Many types of parts are molded and machined from acrylic plastic. Once the parts are made they often have a dull surface finish or have machining marks that need to be removed.
The part on the left in the above picture has a ‘rough’, matte surface finish. The goal is to get to a bright, polished finish seen on the right. While there are many options for abrasive tumbling plastic parts including both wet and dry processes, this part was polished using a two step, dry tumbling process.
The first step involved barrel tumbling with a Hardwood Media and Shynolyte Pre-Polishing Cream. This step provided a highly uniform, matte surface finish that was ready for polishing. The second step utilized the same type of Hardwood Media and Microlyte Polishing Cream producing the finish seen in the picture. Each step was about 20 hours which is typical for dry tumbling.