I used flat coke today (read about it on another forum).  I ended up doing around 3 cycles, refreshing the coke after 45 minutes, and the shot looks great and pieces are coming out fine!

I have this issue all the time with my tumbler (2nd one) and never know when pieces are going to come out right or "goldish" (maybe this is the "brownish" others are speaking of) I have sometimes added baking soda to my water and burnishing liquid and this usually helps. I am interested in the idea of using the walnut pieces as one person said - I tried buying a (cheap) vibratory tumbler and the walnut shell which you were supposed to "charge" with this substance I bought from Rio - complete failure and stuff came out looking dirty greasy and not at all polished! Anyone know about this ? Thanks!

It took a lot of work to make my pieces shiny again after they came out with a dark brown patina.  What finally worked?  I soaked my shot in flat Coke for several hours and then rinsed it well.  I don't know if that made a difference but it took all the shine off the shot, so I'm sure it removed whatever was responsible for the patina.   Debra Carus, a wonderful silver clay artist and senior ACS instructor, told me the best way to fix darkened silver clay pieces is to re-fire them.  She said pickling also works--so I assume this would be a good solution for sterling and gold pieces. 

I bought a new tumbler barrel, and after re-firing, used that with several tablespoons of burnishing soap instead of the usual Dawn.  I let it run overnight and was very happywith the result--and extremely relieved.  (Lortone 3A tumbler barrels work just fine with the tumbler from Harbor Freight.  You can buy the barrel for about $20 if you ever need a replacement.  I got mine from a local rock shop.)

Hi everyone! I am admittedly very new to this! So, any help is appreciated. I recently made a necklace using silver wire and jump rings. I received a Chicago tumbler as a Christmas present and was excited to throw the necklace in there and see the results (after washing the tumbler thoroughly and adding a squirt of Dawn to the water).You can likely guess the rest of the story by my subject line. I was horrified when I took out the necklace and the heavy silver wire links are black. The jump rings are darkened, but not as black as the wire links. I am including a picture below (albeit a little fuzzy).

I removed the necklace and washed the shot and tumbler thoroughly. I did two runs of flat coke in the tumbler for about two hours each. FYI...several others mentioned that after using the flat coke that they noticed that their shot was less shiny or dulled somewhat. I did not observe this- mine still looks the same. So, after two runs of flat coke, I just put the necklace back in to see it spontaneously turn to beautiful shiny silver and relieve me of looking like an idiot in front of my husband who bought me the tumbler as a Christmas present and is now wondering quietly if I am turning my silver black on purpose. =)  No luck. The necklace came out the same again.

 I have tried cleaning the necklace in Tarn-X and silver polish. There is a slight reduction in the black color- but for all intents and purposes right now, the necklace is ruined.

 Any ideas? Please?

Happy New Year!

Kim

I recently noticed that Dawn has a new product line that contains citrus. Make sure you didn't use the one with citrus as it will turn your silver black. If that was the case, just replace it with the non-lemon scented variety.

Sage

Hi - I totally understand your frustration with this - I have had this happen to me though I wouldn't say mine turned "black" - but the only way I found to restore my things was to reheat them with the torch (of course coat them with an anti-fire scale solution first if you can - I like Pripps flux) Reheat them and then put them in the pickle and scrub with a brass brush and hopefully you will be back to your starting point. What I have found now is that I use some baking soda (2 tsp maybe) in with my Dawn and I use bottled water as I decided perhaps my tap was causing a problem (??? who knows) All I can tell you is this system is working for me now! Good luck and I hope this may help!

I have been hearing about using dawn on these forums for 7 or 8 years, but can't believe using something not intended for the purpose.  I use a product from Rio called "Super Sunsheen Burnishing Compound".  You mix only 2 1/2 to 3 oz in a gallon of water to use in the tumbler.  You can see it will last forever if you buy a quart of it.  I have never had a problem and the stuff turns out beautifully.

I would also not recommend using tarnx as it dulls the finish.

 

I have been making jewelry and tumbling for about 15 yrs...........I used dawn/dishwashingliquids for the first 10, when I was "economizing".........I tried the Rio Sunsheen about 5 years ago---I tested it, like piece against like piece and I would say it's about even.........I do notice sometimes that Rio does a better job on the shine---but it is so comparable, most of the time.........I use Rio now exclusively, I'm still not sure why, but it gives me a little more confidence that my piece came out the best it can.......

As far as not using something not intended for a purpose---most of my jewelry tools are "not intended for that purpose".....Also, look at how post-it-notes, silly putty, crazy glue came about........If we didn't experiment, we would never come up with anything new......I have a big sign on the wall in my workshop---"Go Ahead, Make Mistakes".........it's the way to learn..........

Blessings, Margaret

Ever since my horror event several months ago when everything turned black, I've used a dry burnishing soap I buy at a local rock shop.  It works great.  I'm pretty sure that the rubber used in the barrels of the tumbler you buy at Harbor Freight comes off and coats the steel shot and jewelry pieces.  Since I got a Loretone barrel I haven't had a problem.  I used the original Chicago barrel this past month to polish a load of rocks I picked up on the Oregon coast and loved the results, so I plan to hang on to it for that purpose.

I suspect I will eventually have another load of jewelry turn black, no matter what soap or barrel I use, so it's good to know about the flat coke to get the buildup off the shot, re-firing or pickling pieces, and not using other forms of soap except the Rio product or the dry powder burnishing soap.  I also found that retumbling affected jewelry for only a couple of hours isn't enough to do the trick.  Overnight, at least.

When I first started doing PMC I went to a Gem & Mineral show to buy the ss shot, but was told that ceramic shot works better and you do not have to worry about anything turning black. I have used it for 2 years now with all metals and always have shiny pieces. Good Luck!

I am having the same problem as many here with the rubber barrel of the Chicago tumbler. I have ss shot and a drop of liquid dish detergent, but so far I've had around 6 loads with light to darker grey water with different cycle times - from 2 to 5 hours each. I am wondering, what is the "cleaning solution" that Trysch mentioned? Is that something that specifically is used when working with PMC? And is there really a difference between regular detergent and 'DAWN'?? Thank you in advance for your help, sorry to have revived this older subject. Milli.

I tumble all the time, every once in a while I get the black stuff on my shot---what I do is  tumble with ammonia and water........just straight ammonia and water, about half and half....sometimes I have to run it a couple of times with fresh ammonia, but it works every time..........

Another thought---I notice that after I tumble my PMC or even regular silver findings--I'm usually using the same burnishing liquid a couple of times---but the water gets darker and darker each time I use it for tumbling.......it just naturally gets that way after use---even after one use, it's never clear after a tumble..........Just a thought, if not applicable, use the ammonia/water to clean everything.......

 

Blessings, Margaret

Thank you Margaret, for your information. I do not work with PMC, I want to use the tumbler to harden and put an extra shine on wire wrapped jewelry. I have read a lot about the black residue from the inside of the rubber barrel of the Chicago tumbler. So now I'm trying to find out how to get rid of it. I have a bunch of pieces that I want to get in the tumbler but I'm getting discouraged after tumbling for many hours with only ss shot and regular dish detergent, and still get a black residue in the water. Milli

O dear, I just discovered I'm in the wrong section of the forum - should have been in the metal smithing perhaps?

I don't think it matters what section you're in---tumbling is a problem in PMC, metal working, etc. etc. when I wrote about tumbling over and over and the water gets dirty, I was tumbling my wire findings I just made---it doesn't matter what you tumble it happens...!!

Try the ammonia a couple of 2 or 3 times.........it should work even on the most stubborn........

In a pinch, if I didn't have ammonia, I used anything that removes grease---Mr. Clean, 409, straight windex, ANYTHING, but do it several times...........

 

Blessings, Margaret

 

Hi Margaret - I was very interested in this thread when it first came out, as I hadn't found my out of this dilemma yet, and my beautiful labor intensive chain maille was coming out with a dim grey cast - almost like aluminum, after tumbling blackened and then being shined. Since then, I have found a system that works for me. First, tumble the pieces in steel shot with straight water - no compounds - for however long you like (I do mine overnight). Then, under warm running water, wash the whole Gordian knot of pieces in your hands with liquid dish soap - not only does it remove the greasy black stuff, it massages your hands REALLY nicely. Feels great! Then, tumble the pieces in a DIFFERENT barrel with walnut shell, water and some burnishing compound for an hour or so - or until they look shockingly bright and silvery. Some points - the barrel with the steel shot is dedicated - no other tumbling media goes in there. When the shot starts to look grayish, tumble the shot with Steel Shot Restore (Santa Fe Jewelers Supply) until their shine is restored - every few weeks for me, but I do A LOT of tumbling.
What I would like, if anyone has any ideas, is how to RETAIN that lovely shine once it's been achieved. Has anyone tried a dab of Rennaisance Wax in with the walnut shells? Or other protective finish/tarnish resistor?

Much luck,

 

Susan (Sam) Kaffine

sam@sterlingbliss.com

www.sterlingbliss.com

 

 I'm amazed at how many different remedies people use to fix jewelry gone bad in the tumbler.  I'm still a fan of re-firing if your piece is made of silver clay (sans gemstones, of course) and pickling if it's sterling silver or has a stone that can't be fired.  There's a new "green" pickle on the market that's much less harmful so it might be just the thing.

As for maintaining the shine on a piece, that's always tough, even after using Wenol or other similar product with anti-tarnish ingredients.  I've actually considered throwing in a treated cleaning cloth with some of my more expensive pieces.  Have them printed with my business name & icon.