

[fluteguy18]

I've used one before and I'm not totally sure how I feel about them to be honest. I have a vibrating tumbler that's fairly large (about 2 feet in diameter) and I've used it when I have so many things to get finished that I don't have time to do it all by hand. It's mostly been nickel plated keywork. My understanding is that you can use abrasive media and burnishing media. When I was in repair school we used ceramic media that supposedly didn't remove any material. At my current shop we use a green media for nickel keywork and a red media for silver. Not sure what it is quite yet or how abrasive it is. It did however do a marvelous job on some severely oxidized clarinet keys a few weeks ago. They keywork was beautiful afterwards.

One of my biggest concerns about using a vibratory tumbler is that if you use a media that is like sand instead of beads that the grit will work its way into screw threads. To prevent that from happening I've always melted wax into the threads and then melted it back out when it was all finished. That being said, I've only used them a few times. I'm not sure that its something I'm going to do regularly. I don't like the fact that I can't really control how much material is being removed or how quickly it is being removed. That being said I've not had any mishaps so far, nor have the faculty at the repair school I attended (and they've been using them for years).

[mirwa]

I use crushed walnut with a lubricant, we average somewhere between 5-10 repads a week, so its always being used. Our machine has maybe cleaned the keys of about 4000 instruments

Again, it is not suitable for padded keys.

I have not found it necessary to block any hinge tube off.

[JButky]

You can do the whole body too. My good friend Larry Gerhardt demonstrated his vibratory setup at our repair clinic last year. He built a frame which holds the flute body parts. I forget which media he was using, but it does an impressive job. Pic Attached

[fluteguy18]

Interesting. I don't think that I can get a body in mine (there's a fairly wide spindle in the middle), but I'm going to find out.....

[JButky]

Interesting. I don't think that I can get a body in mine (there's a fairly wide spindle in the middle), but I'm going to find out.....

The bracket in his hand has a ring where he's holding it. Goes over the spindle like a lamp shade...

[fluteguy18]

Hmmmmm...... If I can get a body in the tumbler, I have a feeling that I will be making one of those this upcoming week.

[bigbandaxes]

I use corn husks and powdered red rouge. Works great.