Product Description
You'll love this complete barrelling kit if you want a fast way to polish up metal. The 3lb Beach Metal Barreling Machine is ideal for jewellery makers.
It’s perfect for metal clay like Art Clay, PMC, and Copper and Bronze Clay, as well as cast or milled sterling silver, copper and bronze. This tumbler is British made and consists of a high-quality motor and a 3lb plastic barrel with vanes. The vanes help speed up metal polishing.
The 3lb motor and barrel makes it great for a larger studio, where you want to polish up a fair amount of work. If you want to polish very large amounts of work, or heavier loads, we recommend you choose the 5lb Barrelling Machine instead.
Tumble polishing is the the easiest way to give your silver pieces a beautiful shine. Just put your silver in the tumbler together with water and steel shot, and leave for anything between 1-6 hours, and they'll come out lovely and shiny. This complete kit (suitable for tumbling silver or metal) comes with the stainless steel shot and barrelling compound which you need to polish metal. Everything you need to tumble polish, together in one complete kit!
Kit includes:
- 3lb plastic vaned barrel
- Tumbler base with motor
- Premium Stainless steel shot (no pins) - 500g
- Barreling compound - 250g
How to use your tumbler kit day-to-day:
- Open the barrel (when using plastic barrels, you must put the lid-end in HOT water first to soften it).
- Carefully drain out most of the old water which your shot has been sitting in.
- Fill with a little water from the tap, swirl the shot around to give it a rinse and pour out most of the water (if it looks very grey and scummy; repeat this step until more or less clear).
- Fill to slightly less than half full with clean water.
- Add about 0.5 teaspoon of barrelling compound. Exactly how much to add depends on size of barrel, amount of water, and your water quality. If the barrel is full of foam when you open it to check after an hour, you've added too much.
- Add the metal to be polished
- Replace the lid (if using the plastic barrel, don't forget to put the lid in hot water before replacing it)
- Tumble for an hour or more. Whilst you're getting to know your tumbler, check your pieces every hour to see when you're happy with the finish (don't forget to warm up the lid!). When happy with the finish, take out your sparkly pieces.
- When finished, make sure the shot is completely covered by water, close the lid, and leave until next time. If the water looks very dirty and messy you might want to replace some with fresh water. You need to add water until it covers the shot, also add about 0.5 teaspoon of compound and shake until dissolved, this helps to protect the shot and keep it clean.
A little note on polishing - this tumbler is designed to polish or burnish your pieces. If you use it with stainless steel shot and water it is not an abrasive - so it will not remove scratches. If you have any scratches you need to put in a little work and remove these by hand before you tumble polish. Tumbling for a long time might round off and smooth out the scratches slightly, but it will not remove them.
The vanes in the barrel helps to move your pieces around, so they polish faster. We used to use this size barrel in our metal clay classes, which were up to 10-12 students who each made between 1-3 items (usually earrings and pendants), and the size was perfect.
Alternatively, you can fit 2 of the smaller 1.5lb barrels on this tumbler motor body, in case you want to replace the 3lb barrel. We offer extra barrels in plastic or rubber; plastic is much easier to keep clean, whilst rubber is easier to open and close and are quieter - so you can mix 'n' match them as you like.
A little note on polishing - this tumbler is designed to polish or burnish your pieces. If you use it with stainless steel shot and water it is not an abrasive - so it will not remove scratches. If you have any scratches you need to put in a little work and remove these by hand before you tumble. Tumbling for a long time might round off and smooth out the scratches slightly, but it will not remove them.
A couple of notes on maintenance:
- NEVER try to remove or replace the plastic barrel lid without warming it up first. Set it in a bowl of hot water for 30-50 seconds before using. Remember to "burp" the lid before tumbling - if you don't know what this is, have a look at the video above. If you don't warm it up, it will eventually crack.
- Every week, unplug the tumbler and put a drop of oil on the steel shaft of the roller where they pass through the bearing blocks. This is a great oil for that.
- Every month, put a drop of oil on the motor shaft, where it protrudes through the side of the machine (use engine grade oil for this).
Size of each barrel: 14cm L x 10.3cm inner diameter, 12cm outer diameter
* Includes a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty from the date of purchase. This requires you to register your purchase with the manufacturer at www.beachlapidary.co.uk *
Warranty
Includes a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty from the date of purchase. This requires you to register your purchase with the manufacturer at www.beachlapidary.co.ukProduct Videos
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Product Reviews
1 Review
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Beach tumbler
Easy to use and works really well for shining up sterling silver pieces. The premium shot polished in even the tiny gaps. I am very happy with this product.
