11 replies to this topic

[A-Mac]

Well, I decided to get a vibrating tumbler from good ol harbor frieght. I've tried 2 types of media so far, one was fine glass beads and the other was straight up pea gravel. I decided to try and use this to knock off the hardened balsa splinters after the first seal coating of propionate (when all the bristles stick out).

So far, absolutely nothing has happened! So disappointing. I read were someone had actually used sandpaper (2 halves glued together) and cut it into ~1/4 inch squares and used this as media. I can't think of how many crankbaits I could fine sand by hand before I chopped up enough 1/4" squares to fill my tumbler!

Anybody else have an idea before I take this thing back?

[RayburnGuy]

What about filling it up with sand? Or a sand and gravel mix? Only thing I would be afraid of with this method is taking off material where it didn't need to be, but if your having trouble getting it to take off anything this might not be a problem. I read a post a while back about someone using a cement mixer to sand their lures so I guess it's feasible.

Ben

Edited by RayburnGuy, 05 February 2012 - 08:24 AM.

[jwfflipper]

I use a small cement mixer from harbor freight with sandpaper and or walnut shells
Just beside to remove the paddles in the drum. To get the mixer to work better you must increase the speed of the drum, the turning speed as is takes way to long to sand down the blanks.
You have to sand BEFORE you add any sealer or it makes it too hard to sand right
and to get them to sand right there must be enough blanks to rub against each other and any media
You use. I have very little to no sanding before sealing. And you can also use the mixer for sealing your blanks
just add your sealer to your mixer while it is turning. Be sure your mixer is clean before adding your sealer.

Hope this helps!
Jeff
RiverValleyCrankbaits

[Lincoya]

Several years ago when we were back on the old Tacklemaking.com site we had discussions about using tumblers for sanding our lures in bulk. Some of us built tumblers out of "popcorn tins" attached to rotisserie motors. I built one and had very little success with it. I ran it for hours and it only sanded the high spots. It wasn't until later that I figured out what I had done wrong. I glued sandpaper to sides of the drum. That was it. I found out that I needed the sandpaper on the sides of the drum PLUS some "paddles" attached to sides of the drum the make the lures tumble instead of just slide around the bottom of the drum and I also needed small pieces of sandpaper to get into the "nooks and crannies" of the lures. I never went back and rebuilt it so I don't know how it would have worked with the improvements.

Gene

[A-Mac]

yeah, I've heard of people using the rotating tumblers. That might be my next attempt.
I saw how well the vibrating ones worked for cleaning up brass ammo casings and figured it may have potential for knocking off the burrs that occur on crankbaits after the 1st seal coat. I would like to find some course aluminum oxide grit to try, preferably without breaking the bank (these guys are really proud of their media!).

[Musky Glenn]

Having never worked with propionate, here is what comes to mind for me. It seems if the propionate is that hard to sand it needs to go on over a surface that will not allow the grain to raise. I would suggest using oil based sanding sealer, which is easy to sand, then apply the propionate, IF, it will adhere to the sanding sealer. That is my uneducated $.05 worth. Musky Glenn

[jawjacker]

As jeff stated you will have to have several hundered baits at a time for this to work...........one of these days he will actually make that many.......lol.......

[Sonny.Barile]

There is a media made of corn cobb that is perfect for this application.

[Vodkaman]

I have had discussions with Dan about this in the past, but never got around to trying anything. I have all the materials and about 50 un-sanded blanks, so maybe it is time. I need to think some. Great thread.

Dave

[A-Mac]

Sonny.Barile, on 05 February 2012 - 08:35 PM, said:

There is a media made of corn cobb that is perfect for this application.

corn cob eh? you think it would be strong enough to eat at the propionate?

something else I was thinking about is using the finer grain (glass) to remove the white blush marks used with acetone. ya know, basically polishing the finish? I'm not sure what media to try (glass may be too fine)... but heck, if you can throw 15 lures in (5lb vibr. tumbler) and let it work, thats 15 lures worth of hand sanding time you can spend doing something enjoyable... like anything else power tool related!

[Musky Glenn]

Crushed walnut hulls have also been used in tumblers. Musky Glenn

[Sonny.Barile]

A-Mac We use it to tumble parts made of 17-4 stainless steel. It takes care of light burrs and removes machining marks. Keep something in mind though......tumbling isnt really meant to do what it is your trying to do. The hard encapsulated splinters on the edge of the part may actually break off in the process leaving a void or torn rough edge. Tumbling would more so be used to maybe smooth an entire finish from gloss to matte or make a finish more visually uniform.

Corn cobb media will do what the little bits of sand paper will but not as efficiently. However it gets your hands free.

I have seen tumblers used for heavy large cnc machined hardwood lures but not balsa. Look up http://www.tattoostackle.com/s and watch the videos., you can see some lures going in to the tumbler.

Sonny

Edited by Sonny.Barile, 07 February 2012 - 07:53 PM.