Sunday, February 26, 2012

I Love My Lortone Tumbler

I LOVE my tumbler.

It saves me a ton of hand work which is getting to be a serious priority.

I have had this question come up a time or two so I thought maybe a simple explanation I could refer people to might be useful. 
At what point in the process do I use my tumbler for patinated metals?

I ONLY tumble ‘worked’ metal, never patina-ted items. 
This is not to be confused with liver of sulphur antiquing which I will explain later.  Dye oxide, Universal and Traditional patina solutions should never be in your tumbler.

You can finish your metal up to the point where you would spend an hour filing and burnishing and instead put your cleaned metal into 2 lbs of stainless steel shot, 1 small drop of Dawn dish detergent and water up to the level of the shot. Then tumble it for 30 to 60 minutes depending on how smooth and shiny you would like for your metal to be finished at. 
Yay! Now you can go do something fun with your fingers!


Once tumbled, your metal piece is considered 'work hardened'. It has been softened by heat, shaped and textured by hammers, filed on the edges and tumbled for a length of time to compact the metal particles and create a strong metal.

I get hearts from little elves drawn in my shot.
 I pour out the excess suds and water. I then spread out a towel, pour out my shot and metal onto the towel, pick out all “my treasures” as the kiddos call them and let the shot and towel dry over night before bundling up the shot in the towel and placing it back in the barrel. I tuck the towel down and loosely place the lid with all its parts on the top of the barrel.
 I’m tellin you this cause it’s IMPORTANT! 
This keeps your shot clean and free from debris that could tarnish metal instead of polish it. Like wd40 you use to get the rotaries going every week or so. This happened daily in Florida before I had to move my work bench back inside. The rust was causing the inner spindles from turning smoothly and I had to spray wd40 on them every day to keep the tumbler running. But if you are not careful, some tiny amounts of oil can get into the tumbler barrel and create what I like to call The Black Plague of Tumblers. Everything you tumble will have a black residue adhered to it and it requires metal cleaner to clean it off. Which is a WHOLE other blog post altogether. 
One I have pictures for!

The metal is completely clean after draining off the shot. This lets me know as a patina artist, I can be sure the metal will receive the patina in the best way. Whether I’m just antiquing or actually changing the metal with heat and chemicals, it is totally ready.

I keep 2 barrels, 1 for BRIGHT metals that need a shiny burnished appearance and 1 for ANTIQUED metals that will leave liver of sulphur residue in my barrel and most likely taint the next bright and shiny batch I have tumbled!

I hope this helps and that you find the funds to buy one soon. Make sure you think about upkeep on it once you start using it in items you sell. I have needed to replace a little shot; $25 plus hefty shipping, a lid is getting loose and I should just get a new barrel with it which is another $20. Then there is a belt that will need to be replaced sometime soon but I am not sure about that price. This is within 3 years though.
So it is definitely worth the investment for the time and pain it saves my hands.
Much Love & Respect,
Shannon


25 comments:

  1. What are the odds, that I would be testing out my new (Christmas gift to myself) Lortone 3A tumbler today! Thanks for answering all the questions that were popping up in my head. You must be psychic! Have a great Sunday and thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Email me if you need to, Regina! It took a little while to get a good system down but now it is as much a part of my metal bench as the torch and hammers.

      Delete
  2. Well, thank you, Wise and Experienced One! I learned a couple of things - to protect the shot when it's dry and back into the barrel, to use WD40 on the rotaries, and shiny and antiqued never play well together! So should we tumble any metal before we apply patina? That sounds like a good idea. Thanks for always trying to make our patina process easier and successful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your metal should be pure alloys; raw brass, pure copper, bronze, sterling & fine silver, gold-filled is thick enough and of course all karats of gold.
      Never plated metals. That's a huge mess, too!

      Delete
  3. incredibly valuable information, shannon - it was very generous of you to share not only your tumbler of choice, but also all of the tips... i am off to buy one - after putting it off for quite a while... best to you always -

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've had mine for 6 years and still going strong! Saves sooooo much work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love LORTONE! I've got two double barrel 3a tumblers. Most of the time I just need the one, but sometimes I'm running all 4 barrels. I run my stainless shot with a heaping tablespoon of 20 Mule Team Borax (find on the laundry isle and enormously useful for all sorts of things). It lubes and keeps the shot clean at the same time.

    After the shiny round, I patina my pieces in l.o.s. then run through an abrasive shot, standard plastic medium cut media from Rio Grande, (with a tiny drop of dish soap) that takes down the shine, brings up the highlights and leaves the dark in the recesses - no hand finishing at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is great! Thank you for sharing that there is an alternative for that very specific finish! I am definitely going to invest in some of the "clean cut/fine cut 5/16" pyramids".

      Delete
  6. Oops! Named the wrong abrasive media ... should have said "clean cut/fine cut 5/16" pyramids".

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you. This is enormously helpful. I don't do a lot of wirework and have always wondered exactly what one does with a tumbler.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shannon, thank you for sharing your knowledge! You are clarifying this for a lot of us~

    ReplyDelete
  9. Any special secrets to polishing tarnished silver findings? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Regina! I like toothpaste or baking soda in a bit of warm water and a stiff bristle tooth brush for scrubbing by hand.

      If I am doing a larger load of tarnished silver, I go over each piece with an emery board to remove stains and spots from the metal surface and then tumble to re-smooth and make it shiny again.

      Because I do not like doing that task, I have been sealing everything that needs to remain bright with the metal lacquer I use for patinas.
      It is an added cost but my customers will be able to enjoy bright metals for 10 to 15 years before needing a polishing!

      I hope some of this helps!

      Delete
  10. Great tidbits of information! I love my Lortone tumbler, couldn't live without it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is the best information yet! So very generous of you to share your experience. I have a Lortone and really like it but haven't used it all that much. But it certainly helps me know when to put the metals in, because I am hoping to get to that pile o' patinas that I ordered from you sometime soon! I like the idea of two barrels. That is so smart. You tell those studio elves to put an extra heart in there from me.
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love mine too!

    At one point I was using it to clean some very old, grungy brass beads from Africa. It left my shot all black and icky. My solution was to use baking soda (it works to clean lots of things around the house.) HOWEVER, use *caution* and don't put too much in...and set the tumbler in a tray because it just may start overflowing (even with a tight, sealed lid)..so keep a close eye on it!! But it DID get the shot clean! After cleaning the shot with baking soda, I ran it with just a couple drops of Dawn dish soap. And I always use distilled water in mine.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Shannon!

    Thanks so much for posting this information! I just ordered my Lortone last week, mostly to work-harden my pieces, but I'm waaaaaayyyy behind you and your skills! I really appreciate all the tips!

    Cecile

    ReplyDelete
  14. I bought my tumbler years ago at Harbor Freight when it cost around $25. It has two drums that run simultaneously, so each can be dedicated to a particular use. I did toss out the shot that was included and opted for stainless steel shot from Rio.

    ReplyDelete
  15. How odd. I thought I left a post here a couple days ago about cleaning/running my shot with a tiny bit of baking soda in the water. Blogger is so flaky sometimes.

    Great info, Shannon. I like the "hearts in your shot" photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry! I am not always able to publish the comments right away. Thank you for sharing your advise!

      Delete
  16. Shannon, When does that smell of the drum go away???????

    ReplyDelete
  17. While taking a class at bead feast a few years ago, a discussion centered around the best way to clean the stainless steel shot. Someone mentioned to fill the barrel just above shot level with flat coke and tumble for about a half hour....found that hard to believe but it works great!

    ReplyDelete
  18. While taking a class at bead feast a few years ago, a discussion centered around the best way to clean the stainless steel shot. Someone mentioned to fill the barrel just above shot level with flat coke and tumble for about a half hour....found that hard to believe but it works great!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Awesome article. Thanks for posting it.I've been wondering about a tumbler lately. Could tumbling be used in place of pickling? I'd really rather avoid acid baths if I could. I was also wondering if you could place broken glass and tumble it to look like sea glass? When you tumble things to work harden, do they have to be in a certain state of softness, or can hammered metal be tumbled with out breaking? Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my blog, it means a lot to me.
Shannon