Using A Rock Polisher To Get Shiny Polymer Clay Beads and Pendants
Update on Using the Lortone Rock Tumbler for Polishing Clay Jewelry Beads:
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On September 17 I wrote an article about tumblers that ended inconclusively. Since then, I have done some more experimenting and would like to give you a bit of an update. If you have not yet read the original article, you might want to do that first. Here’s the link: Lortone Rock Tumblers for Polymer Clay
It was actually a comment from Randee Ketzel that got me to thinking. She uses a vibratory tumbler filled with the plastic pellets used in beanie babies and a couple of cups of baking soda to polish her beads.
Since I still don’t have any of those beanie baby pellets, I decided to tumble some freshly baked beads using baking soda and pieces of 400 grit sandpaper. Randee never did say whether she used water, so I threw some of that in there too.
After a couple of hours of tumbling, a funny thing happened… the wet baking soda got very foamy and actually pressurized the rubber tumbler barrel. I could see this had happened because the bottom of the barrel was bulging out like a balloon!
Carefully, I loosened the nut, leaving it still on the bolt. And PSSSST… the air started leaking out… like the air from a tire! Good thing I didn’t leave it going overnight. Who knows what it would have done!
Any who… the beads inside felt smooth. Any little dings or fingerprints were still there. But all in all, they looked pretty good. So I buffed up a couple with the Dremel and man they polished up nice! Quickly too!
We may be on to something here. Will have to find some of those beanie baby pellets now. But I’ll try it without the water next time. And maybe experiment with different grits and without. Etc. Etc.
I’m very much looking forward to finally coming up with a consistent way to get a nice finish on the beads with the least amount of manual work. In the meantime, any other suggestions are welcome.
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I also have a “kiddie” tumbler, and tried to sand my beads with the powder that it came with. The directions were for polishing rocks and said to leave it running for 2-4 days. I did for 2 and ended up with gray beads that were once pink. I tried washing them, and they were still gray. I buffed a few, and the discoloration disappeared then. I’m going to try the river rock idea, because the tumbler is just sitting in the closet now collecting dust. Thanks!
I have a tumbler purpose built far cheaper than I could have bought one for Yay for the men behind the scenes. The information on building the tumbler is from ganoskin.com
I use a plastic barrel from a lapidary supplier, and have room for 3 barrels.
Using various size rocks and a small amount of water, the beads tumble around for 2 to 3 days, I work with kato, so its a bit harder and needs a longer time in the tumbler. I do however check the beads daily and change water. Works beautifully.
That is so cool Donna! I didn’t know you could make your own tumbler. Your ‘man behind the scenes’ must be pretty handy! Glad to hear you are having success tumbling your polymer clay beads. Anything that can make the process easier, is a good thing in my books. Thank you for your comment!
I bought my river rocks at Michaels.
@Lonny: Sorry about your misfortune…that’s messed up! Hope you get it back soon, and that you find the perfect stones, too. Wishing you luck…and more fun claying!
I must be totally out of luck cause my rock tumbler broke down so I had to take it to some guy that would fix it and he luckily did :/
When I get my hands on my tumbler again, I’ll report :)