Cleaning cons

[BigTony]

Yes CLR or lime away works well I usually run my clad once with a little soap and water then drain and add water and CLR re tumble works great..
Mark

Mark, thanks again for the two tips, they work great.
The steel shot allows for more coins to be tumbled because they take up less space.
Tony

 

[Ronstar]

I’m about to stick my finger in the tumbler cleaning foray. I have $45 in clad and nickels and the banks here will not take the tarnished coins. I have the vinegar, salt, and aquarium rocks and bought the two barrel tumbler from Harbor Freight. Will advise what I get when I do it.....

 

[WV62]

I’m about to stick my finger in the tumbler cleaning foray. I have $45 in clad and nickels and the banks here will not take the tarnished coins. I have the vinegar, salt, and aquarium rocks and bought the two barrel tumbler from Harbor Freight. Will advise what I get when I do it.....

Good luck, I was starting to get the hang of it when I ran out of coins. At first I thought I would be cleaning coins all winter so I started pushing the amount of coins in each drum (barrel). I was up to 80 quarters in one drum and they were coming clean. So I got a small paper cup and counted 100 mixed clad coins and nickels and marked how full that cup was. From there on I was just filling that cup to the line and cleaning about 200 coins at a time. That is when I could see the finish line.

At first start my coins were coming out a little dark and Elmy said maybe I needed more salt, you can't get to much sail. His key words were you can't get to much salt, so for a 100 coins I was up to 5 tbs full of salt per drum. I was also up to 50 minutes tumble time. I am sure with less coins I could drop back to 30 minutes of tumble time. Just saying all that so you can work up something that works for you. As you could see I had a lot of pennies to work through so my goal was go for max coins per drum. Now that I am all caught up I can find some more coins and keep working the number of coins up. I know I could do 110 so maybe I can go for 150.
Just remember the ground rules don't mix your pennies with the clad.

Maybe you can take us to 150 coins per drum.

I am just a 1st grade student of Elmy's so if you have questions post them.

Ron in WV

 

[Ronstar]

Well then Im in preschool so please excuse my posts if I sound out the words as I spell

 

[silvercoinboy]

I was at Harbor Freight today and they have a vibratory tumbler which can handle way more that a drum tumbler. It is dry with a coarse media added to it for cleaning. Mentions coins in the manual for cleaning. Only 59 bucks. I think I'll buy it to work through my Batch of Euros. My tumbler is 30 years old!

 

[sube]

I do the same for clad and zincs . But when i do wheats i use walnut hulls found at reloading stores takes longer but does not scratch . sube

 

[laplander]

I do the same for clad and zincs . But when i do wheats i use walnut hulls found at reloading stores takes longer but does not scratch . sube

Makes sense Mike they use walnut hulls to polish aluminum and other softer materials.
HH Jeff

 

[sube]

I did try some roosys with the hulls and seem to clean them well (just make sure you don't use the same hulls you cleaned your coppers with for silver ) if your worried about scratching them do 1 at a time . Don't add soap or anything you want the hulls dry they work the best this way. sube

 

[BigTony]

I did try some roosys with the hulls and seem to clean them well (just make sure you don't use the same hulls you cleaned your coppers with for silver ) if your worried about scratching them do 1 at a time . Don't add soap or anything you want the hulls dry they work the best this way. sube

I think that’s nuts.....ha ha ha