Anyone with experience on tumblers or the media to use?

[krsimulis]

I bought a tumbler to give it a try from a local gun store (we have alot in Houston). Its small, but big enough for a few pieces on the motorcycle, and I figured if it could save me some manual labor and get into the smaller parts, i was all for it. I bought the media from the gun store, one 5lb bag of walnut shell, and one 5lb bag of corn cob. I did not get good results, I was actually ****ed because I waited 20 hours for that thing to be done. The walnet shell seemed to do more then the corn cob. Just for the record, I am polishing aluminum. I need to know how I can treat my media, or is the media that Caswell sells different then the media you can buy at the store. I have got the polishing down good, after alot of weeks of screwing things up, but I can now bring pieces to a shine. I order the copy chrome kit yesterday and I also order about 40 motorcycle parts that would fit in a little bit bigger tumbler that is a pain to sand or even polish. I guess I am also wondering if the media in the tumbler will bring it to a good enough shine to plate. Thanks in advance for the help, I am trying to make my life somewhat easier.
Kenny