Last year September was pretty slow for me, but not so this year! It was actually my best month so far this year, so I decided to get some tools that will help me during the holiday crunch. Above and below is my new magnetic tumbler. Even though I do a matte or brushed finish on all my work, I like to tumble it first and make it shiny, which leads to a nicer brushed finish (in my opinion anyway). I have a regular rotary tumbler with stainless steel shot, but it takes at least2 hours and is pretty noisy. This little beauty uses magnets to move stainless steel pins around the barrel. It takes about half an hour or so, and I should be able to do 20-30 pieces at a time. It was pretty expensive but I think it will be well worth it.
While I was shopping for the tumbler, I noticed flex shafts on sale and since this one has a quick release instead of a regular chuck I decided to get it too. I've been using a dremel, but with a foot petal this is so much nicer! I got both of these at Otto Frei, which is located in Oakland California. Their selection is on par with Rio Grande, and both these things were on sale so the prices were better too.
5 comments:
Wow! Those look fierce!
oh jealousy has started in.... I'd love to get a flex shaft like that.
I bet you are already loving both new tools!
Well, there will be no stopping you now!
I've always wanted a magnetic tumbler, but the price of them in Australia is crazy, so I opted for a vibratory tumbler - fabulous, but don't mind me if I keep drooling over your machine!
Believe me, the mag tumbler is worth it's weight in gold, especially if you're trying to tumble hard metals! Send me an email! L.
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