These days I make one or a few pairs of small earrings at a time. They tumble well in my SS shot tumbler, but I wonder if I am causing any unnecessary wear either on the shot or the barrel lining. I also wonder if a small magnetic pin tumbler might be the better way to go. I am not sure what kind of a finish they leave and if I would just be adding another tumbling step after they come out of the pin finisher. These earrings are too small to polish on a wheel, otherwise I would use a wheel. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanksā¦Rob
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My experience is that a rotary tumbler with its larger stainless steel shot gives a more polished surface. Iāve always described that a magnetic tumbler gives a sheen not a shine. The small magnetic pins leave a slightly peened surface, with many subtle tiny marks from the polished pins.
What I really like about the magnetic tumbler though is that itās fast. 3-5 minutes and itās done, where the rotary tumbler takes an hour or two.
Somewhere in the forum, someone said to lower the speed of the magnetic tumbler to give a more polished surface. Unfortunately, my magnetic tumbler doesnāt have a speed control, just on and off, so Iāve never tried that.
It would be great if you could figure out a way to put your earrings in a magnetic tumbler and do a test before buying one. Thereās got to be a magnetic tumbler somewhere around where you live? A local jewelry store maybe, if no where else?
Jeff
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Jeffā¦Thanks, Arbe has a small model that is variable speed. I may just buy it as I am sure that it will have a place among all of my other tumblers purchased when I made a lot of jewelry for shows. I visited Arbe a few years ago when I was doing business on LI. They were very happy to give me a tour and show me all of their work. I was impressed and would be happy to purchase from themā¦Rob
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One of my other favorite things to do with a magnetic tumbler is do a preliminary polish on a rough casting. That often shows me the areas that I need to focus on with abrasives and a buffing wheel.
Something that Iāve always meant to try with a rotary tumbler is to a final round with treated walnut shell. Thatās supposed to give the closest finish to a buffing wheel polish.
Enjoy your new toy!!
Jeff
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Hi Jeff,
i have tried walnut shell charged with compoundā¦in a vibratory tumblerā¦i always get a sort of haze resultā¦i have tried corn cob afterā¦thinking i needed to remove excess compoundā¦but i still end up with a hazeā¦
thoughts anyone?
julie
Julie - what did you do to the pieces prior to running in shell? In other words - where does this process fit in your finishing regimen? and what sort of finish are you looking for and in what metal? Are pieces cast or fabricated?
Judy
Hi Judy!
thanks for asking! (and i have your great book and always refresh my memory before attempting any tumblingā¦ )
it was awhile ago, and so i do not recall the tumbling timesā¦
i believe i followed your advise with the exception that i did not procure the wooden pegsā¦
i tried it after hand sanding to around 800 gritā¦thinking it woukd be a final stepā¦
i was hoping for a shiny finishā¦but kept getting a hazeā¦i was guessing that it was compoundā¦there were some dark areasā¦
julie
Judyā¦In part, my original question was about what, if any, wear the shot and barrel lining experience regardless if the barrel is full of jewelry or nearly empty. Do you have any thoughts on this question? Thanksā¦Rob
I have a vibratory tumbler with Rio Grande 50,000 final polish grit and love it. The extra step gives a beautiful shine. Tumbler is from Pistoleer.com for bullet casings, bought 3 years ago.
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Marilyn - Rio doesnāt sell that now - it comes from Diamond Pacific and is called vibra-dry+. I also like the 50,000 diamond version.
Judy
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Jeff - you wonāt get a good finish with a rotary tumbler and dry compound, It needs to be a vibratory. I highly recommend Diamond Pacific Vibra-Dry+ 50,000 diamond compound. It produces a nice finish after early steps of abrasives.
Judy H
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Jeff - I think that the only ātumblerā that will give you a final finish in a few minutes is a disc finisher. Pieces generally need to be fixtured to avoid impingement.
Judy h
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Thanks for the update. It works great.
Judy, we might have different ideas of what a final finish is?
Almost all of my personal work is highly textured, either with roller printing or hammer texturing. Unless, Iām doing a custom job, I rarely take anything to a mirror polish. After I finish a piece, I usually toss it in the magnetic tumbler for 5-15 minutes and call it done. Iāve found that magnetic tumblers do most of what theyāre going to accomplish within 20 minutes. After that, Iāve found them to mainly be a subtle texturing tool. I remember putting something in my magnetic tumbler once and the timer didnāt go off for some reason, so it was in there all night. When found the piece the next day, it was destroyed. (It was an old piece of silver jewelry of my momās that I inherited.)
Magnetic tumblers biggest selling point is that theyāre fast and Iāve definitely found that to be true.
But what works for one person, may not work for another.
Hey, another topic. I saw on your website that youāre re-editing your book on tumbling finishing. Any idea when the updated version is coming out? Let us know.
Thanks so much for your excellent feedback!!
Jeff
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Today I received the small Arbe variable speed magnetic tumbler that I ordered just three days ago. Way to go PEPE! You beat the big guyās price and delivery by a lot. It works well. After I ran the media for a bit and rinsed it, I ran three pairs of earrings at half speed for 20 minutes. They came out nice. Once I figure out how to remove what I am tumbling and not the tiny .5X5 media, it will be even a better experience. Thanks for the help and encouragementā¦Rob
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Rob, I use one of these small flour sifting pans to dump the tiny steel shot into, to find pieces and to rinse the shot:
Neil A
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Neilā¦Thanks! I have a small strainer that I use for a lot of purposes and used it to separate the pins and pieces from the water. I still struggled a bit, but I used a pair of fine tweezers to remove the work and that helped. I am curious when you would use .3 vs .5 mm diameter pins. I have a hard time seeing .5 mm. I canāt imagine looking at .3mm. Time to learn and evolve. Thanksā¦Rob
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Hi Neil,
ah, ok, so those are more to drain the solutiin and allow one to spread out the media in order to find the jewelryā¦versus separating the media out, got it!
julie
Jeffā¦Most of my work has a high polish, but I do add texture to some. I have always done a high polish first as any blemishes on the surface will show through the texture. I know that this may be overkill in some casesā¦Rob
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Itās amazing how many gadgets there are! Thereās a tool to separate the pins from your work. Itās pretty ingenius, but Iāll confess that I didnāt realize how expensive it is. We have one at my job, but I donāt own one myself.
Unrelated, while I was looking for the magnetic pin separator I saw these polished stainless balls to use with a magnetic tumbler. It says that they compliment the magnetic pins. Has anyone ever used these?
Jeff
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