Loading your rock tumbler barrel is the first step to polishing your stones. Place the clean rocks back in the tumbler. We begin with coarse grit silicon carbide 60 90 followed by medium grit 150 220 followed by fine grit 500 and finally a polish txp aluminum oxide. Also check if there is any leak. Instead place a colander over a plastic bucket dump the mixture from the barrels inside and allow the mud to drain through to the bucket.
Then fill the tumbler with water until the water reaches the bottom of the top layer of rocks. Add coarse grit to the stones in. The tumbler uses a rotary mechanism to turn the stones inside the barrel. Using quality abrasives of the proper size is very important for success in tumbling. Spray this on your load and then gently add some water and close the barrel.
Dispense with the cloth and immerse the jewelry piece in a bed of dry maple wood chips. Put in the same amount of medium grit as you did coarse grit. Add abrasive grit to the tumbler. If you have even one stone in your tumbler that s harder than the rest it will scratch everything else in the barrel. We use three grit sizes followed by a polish and have great results.
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Once dry blow away the chips. Run the tumbler for four or five days checking every 24 hours. Shake or blow on the jewelry piece to remove excess liquid then gently polish with a soft lint free cloth or chamois. Follow the directions on amount that come with your tumbler or with the polish or use about 2 1 2 tablespoons per pound of load. Run water over the stones to get all the grit off and get them clean.If the barrel is not full enough or too full you won t get the proper tumbling action. Add water to the usual level. Over time the abrasive grit smooths out the sharp edges of the stone. Fill barrel full with stones that are a variety of sizes. Harder stones will scratch softer ones.
Use up to 3 tablespoons for one pound of load. Polish your stones with a tumbler. During tumbling the stones will be reduced 15 20 in size. A tumbler polishes stones by using the same principles. Here s a jeweler s trick to avoid any liquid stains on a gem or precious metal setting.
Seal the lid on the tumbler and turn it on. Resist the temptation to pour this stuff down your drain. This step should take between 5 to 7 days. When your cleaned stones look the same dry as they do wet you are done with this step. If you don t have the time or inclination to polish stones by hand you can use a tumbler.
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The result is a rounded smooth and polished gemstone. Of course stones used just for filler can be softer that the gems you want to polish since it doesn t matter if they re scratched. Instead of sandpaper you will need to add successively finer tumbler grit to the tumbler while the rocks are in the barrel. The grit inside the mud will clog up your drain pipes. The result is a rounded smooth and polished gemstone.The grit inside the mud will clog up your drain pipes. Seal the lid on the tumbler and turn it on. Use up to 3 tablespoons for one pound of load. If the barrel is not full enough or too full you won t get the proper tumbling action. Once dry blow away the chips.
Instead of sandpaper you will need to add successively finer tumbler grit to the tumbler while the rocks are in the barrel. Dispense with the cloth and immerse the jewelry piece in a bed of dry maple wood chips. Then fill the tumbler with water until the water reaches the bottom of the top layer of rocks. Loading your rock tumbler barrel is the first step to polishing your stones.
