I recently bought a tumbler and Stainless steel shot and for whatever reason it is turning my sterling silver (as if I put it in liver of sulfer - I get gold/purples but never siliver)! I put water about 1/2 inch over my Stainless Steel shot and a drop of dawn soap. What can be the problem? Or is it just the operator (me)?

You are not using enough detergent (lubricant )... especially in a new tank.
The rubber liner inside your barrel is rubbing off onto your jewelry.

I haven't had this problem, but check out Urbanmaille's website. There is fairly involved discussion about tumblers and various problems people have had and how they solved them (or didn't).

http://news.urbanmaille.com/blog_comment.asp?bi=104&m=7&y=2007&d=1&s=&title=More+on+Tumbling#485

Is this John of Off The Beading Path? If so, HI! It's Isabella-I used to live up the street on 18th but have moved-anyway I won't go on until I know if you're you-[8D]

I thought I'd read that you had to clean your silver shot (and your tumbler) BEFORE you used it, eh? Perhaps, put the shot in the tumbler and add a certain amount of Dawn and run it for awhile, then, COMPLETELY rinse everything out?

ahhh...here it is: "...Run a new tumbler for a couple of hours with nothing but the shot, enough water to cover it and a couple of healthy squirts of Dawn the first time. Rinse the tumbler and shot well afterward, then you're ready to go..."

And, here's the link: http://urbanmaille.com/articles.asp?id=148

VERY informative for the peeps who are new to the art (including me!). Good luck, offbeadingpath! [swg]

elly

(p.s. - what would ya do without Bookmarks, eh? kewl beans...)

QUOTE: Originally posted by issarossi Is this John of Off The Beading Path? If so, HI! It's Isabella-I used to live up the street on 18th but have moved-anyway I won't go on until I know if you're you-[8D]

Sorry ... wrong John, issaross. I'm a life long resident of the 4-Corners area in the Southwest.

And yes, the tumbler's inside should be broken in with no jewelry and with a little extra detergent/burnishing compound to knock of some of the 'rough' off the rubber.
A "drop of Dawn" just isn't enough lubricant for any extended time, especially in a new drum.

I really don't understand why so many people use Dawn soap anyway.
Sure, it's easy to get and serves the purpose ... sort of ... but the standard of the industry Burnishing Compound is especially formulated to be a long lasting, non-foaming lubricant and polishing compound. You don't have to be stingy with it so there is less chance of under lubricating the load and end up with a blackened mess.

I don't understand using Dawn either...I understand Dawn is easy to obtain but, it takes forever to get the same results that burnishing compound gets in 15 minutes. Plus, I think Dawn is more expensive - I think a lot more expensive than burnishing compound. I bought my bottle of concentrated burnishing solution four or five years ago ($10), and still have a third of a bottle left. I always use burnishing compound, using it until the water is absolutely black and opaque and never had the residue deposited on my pieces (the dreaded black mess).