Can you use a rock tumbler to polish enclosures?

[Hiwatt25]

I was flipping through the Harbor Freight catalog and noticed they sell rock tumblers and claim they can be used to polish metal as well as rocks.  Has anyone tried this?  If the basket is large enough to fit an MXR sized enclosure, it would seem a good way to get an enclosure shiny without exposing yourself to all that aluminum dust.  It wouldn't be flat enought to etch but I like the look of shiny enclosures.

[SonicVI]

Or, you could buy a polished MXR sized enclosure from Small Bear

[soggybag]

I was thinking the exact same thing the other day! That polished box looks like it would save you a lot time if you wanted polish some boxes by hand. Is it the same box as what is listed as the Box - Taiwanese 'B' Size?

[markm]

I dunno if something like that would work or not Joe, seems to me it may but, the average enclosure always
seems to have some fairly deep pits, the only way around those is sanding. 

[BoostAddict]

Maybe you could hit it with lower grits then toss it in the tumbler.

Would you use ball bearings like what you see on "how it's made" ?

[SonicVI]

It would also probably take far less time to use a Dremel and polishing compound.

[the_random_hero]

Has anybody ever tried sandblasting enclosures then clear-coating them? I think that would look pretty nice.

[Thepilot]

i got some of the small bear polished enclosures the other day.

if you want them to be "mirror-like" they've still got a little ways to go, but all of the normal gouges and pits aren't there.

i believe they're a little bit deeper than a 1590B- I measured it and they're 4.75" long X 2.5" wide X 1.5" deep- all of those are external dimensions measured at the wider end of the taper.  hope that helps.

[markm]

Has anybody ever tried sandblasting enclosures then clear-coating them? I think that would look pretty nice.

Now that's a good idea.
I work with plenty of body shop guys.
There are different grades of sand as well and would probably give a very unique look!

[Dragonfly]

Has anybody ever tried sandblasting enclosures then clear-coating them? I think that would look pretty nice.

Yep.

Ive even added a stencil to protect (keep from having sandblasted...) the words / graphics, that way when you sandblast the enclosure, the graphics remain normal...looks really cool.

[Ed G.]

What kind of clear finish will stick to bare aluminum? I've tried using transparent paints on aluminum and they are all chipped.
If anybody knows what is used on alloy wheels, that would probably be the stuff to use. That stuff's got to be hard as nails.

[the_random_hero]

What kind of clear finish will stick to bare aluminum? I've tried using transparent paints on aluminum and they are all chipped.
If anybody knows what is used on alloy wheels, that would probably be the stuff to use. That stuff's got to be hard as nails.

I'm not quite sure offhand, but I should be able to find out pretty soon. I know a few mechanics/auto-resprayers.

[RLBJR65]

Cool idea! I'm sure you would have to pre sand like Mark suggested but I don't see why it wouldn't work to polish them. The tricks would probably be finding the right media to use and how long to run it.

My dad reloads ammo, he has something like this to clean the brass shells. http://www.informulation.on.ca/A55770/cts.nsf/(AllByID)/555AD786E2A9511C862570D400148706! He uses crushed walnut shells for the media. Makes the brass nice and shinny, guess I'm gonna have to try a box in it now

[Hiwatt25]

Cool idea! I'm sure you would have to pre sand like Mark suggested but I don't see why it wouldn't work to polish them. The tricks would probably be finding the right media to use and how long to run it.

My dad reloads ammo, he has something like this to clean the brass shells. http://www.informulation.on.ca/A55770/cts.nsf/(AllByID)/555AD786E2A9511C862570D400148706! He uses crushed walnut shells for the media. Makes the brass nice and shinny, guess I'm gonna have to try a box in it now

Hey, that's be really cool.  If you get to it, please let us know how it works.  I don't plan to etch the enclosures so the flatness/squareness of the pedals is not as important to me.  I just like when they look like chrome.

[zachary vex]

Probably want to put screws into the boxes before tumbling them, to protect the threads.

[theundeadelvis]

I read in another forum that someone used one of these for cleaning and polishing of metals: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=422
May be a bit of overkill though.