Bought a tumbler, first attempt at cleaning clad.

Tankerhoosen · May 2, 2016

Picked up a harbor freight dual barrel tumbler yesterday. I used Reefrunnners recipe for the process http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=220294

Here is the before

Here is the after

Some of the coins seem a bit dinged up,

is this because of the size stone I used it was it because that particular coin corroded in the dirt?

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Reef Runner · May 2, 2016

Pre-clean ?

I noticed that many of your coins appeared to be quite pitted. I have found this condition several times, when I dug coins on the golf course, or on a ball field, where there had been a lot of chemicals & fertilizer used. I believe that has to eat away at the coins, after many years of exposure. That ugly quarter appears to be a '65, so that's a long time out in the elements, especially with the addition of chemicals (?).

Also, I do wash my individual coins with running water and a small brush, before putting them into the tumbler. I'll normally scrub each coin, dry it, and store it in a baggie, until I have accumulated enough to make a decent run in the tumbler. I try not to put anything in the tumbler with loose or crusted dirt & grim. Also, my gravel is just the standard aquarium gravel (natural), as one would find in 5 lb bags at Walley World :grin:

Tankerhoosen · May 2, 2016

Reef Runner said:
I noticed that many of your coins appeared to be quite pitted. I have found this condition several times, when I dug coins on the golf course, or on a ball field, where there had been a lot of chemicals & fertilizer used. I believe that has to eat away at the coins, after many years of exposure. That ugly quarter appears to be a '65, so that's a long time out in the elements, especially with the addition of chemicals (?).

Also, I do wash my individual coins with running water and a small brush, before putting them into the tumbler. I'll normally scrub each coin, dry it, and store it in a baggie, until I have accumulated enough to make a decent run in the tumbler. I try not to put anything in the tumbler with loose or crusted dirt & grim. Also, my gravel is just the standard aquarium gravel (natural), as one would find in 5 lb bags at Walley World

Heh want to see pitted? Check out this jem

not sure what my father was using in his yard all those years!

Reef Runner · May 2, 2016

Yep, that's just plain pitting, that took place before you ever dug it. Could be the chemicals/fertilizer, or maybe just some weird soil make-up. I'm quite sure that different types of soil have a big effect, also.......Those do look pretty bad

jga5367 · May 2, 2016

Looks like your first attempt at tumbler was a success, congratulations

Tankerhoosen · May 2, 2016

jga5367 said:
Looks like your first attempt at tumbler was a success, congratulations

Now I must resist the urge to tumble everything I've found

T-Man · May 2, 2016

Clean enough to feed to a coinstar or bank counting machine. Whatever it rejects can goto your nearest fast food joint. At least that's what I do with them. Always keep a pile of nasty zincs in the cup hold of the car just for those occasions.

Reef Runner · May 2, 2016

Tankerhoosen said:
Now I must resist the urge to tumble everything I've found

Yep, it's very tempting, especially when the tumbler is brand new :roll:

Digger-Dave · May 11, 2016

Tanker, that Washington you have there looks like a beauty contestant compared to a few I found in March. Mine looked like they were purposely dragged over rocks.

T-Man said:
Clean enough to feed to a coinstar or bank counting machine. Whatever it rejects can goto your nearest fast food joint. At least that's what I do with them. Always keep a pile of nasty zincs in the cup hold of the car just for those occasions.

Yeah, same here.

Ricki7 · May 11, 2016

Looking good ,congrats
HH

DIGGER27 · May 12, 2016

Also good for cleaning up other things...on brass it works extremely good.
Here are a couple of things I ran through mine that came out fantastically great.
A water hose nozzle and a fill valve from a very old style high tank toilet both about 100 years old.

rreahard · May 13, 2016

Those look great all cleaned up!

Bought a tumbler, first attempt at cleaning clad.

Tankerhoosen

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Reef Runner

Tankerhoosen

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Reef Runner

jga5367

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Tankerhoosen

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T-Man

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Reef Runner

Digger-Dave

Ricki7

DIGGER27

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