Polymer Clay Tutorial | Polished Beads | Lortone Rock Tumbler

Cindy my sore fingertips thank you for this video. I only wish I had seen it earlier before I made a bunch of pendants for our church bazaar. Oh well, there's always next year!

Hi Cindy
Would you know roughly how much these tumblers cost? Where do you get them from – do you know if you can get hold of them in Europe?
Thanks
Sally

Cindy- I am so happy to see you have more un-sanded beads than I do! It was nice to a get a peak at some of those beads in the tubs. Very cute picture of Doug too. The full video on how to use the rock tumbler is excellent. I am sure it took a long time experimenting to get the results you wanted to share. Thank you for all your hard work.

SALLY- I had the same question and found a Lortone site on the internet. Maybe they have a link to all the locations world wide where they are sold. The one Cindy shows is available through Amazon for about $70.00 (US) but I do not know the cost of shipping to Europe. Might be able to find one on E-bay.

Could you change out the pebbles for builders sand and even possibly sand box (play) sand to mimic higher and higher grits of sandpaper, and if so would the amounts of grit to beads and water be the same?

Dear Cindy,
thank you for this video- I am going to purchase a tumbler today!!! I have quite a few beads to sand and polish and had been putting off doing so because it is such a time consuming job. Good sanding and polishing is the most important stage for polymer clay beads and my fingers end up inflamed and blistered from constant sanding. I don't mind the dremmel stage so much, because it is a quality control stage and final check- but the manual wet & dry sanding is horrible and reminds me of housework! I can now spend more time making and experimenting.
Many thanks again-
Cara

Hi Cindy thanks for the tumbler video, I love mine. Where can I get river rocks. When I purchased my tumbler I looked and looked and could not find any locally. I use white pelits I found at Thunderbird Supply Company and they work OK but I have to run for at least 4-5 hours. Please keep the videos coming, I'm hooked on polymer clay thanks to you and your videos.

@Maria: Thanks! Now, when you do beads for the next church brazaar it won't be as much work!

@Sally: Isn't it nice when people like Anna can help. :-) It's hard for me to know out of country information like that. Here they cost anywhere from $30 – $100 depending on models and sale prices.

@Anna: You should see how many beads I still need to buff! Thanks for helping out Sally with the European info!

@Ken: Sure give it a try. You may be able to sand out some of the more aggressive marks like fingerprints that way. Let us know what you come up with!

@Cara: You're welcome! I agree sanding is really important and that it can be a lot of work. It is nice when some of the work can be eliminated though, isn't it!

@Paul: Sorry, I realized after that I forgot to say where to get the river rock. I got mine in a little mesh bag at the dollar store, but I've also seen them in craft stores in the floral department, for putting in vases. Get the rougher, unpolished stones and not the polished ones. They work the best.

Well I got my vibratory tumbler last night and polished some beads today with great results !!! I used 1/4 inch river rock purchased from the dollar store; in some parts of the U.S. we call it Pea Gravel because it is about the size of peas-makes sense huh!
I used about 1/3 rock to 2/3 beads (no water) and ran it for an hour. The beads were noticeable improved. I ran it for a second hour and they were even better and ready to be polished. In fact they became pretty shinny when rubbed with my fingers.
Two important point here:
1) I smooth my beads with corn starch and remove fingerprints before baking. So if your beads are rough you will probably need to tumble them longer. Rock polishers and vibratory tumblers will not remove fingerprints.
2) The vibratory tumbler directions and box emphasize-NO WATER or LIQUIDS. I think it would be a safety hazard because the tumbling bowl sits above the motor.

Thanks so much for the Tutorial on the Rock Tumbler, My hubby got me a double one for Christmas and I am getting ready to use it so do you think they can both be used like this at the same time? Just wondering.

@Anna: That is Awesome! Good to know about the water issue! Had no idea. Thanks for passing that info along! Glad to hear it works so well!

@Donna: Yes you can, Donna. That is what they are designed to do. You could have one set up for the sanding stage and one for the buffing stage. That would be handy!

Thank You , I was hoping that I could use it that way, one for sanding and one for buffing, just watching your tutorial answered the questions I had.

Don't you just love gadgets that save you from the un-fun, tedious bits?

I don't have a rotary tumbler (yet!), but I thought I'd share what I've found with my vibratory tumbler since this is an area where I've experimented a fair bit.

I've actually had great success in having it remove fingerprints and run-of-the-mill imperfections in the process of sanding beads up ready for buffing. It doesn't remove REALLY big imperfections, but I tend to just chuck all the beads in, tumble them as described below, and then look them over at the end when I'm doing final buffing. I spot-sand any imperfections that didn't get tumbled out by hand at that stage: going through the grades from coarse to ultra-fine only takes a short time when there's just a little area to do. It's much less work than the alternative of hand-sanding everything with coarse-grade sandpaper first before tumbling, since only the really bad imperfections need it.

I use rocks as a tumbling medium too, which I first saw suggested by Desiree McCrorey. They're 9mm tumbled mini pebbles which I bought from the local hardware megastore. Like Desiree, I picked mine over carefully first, so I'm basically only tumbling with perfectly smooth oval rocks. It was very interesting to see the irregularly-shaped rocks in Cindy's tumbler… I'll have to give my "reject rocks" a try some time!

Anyway, I use enough rocks to half-fill my tumbler. It's quite large; I had to pick through 10kg of river rocks to get enough perfect rocks for that, which is a bit over 3kg worth. If a vibratory tumbler isn't full enough it doesn't work properly… the recommendation for mine is that it be at least two-thirds full but I do see the proper tumbling action when it's half full, so if I have enough rocks for that starting point it doesn't matter whether I have only a few beads to sand or a whole bunch. I usually run it with about one-quarter to one-third the volume of beads as there are rocks (i.e. from 1/5 beads and 4/5 rocks, to 1/4 beads and 3/4 rocks), although it probably doesn't make too much difference; those proportions are largely dictated by the minimum rock volume I need in my tumbler balanced against my impatience to see how my latest beads turned out.

My vibratory tumbler is OK with liquids (unlike Anna's, above), but I get best results with only a small amount of liquid. I trickle a bit of water in when it's running until I see that all rocks and beads are dampened, and then I add just a little bit more. If I stop the tumbler and push the rocks and beads aside I see just a little bit of water in the bottom of the tumbler. If there's too much water it makes a frothy mess, but more importantly it doesn't work nearly as well (e.g. it doesn't remove fingerprints when there's too much liquid). I don't bother with any detergent.

I run it for about 4 hours, usually. The tumbler only has an on/off switch so I use a timer that plugs into a powerpoint, and plug the tumbler into that. It makes an AWFUL racket… putting its lid on doesn't really help with the noise, but I have a large cardboard box that I've lined with thick foam that I put over it; it totally encloses the tumbler and helps a lot, although I still don't run it when my neighbours are sleeping!

At the end of that time the beads and rocks are in kind of a sludge. I leave the tumbler running and pick the beads out as they cycle to the top, dropping them into a tub of water (the sludge is a nuisance if you let it dry, but the results are much better than when I tumble with more liquid) before swirling them in the water thoroughly to wash the sludge off, then tipping them into a colander for a final rinse under running water. [I do the same thing with the rocks afterwards, using a separate colander which I also use for storing the rocks once they've dried.]

When they're rinsed and dried they buff up to a beautiful glassy shine. As noted above, if I do find any imperfections at this stage that haven't been tumbled out, I spot-sand them by hand using 240, 400, 800 and then 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and then re-buff.

The results are almost indistinguishable from hand-sanded beads, at least in my controlled testing so far (batches of different types of beads with different finishes, some of each type hand-sanded, others tumbled using different media for different durations). Visibly they're the same. They don't feel quite as sensual — the hand-sanded beads feel almost like there's a cushion of air between them and your fingertips — but if you use a varnish after buffing that difference is pretty well negated anyway (all the varnishes and final finishes I've tried remove the lovely feel that hand-sanded beads have).

I've tested tumbling with rocks for 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. I wasn't fully satisfied with the results of 1 and 2 hours; 4 hours is good for me unless I've been really careless when making the beads. More than 4 can be too much too, e.g. if you've got thin layers of clay that you don't want totally sanded off!

Tumbling duration might depend a bit on the brand of clay too, although I haven't tested that aspect. I only use Kato (except for translucent where I also use Premo Frost because it's clearer), and it's somewhat harder than the other brands I've played with. I got rid of all those other brands before I got my tumbler though.

I've tried additional tumbling runs of various durations with bicarb soda (baking soda), but even 6 hours of that doesn't make any noticeable difference to the end results of a good rock tumbling stage. Tumbling just with bicarb soda to start with (no rock tumbling stage) gave me beads with all their surface imperfections still present. They did buff to a nice shine, but obviously needed something else to get rid of fingerprints etc., so all in all I'm not using bicarb soda at all any more.

I haven't tried the rocks without any liquid at all. I also haven't tried tumbling with sandpaper squares, but that wouldn't be practical anyway because of the size of my tumbler (I'd need at least a whole pack of sandpaper).

And finally, I haven't had any luck with tumble-buffing yet, but I've only used the technique of putting pieces of various buffing media in with the sanded beads; they have all been so much lighter and less dense than the beads that in the vibratory tumbler they separate out completely and barely rub against the beads at all. But I'm going to adapt Cindy's suggestion from the video and make myself a heavy felt "inner-tube" of the right size for my tumbler, put my beads inside that, and see how it goes.
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"Ken H. @ 7:43 pm

Could you change out the pebbles for builders sand and even possibly sand box (play) sand to mimic higher and higher grits of sandpaper, and if so would the amounts of grit to beads and water be the same?"

Yes, yes and yes…..started out using beach sand, then my Dad, the engineer, told me to go to the local building supply store to look at the grades of builders sand to try to speed things up. So long as you can dispose of the residue safely, NOT down your sink drains,(it builds up and hardens like concrete), and use a mask because it's mostly silica dust, I loved it. Used portions of 1/3 product to 2/3 sand, covering with distilled water to the 3/4 mark, then added a drop of Dawn dish detergent.

The large grade gets out a lot of the fingerprints, but, also can remove cane designs, so check it frequently.

The best thing to "fine polish" were the micro glass no hole beads. Very expensive in small amounts, so would check with a local sandblasting firm, as they usually purchase it in huge bags.

Ken, your beads are gorgeous….love your designs and color combos!

@Sue: Holy cow Sue!!! WOW! What a comment! Thank you so, so much for all the fantastic info!!

Do you know if Desiree was the first to think of the river rock idea? I actually first found out about it from Rob K. (you may remember his comments in the other tumbler post). He said he read about it somewhere. Maybe he read it at her site? Gosh it sure is hard to keep up with who does what, isn't it!

I too prefer the feel of the sanded and buffed beads with no varnish. If you do it right, there is rarely a need for any extra finish.

Good to know about the vibrating polishers. Maybe I try one someday. Sounds like it handles the fingerprints better.

As far as the tumble buffing, it only will take it as far as a medium sheen. The real glassy finish comes for a high speed buffer like a Dremel.

Thanks again for the amazing comment! I'm sure everyone here really appreciates it!

@Jocelyn: Thank you too for your amazing comment! (I'm amazed at everyone's generosity with their ideas!) I will have to hunt down some of that builder's sand and try this out for myself! I saw some of those hole-less beads at the dollar store. Better rush back and buy a few packs before they're gone! Thanks for helping out Ken with his question. You are a huge part of making this a supportive polymer clay community!

Hi Cindy,

I thought there were enough differences between the vibratory tumbler and the rotary tumbler that what I'd found in my testing might be interesting, particularly when the amount of water used can significantly change how effective the vibratory tumbler is. It was a happy surprise about how well it removed fingerprints; I didn't expect it to from what I'd read beforehand, and I was literally stunned when I rinsed off my first test batch. I'm still going to get myself a rotary tumbler too one of these days, however, as there are things you can do with a rotary tumbler that aren't possible with a vibratory tumbler.

As to your question, it wouldn't surprise me if Desiree was the first to think of river rocks — her page on it was last updated in October 2007 and it clearly includes updates — but I don't know for sure. The nice thing for people like me is that people like you and Desiree are happy to share your knowledge.

I'll post here again once I've been able to try a vibratory tumbler adaptation of the buffing suggestion from your video. Even getting them to a medium sheen would still be a big help, particularly with the fiddly little beads which often end up flying around my workspace when I buff them with my Dremel. If they need less Dremel time I'll be less likely to have that problem. (I have tried putting them on a baking pin or skewer to buff, but I just ended up with a pile of bent baking pins and wonky skewers. ;D)

Sue

Sue

Wow! Please tell me the brand name of the brand new vibrating tumbler I have sitting in my storage facility for the last couple of year still in the box is the same as yours. Could you share the brand name?

Learned so much from your post, thank you for so much for the expicit details and clarity!!!!

Jocelyn

Hi Jocelyn,

I have a Hornady Case Tumbler (model 050201; I believe the US/110V version is model 050200), which is normally used by shooting enthusiasts for cleaning used ammunition cases prior to reloading them. It's not suitable for lapidary uses such as producing tumbled rocks from rough in the first place, but it works beautifully for tumble-sanding polymer clay.

And hopefully it is the same as the one you have sitting in storage! :)

Sue

Hi, Cindy — Based on your video, I am now eagerly awaiting receipt of the Lortone 3a rock tumbler I just ordered on line. While I'm waiting, can you tell me where to get the river rocks you mentioned? Do you know if Michael's sells them?

Thanks!

Sherry

Hi, everyone — Oops! Sorry, I asked my question about river rocks without realizing that you had all made such helpful comments and answered my question (and more) already.

Sherry

I'm so glad to see you all helping each other like that! Thank you for making this a great blog!

Hi Cindy,

Wow, has this rock tumbler project been a learning experience! In order to save a little money I checked craigslist.com for a used tumbler, and was fortunate to find a Lortone for $15. I thought that the gods were with me on that one, and was SURE I was tantilizingly close to beads so shiny I could see myself! Not so much. I found the plastic filler beads at Joanne's and added them to the tumbler along with water and my polymer beads. Nothing happened. After two days of tumbling I added some cheap faux pearls from the craft store (I thought there may not be enough volume in the tumbler). Nothing. Taking a cue from your thoughtful members, I added a bit of super fine sand for some grit. Huge mistake. What I got was a black slush that stained the beads! Lots of washing and burnishing diminished the stain, but the beads were still darker than they should be. Next I dumped all the slushy sand and went back to plastic beads, pearls, polymer beads, and a very small amount of dishwashing soap. The beads were cleaned up, but certainly not shiny. I'm going to the craft store today to buy some rough decorative rocks and will add that to the tumbler. After all these days of tumbling my kids are convinced I'm nuts, and spending way too much time on polymer beads!

I'll post further if I am finally satisfied with my beads.

Spending too much time making polymer clay beads? That's impossible Mary! :-)

Did you get a chance to see the tutorial video that is previewed in this post? I have found that using the river rocks really is the best method I've found, out of all of them, for polishing your beads.

It is fun to try the others as well, but as you can see, some don't work as well. That is why I don't make a video on something until I find a method that works easily and well.

Definitely let us know how the river rocks work for you. I think you will be pleased. But even if you're not, all of us here will be happy to help!

I bought a rotary tumbler from Michael's some years ago for my daughter. Can I use that? The barrel seems kind of small?

Sure you can Cheryl. It won't hold as much and will wear out quicker, but it still has the tumbling action that makes the technique work.

@Anna Sabina: Thanks for posting that, Anna. I just bought a vibrating tumbler and all I've seen online has referred to putting in water, which the directions say is strictly verboten I was getting worried that I had one that wouldn't work!

Well, another lesson learned the hard way! I put all the torn watercolor beads I made for the bead challenge in the rock tumbler, and left to do my errands. When I got home and rinsed off the beads, most of the color was gone from them! Now they look like plain white beads with black streaks on them. I'm so bummed!! At least I still have some clay made for them. I will have to start over. Should I even sand these beads, or just polish them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@Melody: Isn't it so nice to get help for the others here at the blog? It really is making this place quite the valuable resource. I am so grateful to everyone!

@Tiffany: I am sorry to hear that happened. The colored layer was most likely too thin to handle being tumbled in your rock polisher. Go ahead and make them again, but this time try to remove any fingerprints with cornstarch before baking so heavy sanding isn't necessary. Then you can do a light hand sand with 600 grit, only if necessary and then buff them with your Dremel or a piece of felt. I am really looking forward to seeing your entry to the contest. It will be so much fun to see what everyone comes up with. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, I will try again tomorrow. The jupiter beads I made came out very well, though the color is a little more muted than I like. I will just have to see how they look after polishing.