Tumbling gold with walnut shells

Jewelry Discussion
1

I attempted to polish some gold earrings in my tumbler with Walnut
Shells and a very old bottle of OTEC Precision Finish. I contacted
the company and ask for directions, in which they did not answer. I
attempted the cleaning with a teaspoon of this sticky stuff in the
shells. WHAT A MESS. Anyone know where to turn, short of tossing this
stuff in the waste basket?

Thanks millions,
Lyn Maloney

2 
I attempted to polish some gold earrings in my tumbler with Walnut
Shells and a very old bottle of OTEC Precision Finish. I contacted
the company and ask for directions, in which they did not answer.
I attempted the cleaning with a teaspoon of this sticky stuff in
the shells. WHAT A MESS. Anyone know where to turn, short of
tossing this stuff in the waste basket?

Lyn - The Otec Precision Finish that you used is formulated for high
speed disc finishing systems. It gets very warm in their machines.
You are correct that the best solution is to toss the media that you
treated with the OTEC compound in the waste basket.

Start over with an appropriate compound for your tumbler and media.
Use Simichrome with walnut shells to get a very nice finish.
Simichrome is available from most of the jewelry supply companies and
locally from your friendly auto parts store.

Good luck
Judy Hoch

3

I think you have answered your own question. I have tumbled silver
and gold in walnut shells with rouge powder, it gives an OK finish
but WHAT A MESS. Works better with vibro tumblers though and pretty
good for cleaning brass, copper etc.

Nick

4

Hello Lyn,

You asked about polishing with walnut shell in a tumbler. I’m not
familiar with the OTEC Precision Finish - I use a compound that
looks like green paste. However, I suspect the process would be the
same.

The walnut shell must be charged before use. That means you add the
compound to the shell and tumble for 24 hours or so. Then check that
the compound has been distributed to all the media and is not
clumped up. Once that has been accomplished, put your metal in and
tumble away. Once the shell has been charged, it will not need to be
treated again for some time - depends upon how often you use it and
how shiny the metal surfaces are to begin with.

You probably know that this media is used dry and that tumbling time
may need to be extended to 24 hours. It’s a matter of periodically
checking the metal. Initially, you may find the surface of the metal
is sort of hazy. A little time in the ultrasonic should clean that
off and reveal the shine. If not, tumble your shell some more and
try again.

Hope this helps,
Judy in Kansas, where the dreaded inventory is about to commence!!