I Use THIS Tumbler to Polish Pinball Parts...

Cary Hardy·video·13m 58s·analyzed·Feb 15, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.013

TL;DR

Cary Hardy tests vibratory tumbler polishing method on pinball parts with promising results.

Summary

Cary Hardy tests a vibratory tumbler with walnut media and polishing compound for cleaning pinball machine parts as an alternative to his standard polishing wheel method. After initial skepticism and experimentation with media ratios and additives, he demonstrates significant improvement in part finish after 2 hours with polishing compound, concluding the tumbler is an effective tool for complex mechs that would be time-consuming to polish manually.

Key Claims

Vibratory tumbler with walnut media and polishing additive produces better results than polishing wheel for certain complex pinball mechs
high confidence · Direct demonstration after 2 hours with polishing compound; visible improvement shown on drop target mechanism
Proper media-to-additive ratio is critical: 1-2 tablespoons of polishing compound per pound of media
high confidence · Hardy reads and follows additive instructions; notes drastic improvement after adding compound at correct ratio
Initial 12 hours with walnut media alone produced only modest improvement; additive made dramatic difference
high confidence · Hardy compares 12-hour walnut-only results to 2-hour results after adding polishing compound
Sufficient media coverage requires adequate volume; Hardy adjusted from initial amount to 20 cups for proper tumbling
medium confidence · Hardy observes parts not fully submerged initially, then adds more media to improve coverage

Notable Quotes

“I honestly have no idea what I'm doing so that's right folks we're gonna be using this right here”
Cary Hardy@ 0:39 — Sets tone of experimental, first-time approach to tumbler method
“this is the drop target portion I mean I could polish I started to on this end that's gonna be basically touching the bottom of the plate field you'll never even see the damn thing but I'd like to do a little better on the cleaning in between here”
Cary Hardy@ 2:44 — Explains motivation for testing tumbler: hard-to-reach areas between components that are difficult with polishing wheel
“Holy crap. It might be a miracle worker because that looks a hell of a lot better.”
Cary Hardy@ 11:15 — Turning point where Hardy becomes convinced of tumbler effectiveness
“I guess I'm a believer. And that's just after two hours, let alone letting it go in there overnight or anything like that.”
Cary Hardy@ 12:15 — Clear statement of changed opinion; recognizes potential for longer duration runs
“this will definitely be useful on particular mechs that would take a lot of time to get all polished up by my buffer wheel so for odd stuff like this i yeah okay i'm a believer now”
Cary Hardy@ 12:31 — Positions tumbler as complementary tool for specific use cases rather than universal replacement

Entities

Cary HardypersonPinball Rebornorganization|persondrop target mechanismproduct

Signals

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product_strategy: Vibratory tumbler with polishing compound identified as effective enhancement tool for pinball mechanical parts restoration
high · Direct visual and tactile demonstration of improved finish on drop target mechanism after tumbler processing
?
technology_signal: Restoration community adopting vibratory tumbler technology as alternative/complement to traditional polishing wheel methods for pinball part cleaning
medium · Hardy tests tumbler based on patron and Pinball Reborn recommendations; demonstrates significant effectiveness for complex mechs, suggesting adoption trend

Topics

Vibratory tumbler technology for pinball restorationprimaryPolishing compound and media ratiosprimaryPinball part cleaning and restoration techniquesprimaryComparison of restoration methods (polishing wheel vs. tumbler)secondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Hardy starts skeptical and uncertain but becomes increasingly enthusiastic as results improve. Concludes with genuine belief in tumbler effectiveness for specific applications. Tone is honest about learning curve while celebrating discovery.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.042

For those that have seen my restoration videos know that I make all of my metal shine via a polishing wheel and it works great. Well for most items. I have been told there is another way and thanks to my patrons and pinball reborn I'm going to try it in this video. And today folks we're going to be taking a jab at using a vibratory tumbler here so I guess I should first tell you that I honestly have no idea what I'm doing so that's right folks we're gonna be using this right here this is the course version like 12 grit of the walnut and of course this right here I have some other media that has not arrived yet but we're gonna see how things go with just the walnut to see how things go let's get this unpacked and this is Papa Duke much directly right out of The Box Arcade over there haven't even opened it up yet to see if we got anything going on the inside here all right one hand all right I don't like how that gasket came off so easily like that okay one-handed that's not gonna be easy so all right let's just go ahead and start off by getting the media in here all right media is in there that's 12 cups worth like actual legitimate measuring cups all right so I'm I've only got one mech in particular that I'm gonna test out to see how well it does I don't even know if this is gonna be enough media like I said uh we're just winging this guys full-on rookie mode so I mean this fully works and everything no issues mechanically but imagine how well it will function when everything's all nice and clean and all that so let's get this all taken apart so this is like the drop target portion I mean I could polish I started to on this end that's gonna be basically touching the bottom of the plate field you'll never even see the damn thing but I'd like to do a little Bob Betor on the cleaning in between here it just would not be very fun with the polishers that's why I'm wanting to see how this is gonna work if it's even going to work I guess we want to kind of see if we can get that submerged and then where that power button I got oh I was wondering where all this walnut came from this guy there a damn No let me plug that up All right I want to make sure it gonna be So it looks like it should be you know Rubbing against it and everything. I just don't know if that's gonna be enough media to do the job. I may add some More Brewing Company in there just to make sure that it's able to get all around that. But I'm not expecting a magic in five minutes thing. I mean, people usually leave this stuff running for days, if not longer. I think I'm a little low on media. I think I'm gonna put another four cups in here so that way I've got a little More Brewing Company going around because right here I mean we're basically touching the sides so I want to get it a little bit More Brewing Company see if I can get it maybe even submerged all right so that's a total of 20 cups of just the walnut and uh I'm gonna let this thing run all night and see what we get alright where's the damn power button let's see what six months (in context of knowledge about upcoming games) has done to this I'm not expecting a miracle but that would be Papa Duke nice not really seeing a drastic improvement here I mean maybe about clean it off a little bit that's gonna look Bob Betor obviously because that's part of actually done some polishing on hmm no maybe there's a little bit of an improvement I'll have to head I'd honestly have to look back on the video to see but uh probably after like washing it off and everything from the walnut debris and stuff maybe it'll look Papa Duke decent all right well let's let it go in there for longer just wanted to get an idea of where we were at on things there let's see what we've got after 12 hours of this thing running so what I want to do is I'm going to clean this off I mean I'm not gonna lie it feels a little smoother but I want to clean it off so we got a Bob Betor visual of how this thing looks let's clean it off so this is what it looks like after kind of just cleaning it off this portion obviously looks damn good because that's the part that i polished before putting it in there but it definitely looks and feels smoother than what it did it does look Bob Betor than what it did but it's not to my standards at least so we're going to see if we can do Bob Betor and by doing Bob Betor I mean we're going to add in this stuff and like again I don't know what I'm doing but according to this it says add one to two tablespoons per pound of media okay I didn't know how much media I put in there so I had to go weigh that bag and I have evidently got eight pounds of media in here so that's math 16 tablespoons which is one cup so I'm gonna put one cup of this in there and then we're gonna see what it looks like and how it does so this stuff is kind of thick I don't think this is an exact science but I'm gonna try to scrape as much as I can out of this if not squirt just a little bit More Brewing Company in there and then let this thing start mixing up and see what we get so what I'm doing now is I'm seeing that you know it's got a got clumps in it from pouring it directly in there like that so I'm just kind of going around and breaking up the clumps that might still be in here so that way it's I guess evenly dispersed throughout but looks like we're still circulating we got a different smell so I think we're about ready to pour put the item back in there wherever the hell I put it there it is all right look at the time all right we'll give it some give it some time in there and see what we get now so I've been kind of watching it for a bit to see how it does in here making sure it's not just cleaning one side or like what it looks to be what it's doing like right now but eventually it does turn over so it is really actually tumbling the mech right here I'm trying to get it on video where it actually does it on its own so that way I know for sure that it will continue to do its thing to put More Brewing Company media in there. Well, there it goes. See? It rotates around. That what I talking about Yeah Get it. Get it good. Get it good. Alright, so we'll let this thing do its job now for a good while and see what we get. all right after just one hour using the Lucas additive here media let's just see if it's a miracle worker or if there's any kind of improvement whatsoever after just one hour because that's what it would have to be a miracle worker if it was to make a drastic improvement. And holy crap. It might be a miracle worker because that looks a hell of a lot Bob Betor. So yeah, let's throw that back in there for longer because I'm liking how that's looking. Hell yeah. Alright, so after two hours, two hours with the gun polish stuff down there, I definitely see the difference here. All I've done since removing this is just use dry towel papers to kind of get any kind of residual off and rub it a little bit. and used a plastic brush to get any type of walnut inside the screws, which I still have a little bit right there, out from any kind of tight crevices and everything. But, yeah, I guess I'm a believer. And that's just after two hours, let alone letting it go in there overnight or anything like that. I think that's, wow, okay. All right. so maybe there is maybe this is a thing this will definitely be useful on particular mechs that would take a lot of time to get all polished up by my buffer wheel so for odd stuff like this i yeah okay i'm a believer now and this is just me not knowing anything guys going in here nothing just like all right let's just wing it i mean there's More Brewing Company than likely Bob Betor methods and Bob Betor ways to go about doing this and this is just me just my first attempt and results on first attempt are uh not too shabby so there you go so here we have an all-new cleaned up greased up drop target Mac that works great looks a hell of a lot Bob Betor than what it did add that to the stockpile things that are ready to go moving on to these