Rock tumbler for polishing jewellery?

[grace_2019]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if it’s possible to use a rock tumbler for polishing jewellery, (using the appropriate jewellery shot)? The one I had in mind was a cheap one made by National Geographic on Amazon. It has good reviews but those are mainly from people using it for it’s intended purpose.
Any advice is much appreciated :)

[OceanandEarth]

I used the one your talking about at an evening class my rings came up lovely, they are still looking great now. Funnily I’ve just ordered one, been looking out for a cheap one and I finally found one. [emoji3]


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[grace_2019]

That’s fantastic to hear! And what a coincidence lol. Thank you.

[china]

I do not not know the specific tumbler you mention although it is quite common to use rock tumblers for polishing jewellery, they are pretty the same thing thing just that one is sold as a jewellery tumbler
and one is sold as rock tumbler

[Dennis]

For jewellery it helps if the barrel has internal ridges, sometimes called vanes,to accelerate the tumbling. Dennis.

[Esk]

Hi, I hope it's ok to hijack this thread as it's related.

I was wondering if it's possible to polish jewellery in a rock tumbler, then is it also possible to polish glass and stones in a jewellery tumbler? I have a project I need to work on which will involve me polishing some slag glass, so I've been looking into getting a rock tumbler, and I was happy to learn that when I'm done with that I could also use the tumbler with shot to polish jewellery pieces, but I'm wondering if they're interchangable in this way, would it be a better investment to get one built for jewellery, or would the stones cause damage to a tumbler that's designed for jewellery?

I'm a student at the moment so money is tight and I'd rather buy something that will last as an investment, but I'm not sure which way to go on this one so I appreciate any insight people could give.

Thanks

[mizgeorge]

Absolutely. I would invest in two separate barrels, however - even a few traces of polishing grit mixed in with steel shot can spoil the polish on jewellery. I have several barrels for my Lortone - including two for different types of shot, one for grits and another for other polishing media.

[Esk]

Thanks for weighing in, I hadn't even gotten around to considering contamination. I'll definitely have to invest in separate barrels.

Do you think rock tumblers or jewellery tumblers would be the better investment, or is there not that much difference if it's just how they're labelled and they basically do the same thing?

[mizgeorge]

As far as I'm concerned they're interchangeable. I use a Lortone 3A, and it's been going strong for nearly 20 years with a couple of changes of belt (which cost pennies). It's sold as a rock tumbler, but was bought specifically for tumbling silver. The fact that it's designed to run for weeks on end means I have no concerns about leaving it on overnight, virtually every night!

[Dennis]

As mentioned above for jewellery it helps if the barrel has internal ridges, sometimes called vanes, to facilitate the tumbling. Dennis.

[Esk]

Thank you both, this has been very helpful.

I've seen a tumbler for sale which has replacement barrels of both type (finned/vaned and smooth for lapidary use) so that seems like a good buy that will suit both jobs.