10-27-2016, 12:54 PM
(02-16-2016, 06:02 PM) Wrote: Hey everyone, new guy here!
I'm looking for a tool that would allow me to polish small metal pieces. All I find are tumblers and hand-held tools. What I would like to do is create small metal cubes about an inch on a side as smoothly polished and straight sided as possible. I'm thinking I need something like a small lathe that can hold both the workpiece and a grinding bit to each other that I can then jam together. Then a polishing bit for the finishing. Is a lathe overkill though? Can it even do this? Whatever is the appropriate tool if it can polish plastic and glass too so much the better.
What gear do I need for this?
Rasiel
Hello - even newer guy here!
Investigate the tools and techniques that gem cutters and polishers use.
No, you won't want to use a tumbler for polishing, but things like the faceting machines and lapping disks might get the results you want.
There is a wide range of diamond-grit lapping disks available on Amazon. I use one for sharpening/polishing/honing carving knife blade edges and it works wonderfully.
A faceting system might do a good job of making cubes.
DougVL