MXT Clad Clean

[RounderRick]

I broke down the other day and went to Harbor Freight and got me a 3lb single tumbler because I have read so much about them.
Boy am I impressed I thought I had already cleaned my coins as much as they would get but man was I wrong.
I have spent so much time putting these things in a plastic bottle and shaking them but it's nothing compared to what a tumbler will do they actually look much better then this picture all I have is my cell phone to take pics with but you get the idea as all of them even after I cleaned them by hand they was clean of dirt and grime they was all still so black I was to ashamed to carry them to a store but now they look better then some I get from the stores.
I have read several ways to tumble clean as for the mixtures to use and I first tried water and dish washing liquid but wasn't to impressed so I washed all the soap out and used straight vinegar added some aquarium rocks not a lot maybe half a cup and I had read about someone using some steel wool so I had my wife pick up some and cut one of the balls in half and stuck that in there and all that seem to do the trick also note this was not a 12 or 24 hours of tumbling was more like 3 or 4 hours and maybe a couple hours on the pennies don't do the pennies and other coins together.
Now I'm saving up these clads to get me a 6x9 dd I already got the 4x6 shooter and I really like the dd type coils so that will be my next buy.
Anyways just wanted to post this for ones that maybe thinking about getting a tumbler do it if you're kinda like me and don't want to turn in them black coins plus it's so much easier than shaking a plastic bottle.

 

[Nancy-IL]

Great post! We've used a rock tumbler for years and Larry always has a great turnout. Glad to hear you're saving your clad finds for something rather than the every day "stuff". About 6 years or so Larry and I found almost $1400 in clad. What a year!

 

[Old Katz]

Yea! Its a great little tumbler. I bought one a few weeks back.
I'm hooked.
Katz

 

[RounderRick]

Great post! We've used a rock tumbler for years and Larry always has a great turnout. Glad to hear you're saving your clad finds for something rather than the every day "stuff". About 6 years or so Larry and I found almost $1400 in clad. What a year!

Ohhhhh yeah what a year wish I could have a few of those.
Nope unless it's an emergency all my finds will be spent on this hobby until I think I have everything I need,,,my wife and I went visiting a little while after I posted this and I stopped at a new park it's only a few yrs old thought I'd hit the totlot there and maybe find some gold but no luck in that department but was only there about 30 or 45 mins and I found right at $2 in change.
I checked the dates when I got home and found one that was a 1964 but wouldn't ya know it was an old nickel so no silver for me today either but hey it's always fun for me just to be swinging that coil.

 

[Nancy-IL]

n/t

 

[Cajuncoinhunter]

RR,

Glad to hear the Harbor Freight tumbler is working out for you. I know there are better ones out there, but for the $$, I think its a good deal. Time will tell for sure. I'm glad to see you are using the steel wool too. It works good for me. Just passing on info that others on the forum passed on to me.

Pennies clean up pretty quick. Nickels, Dimes and Quarters will take a good bit longer to clean (overnight tumble). GOOD LUCK and good to hear all is working out for you. CCH

 

[Old Katz]

The HF tumbler works great. Here are some before and after photos of my finds.
First picture is BEFORE and second is AFTER.
I let them tumble 24 hours.

The third picture is pennies and the next is a picture of the same batch of pennies.
I tumbled them for 6 hours

The 5th picture is of the small hand kitchen strainer I use to strain the fish bowl gravel I buy
at Pets Part for $4.00. I jst run fresh water trough the gravel and let it dry.
I can keep using it over and over. Bought the strainer at WalMart. Works great.

I use white vinegar and a drop of dish washing soap. Works great. I'm going to try
adding a handful of sand to the pebbles to see if this adds to the cleaning process.

The last photo is of my finds for the day at a large sports field.
Katz

Katz

 

[HuntinDog]

Clean up came out great.. I'll have to try that.
And it looks like you had a Great hunt also.

HH

 

[Old Katz]

HuntinDog:
I did have a great hunt and look at the one I did today!
$16.00 bucks will put put have a tank of gas in my car!
Now I have to buy another tumbler. I should have got the dual tumbler
but wasn't sure about the product. They have one at HF for $29.00 so
I get one ore.
Katz

 

[HuntinDog]

WOW

 

[Bearharold]

Boy your adding up coins fast for your next MD purchase ....Good job



Harold

 

[Wolfdog]

After reading all about this HF tumbler I went and got one to try, looks like it is a lot better than I thought.
Thanks for all the info.

 

[Cajuncoinhunter]

Wolfdog,
I've used my HF tumbler extensively over the last couple of months with absolutely NO problems. I was a bit skeptical about it initially because it may have been considered a "cheap-o" tumbler by some but . . . . for the price. . .. I have been pleasantly surprised and totally satisfied thus far. CCH

 

[Old Katz]

The only problem I had was with the pennies. Really, you only have to tumbler them for 1 1/2 to 2 hours but be careful.
The combination of vinegar, the drop of dish soap and the Zinc causes a chemical reaction. The gas builds up quickly and
creates so much pressure the liquid starts to seep out and creates a mess. You have to keep an eye on the tumbler.
I didn't have the gas build up doing the clad (quarters dimes and nickels).
Katz