I am interested in tumbling some large cabachons that have sterling silver findings on them. The SS is between layers of glass and sticks out at the top as a necklace bail.
I understand that many people tumble their glass and SS to get a nice polish to the silver and am wanting to do the same. I know nothing of tumblers or the process. I was hoping that someone could direct me to an adequate tumbler that can tumble many stones at once in, let me know what type of abrasive I need, the quantity of abrasive, and perhaps a cycle for the tumbling (i.e. how long with each grit).
I would like to go about this in the simplest way, so I would prefer to not have to change grits and such if it is at all feasible. Any and all advice is welcome.
i have a Tumble Vibe 5, which costs about $100. it is filled with stainless steel pin shot, from Rio Grande. make sure you buy stainless steel shot -- it doesn't rust. it costs about $40. i clean up tarnished sterling in mine with just a squirt of lemon Joy dish detergent. there are many other additives you can buy, like Super Sun Sheen, from Rio Grande -- they have technical info people who can help you. most often i polish fire scale off nichrome with a foredom flexi-shaft, then clean off the rouge in the TV5. i'm imbedding nichrome into glass rather than silver. after it's polished, the color matches the sterling findings. nichrome is stronger and less flexible than silver, and cleans up pretty fast. you can probably find a dealer for the TV5 using Google. good luck. kitty.
