# Light tumble?



## willieboy (Sep 17, 2013)

I am fairly new to the world of cleaning with a tumbler.  So far a lot of practice, some good results and some not so good results.  Nothing ruined so far thank goodness. Getting the right amount of copper shot, water and the amount of tumbling time are variables I need to work on. I am beginning to think each bottle and bottle type has its own challenges.  I also think some bottles are not good candidates for cleaning, if visual improvement is the goal. 

 What exactly is a light tumble?  Is the term related to the abrasive used, time it is tumbled, both, neither, or some other factors? I have processed similar Hutchinson stopper bottles with the same abrasive for the same time with much different results. I concluded that all staining and mineralization require different treatments to achieve successful results.  This sort of cleaning process definitely requires a good deal of experience to consistently get excellent results.  Maybe a person that can achieve consistent excellent results earns the right to refer to his product as "professionally cleaned".  My hat is off to those that have figured this process out


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## FitSandTic (Sep 17, 2013)

What I usually refer to as a light tumble is removing light content haze usually when the contents of the bottle have dried up in the bottle. I recently sold a Pepsi bottle on ebay, the bottle had water in it and had laid on its side, which left internal staining on one side of the bottle. I tumbled the bottle for two days on the inside only. Doing this made the bottle bright and clear and really increased value in the bottle in my opinion. When I listed the bottle I put in my description that it was a dug bottle that had been lightly tumbled on the inside. Two days may sound like a long time for light haze but I do not use a heavy abrasives when I tumble and to be honest I use the jewelers powder my dad has used for years. I do not remove scratches or get really aggressive with bottles, I just remove stain. Trial and error is the best way to learn and until you feel comfortable I would stay away from valuable items. Lightly tumbled bottles can mean a lot of different things but I would say its just basically removing light hazes and using just a polish. This is just opinion and opinions will vary, one piece of advice I could give you is when I tumble square bottles I get better results when I reduce my rpm's. Square bottles can be a pain.


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## andy volkerts (Sep 17, 2013)

What he said plus, I consider a light tumble any tumble that removes only light or very little staining inside or outside of the bottle. A tumblers first concern is this bottle right for tumbling? No bottle will tumble very successfully if it has deep scratches, ground etching, chips, or tons of rust. then, you are getting into restoring/altering the bottle, and that is a whole nother can of worms. Stay with light polishing agents short tumble times and you will not remove anything but the crusty stuff on the glass. Colors tumble differently because the types of glass are softer from one color to another. And yes square bottlea are a pain sometimes, what is worse is a flat type of bottle such as flasks.......keep going experience is the best teacher......[]


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## bamabottles (Sep 18, 2013)

Use 1200 grit as cutter for 24 hours on most, then alum oxide for 3 to 4 days.  Not the recipe for every bottle but that is a good place to start.  Practice on cheap bottles.  Round here big city chero colas are good to use, dime a dozen and old enough for many of them to be heavily stained.  After 3 to 4 days, sometimes the inside is more heavily stained than the outside and you need to run inside only for a few days, otherwise the outside can be overtumbled if you put it back in doing full tumble long enough to get the inside clean.


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