Are you tumbling jewelry or rocks, or both? Rotary and vibratory tumblers are quite different. I know a bit about them when it comes to tumbling rocks, in fact I'll have another tutorial out this week on rock tumbling. There is a tutorial here on tumbling jewelry. I haven't had a chance to look at it but the artist who created it is good at what she does. Have a look at it!

Yeah, that is why I brought up the vibra tumbler.
My ex husband and I lived in Colorado for years where I became quite the rockhound. Wayyyyyyyyyy back when. My ex, was head of the mineral society in Baltimore Maryland before we moved to Colorado, and so he got me hooked, so I have had this vibra tumbler sitting and I would love to use it to work on my pieces for hardening them and cleaning them. I would love to know what materials I should use in it to make it work efficiently. I would also like to know where I can find these materials, If it is possible to use it for hardening wire.etc.

Thanks for sharing the questions you have. It's great to meet another rock addict as well!:-) When it comes to tumbling jewelry most folks seem to use the rotary tumbler and stainless steel shot (I use the magnetic stainless steel). With the rotary tumbler you can use the same shot, but you definitely don't need to run it as long as you would a rotary. You'll want to put in water, soap (like Dawn dish soap) a scoop of the shot I mentioned above and your jewelry.

I never mix the kinds of jewelry I put in. If I want to tumble a sterling silver chain, then I'll add other sterling silver jewelry, but only sterling silver, no gems rocks or other metals.

The challenge with rotary tumblers is that they're usually quite large and getting things to work properly may take some experimentation on your part. It all depends on how much jewelry you have produced. If you've made a lot of one type and have it saved up, you'll be more successful.

My rotary is quite large and I have only had one time when I've had enough of one jewelry type to be successful.

Did you check out the tutorial? She really covers quite a bit on the jewelry tumbling angle.:-)

Let me know how things work out for you and if I can help, send me an e-mail. Take care.

I don't tumble rock only jewelry, and I prefer the vibrating tumbler. I have never had any problems with ruined pieces or stone. I use stainless steel shot, and very mild laundry powder. I've put mixed metal (ie sterling and GF) in at the same time (some of my pieces are made mixed metal) without any issues either. When I 1st looked into getting a tumbler, a friend had just gotten a rotary one - and I had to listen to her cry for weeks, because she had put several chains into it, and when she went to take them out, she said they were all balled up, and looked like an origami project gone horrible wrong. I've not ever had that problem in my vibrating tumbler....

Bobbi, I am so glad you wrote to me on this. I will use it then, because I would think with the vibration it would get it cleaner and more shine without the tumbling and moving things in a circle. I could see a chain twisting. I am going to get some shot and use it as well. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Its always nicer to try something with someone elses experiences being good. Hugs, Pam

Be careful if it has been used for rock tumbling before, any single piece of grit left in will leave scratches. I would test it out on a scrap piece of sheet before dropping in a finished piece. If there are scratches I'd consider getting a new bowl for it sometimes grit gets embedded in the bowl itself.

There is a very good booklet on tumble finishing it's worth getting because there are many, many kinds of media. "Tumble Finishing for Handmade Jewelry: Mass Finishing on a Small Scale" by Judy Hoch ISBN 0-9728269-0-4.

PS Pam - Take the plunge and invest in stainless steel shot right from the start. I tried to go cheep with non-stainless shot at first and just wasted my money. The first tumble was fine, but it was nasty after that. The sticker shock on a pound of stainless shot will make you reach for the Excedrin, but it is well worth it in the long run...
Hugs back
~Bobbi