I just got in my new 5 cubic foot tub vibratory finishing unit to start up an aluminum polishing business, and got it up and running tonight. Sort of. Well, I'm going to need a heavier circuit breaker installed- 10 minute runs isn't getting me very far- 10 hours is more like what I need. But anyway, as soon as a good electrician is located (I'm taking recommendations for the KC area), and a heavier breaker installed I'll be running my experimental pieces , hopefully having some polished parts by the weekend. The pieces on the list are one pair of '39-'48 Offy flathead V8 heads, one Edelbrock Super Dual intake ('39-'48) and one Eddie Meyer Dual intake ('39-'48). My boss is looking at selling the vending business I've been at the last eight years, so I'm hoping to make a go of the aluminum polishing as a full time gig. It's a nice machine, in fact it's used by many of the NASCAR teams for polishing engine internals (heck, they even use larger vibratory machines to polish the engine blocks), and very sturdy (950 lbs, empty). I'll be using it to try and achieve external and internal polishing on intakes, and hopefully get the water jackets on heads a little smoother too.
Wheels are a bit big for my machine. Max dimensions for the part/parts is approximately 14" high by 14" wide by 34" long. Valve covers should be a snap. One of the things I need to find out is whether I can run two valve covers at once or not.
... and you looked.... Trying to get an electrician rounded up today so I can get a whole lotta shakin' goin' on.
You're my new best friend. I have all sorts of stuff for you to polish. If you can do valve covers, can you do heads? r
Thanks for all the interest. I figured there would be a little market for polishing. I've been kicking the idea around for a year, but finally got the money scraped up to do it. My electrician will be here thursday morning early to upgrade the wiring and breaker for the garage, so I have a little down time to analyze what I've gotten done so far. I started with a set of Offy heads because they have more fins than other brands and are the hardest to polish. Bad news on these is my media is 3/8", Offy fins are 3/8" apart-- they got all jammed up, so they're not going to polish between the fins with this media. I'll have to make sure and get 1/4" media next time I order it. I think other brands of heads will be OK though, their fins are fewer and farther between. This first week is going to be a lot of trial and error. I'm good at errors so everything should go great. Here's a picture of what's happened so far with the Offy head (can only fit one at a time in this machine). After 2.5 hours the edges are noticeably lighter, and the fins are starting to reflect light pretty well- better than I had expected actually. I'm going to go ahead and put the heads on hold until I get a media that can really get in and 'cut down' between the fins better. As soon as I get the electrical issues worked out I'm going to the Eddie Meyer and Edelbrock intakes.
I have some V8-60 stuff if you want to test out your machine. Or "Weiand" valve covers for SBC. Chris Nelson Kansas Oh yea, and if you are not doing anything this weekend. Dewey, Oklahoma is only a couple of hours away for the SK500. Heck of a fun show and if you stay overnight, plan on waking up with a sleep hangover.
I'm aiming at a full 'batch' price of $75.00 for HAMB members ($80.00 regular price). One head will take up most of the space, but little items like fuel logs, carb block-offs, fuel pump block-offs, or generator brackets can fit in the unused spaces towards the corners of the tub. Still to be tried, but I think two valve covers may fit in one batch, and maybe two flathead V8 intakes. I could probably squeeze in some small bits on the cheap if I'm running parts for myself to resell, or guys/gals could combine little odds and ends and split the costs.
Hopefully it'll be shinier than a misers first dime... I'm going for show polish. I've seen some samples at the machine manufacturer's shop in Chicago that were mirror-like, but those were billet pieces not cast aluminum. Two stages, cut-down for 8-10 hours and 12 plus hours in polishing cob. The cut-down will get the metal up to a pre-plate type finish with the media I'm using. Different parts will need some tweaking on time, and that's where experience will come in- I need to get some... Hopefully the first shiny stuff will be ready by Sunday at the latest.
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