I use my ultrasonic cleaner with a few drops of Dawn in the water...After that, a quick rub with chrome polish and they are ready to be put back on the drum...

Cheers

The ultrasonic device sounds great on a labor/time saving basis. I have never used one, but I hear they are great using walnut shells as a medium.

I have used a buffing wheel from Harbor freight. 2 wheels, 1 each side.

Use a metal polishing compound and buff the lugs and rods. On lugs, screw in a long tension rod to hold lug in your hand. They will fly away because they are hard to hold against a wheel spinning. For rods that are tight. Get a tap and die set for 12-24 if lugs are standard American. Different threads for MIJ/DW etc. Screw/turn the die over threads on rods to clean up threads. Use the tap to clean out threads in lug inserts. Then lube the rods with vaseline or lithium grease. Have fun restoring sir.

I have sometimes found the problem to be a small piece to metal or even a curly sliver of the tension rod thread that had separated and become lodged in the tension rod or even swivel nut itself. I use a small plumbing wire bristle bore to clean out the nuts, then re-lubricate.

I think you may be confusing an ultrasonic machine with a tumbler...

Cheers

D,

Is your question regarding the entire process of making the hardware spiffy and shiny, or is about the mechanics of silky smooth tuning?

I recently discovered two methods that take time but are far less laborious:

Soak all the parts in Evapo-rust overnight. You can find it at auto parts stores.

Soak all the parts in a water-Dawn solution the next night. I used about an ounce of Dawn with about 2 cups of water. Make sure to use Dawn dish soap and not the green hand soap sold at Costco.

Run some q-tips through the lug nuts to remove the now-loose dirt, scum and old grease. A brush might even be better.

Dip the tip of each tension rod in light machine oil and run the tension rod through the nut (with your fingers, no drum key) before you install the lug. This will lubricate the nut and also tell you if you have more work to do to get smooth operation of the nut.

I finish up with Flitz polish. Everybody here has their favorite, and this is mine.

Josh

Just going with the original post. Yes, probably a tumbler. Not sure.

Both! I should have clarified. This is great info thanks a lot! Good info from everyone else as well. I’ve done my own thing before as far as polishing, but I’ve never tried to improve the mechanics to get a smooth tune and turn of a tension rod. Looking forward to trying these things out.

Going to start cleaning after Christmas. Forgot to ask another question-

What do you guys put in your lugs for padding? I’ve seen foam and cotton inside lugs, but what do you prefer and why?

Cotton, because foam will rot. When it does it can stick to metal.

Peace

Steve