{"id":690,"date":"2008-10-04T16:19:14","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T23:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=690"},"modified":"2013-06-18T17:18:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T00:18:42","slug":"using-a-rock-polisher-to-get-shiny-polymer-clay-beads-and-pendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/using-a-rock-polisher-to-get-shiny-polymer-clay-beads-and-pendants\/690\/","title":{"rendered":"Using A Rock Polisher To Get Shiny Polymer Clay Beads and Pendants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Polymer<\/p>\n

Update on Using the Lortone Rock Tumbler for Polishing Clay Jewelry Beads:<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On September 17 I wrote an article about tumblers that ended inconclusively. Since then, I have done some more experimenting and would like to give you<\/span> a bit of an update. If you have not yet read the original article, you might want to do that first. Here’s the link: Lortone Rock Tumblers for Polymer Clay<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It was actually a comment from Randee Ketzel<\/a> that got me to thinking. She uses a vibratory tumbler filled with the plastic pellets used in beanie babies and a couple of cups of baking soda to polish her beads.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since I still don’t have any of those beanie baby pellets, I decided to tumble some freshly baked beads using baking soda and pieces of 400 grit sandpaper. Randee never did say whether or not she used water, so I threw some of that in there too.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a couple hours of tumbling, a funny thing happened… the wet baking soda got very foamy and actually pressurized the rubber tumbler barrel. I could see this had happened because the bottom of the barrel was bulging out like a balloon!<\/span><\/p>\n

Carefully, I loosened the nut, leaving it still on the bolt. And PSSSST… the air started leaking out… like the air from a tire! Good thing I didn’t leave it going over night. Who knows what it would have done!<\/span><\/p>\n

Any who… the beads inside felt smooth. Any little dings or finger prints were still there. But all in all, they looked pretty good. So I buffed up a couple with the Dremel and man they polished up nice! Quickly too!<\/span><\/p>\n

We may be on to something here. Will have to find some of those beanie baby pellets now. But I’ll try it without the water next time. And maybe experiment with different grits and without. Etc. Etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m very much looking forward to finally coming up with a consistent way to get a nice finish on the beads with the least amount of manual work. In the meantime, any other suggestions are welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cindy\"Polymer<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update on Using the Lortone Rock Tumbler for Polishing Clay Jewelry Beads: On September 17 I wrote an article about tumblers that ended… 110<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,18],"tags":[630,2699],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finishing","category-tools","tag-dremel","tag-polymer-clay-sanding-buffing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}