Do most of you guys tumble the inside and outside of your bottles at the same time?

[FitSandTic]

Hello everyone I was just curious how some of you guys like to tumble your bottles. My dad taught me how to tumble about ten years ago and we have always cleaned ours in two stages. My tumbler also has two different I guess you could say stations, one spot you can only clean the inside of your bottles. The second has a tube for cleaning the outside and this spot turns slower than the side for cleaning the inside. I know I could put my copper inside the bottle while cleaning the outside, but I have never done it. I was just kind of curious why the slower speed on the outside, and do you think that doing the inside and outside at the same time could put more stress on a bottle with the weight of the copper. This is something I have been thinking about and I love to hear how some of you guys like to tumble your finds.

 

[Sir.Bottles]

Most of mine was not tumbled although I have some which is!! since tumbled bottle can never be MINT, also over tumbling can dull the embossing!!

 

[FitSandTic]

I agree that a tumbled bottle can never be mint. I would not tumble a bottle if it does not need to be tumbled. I also never sell a bottle that I know that has been tumbled with out letting the buyer know the bottle has been cleaned. There is a thread on here titled, " back from the cleaners" where a member had some bottles tumbled and I feel this person benefited from the results of having their bottles tumbled. Embossings are dulled when people start using there tumblers as scratch removers instead of removing stain, mineral deposits, and dirt. I will be honest with you I have never used my tumbler to remove scratches. What I wanted to know was when you tumble your items do you clean the inside and outside at the same time. Because I have always done mine in separate sessions. On my tumbler the side I tumble my bottles on the inside rotates a lot faster than the side that tumbles bottles on the outside. Now is this a benefit or does it hinder me? I am just curious on how other folks like to approach the dirty task of tumbling there sick glass.


Thanks, Travis

P.S I realize cleaning on the inside and outside at the same time would save on my energy bill but, can this process put more stress on my bottles?

 

[diggerdirect]

atticfinds:
On my tumbler the side I tumble my bottles on the inside rotates a lot faster than the side that tumbles bottles on the outside. Now is this a benefit or does it hinder me?

On a round bottle your inside result would be the same, slower takes longer is all (& perhaps abit more control over the end result) It sounds more to me as your machine is set up as a 'fixed' 2 speed. I set up mine in a similar fashion with a couple stations turning slower for the square, rectangular, flask shaped & special needs pieces both inside & outside, while also turning round bottles at the same time on the higher rpm stations.

Al

 

[chosi]

I'm not sure an outside-only tumble puts any less stress on the bottle than if you simultaneously do the inside & outside. I tumble most bottles inside & outside at the same time.
I do inside-only tumbles on bottles that are cloudy on the inside only. The advantage is that I can put multiple bottles in the canister at the same time for an inside-only tumble.

 

[diggerdirect]

chosi:
The advantage is that I can put multiple bottles in the canister at the same time for an inside-only tumble.

That's interesting, how is that accomplished? Custom stopples?

Al

 

[FitSandTic]

Thanks guys for taking the time to help me. I have had guys tell me they had trouble cleaning square bottle and flasks. I have had great success in tumbling square bottles and I guess this is because my tumbler is rotating at slower speeds. I am able to tumble multiple bottles at once on the inside because I do not have to put them in a canister. Outside cleaning I can do one at a time on each tumbler.

 

[chosi]

That's interesting, how is that accomplished? Custom stopples?

No custom equipment needed.
I seal the stuff inside the bottles, then I roll the bottles up in a towel, and stuff the towel into a canister.

The trick is sealing the stuff inside the bottle. I deviate from the Jar Doctors instructions a little bit. He recommends duct tape, but here's what I do:
The small circular thing in the photo is a circle that was cut out of a plastic milk carton. I cut that to fit the size of the mouth of the bottle, and put it on top of the bottle mouth. Then I put plastic wrap on the bottle (folded in half, then folded in half again so it's quadroupled). I pull the plastic wrap tightly, and put at least 2 rubber bands around the neck of the bottle. This usually does a good job of keeping all the stuff inside the bottle during a few days of inside-only tumbling.

 

[chosi]

Here's a photo of what the mouth of the bottle looks like when the rubber bands are holding the plastic wrap on tightly.

 

[FitSandTic]

Hey guys I was able to go to my fathers and get some photos of the tumbler we use for larger bottles. If you look at the clear canister I have a bottle loaded in it. The reason I thought that it may add stress to the bottle on my tumbler by doing the inside and outside simultaneously is see how the bottle is suspended in the air, I fear that when I put shot in the bottle and lock it in when I start to put copper in the canister that that could put a lot of weight on the bottle. By the way I talked to my father about it tonight and he said he had done the inside and outside at the same time. He said he did have a problem of the water leaking out during the process because our tumbler uses different size dow rods to hold the bottle in place. As you can see my setup is a little different than you usually see. Epackage I hope maybe this can give you a little help on trying to build something for tumbling the insides of your bottles. If anyone would like to see some close up pictures of a certain part just let me know.