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Rock Tumbler
- Thread starter ken156
- Start date
however, go to Wally-World and buy a bag of rubber bands. The V-belt that came with mine lasted 2 whole hours. The have replacement belts but I'm afraid to try one. Someone on this forum got his belt to last but others have not. This thing is made in China and is cheaply made. It's selling point is that it works. Don't put copper and silver or nickel/copper clad in the drum at the same time. There are American made tumblers of far better quality and you could check with a dealer Findmall.
HH
HH
Ken. Go to the search area of this forum and search tumble or tumbler and clad or coins and there are a mess more posts about cleaning coins. Make sure you change the search parameter form 30 days to at least one year. You can search only the Garrett board or all boards.
Here's the 2 minute version. I use a tumbler from Harbor Freight that was 27 bucks delivered. The original belt lasted 6 months. The spare belt they provided lasted about 3 minutes. I bought a huge bag of rubber bands from Walmart and one rubber band (cost less than one cent) lasts about 20 hours. Everybody has their own favorite combination of abrasives and mild acids or detergents that they use. I use gravel, vinegar and a little salt (makes weak HCl) for about 2 hours then a spin with gravel water and dish washing liquid to brighten them up for about 2 hours. Repeat if needed. Some coins will never clean up depending upon where they were buried. Rinse coins thoroughly between cycles. Don't mix pennies with any other coins or you will get orange coins. If your coins become stained during the mild acid stage a few hours in soap and water will fix this. If you decide tumbling is for you, do it often. I ended up with about 300 bucks in clad to tumble at one time and it took 2 weeks of solid tumbling to do it all. I now do it about every two weeks. I process about 30-40 bucks in dimes and quarters at a time or 8-10 bucks in nickels.
Chris
Here's the 2 minute version. I use a tumbler from Harbor Freight that was 27 bucks delivered. The original belt lasted 6 months. The spare belt they provided lasted about 3 minutes. I bought a huge bag of rubber bands from Walmart and one rubber band (cost less than one cent) lasts about 20 hours. Everybody has their own favorite combination of abrasives and mild acids or detergents that they use. I use gravel, vinegar and a little salt (makes weak HCl) for about 2 hours then a spin with gravel water and dish washing liquid to brighten them up for about 2 hours. Repeat if needed. Some coins will never clean up depending upon where they were buried. Rinse coins thoroughly between cycles. Don't mix pennies with any other coins or you will get orange coins. If your coins become stained during the mild acid stage a few hours in soap and water will fix this. If you decide tumbling is for you, do it often. I ended up with about 300 bucks in clad to tumble at one time and it took 2 weeks of solid tumbling to do it all. I now do it about every two weeks. I process about 30-40 bucks in dimes and quarters at a time or 8-10 bucks in nickels.
Chris
robert roy
New member
I have spoken with people who have used the Harbor Freight Rock tumbler. They said that when the belts break they can use thick small
rubber bands as replacement and they work just fine, cheaper too. I've not yet gotten the tumbler, but I plan to drive to the
store near me and pick one up.
RR
rubber bands as replacement and they work just fine, cheaper too. I've not yet gotten the tumbler, but I plan to drive to the
store near me and pick one up.
RR
robert roy
New member
QUESTION: what is the ratio of coins per sand or whatever you use to clean the coins?
Some people use small pebbles you find in fish tanks; other people use grit or sand.
How many coins would you try cleaning and how much sand. No one ever seems to have a recipe.
RR
Some people use small pebbles you find in fish tanks; other people use grit or sand.
How many coins would you try cleaning and how much sand. No one ever seems to have a recipe.
RR
Everybody has a recipe and it depends on the tumbler. Three pound tumbler = three pounds total weight of some combination of gravel, coins and whatever liquid you choose. I actually do about 4 pounds total per batch. I fill the container halfway with aquarium gravel. Then add about 1.5 pounds of coins (about $30 in dimes and quarters) and fill slightly above the level of coins and gravel with liquid. You can add a little sand (a tablespoon or so) to speed the process but look out. If you overtumble the coins with too much sand they will get a sandblasted frost and scratches. As you also probably know some soil types stain coins differently and I have a few sites where the coins I retrieve can NOT be cleaned. I use them in the washers and dryers or dispose of them in Coinstar for Amazon gift certs. No counting charge.
What I find interesting is getting one of my tumbled coins back in change some time after I've tumbled them. After you've tumbled almost 800 in clad you'll be able to recognize them pretty quickly.
Awhistler shakes his coins off in his beach scoop and brings them to his bank. Total time involved. 7 seconds. Experiment a bit. You'll figure out a method pretty quickly.
Chris
What I find interesting is getting one of my tumbled coins back in change some time after I've tumbled them. After you've tumbled almost 800 in clad you'll be able to recognize them pretty quickly.
Awhistler shakes his coins off in his beach scoop and brings them to his bank. Total time involved. 7 seconds. Experiment a bit. You'll figure out a method pretty quickly.
Chris
robert roy
New member
What size tumbler? Are we talking about the single size tumbler Harbor Frieght sells?
RR
RR
Uncle Willy
New member
Check with Harbor Freight. THey have some good ones that are on sale once in awhile for about twenty bucks. Tumblers are great for your clads and cents.
Bill
Bill
Uncle Willy
New member
I buy a bag of wide rubber bands at Office Depot or wherever. They work great as belts and soooo cheap.
Bill
Bill
Single drum from harbor freight is 3 pound capacity and is the one I use. I'm tumbling 300 dimes as we speak.
Two other things you'll need are something with mesh small enough to hold coins but large enough to let the gravel pass through, and some sort of large bowl or pan to catch the gravel when you're shaking it out. Your beach sand scoop will work great if you have one and the drum fits mine perfectly.
One more tip. I find the gravel needs to be replaced every once in a while. I do it when the coins aren't cleaning up as fast.
If anybody has tips on where to get cheap, long lasting gravel, I'm all ears.
Chris
Two other things you'll need are something with mesh small enough to hold coins but large enough to let the gravel pass through, and some sort of large bowl or pan to catch the gravel when you're shaking it out. Your beach sand scoop will work great if you have one and the drum fits mine perfectly.
One more tip. I find the gravel needs to be replaced every once in a while. I do it when the coins aren't cleaning up as fast.
If anybody has tips on where to get cheap, long lasting gravel, I'm all ears.
Chris
robert roy
New member
Thanks.
One more thing, what grade/size gravel do you use?
You indicated tumbling does not always get the coins clean because of the type of
ground mineralization. Would you mind uploading some pictures of "before and after?"
RR
One more thing, what grade/size gravel do you use?
You indicated tumbling does not always get the coins clean because of the type of
ground mineralization. Would you mind uploading some pictures of "before and after?"
RR
This link is to an old thread.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?32,589762,589762#msg-589762
You have to look at my second post in that thread to see the after pictures. That picture is with a flash so some of the quarters that are shiny grey appear to be shiny silver. The look as good as most of the change you would get from a store. I use aquarium gravel and buy the cheapest roughest stuff I can find. Not the rounded stones. After about 10-15 batches the rough gravel stones become smooth too so that's when I replace them. I have been thinking about trying some of the cinders (gravel) that I have an unlimited supply to on the sides of our roads. I bet after I rinse them, they would work.
Chris
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?32,589762,589762#msg-589762
You have to look at my second post in that thread to see the after pictures. That picture is with a flash so some of the quarters that are shiny grey appear to be shiny silver. The look as good as most of the change you would get from a store. I use aquarium gravel and buy the cheapest roughest stuff I can find. Not the rounded stones. After about 10-15 batches the rough gravel stones become smooth too so that's when I replace them. I have been thinking about trying some of the cinders (gravel) that I have an unlimited supply to on the sides of our roads. I bet after I rinse them, they would work.
Chris
Uncle Willy
New member
Standard aquarium gravel. You can get a big bag at Wal-Mart cheap.
Bill
Bill