Replies

1. 
   Drew_Sumrell | Aug 15, 1999 03:50am | #1

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   Preston, I used to be involve with a company and we developed a method of finishing dowels by tumbling them. I also know of a company that tumble finishes turnings for chairs and stools and another company that finishes small wooden parts for toys and games by tumbling them. It's a very efficient method for finishing many small parts and once you get your formula worked out, it wastes very little material.

   You can also sand parts with this method. The parts will smooth themselves some by just the tumbling process, but you can add ground walnut hulls to the process and get the parts even smoother. A course sawdust would probably work also. You will need to experiment with the number of parts vs. the amount of walnut hulls you add.

   You can finish parts with a stain or a more opaque paint. I have never tired wax or oil, but I'm sure that would work as well and be even easier since you aren't trying to control the color. The key to making the tumbling process work is experimentation. Some of the variables will include the specie of wood(hardness will vary absorption rate), intensity of color in the stain, ratio of finishing material to wood, solvent blend, air flow, RPMs and time in the tumbler.

   I had our tumblers designed so that we could vary the air flow. We could exhaust the fumes from the process, but started with a low CFM to give the wood time to become uniformly covered with stain and then we would increase the airflow to help speed the drying process. We were using a solvent based stain and could tumble finish a thousand dowels every thirty minutes.

   Good luck and don't be afraid to experiment with various combinations.