Wednesday, February 20, 2008
My Tumbler is My New Best Friend
I finally got my tumbler in the mail and got it set up in my studio this week. I've heard a lot of good things about tumblers, but it turned out to be even better than I had thought! I made a few charms and some earwires, and put them in the tumbler for a little burnishing. I only had time to put them in for fifteen minutes or so, but they came out all nice and shiny, very smooth and the earwires came out nice and hard. I'm looking forward to making all my own earwires, which I have been waiting to do until I could use my tumbler.
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7 comments:
Do you have a rotary or vibratory tumbler? I'm wanting to get one for Christmas so I can do my own earwires and clasps. I hear mixed things. Do you have a preference?
It's a rotary one- one of the inexpensive ones from harbor freight. I think it works great, but I've never tried a vibratory one.
what did you use for your compound in the tumbler? I got a tumbler for my birthday and I still haven't used it. I am worried steel shot might be too rough on my work but I don't like that the walnut shells are only good for one use. Also, everything I have read says you need to leave stuff in there for like hours and hours - like 15 hours - but you said you only did 15 minutes? And that worked?
I absolutely LOVE your blog! You are so helpful. It's great to have a dialog with other artists - especially since we don't have "coworkers" . :)
I use stainless steel shot. It doesn't remove any metal, it just kind of burnishes it- makes it shiny and harder. I even tumble my enamel jewelry for short periods of time. As far as time goes, 15 min to half an hour will get your piece nice and shiny. If people are running theirs for hours and hours it's probably to harden earwires, etc.
That said, I'm not sure how tumbling with stainless steel shot would affect resin. Would you tumble the jewelry before you put the resin in?
I would tumble before I put the resin in. But I am wanting to tumble my bezels after I solder them - but the metal is a fairly thin gauge and I just didn't want the steel shot to ding it up. It's like 26 gauge. What do you think?
I think it would be fine. The shot just kind of rolls over your piece in the tumbler- you would be surprised how gentle it is. I've tumbled thin fine silver bezels before setting them and not had any problems. Just try it with one piece first to make sure there aren't any problems.
oh, that makes sense! I think I have my brain set on the fact that I have to have a bunch made because of the one shot deal with the walnut shells. But with the shot, well it lasts forever so I could do just one piece at a time! Cool! Thanks!!
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