[Jewelry making - Article 00043] - Re: [Orchid] Tumbling - barrels and Media

[Silverspotstudio]

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    Good question - I'll be watching this thread!   I'm fairly new to
    the wonderful world of tumbling, so I can only contribute an
    observation: 

    I have a cheap little Harbor Freight tumbler, which works
    beautifully with stainless shot, but I also wanted to try a
    final-finish media, so I ran a batch of cast pendants with some
    green Rio Sunsheen media.   After about 36 hours, I couldn't really
    see a marked improvement in the finish, so I emptied out and washed
    the tumbler barrel and ran a new batch of pendants in the usual
    soap, water, and shot. To my horror, the pendants came out
    thoroughly coated with sticky black goo, which would not wash off
    and had to be removed with Semichrome on a muslin buff.   Of course,
    this all happened right in the middle of a big rush order, so it was
    a real pain in the tuchis. 

    After a good cleansing with the _amazing_ flat Coke, the tumbler was
    restored to its normal function and everything was coming out bright
    and shiny again.  All I can figure is that it maybe had something to
    do with the barrel itself, which is made of heavy black rubber with
    an appallingly phenolic smell that never quite wears off.   I know
    some of you fellow Orchidians must have the same tumbler; have you
    encountered this weird problem? 

    I've been thinking of running a cycle with the final finish media in
    a plastic Skippy jar, which just happens to fit the tumbler's
    dimensions perfectly.   Any thoughts? 

Cheers,
Jessee Smith
www.silverspotstudio.com

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