Will a tumbler cause exessive parts wear?

[11Rider]

Hi guys, I'm considering getting one of those parts tumblers mainly to put nuts and bolts in to clean them up. I like the way they come out so nice with virtually no elbow grease. However, I found that they recommend you put them in there for about 48 hours! Doesn't it sound like you're going to lose some significant amount of metal especially on the threads of bolts? Anyone have any experience with this? As an alternative, I've put some bolts in a container of CLR overnight and have gotten nice results as well. Your thoughts?

[natemoen]

More or less all that is happening is polishing. The media being used is just rubbing the items surface a little bit over and over.

[latexeses]

I run parts cut from 360 brass through a vibrating tumbler all the time and have never had any dimensions change. Unless you stick something in there with a ceramic media I can't imagine you could loose any material.

Crushed walnut shells in a vibrating tumbler work well on grime softer than the shells. It will take forever to get hard carbon off a bolt. I would get after the dirtiest parts with a wire brush. Toothbrush sized stainless.
If you are looking for a quicker shine you can put a squirt of Flitz liquid polish in the shells along with whatever you want to polish. Speeds up the process and puts on a great shine. I have cleaned up parts in a couple hours with the Flitz.

[11Rider]

OK guys thanks. I tend to overthink things and I'm glad to hear that I don't need to worry about using the tumbler. I appreciate your input.