token cleaning

[bf_of_pf]

How many were you able to clean at one time?

I just spoke with the nice, friendly folks who sell the Bulldog vibratory cleaner. They estimated that the capacity, on average, for cleaning/polishing tokens would be about 75 +/-. Unfortunately, that's a little too few for what we're looking for. On the other hand, I tried the CLR method ($5.50's worth - 28 oz - did over 5k tokens) & was very satisfied with the results. The ones that weren't trash to begin with came out nice and shiny. (I tossed the ones that looked crappy) I made sure to rinse and dry them very well, and had no problem at all speed loading them afterwards. (I did cheat a little bit with the CLR; I reused the same solution for a couple of batches of tokens. I did one load (about 2,500 tokens) in a big 5 gallon bucket, about 50/50 CLR to hot water, wore those green/blue anti-hazard gloves, stirred the tokens around in the bottom of the bucket for a couple of minutes, then grabbed handfuls and put them in a strainer sort of thing we got at Target that holds almost 4k tokens and has holes on the sides to let the water drain out, until I'd gotten them all out of the bucket, then I loaded in another 2,500 and "wash/rinse/repeat". I'm very satisfied with the results. MUCH better than doing each one individually with Noxon and a green scrubby pad, to be sure.

[slotter]

That's a very similar CLR cleaning method I used to clean my 8000 or so tokens. As mentioned way back in this thread, the only additional thing I did was put the thoroughly-rinsed-with-hot-water tokens in a large cotton terry towel and shook the heck out of them. Found that not only did this dry them, but it ended up shining them from all the rubbing together.

[bf_of_pf]

That's a very similar CLR cleaning method I used to clean my 8000 or so tokens. The only additional thing I did was put the thoroughly-rinsed-with-hot-water tokens in a large cotton terry towel and shook the heck out of them. Found that not only did this dry them, but it ended up shining them from all the rubbing together.

That's how I dried them for the final dry. It was hard to tell how much it shined them, but before the towel they were a little tacky; and afterwards, very smooth.

[websherpa]

I also CLR'd mine, towelled them and then threw them in a warm oven just to make sure they were toasty enough to evaporate any last water drops that the towels didn't catch.

[bf_of_pf]

I also CLR'd mine, towelled them and then threw them in a warm oven just to make sure they were toasty enough to evaporate any last water drops that the towels didn't catch.

Well...I CLR'd mine, towelled them off, threw them into a warm oven just to make sure they were nice and toasty, then I towelled them again just to get them extra shiny.

(Not).

[websherpa]

You forgot to mention the shiny satin pillow that they must sit on before while they're waiting to play with the nice pachi machines.

[slotter]

You forgot to mention the shiny satin pillow that they must sit on before while they're waiting to play with the nice pachi machines.

[bf_of_pf]

You forgot to mention the shiny satin pillow that they must sit on before while they're waiting to play with the nice pachi machines.

(You want everybody to know all the best kept secrets?)

[arbycoffee]

I use a old rock tumbler and peacan Shells, works great for me, and it covers tokens or Balls

[bf_of_pf]

I use a old rock tumbler and peacan Shells, works great for me, and it covers tokens or Balls

How many tokens can you do at a time with the rock tumbler?

[arbycoffee]

depends on the size of your tumbler, I use the 4th rule 1/2 tokens and 1/4 shells and 1/4 open space. mix for three to five hours

[bf_of_pf]

Ok. What size is your tumbler, and how many tokens do you fit into your tumbler, using the 4th rule?

[arbycoffee]

one is gallon size about 750 tokens to 1000 tokens depending on 25 or 30 mm size

[arbycoffee]

I got a ballel tumbler it would do about 10,000 tokens at a time

[bf_of_pf]

I got a ballel tumbler it would do about 10,000 tokens at a time

That's a lot of tokens at one time. How often do you use it?

[fronzdan]

I use a small 3lb rock tumbler with Lyman's corn cob media (for polishing ammo brass). Using that same rotary tumbler rule more or less, I can do about 100 at a time....not that much, but we already had the tumbler. The media, which is treated and green comes out BLACK from all the oxidation and crud removed from the tokens. The tokens themselves need a good rinsing to get the powdery residue off, but come out very bright and shiny. I let em tumble for several hours, usually overnight because most of my token designs have a lot of detail to them and take a little longer.

The only thing is, the smooth surface ones don't come out like mirrors. Maybe the corn cob is too coarse? You can see little fine scratches. I may try the pre-polish media (done wet) used for actual rock tumbling on a few tokens to see how that works.

[bf_of_pf]

Will this stuff work in either a vibratory or rock tumbler unit? It's bird litter, and it says it's made from crushed walnut shells.

http://www.esuweb.com/products/854Bi...NUT_SHELL).htm

[arbycoffee]

Looks to fine to work good, but give it a try ?

[bf_of_pf]

Looks to fine to work good, but give it a try ?

I thought maybe since fronzdan was getting scratches on some of his tokens this might work better. Harbor Freight offers two crushed walnut grades that are supposed to be used with their abrasive blasters:

a 12 grit coarse:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92150

and a 24 grit fine:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92155

Do either of these look better? Whichever one is better suited for the job will be the one we get. We can pick up either of the above 2 items tomorrow when we go to pick up the tumbler.

[arbycoffee]

I went back and looked at mine, the ganuals are about 1/8 dia. which every is closeist would be best.