Tumbling clad with stainless steel cleaning media.

NJdiverTony

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2018
Messages
49
Location
Hunterdon County, NJ, USA
I had a bit of clad that I found during a handful of quick hunts over the last few weeks that was really dirty. I've seen some of the posts about tumbling clad with aquarium rocks, and thought I'd try something a little different. I have a tumbler that I use for cleaning used brass ammo casings, as I shoot for sport quite a bit and I reload and make my own ammo. I tumble my brass casings with stainless steel media which usually produces stellar results on brass.

The clad I tumbled was really dirty/rusty/corroded, so I wasnt sure what to expect. All I used was water and some Palmolive dish detergent and tumbled for about 4 hours. See the pics, not too shabby! The coins don't look perfect, but definitely "good enough".

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that's pretty impressive !!

I am also mot noticing any discoloration on the quarters dimes and nickels..

They didn't come out perfect or like new... but they are definitely good enough for use. Some of them are still a little dark... but nothing terrible. I've gotten change from stores that looked much worse than this, before... that's for sure.

I'm sure that if I get creative and add some additional cleaning agents into the mix, I can get them looking much better. One thing I like to use with my brass casing is a product called "Lemi-shine". That works really well and gets the casings nice and shiny. I didn't have any on hand, so I opted to go with just plain old Palmolive dish soap.
 
They didn't come out perfect or like new... but they are definitely good enough for use. Some of them are still a little dark... but nothing terrible. I've gotten change from stores that looked much worse than this, before... that's for sure.

I'm sure that if I get creative and add some additional cleaning agents into the mix, I can get them looking much better. One thing I like to use with my brass casing is a product called "Lemi-shine". That works really well and gets the casings nice and shiny. I didn't have any on hand, so I opted to go with just plain old Palmolive dish soap.

Pretty good results. You'll have no problems spending those! If you do start experimenting with other chemicals, I'd definitely recommend not tumbling the pennies with the others. Do them separately. They might turn all the nickels, dimes, and quarters odd colors.
 
Pretty good results. You'll have no problems spending those! If you do start experimenting with other chemicals, I'd definitely recommend not tumbling the pennies with the others. Do them separately. They might turn all the nickels, dimes, and quarters odd colors.

Thanks and thank you for the tip. I'll definitely do that in the future. I had no idea as this was my first foray into cleaning clad.
 
Looks spendable to me! ...anybody else chuckle a little to yourself when you get a blackened cruddy quarter in change at the gas station which was clearly a dug coin??
 
Parking meters at my beach get a lot of crusty quarters, dimes and nickels.

They're lucky the meters don't take pennies.
 
Here's a method I found, wish I could remember where I read it so I could give credit but ....
I use the aquarium gravel but sure it would work with the SS as well. Layer of clad, layer of gravel, repeat, repeat till about 3/4 full if necessary, NO PENNIES. Cover the gravel with vinegar, add a couple of tablespoons of table salt. Close up and shaker real well. Tumble for 20 minutes, shake again (not sure why but perhaps to make sure no coins are sticking together) tumble another 20 minutes. I set a timer. That is definitely long enough or it will start to turn them copper colored. Dump them out, I like to dump onto a piece of 1/2" hardware cloth which makes it easy to separate the gravel from the coins. You'll find this really brings them back to their original color. Rinse off with lots of water, don't leave off this step or they may turn off color.

Use the soap and water on the pennies.
 
I was going to order the SS rods but they're pretty pricey. Yesterday I tried using plain old copper bb's from walmart. 600 of them for $7 and they worked fantastic. I was concerned the copper coating from the bb's would stick to the coins but it didn't.

Even better would be SS slingshot ammo. I have a bunch of it somewhere in my basement but couldn't find it.

Vinegar is an acid and will pit the coins. I suppose if you're just running them through a coinstar type machine it wouldn't matter but don't clean anything decent with it. I learned the hard way a few years ago when I cleaned some indians and a 2 cent piece with it. Coins turned orange and pitted bad.

I def got someones cruddy tumbled clad in change over the weekend. :laughing:
 
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