Tumbler for clad cleaning - suggestions

[Barry NY]

ready to clean up the thousand pieces of clad - anyone have any pointers for a good one?
thanks...

 

[ZOFCHAK]

I use a Lyman's bullet tumbler with "Black Beauty" sandblasting sand. The downside is that unless you plan on reloading or can find a used one the cost is a bit prohibitive.

 

[rehless]

Go online and get a Thumler.

 

[Parkit]

I use a Thumler's model B, it's large enough to do a decent load of coins and the tumbler is well-built. It's worth what you pay for it. As far as tumbling, I put three big handfuls of coins in, then fill the rest of the tumbler about 2/3 full with aquarium gravel. You can get that at Walmart cheap. Add a squirt of dish detergent. Do not mix clad with pennies, your clad will come out looking copper. I run the tumbler about 12 hours, then check it. The water should be nasty, sometimes the coins still have a greasy buildup on them. I change the water, shoot in a bit of 409 and run it another hour, most of the clad comes out shiny after that. You will have some that doesn't come clean no matter what. For pennies only, add 1tbsp of cream of tarter (polishes them) and run 8-10 hours. Again, some will not come clean. Be sure to cull the copper-plated zincs (1983 and later) that have any corrosion on them, the corrosion pits will only leech black onto your other coins. Give this a try, experiment a little, and you should be able to turn 95% of your clad back into the bank cleaned. Some banks take it dirty, mine does not. It has to be clean enough to be accepted by the big expensive coin counters they use.

 

[bcalton]

Hi:
I bought my 2-barrel tumbler at Harbor Freight and it works great for me.<p>I use a small amount of aquarium gravel, a few squirts of dish detergent, water and 2-table-spoons of CLR.<p>I put the Penny's in one and the nickels, dimes, and quarters in the other one.<p>I put a small amount of gravel in the bottom of barrels, <p>add coins to half way in barrel and then more gravel to cover them up.<p>I then add water to cover the gravel about 3/4 full, add 2 squirts of dish detergent and 2 tablespoons of CLR, replace lids and let them run around 2-3 hours.<p>Remove coins from tumblers and rinse in clear water, place on cloth to dry. (PS) I also run a small fan blowing on the motor to keep it from becoming to hot.

HH Billy in Tenn

 

[PaPa-Joe-Fla.]

I have a lortone model 3A . I put half full with clad,( pennys with pennys only) all other clad together. 1/2 cup of sandblasting sand and a little gojo hand cleaner, add water tumble for 1 hr. rinse and let dry. I bought mine at a yardsale for 10.00 bucks. Lortone sent me 3 new drive belts for free. Good luck in what ever you decide. HH

 

[tvr]

I've been using a single barrel tumbler bought from edmund scientific about 20 years ago to polish rocks. I use aquarium gravel and a little detergent. Rinse very well when changing from copper to the bright clad coins. New barrels and accessories are available through a number of sources.

If I were to buy today, if I didn't happen on one at a yard sale, I'd go to Harbor Freight.
tvr

 

[deerman]

1/4 cup of viniger
1tsp salt
1cup pea gravel(i got mine from my driveway)
put in tumbler with coins(seperate the copper from the silver/clad coins) leave some room so the coins can turn with the gravel
let run 1 to 2 hours
i then run under water to rinse
you can seperate the gravel from the coins by running them thru your scoop over a small trash can or bucket or make a strainer that fits in the bucket
let em dry and cash em in

 

[thinkin2]

I use a two barrel tumbler but not sure who it's made by. the barrels are rubber. Anyway, I just put the coins in the barrels, two or three handfuls of clean white sand, a little liquid dishwashing detergent and water, just enough to cover the coins and sand, then let them tumble overnight. They come out plenty clean. I used to use the aquarium gravel and some other stuff but have found that just using the sand works well enough. --Jerry

 

[jcooking]

Just be careful about mixing cleaning chemicals, some can react badly. I have had great results with aquarium gravel, dish soap, water, and time tumbling. I have tried with tumbling grit for stones and it hammers coins.

 

[hunter 18]

This is the tumbler i purchase from EBay i made my own cylinder

 

[mickfin]

I use Coinstar , I dont clean im , Mic