tumbling questions

[probe zilla]

i'm going to attempt my first tumble of pontil bottle, ive had my tumbler for little over a year and have had no problem om newer bottles. the bottle i'm going to tumble is a green, dug dr. towsends my first question , the bottle is in dug condition, it is in really good shape, it only has a few light scratches, and normal ware on base where the corners support the bottle should i try to use cutter and get rid of the scratches. or just polish
2nd i want to try and preserve the crudness of the pontil what can i use to cover it during tumbling.
and finally what type of polish should i use i have i have all three polishes but i have never used cerrium [8|]

 

[stinger haut]

If you have just a few shallow surface scratches, I would skip the use of a cutting oxide and go straight to polish. Townsends are squares and squares take a little longer than an oval or round bottle to tumble. Keep your RPMs down on square shaped bottles, I run mine from about 20 to 30 RPMs max. I take it your pontil is a type of iron, sticky ball, etc type? Is there iron or residue left on it? To be safe about protecting your pontil, there many methods that you can use to protect them. I personally use clear nail polish (applyng many layers of polish) and a small rubber ball that rests on the bottom stopple and fits into the pontil. There are other methods for protecting your pontil. When the bottle is finished, I soak it in acetone and the nail polish comes right off. I use aluminum polish on my green bottles.
Stinger Haut

 

[probe zilla]

[][] i followed your advice stinger, i put 4 or 5 coats of clear nail polish on pontil, i used a raquet ball to cover it, my only concern is making sure the bottle is tight in the stopple the raquet ball made it difficult , so i poked a hole in the raquet ball but how do you hold pressure on bottle while putting in copper outside of bottle, after a few choice words i decided to try a different approach so i put both stopples on the i turned the cannister upside down and pulled the stopple witk fingers off, then i added copper water and polish, this is backwards from my usual approach, seemed to work well because i could put enough pressure on finger stopple so that the ball was not in the way of getting a snug fit, but i'm kind of nervous about this approach, i used a flash light and could see that stopple was placed correctly, if the bottle is lose is there any different noise or such i would be able to hear or see?

 

[stinger haut]

If the botttle gets loose, you'll definitely hear a banging noise instead of the swooshing sound of the copper flowing over your bottle. If you hear anything odd, stop the machine and check it immediately.
The rubber ball should be just big enough to find into the bottom stopple and inside the pontil area of the bottle. I use different size balls for the dfferent sizes of bottles. If the ball raises your bottle inside the canister then its too big to use.
What are your RPM's running at? 30 RPMs should be your maxium for a large square Townsend.
That is interesting how you loaded the bottle into the canister, but if its centered and tight it should work.
Stinger Haut