Has anyone tried using a portable cement mixer with tumbling media of some kind as a way of removing scale from forged pieces? We are getting tired of wire brushing and are looking for a cheap but effective way to "descale".

Did it for years works well but Its loud and makes a lot of dust.

you don't need any thing else but the parts, tumble them together and you're good, no media necessary

i did this and used a bit of gravel for medium it worked fine i did modify the tumbler by changeing the paddles so they dont grab the ironwork other than that it worked fine...

i learned a trick from work that you put some water in (5:1 medium to water) and it will keep dust down and helps polish it too
-josh

If you want a aggressive media when using a tumbler, throw in a bunch of nails or small drops, welding rod ends, holes from punching etc. When your finished, dump the tumbler media out onto a screen and the dust etc will fall away from the media that can be reused.

If you add sand and a little boiled linseed oil and tumble a bit longer, the steel comes out with a nice oil finish.You can save and reuse the sand adding more linseed oil as needed.

I made a tumbler out of a 100# propane tank. I use 3/8 nuts, welding rod stubs,Short drops and odds & ends for medium, I love it. Wrap it with foam rubber and it cuts down on the noise a lot.

We use a concrete mixer.

I eventually removed all the paddles from the inside so that the sliding is smooth, and the noise is much less.
I did try gravel and sand but eventually bought some proper polishing media that did a much better job.
Together with that we bought a rust inhibiting soap that we threw in the mix with water, and it makes the loveliest grey foam, especially when you put in too much.

if you can find a steel fabricator secure a bucket of punch droppings as a medium for tumbling

I made a tumbler out of a 100# propane tank.

Brilliant! I have buch of tanks I bought at auction while they were full....

I used one of the small cement mixers from HF, without the paddles.
First used small pea gravel, worked OK but slow.
Used sandblast media [black beauty] also worked OK.
Got some punchout scraps and that works best and very fast.
I bought a roll of 1/2 inch thick felt from ebay and rubber cemented 2 8 inch bands of that around the OUTSIDE of the drum., upper and lower.
Fast, efficient and QUIET.
Just the punchouts- nothing else mixed with it.