# Tumbling grit recipe?



## dasadeephole

Hi;

    I have searched around and have not found much info on what number grit AO is used or how long the tumble is when tumbling/turning bottles.  Is this some sort of guarded info much like BBQ sauce recipes?

Watching a youtube "how to" it only covered the basics and it appeared that polish grade AO was put in the inside of the bottle and a "rougher grade" AO in the cylinder for the outside.  Supposedly the tumble was for 3 days without any grit change which does not sound right for getting highly polished results.  Does the grit break down into it's own polish that fast?  Is copper media the expediter in that? 

    I cannot afford a whole bottle tumbling setup nor have the bottles to warrant such an investment but have come up with a Billy Bob way to tumble the interior of bottles less than 10" tall using a section of 4" diameter section of pvc with end caps and rubber sponge cushion on a 2 drum rock tumbler.  In the past when I tumble glass shards to make sea glass I run them in a rock tumbler in 4 stages of grit with plastic bead.  Silicon Carbide 120/220 grit, AO 500 grit, AO 1000 grit, and finally AO polish.  It takes about 2 weeks as I average 4 days per stage and end up with very glossy results.  

   Now that I am tumbling my bottles with sick interiors I want to be a little more conservative about how much glass is removed.  Plus I am using cut 10-3 copper wire as media so I am not sure if that accelerates the polishing as opposed to plastic bead.   Right now I have a bottle that I just put in the final AO polish stage and happy with the results so far.  I know I will eventually figure it out just not sure if I am going overkill on the number of stages of grit and the length of time per stage. 

I am not proposing everyone run out and buy a 2 drum rock tumbler to cut out the guys that tumble bottles for profit.  I'm doing it as I already had the set up and have a few bottles with primarily sick interiors.  Lord knows a $10-$30 per bottle fee is well worth it compared to the cost of electricity, grit, copper media, and labor involved in doing a bottle tumble.


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## Dumpdiver

Hey Dasa, Welcome to the forum! If you would like an answer today all you have to do is go back in time. 3 pages back and half way down the page you'll be enlightend. They've been waiting for you...DD  (sorry,didn't know how to add the link.)


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## dasadeephole

*Thanks*



Dumpdiver said:


> Hey Dasa, Welcome to the forum! If you would like an answer today all you have to do is go back in time. 3 pages back and half way down the page you'll be enlightend. They've been waiting for you...DD  (sorry,didn't know how to add the link.)



Thanks. 

 I actually found some good info on grit type on Jar Doctors web site where he describes the type grit he sells and what it does.  Good thing I did as the bottle I'm tumbling now is a late 1800s but I do have plans to tumble out a few open pontil pre 1850s and was unaware that they have softer glass.

I have come to the conclusion that there are just too many variables for anyone to hip shoot an answer on number of stages and type of grit/length of stage, such as the bottles age, degree of sickness, rpms of the tumbler etc.


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## dasadeephole

Tumbled out my first small bottle and was extremely pleased with the results.  I loaded the bottle half full of cut copper and 500 AO and water and corked it.  I tumbled it in a rubber drum 3/4 full of water and plastic bead with 500AO for 5 days, then did the same set up for 5 days with 1000AO, then 5 days with AO polish.  All the sickness gone and highly polished.

Going to wait until I can get some half micron AO before I attempt the pre 1850s stuff.


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