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I only use the aquarium gravel as it costs very little. I bought two bags of it about 1998 and still haven't opened one of the bags! I heard about the stainless steel media but didn't like the cost since I'm out to find money, not spend a lot to clean it up.david1962hd said:I purchased some Stainless Steel media off of Ebay it was sold in 1lb bags still kinda expensive but it works well.
I will use aquarium gravel along with a small amount of Soft Scrub to clean the coins then to polish them use the stainless steel shot along with dish washing liquid. Water of course is used in both mixtures.
Roger, are you using an off-brand of tumbler barrel? If not, then it must be some bad water or bad chemical you're using. I have used my dual barrel Lortone tumbler to clean my coins, several times a year as they accumulate, and I never get any "black crap" left over.joe dirt_1 said:Tumblers do a good job of cleaning clad coins to put back into circulation, but I hate the messy black crap that you have left in the tumbler after cleaning a batch of coins.
I don't think the black crud you are dealing with is due to normal cleaning, or at least not the way I clean coins. it's wear on the rubber, bad chemicals, or excessive tumbling.joe dirt_1 said:I'm thinking of trying something different than water and dish soap to clean clad coins. A friend just bought 5 pounds of stainless steel
media to use cleaning brass cases before reloading them. The stainless steel media is expensive, 5 pounds cost 50.00, but it will last forever and could be used dry to polish clad coins. The media resembles lead from a lead pencil and it wouldn't take much for a small tumbler, maybe a quarter pound or so
to do the job, so for about 2.50 or so you could have cleaning media that would never wear out or make the mess like soap and water makes.
I haven't got a clue, but I'll listen to any reports people offer. I know that a hard media, such as stainless steel, isn't what my brother would want used to clean his brass prior to reloading, and the main reason is the wear and tear on the cases.joe dirt_1 said:The media is sold in 5 pound lots or larger, so you would have to find someone willing to sell smaller amounts but it seems like it would be a great media to clean those clad coins with. Any ideas about using stainless steel media to clean coins with?
It could just be age and a lot of wear and tear. I had some early cleaning sessions where things got black if I tumbled them too long, but I have them closer to clean by the time they get in a tumbler.joe dirt_1 said:Monte, I'm using a single barrel Lortone tumbler to clean my coins. I've had the tumbler for 20 years or so and it has cleaned alot of coins with aquarium gravel and dish soap. Maybe the barrel is getting worn from use, but when I clean a batch of clad it is all black and nasty inside.
Running a barrel of soapy water with metal objects going round and round and round for 6 hours is a good cause for ear in a barrel. It's sort of a reverse action compared with rubber tires.joe dirt_1 said:I do run the coins longer than 30 minutes though, usually maybe 6 hours to get the coins clean enough to put back into circulation.
It would certainly be worth a try, especially after about 20 years with ample internal abuse'.joe dirt_1 said:I do have a new barrel as a spare so maybe I need to try it and see if it is still a black mess inside after tumbling coins.
It's mostly the expense that just doesn't work for me, I guess.joe dirt_1 said:Actually, the stainless steel media is great for polishing brass prior to reloading. It cleans and polishes the brass much faster than corn cob or walnut shell media but costs much more initially.
As I stated, the instructions are what I have posted on several forums through the years, or you can download them from the Tips & Techniques section at the society's website at www.ahrps.org and it is simply on Coin Cleaning. I do hope to get a video done in the next couple of months and it will be put on there under the Video section.joe dirt_1 said:Thanks for the reply Monte, I'd like to see how you clean your coins if you get a chance to post it.
When I tumble my pennies and non-Susan B. dollar coins I can also add the brass-type game tokens, car wash tokens, foreign coins of similar brass/copper type make-up, and additional things like copper rings, etc.rapidroy7 said:Thanks Monte never thought about cleaning my brass tokens, how would you people tumble i think aluminium tokens?
You can over-fill a tumbler, especially if there's too much dish soap, other chemicals, and the internal pressure builds up. I've had that happen. I just measure the 'portions' of coins I add, with aquarium gravel, then just cover that with water, not fill it but cover it, and add a small squirt of dish soap and, when I have it, Cream of Tarter.rapidroy7 said:I bought tumbler at harbor freight 3 lb. capacity, I would guess that you can't under fill it just over fill?
I'm up to about 1800-2000 coins to clean now and ought to make it a project soon. I am also out of Cream of Tarter. It's hard to find and my wife doesn't like the cost of it (when I put it on her shopping listrapidroy7 said:Cleaned my copper pennies and zinc they turned out great, cleaned a few over 500 dimes and a couple of dirty copper cents was in there, stained some of them whoops? Going to start my quarters today i think i can keep the pennies out of them! I used creme of tarter what is it for does it make the dirt flaky like sugar cookies?