[Jewelry making - Article 00939] - Re: [Orchid] Size of workpiece dictate size of tumbler?

[Judy Hoch]

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    Brian - there are really two concerns in choosing a tumbler - the
    size of the pieces you wish to finish, and the number of them that
    you plan to run at the same time. 

    The jewelry needs to be able to turn freely in all directions in the
    torroid of media that develops as you run the tumbler. Plan on 85%
    media, minimum, and try and get your head around the number of leaves
    that you will run and whether they might run into each other. 

    A first guess on the size you might need is a Raytech AV-25,  7.5
    quart, 0.24 cf, 20 lb capacity. It would pretty much do all the
    things you show on your website. Anything smaller would likely
    create impingement problems with the pointy ends of the leaves. 

    The only downside to picking an over size tumbler is that you will
    still always run it full of media, and the media wears itself out
    eventually.  Given the cost of tumblers, I'd go for a big one.  It
    takes a long time to wear out the abrasive media, and the bigger the
    tumbler, in my experience, the faster it finishes. 

    Tumblers cost kind of like an employee for a week or two - but they
    work at night, and weekends, don't get sick, and are never asking for
    two hour lunches. You gotta love 'em. 

    What you will miss is having to breathe the gunk from the buff,
    backache from bending over the wheel, hot fingers. Need I say more? 

Judy  Hoch, G.G.
judy AT marstal.com
www.marstal.com

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