Grit feeders

[cutandpolish]

Anyone know where to purchase motorized grit feeders for sphere machines? Thank you.

[jamesp]

Interesting concept.

[Rockoonz]

I think that in the distant past I shared one that came with a large rotary lap I purchased from a friend who is an intermittent member here.
The parts were a plastic jar, a straw or plasic rigid tubing, and a gearmotor. The jar had a hole in the lid with the straw inserted, I don't remember how the motor was attached or the frame. The straw had a small hole in the side, and as the jar turned at about a 45 degree angle the straw would pick up a little grit and down the straw it went.
Another machine used gearmotor and screw to meter the grit, using the angle to adjust the amount.
The most elegant IMO for a sphere machine was a bowl of slurry below the sphere with braided cord or chain draped over one of the sphere cups and into the bowl that would just turn with the sphere cup and carry the slurry back up onto the ball as it dripped off back into the bowl. Upside to this is the recycling grit becomes broken down and finer with use and allows you to let it run longer and possibly skip steps like you can with a rotary tumbler.

[NRG]

We stopped using grit on spheres. Core drills to spherical and granite pads to polish.