What a coincidence! I fired up my new tumbler for the first time yesterday, as well! I got mine through Harbor Freight while they had 25% off for Memorial Day - I went ahead and grabbed the dual drum version, so I can spin the pennies at the same time as the other clad.
I put the pennies through for just 1.5 hours and thought the results were great! The Q/D/N batch didn't look so great though - clean enough to spend, but still surprisingly dark. So I sent them through for another 2 hours and got some improvement, but they still don't look quite as good as you got yours to turn out. I was curious to hear how long you tumbled yours for - your results look more "sparklely" than mine. Or maybe you used a different formula? For both of my batches, I just used fine aquarium gravel, tap water, and a drop or two of dish soap.
The before and after shots appear below for comparison (most of the shiny coins you see in the pics were surface finds, so they cleaned up easy). All in all, the results are quite good - they certainly would pass a Coin Star easily! But if I can easily make them look even better, I'll happily give it a shot
Also, for anyone interested - the dual drum version ran surprising quiet. I had the tumbler running in the garage, but on a bench along the wall that's shared with our living room...I never heard it unless I went out to the garage. Quite pleased with the unit so far, but of course, it was only one run.
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