Tumbling book update

I’m finishing a major revision for my book on using tumblers to finish jewelry. What information would be important to include for you?
Judy Hoch

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Updates on new equipment and media, if any, would be helpful. I have been tempted, from time to time, to buy a pin finisher. I good review of what someone can realistically expect from them would be helpful too. I think that some people believe the hype and think that you can go from rough to high polish in one step. Your first book is a great resource. If you can improve on it, all the better. Thanks…Rob

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Hello Judy,
I have your book and look forward to buying the revised version. Please post a link on Orchid when it is available.

To Robs point above, i think that photos of the various finishes achieved would be wonderful.

I saw a video once (i cannot find it again) that showed the optimal “S” motion for stainless steel shot in a rotary barrel tumbler, as well as optimal amount of shot and solution…(i think it was "minimum 50% fill) I found that very helpful in understanding the mechanics…and motion of media and how it relates to the pieces being tumbled…

it made me think that many small tumblers that are sold in jewelry catalogs are not rated for the weigh required to fill the barrel properly, to get the proper “S” motion…do you find this to be true?..I bought a small rotary tumbler, but based on the maximum weight, i was only able to fill the barrel 1/3 full…I ended up returning it…

(If anyone is familiar with the video I mentioned above, I would love the link)

Julie

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Oh Judy I’d do a naked happy dance to say thank you, but we have enough to scare us these days. What I would like to see is how the size of the tumbler reacts with small pieces across the sizes. Example is I forge copper Christmas tree ornaments besides doing jewelry. I wanted to ramp up my capacity of tumbled pieces so I bought one of the larges barrel type. I had one tangled mess and lost almost a days worth of work in one tumbling batch. Yet When I broke down and bought many small barrel tumblers, I could put 15 in each barrel and not have any issues at all. So my question revolves around size of the tumblers

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I have been looking for a copy of your book Judy! I can hardly wait for the release of the revised book! Where will I be able to find it?

Thanks, Sarah

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I have a vibratory tumbler for ammunition brass that works great using Rio’s 50,000 polishing media. It is not large, so the most I have put in at one time is about a dozen pieces, including individual stones.

I have a large commercial grade vibratory tumbler and a small rotary tumbler. When does it make sense to use each? Is it just a matter of volume? Which is what I’ve been basing my decision on. Thank you.

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I spent a few years making copper cookie cutters. I used a Raytech 25 for finishing. Smaller pieces were okay; 3.5" and bigger got tangled. The solution was to build a “spider” which kept the pieces separate. It had six horizontal axles on a torus which was free to rotate with the media. i could thread three or four cutters on each axle.

Brian - do you have a picture of what you built? It’s a good example of fixturing odd shapes. You can pm me fb judy staby hoch. many thanks.