Vibratory tumbler

[Ccarson]

Is this a good tumbler for polishing rocks and cleaning coins for the coinstar.

 

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[T.C.]

Yes, I would think so on both...the only reason I didn't but a vibratory polisher, is because of price. I've read reviews that vib polishers brake down more frequently....maybe someone can tell me different.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Vibratory tumblers hold up just as well as rotating ones in my experience.

 

[meMiner]

They work very well. Make sure you read the manual on amount of material, water, grit, etc. There are also some good hints and tips if you look up rock tumblers on Goggle. For instance, some guys use aquarium rock instead of grit for coins and are happy with the results (and savings).

 

[Rasputin]

I would use crushed walnut shells for the coins instead of aquarium gravel. It seems to me the gravel would damage the coins too much.

 

[meMiner]

I would use crushed walnut shells for the coins instead of aquarium gravel. It seems to me the gravel would damage the coins too much.

I would not run any coins in a tumbler that have collector value. However, if you have a pile of clads, run them to clean them up enough that they can be spent or put into a coin machine. Walnut shell will work, but will take a bit longer, cost more and will need to be replaced faster.

 

[willjo]

For modern coins with only face value I used sand I scooped up outside in my rotary tumbler and only run them two hours, cleaned them good.

 

[T.C.]

"I tried a recipe last night and ran the tumbler for 45 minutes and was amazed at the results. I need to give a shout-out to T.C. for posting his recipe. You only need enough lemon juice to cover the coins (3-4 oz) and about 3 tablespoons of salt. After 45 minutes the coins came out like new. Well at least 99% did. I then reused the concoction to clean the pennies. This method is the way to go. I paid a little over $2 for the lemon juice and you get 2 containers of salt for a dollar at the local Dollar General store. You can clean about 16 batches of coins with a 32oz bottle if you do your silver 1st and then reuse the same mixture for the pennies."

"Please try this, you will be amazed at the results."

This is a copy and paste from Loco-Digger....I got the recipe from SocalJim...it works great and your tumbler cleanup is minimal!!

 

[Ccarson]

Thanks everyone for replying. I'll try the lime juice and salt.

 

[meMiner]

It is great that this worked so well for you.

Some additional food for thought, because I always like the science. This works because lemon juice contains a mild citric acid. As such, there are other juices (grapefruit, orange, etc) that contain citric acid as well, so you are not stuck having to only use lemon if there is none in the house.

The citric acid dissolves the tarnish faster than the metal. It is a good idea therefore to rinse the coins off when done with water, as you don't want the reaction to continue, especially in the presence of oxygen...which would cause them to tarnish again.

Modern pennies are copper plated zinc, so the cleaning will not be as good on them as the old pure copper pennies. However, I would argue that cleaning a modern penny is too expensive for the relative value.

Adding salt to an acid will increase its cleaning effectiveness. The thing is - a tiny little bit of salt is already present in lemon juice. but increasing the concentration will increase the cleaning. Also, salt in a rock tumbler partially has a scrubbing effect.

Last thought is coke might be a slightly better alternative to lemon juice because it contains citric acid, phosphoric acid, carbonic acid and salt. I have not done the math on what is more expensive.