Tumble brass parts?

I plan on making some small 2d parts and I want to break all the edges slightly to make them smooth to the touch. Has any used a vibratory tumbler to do this/think it will work? If you google “tumbler brass” only brass cases being cleaned comes up!

Because there are way more reloaders than small machinists I imagine… Sure you can.

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we tumble small brass parts all the time at our shop and the best way we found was to use a barrel tumbler and use corn cob or ground walnut shell and yes it will break the corners and polish the parts very nicely but each part has to be developed in a process as to how long to tumble as not all parts act the same also load size makes a difference most parts can be done in a couple hours but some we need to tumble as much as 24 hours to get what we want.

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Here are two versions of brass tumblers. The results you get for knocking off edges depends on your metal items and the media that you use in the tumbler. I’ve used cheap BBs to knock off metal that I didn’t want to see.

Frankford Arsenal Quick-N-EZ 110V Vibratory Case Tumbler

Hornady M-1 Case Tumbler

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yeah a tumbler will work. even the small harbor freight units. you can tumble dry or wet. a trick to ensure your parts don’t stick together (which happens - they find a way) is to use a zip tie to each part (hole/feature). keeps flat faces from mating

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Yep, exactly. Corn cob or walnut shells are great, just need to dial in the process to the part/geometry. The nice thing is; you can just check in on it regularly on the first run so you don’t overdo it. Get a process and time you like and it will be really consistent. Over time, the corn cob/shells will breakdown, you’ll notice results aren’t as good and you will need to reload the tumbler.

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