Depending on your required accuracy when you get done tumbling, you may not
wish to use a rotary tumbler. Rotaries tend to round off corners when being
used, even with a fine grade carborundrum (sic). Vibratory works much better
without rounding corners, and it works much faster. I dont think sand
blasting media will work very well, but it is worth the effort to find out.


"DeepDiver" wrote in message
...
"Jerry Foster" wrote in message
om...
I just got a small tumbler that I intend to use for de-burring small
aluminum parts.

Would that be a drum-style rotary tumbler or a bowl-style vibratory
tumbler?


Does anyone have any advice on what media to use in it?

Depends on the type.


I was thinking of trying sandblasting sand...

Not very effective or efficient in either type of tumbler.


And any idea of about how long to run it?

Depends on the type of tumbler, the type of media, the size and shape of
the parts, and the degree of deburring needed. The only real way to know
is by trial and error. If doing a lot of similar parts, you can get an
idea of the amount of time required after judging one or two trial runs.
But if each batch is different in some way, then you will have to test
every time.

- Michael