[Jewelry making - Article 01046] - Re: [Orchid] Using Midway's vibratory tumbler

[Judy Hoch]

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>     I ordered a vibratory tumbler from Midway, but I think I got the
>     wrong one
>        -Do you use water and steel shot? and how much shot? and water? 
>        -Do you also use it dry? and if so what kind of media. 
>     I'm used to a small loritone tumbler - but I would like to
>     have something that is faster. 

    Jan - There is no speed advantage to using a vibratory tumbler for
    burnishing. The vibratory tumbler is best used for deburring - that
    is to smooth the work pieces - prior to burnishing. The vibratory
    tumbler also is perfect for final buffing with a dry media and some
    polishing compound such as simichrome. 

    Your small rotary Lortone tumbler is most efficient for burnishing
    your jewelry with stainless steel shot. I use a larger rotary for
    burnishing - and run it for 30 to 45 minutes. I use sunsheen
    burnishing compound diluted with water with the steel. 

    The mass finishing process proceeds in the same way as manual
    finishing. First you have to smooth the jewelry - so you use some
    kind of abrasive media. For fabricated work, I use Rio's Clean cut
    aqua cones with sunsheen deburring compound. I use a flow thru
    process for this first step because the junk you remove needs to be
    removed from the tumbler. 

    Then, I burnish with steel as above. My final step for perfect hi
    polish is to run the jewelry for 24 hours in dry media with a
    polishing compound in my vibratory tumbler. This last step is done
    in a medium sized tumbler like yours.  After all this, set your
    stones. 

    The time advantage of mass finishing is found in the ability to run
    many pieces at once. The health benefits of mass finishing occur
    from omitting the airborne dust and polish of conventional
    finishing.  Further, mass finishing removes much less precious metal
    than conventional methods. 

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

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