Does Your Barrel Have Fins ?

[Dennis]

The smallest rock tumbler (2lb) from UKGE is fairly inexpensive, but the small barrel they make for this one is smooth inside. Will it still polish small items of silver?
Dennis.

[lorraineflee]

I got mine from Manchester Minerals, same tumbler, but got a vaned barrel as well. You can buy the vaned barrels separately http://www.manchesterminerals.co.uk/...html#a10_2d012 at about £8.
I bought everything though - came to about £80 (ish) with the soap, stainless shot and extra barrel and the basic tumbler kit.
Lorraine

[lilia]

Is the barrel you are talking about made of rubber? If so, it should still work. I had a similar one (made by Lortone) which was smooth inside and it worked fine (it did leak after a year though). I now prefer handpolish everything, as I found that after tumbling some smoothly polished silver items they came out slightly pitted, as if hammered with a teeny tiny hammer.

[Dennis]

Thanks both of you for your replies. The small vaned barrel from Manchester minerals is the right size, so I have ordered one to compare the effect. When I have done some experiments I shall post the results. Regards, Dennis.

[Patstone]

Any information would be good as we are about to buy a tumbler and were going to buy a Lortone one. Yours results would be very interesting. Thanks, Pat

[Dennis]

Interim Conclusions On Barreling

Hi Pat,

I took Lorraine's advice and got an extra barrel with fins. My conclusion to date is that without fins not enough happens to jewellery, even after three hours. With fins you need about one and a half to two hours to give an overall effect.

The size of the barrel you choose depends on the amount of work you will be tumbling at any one time. I guess that the barrel should be only half full. Rubber barrels are easier to open and close. If you get a plastic barrel, see my recent post: http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/tut...c-barrels.html

That leaves the soap and the shot. For soap I have been using TSP, a detergent which can be bought on line much more cheaply than Barrelbrite and works well for me. George has recommended pure soap flakes and others use basic unscented washing up liquid. Sutton tools recommend their special compound for silver, which I have not tried yet.

The shot is a fraught issue because although you need a mixture of balls, satellites (which look like the planet Saturn) and needles, the needles are apt to leave any flat surface pock marked with tiny pin pricks. I am in the process of experimenting with the needles now , but my interim conclusion is to use the minimum proportion of needles to clean chain and awkward spaces and try to find some which are not very roughly cut.

Regards, Dennis.

[lesley]

That reminds me of a fun evening, picking the pins out of a batch of mixed shot. Worth it though, for flat surfaces and thicker wire pieces.

[Dennis]

That reminds me of a fun evening, picking the pins out of a batch of mixed shot.

Did that yesterday, Lesley. No one told me how much fun it could be. Working on the pin problem and hope to report back in the next few days. regards, Dennis.