Tumbling/Shot

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Hi,

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to making silver jewellery and could do with some advice on tumbling. I have all the basic tools but am now thinking about buying a tumbler/barrel for polishing my pieces, possibly the 3lb Metal Barrelling Machine (code 999 6005) on the Cookson Gold website as it has some good reviews.

What I'd like to know is, what is best to use in it? I've heard stainless steel shot has a longer lasting result than steel shot, but I really don't have a clue what to get, plus it comes in different shapes/sizes... And do i need to put anything else in the barrel along with the shot?? As you can tell I am completely new to tumbling (and very confused!) so any advice would be very much appreciated!

Also, can anyone recommend where's best to buy it from (ie the cheapest place!)

Thanks,

Karen

[Dennis]

Karen, this subject has been covered several times over in the last two years and the best you can do is to put the key words (Tumbler, Barreling, Shot) into our search box on the top right in three separate goes. You will be overwhelmed by all the discussions there, but there is no quick answer.

To give you a start, you need mixed shot and a solution of barreling compound (soap). Stainless steel shot is best because you don't have to dry it after use. Regards, Dennis.

[silken]

I can 100% recommend using mixed stainless steel shot, never be tempted to get normal carbon steel as it degrades so quickly. Be sure to look for a shot mix that has a nice variety of different shapes. Mine has lots of shapes including long pin like pieces, balls, angle cut pins, planetoids, cylindrical pins. The more variety you have, the more likely the shot will burnish all those little nooks and crannies in your jewellery. I got my shot mix years ago and it's still going strong, I bought it from one of the jewellery supply shops in the jewellery quarter but can't remember which. It cost about 15 pounds at the time. In addition to the stainless steel shot, I put in a handful of plastic shot which is pretty much just small round plastic ball bearings like they use in plastic BB guns. I always find adding the plastic shot just brings out a nicer shine and it only costs a pound from the pound shop for a big old tub of it. For your barreling compound, you can use specialist barreling/burnishing soap which you can easily get from the usual jewellery suppliers or you can use normal washing up liquid. It's up to you, but the compounds are specially formulated for tumbling so they seem to perform better than plain old dish soap

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Thanks for your replies - silken that is really helpful, thanks

I realise this has been discussed many times and I have searched on here and some is really helpful but I find the more I look, the more confused I get with it, and the 'useful links' people have posted, i've found alot of the pages have now moved so aren't much use now which is a shame.

I'm now confused as to what size barrel i need and also how much shot I need to use for the size of the barrel? I was looking at a 3lb one, although not really sure what will fit in that? And now i've seen ones with two 1.5lb barrels - is there any advantage to having 2 smaller ones than one big one?

Sorry for all the questions

[Dennis]

I find it difficult to answer that except in general terms, but:

1.A cramped barrel can be a nuisance, because you want your work to tumble freely.
2.Too heavy a barrel will slip and not rotate well.
3.Two barrels might be useful if you want one without needles, but they could be used in turn, on a single machine.

Basically what size you want depends on your volume of work. I make one offs, so I only need a two pound barrel, with 500g of mixed shot. This with enough soap solution to cover it, is about as heavy as my smallest machine from Manchester minerals will turn. So, once you have decided, get the machine and barrel that are meant to go together.

Three other points: Despite what you read, soap is important and I would not be without my Burnishing Soap B, available on line. Also I would not have a plastic barrel with a plain unvented plastic lid, because it leads to all sorts of hassles you can do without. Lastly, fins or ridges inside the barrel enhance the tumbling and reduce the time needed, in my case, to about an hour and a half. Dennis

[ps_bond]

Having just blown the dust off my Beach tumbler, I would underscore Dennis' suggestion of not having unvented lids - mine are and they've already popped off once. This is why I run the thing in a shallow tray...
Oh, and apparently mice like burnishing soap. But it doesn't seem to do them any good. Oddly, they left the packs of borax alone.