I just got a Lortone 3A tumbler a few days ago and I've been tumbling beads for about 24 hrs. now. I'll explain what I bought to go with the tumbler and how it's going so far, in case anyone else is interested in starting a foray into glass bead tumbling. I know I'm always looking for info, so I figure everyone else must be looking, too!
First of all, I purchased the Lortone 3A tumbler from Amazon, it was around $79 (free shipping with Prime).
It came from the manufacturer with a spare belt, which, if you've done any kind of research on small Lortone tumblers, the wearing out of belts seems to be a problem. This was validated to me when I found the spare belt in the bottom of the box! I had also purchased a set of 2 extra belts (which were $25.... ouch!).
I did some research here on LE as to which one to purchase and what to put it in to agitate and etch the beads, and decided on getting a pound of silicone carbide grit 1000 plus a bag of plastic pellets to act as the "carrier" to getting the grit to the glass. I guess that's what it means.
I was a bit skeptical as to how plastic pellets would be able to help achieve the etched look. Even though I understand they are merely a carrier medium to move the grit around, I just felt like there should be something else crunchy in there. I looked more online at some rock tumbling websites and came up with this stuff:
I placed an order for a pound of it from
The Rock Shed after I sent them an email and customer service agreed that this type of medium would work great. It's called "Small Ceramic" medium and it arrived this afternoon. It's hard and about the size of dog food kibble.
Yesterday morning I filled the Lortone tumbler barrel up to 3/4 with beads and water, put in about a cup of plastic pellets, a tablespoon of grit, a squirt of liquid dishwashing detergent and turned it on all day. At 10pm I opened it up and checked the beads (because I'm sooooo nosy! I had to know what was going on in there!) The beads were mildly etched, but not enough so that they looked like the lovely, smooth matte that I obtain with Etch All. I popped the lid back closed and kept the tumbler turned off for the night.
This morning I plugged it back in and let it run all day, from 6:45am to now (4:45pm). The ceramic kibblets arrived in the mail this afternoon, so I decided to unplug the tumbler and change the carrier medium from plastic pellets to ceramic pellets. I used a fine holed kitchen colander to strain everything, and boy, was it disgusting in there! Lots of soapy grit. And the plastic pellets were a nightmare! They floated up and over the top of the strainer and went down the garbage disposal, which now grinds and gurgles in protest.
The beads were more etched than last night but still had tiny areas of glossy on them. After harvesting all the plastic pellets and throwing them out, I refilled the tumbler but put in about 1/2 of a cup of the ceramic pellets instead, along with beads, water, grit and soap. It's tumbling in the bathroom right now, and I'm planning on checking it later.
That's all I have for now, but I'll pop back in to update this post after I open the tumbler again tonight or tomorrow.