Of all of mans creations, the rock tumbler has got to be one of the simplest, right? One might think, "now here is a device so simple no one could mess it up, right? Well a week and a half ago I drove the considerable round trip distance of 102 miles to reach civilization and I picked up a dual 3lb. barrel rock tumbler at Harbor Freight. In pictures this thing looks like a clone of the 90.00 some dollar LORTONE Dual Barrel Tumbler, for just $35.00. Well I can tell you it sure is not the same machine. The belt broke on the first unit after 2 days. So I saddled my Bronco (Ford not horse flesh) and sidled on back to town to get a new belt. With out a word, they handed me a whole new tumbler. By this time I had read a post that said it is best to just tumble one barrel at a time and that some had extended their belt life that way. So I loaded up a single barrel with coin and aquarium gravel and away we went again. The belt was broken by morning. I had also read on the Internet that ACE Hardware sells an 4"X1/8" O-ring that makes a dandy belt. So of we went to town to buy it the next day. Now this did last longer I ran it 3 days and it was starting to split but hanging in there. Unfortunately by this time the machine was rattling and squealing so loud no one could stand it. You guessed it. Back to town again. This time we just gave it back for a full refund.
OK let's do the math. We were down to tumbling with just one barrel at a time, so we might as well of bought a single barrel LORTONE machine. Could have gotten one for as low as 56.00 buck on the Internet. So, 4 Trips X 104 miles = 416 miles. At 10 miles to the gallon. $108.16 in fuel. More than a week of frustration. Parts bought (the Belt about 3 bucks). Resulting in less than 3.00 worth of change still not being clean.
We had read on the Internet that as of 2005 these problems had been worked out on the Harbor Freight machines. I must have got last years stock
Tonight we poured the crushed walnut shells out of our Dillon CV-500 Vibratory Tumbler. And put our aquarium gravel in it. We tossed in our coins and that thing is tumbling them like crazy. Even before I put in any water it was a real nice tumbling action. I put in a little water and it quieted down a lot. I then put two drops of Joy detergent in it and put the lid on. I was going to buy a LORTONE tumbler today at a large jewelry supply house, and Jewelry manufacturing shop as well. But when I talked to them they all agreed to a man and woman that I should just use my Vibratory tumbler. I guess people sometimes bring in old coins to make jewelry out of. They has polishing compounds and rouges they used in the tumblers that made the silver bright and even smoother that they could by hand. Totally scratch free. But for my clad they said "Just use the gravel, and expect to get done in days less time.
Lesson Learned.
I still kind of miss that gentle waterfall sound from the barrel type tumbler though. As always,
OK let's do the math. We were down to tumbling with just one barrel at a time, so we might as well of bought a single barrel LORTONE machine. Could have gotten one for as low as 56.00 buck on the Internet. So, 4 Trips X 104 miles = 416 miles. At 10 miles to the gallon. $108.16 in fuel. More than a week of frustration. Parts bought (the Belt about 3 bucks). Resulting in less than 3.00 worth of change still not being clean.
We had read on the Internet that as of 2005 these problems had been worked out on the Harbor Freight machines. I must have got last years stock
Tonight we poured the crushed walnut shells out of our Dillon CV-500 Vibratory Tumbler. And put our aquarium gravel in it. We tossed in our coins and that thing is tumbling them like crazy. Even before I put in any water it was a real nice tumbling action. I put in a little water and it quieted down a lot. I then put two drops of Joy detergent in it and put the lid on. I was going to buy a LORTONE tumbler today at a large jewelry supply house, and Jewelry manufacturing shop as well. But when I talked to them they all agreed to a man and woman that I should just use my Vibratory tumbler. I guess people sometimes bring in old coins to make jewelry out of. They has polishing compounds and rouges they used in the tumblers that made the silver bright and even smoother that they could by hand. Totally scratch free. But for my clad they said "Just use the gravel, and expect to get done in days less time.
Lesson Learned.
I still kind of miss that gentle waterfall sound from the barrel type tumbler though. As always,