Hello! Back in mid-late March (before I was on the Orchid list) there
was a discussion regarding the tiny burs on the jump rings made on
the Jump Ringer. Pauline suggested that one could tumble the jump
rings in a rotary tumbler with some pumice for a couple of hours; Ray
suggested that a ratio of two parts pumice to one part work, tumbled
dry 24 hours a day for a week would be good.
I’d like to try tumbling my Jump Ringer-made jump rings in pumice,
but when I went looking for the pumice, I ran into a couple of
issues. When I looked in my Frei & Borel catalog, I found that they
carry three different grades of pumice powder – Medium (80 mesh),
Fine (150 mesh), and Flour (200 mesh). Then when I looked into Rio
Grande’s catalog I found that they carry one grade only, and it’s
described as 320 “grit”.
Two questions:
-
Is “grit” the same as “mesh”?
-
What mesh(s)/grit(s) would be good to use to tumble off those tiny
jump ring burs?
It would be nice to buy the pumice in the 1-lb. quantity that Frei &
Borel carries rather than Rio’s 5-lb box, but if what I really need
is the Rio Grande stuff, or all four different grades, or yet another
grade or grades, please let me know.
This will be my first adventure in tumbling/mass finishing! I will
be purchasing a small rotary tumbler for this project as well, so …
any words-of-wisdom regarding Lortone vs. Thumbler’s (for example)
would be greatly appreciated. (I’ll be getting a Lortine 3A unless
I’m talked into something else.)
Thanks in advance!
– Constance