Vibratory vs. Rotary Tumbling

Jewelry Discussion
1

I just did my first real round of casting and tumble polished the
pieces w/ ceramic media and steel shot in rotary machines…but just
picked up a nice little wet/dry Vigor 3 qt machine on ebay today. How
would you compare vibratory vs rotary? What works better for which
media? I know time is reduced on the vibratory machine. Someone said
rotary is better for steel shot?

Thanks,
Jeanne
http://www.jeannius.com

2 
I just did my first real round of casting and tumble polished the
pieces w/ ceramic media and steel shot in rotary machines....but
just picked up a nice little wet/dry Vigor 3 qt machine on ebay
today. How would you compare vibratory vs rotary? What works
better for which media? I know time is reduced on the vibratory
machine. Someone said rotary is better for steel shot?

Jeanne - the vibratory wet/dry machine is far superior for the
grinding abrasive process. You can wash away the junk with the flow
thru, it’s quicker than the rotary for the abrasives by a factor of
10.

On the other hand, the rotary is used for the steel primarily as a
matter of economics. You can move a lot of steel with a relatively
inexpensive machine. You can certainly use a vibratory for steel,
but it needs to be rated for steel and that makes for an expensive
machine, to say nothing of the cost of buying enough steel to fill
the thing.

There’s a fair amount of detail to this tumbling thing. My book
“Tumble Finishing for Hand Made Jewelry” supplies a lot more detail.
Available from Rio Grande, Otto Frei, Alpha supply, Gesswein and
others.

Judy Hoch