Help...Tumbling Bolts-Nuts

[jeffdubb8]

I recently purchased a rotary tumbler from HF to do "renew" some old school nuts and bolts. I heard the rotary tumblers are typically "wet" tumblers...so I used about 1lb of glass bead (because I had some extra laying around, it's a 3lb tumbler) with a touch of dawn soap, a touch of lemi-shine and enough water to cover all the bolts...

So, the nuts/bolts definitely came out much cleaner and look decent, but...2 issues:

1. I was hoping they'd have a slightly better "shine" to them...I'm not expecting a polished look, but a relatively "new" look, not just "clean". Sorry no pics.

2. They began to form a slight layer of rust within 15 minutes of taking them out. (I live in AZ).

So any help would be greatly appreciated. How can I get them a bit shinier and no rust? (I hear using stainless steel media works, any comments?) Thanks guys!!!

 

[Havasu Dave]

Hi Jeff, I'd never heard of "lemi-shine" but when I checked it out, a chemist had done a lot of research and discovered it's basically citric acid with a pH2.

So what's happening is that acid in the solution is laying a film over your hardware and when exposed to the air, is causing the rust. The same thing happens when I use muratic acid, and don't neutralize in soda ash followed by a rinse. Just a rinse in fresh water wont do it. Then I have to quickly dry, and either spray some WD40 on it, polish, or paint.

I realize we're just talking hardware here, but some of it is no longer produced as it was in the 60's, and even with common stuff, I walk out of ACE 40 dollars poorer and a bag-o-bolts.

I do a soak in my muratic acid. You could soak in your lemi-shine, or vinegar, etc. Then I use a wire wheel chucked into a drill press and get rid of whatever is left. Rub it with a WD or oily rag, and it stays good.

Sharing your low humidity environment, I can keep stuff bare metal for a very long time with no rust. It's the acid on them that causes it. The wire wheel puts a nice shine on the stuff. Hope this helps.

 

[we4amigos]

Dave's right on the money,you need a better rinse. Personally I'd eliminate Lemi-shine altogether and check your results. I was in the fastener business for over 25yrs. and back then most our inventory came in "plain finish" and we sent parts out for zinc or cad plating. To keep our inventory "fresh" we use to spray plain old 10w30 motor oil on it. We had bolts 20 years old that looked new as can be (plain finish)! Now a days is hard to find a grade 5 or 8 in plain finish,,they come already plated. If you know anyone with a vibratory bowl I'd suggest trying a batch in that. It will clean & polish without destructing parts.
Best of luck

 

[jeffdubb8]

Thanks guys...appreciate it. I used the lemi-shine cause a lot of people who re-use ammo say it provides a really nice shine. I know they use brass...but I thought I'd try it on my stuff too.

Yeah, some one else also suggested after tumbling them that I use a vibratory bowl with crushed walnut shells to get an extra shine.

Side Note: The water/soap was very dirty on the first run...so I used the same process and "re-tumbled" them with new water/soap etc and the bolts really came out very nice and shinier than before...but still have to deal with the rust...so maybe I'll use WD-40 then wipe them off after a little bit. Thanks guys!!