I found an old vibratory polisher used for rocks and minerals in my Dad's workshop. He let me borrow it to see if I could polish some metal parts(Aluminum, Stainless etc.). Any body have some instructions or know how to do this?

 

crushed corn cob or walnut hulls are common media for polishing. just put the part and media in the polisher and turn it on, check back later and see what results you get.

 

Like ede said, just toss em in and turn it on... I use a big lyman tumbler for doing handgun cartridges when I reload them. It usually takes 6 or 7 hours to do about 50 pieces of brass. You can pick up various types of polishing media at a gun supply or large sporting goods store. If you prefer to shop online, try Cabela's or Gander Mountain. I know they work well on brass and steel if there's already a little bit of finish on them, but if you're trying to clean up something that's already had the finish chewed up a bit, you may want to use a dremel or die grinder with a buffing wheel for a while first.

Oh yeah... one other thing I found out the hard way... leave about 1/4" of empty space in the top of the tumbler, or the media and stuff to be polished won't be able to move around and it doesn't work anywhere near as well.

 

with the polishing compound it'd take a hour or so and look better

 

Yeah we have a couple of these at work, mostly for deburring metal parts. Ours have the ceramic media that looks like Hershey's kisses. They are great for removing rust! I've taken rusty small parts and tossed them in there at the beginning of my shift, a few hours later pulled them out and they were shiny and rust free!

I was considering getting one for home use, but the big ones are not cheap. They recommend using plastic bead media for polishing aluminum and such.