Saving Tumbling Time

Hi All I would like to spend less time in the polishing motor and get
better polish finishing specially in the hard to get at areas in the
gold and silver pieces, but with so many media products and tumblers
it got me completely confused, It’s been talked several times before
about the superiority of vibratory over rotary tumblers of what
finishing times is about. But with all that there are
still a lot of questions about the vibratory ones First, I have read
that not all of them can be used with stainless steel shot, And many
of them have to be used only to dry polish. And besides that big
variety of media compounds cause more confusion than the simple idea
to just go to the polishing motor and try to find the way to polish
the item in the old fashion way and its humble alternatives. If
somebody have experience using vibratory tumblers without going from
different stages using media and what brand would be more
appropriate to my low production level and my budget I beg you will
be so kind to share it with me for which I thank you in advance. Marco

Hi Marco, I don’t have any experience with vibratory tumblers, so I’m
not sure if this will be of use, but your comment about
budget leads me to believe it might. I obtained a Lortone Model 3A
rotary tumbler earlier this year that I use with stainless steel
mixed shot and Sunsheene Burnishing Compound, and love it. If I
remember correctly, the tumbler is about $40. I primarily create
fabricated sterling jewelry and also work in Precious Metal Clay, and
the tumbler has been great with both. The downside is that it doesn’t
have an on-off switch, so you have to plug and unplug it whenever you
want to use it (no big deal to me).

Hope this helps!
Regards,
Amy J.

About Vibratory Tumblers, they are sold through gun stores and
catalogues at considerably less cost than those through jewelry tool
suppliers. Midway is a name that comes to mind. I use one. Teresa

        The downside is that it doesn't have an on-off switch, so
you have to plug and unplug it whenever you want to use it (no big
deal to me). 

Hi Amy, I too use a Lortone tumbler. I’m in a wheelchair, so to
avoid having to reach and unplug my tumbler, I sliced the cord and
installed a switch from my local hardware store. – Terri Collier
Dallas, TX Scollier@concentric.net

amy a quick idea either [ut a switch on your cord or go buy a plug
that goes in the socket with a szwitch on it and plug the vibrator
into that you also need an adapter for a 3 way plug enjoy

polly

Marcos - in my opinion, tumbling time isn’t the issue, you can be
doing other things, including sleeping while the beast works. So
here are my suggestions -

First you have to smooth the pieces, for that I use Rio Grande aqua
clean cut media. If you have lots of detail to smooth, you need to
use the pointy pyramids, I prefer the cones for the kind of work I
do. I do this in a Raytech TV-25 flow thru vibratory tumbler. The
flow thru is essential for cleaning the junk out of the process. A
normal run for fabricated gold or silver is 6 to10 hours.

Then you need to polish the pieces - and these are choices, you
don’t have to do all of them

If you need to work harden your pieces, or they are fairly big, use
mixed stainless steel in a rotary tumbler. Most any size will do,
as long as it has flat interior sides so that the media tumbles
rather than slides. Time about 90 minutes,

Or you can use ceramic beads in a vibratory tumbler, It takes longer
than steel, but gives a nice refined surface. Time 12 to 18 hours.

Or if you have very smooth surfaces, as in anticlastic work,
directly from the smoothing process, put the pieces in a dry
vibratory tumbler with a mixture of wood chips and wood pegs charged
with simichrome or use Rio Grande Red Buff for gold, Green buff for
silver. I add pegs (25% by volume) to either mixture. I also use
this process after the steel for planished surfaces (like on forged
chains) to get a perfect rouge finish. Time 18 to 36 hours.

Or if you have very detailed pieces, finish your process with a
magnetic tumbler - they are really good at getting into detail.
Time 10 to 30 minutes.

This is a long way of saying, there are lots of ways to have the
machine beasts help do your finishing. They don’t take vacations,
or get sick, and the processes are repeatable. Yes they take time,
but it’s not your time. And you don’t have to breathe the dust of
the polishers.

A little known additional benefit is that much less metal is removed
in tumbling than in hand finishing. I’ve had quotes of less than
one tenth of one percent as compared to 3 to 5 percent removed with
hand buffing.

And if you want to know more, Rio Grande, along with Allcraft and
Frei and Borel sell copies of the small book I’ve written on the
subject, “Tumble Finishing for Handmade Jewelry”

Also to answer your specific question about running steel in a
vibratory tumbler - you can do it, but you need a very powerful,
expensive vibratory tumbler to make it work. Rotary ones are much
less expensive to move an appropriate amount of steel. (I run about
35 pounds of steel in my big rotary.) Steel is expensive, and if I
were to do it over, I’d try doing without it. Also, there is no
time difference in using a vibratory or a rotary tumbler for steel.
I run about 1 1/2 hours for an average batch.

And to answer your comment on the variety of media - they all work,
just some are better than others for different applications, and
that’s a matter of experimentation. I use lots of different ones,
but I’ve listed my workhorses for my fabricated jewelry. If you
cast, you would use different stuff. 'nuff said.

Judy Hoch, G.G.
@Judy_Hoch

Another way to handle the switch problem is add a power strip and a
timer. The power strip has an on off switch and can be placed on a
table next to the tumbler. The timer allows you to have the tumbler
turn itself on or off, but it will recycle daily, so eventually you
have
to turn off the power. Sandra