I started detecting back in 2008, in January of this year I borrowed a friends Lortone one canister (3lb) rock tumbler. That along with some stones and cleaning power, and about 3-4 weeks on and off again tumbling had all my nickles, dimes, and quarters as clean as can be. I had a small back left over that no matter the tumbling the coinstar wouldn't take.
I decided I was going to wait for the end of year sales and pick up a tumbler myself. Doing some research I decided I wanted to try a Thumbler over a Lortone. From what I read, the tops pop on and off a bit easier. Also, seems like the friction that spins the cylinder will last longer/work better with the Thumbler design.
Initially, I was leaning towards getting a two 3-lb cylinder model to save some time. Generally speaking I would tumble about 1 hour at a time, check results, pull out cleaned ones, and tumble some more. It was a pretty lengthy process so I figured two is better than one.
However, one thing I feel is a flaw for lack of a better word, in both the Lortone and Thumbler 3lb cylinders is that they are smooth/round in side. What I found to happen many times is that coins would stick together and not get cleaned at all. My opinion is that the tumbling action was too smooth and didn't turn the coins around.
So, it's a little bit more money, but Thumbler has the A-R12 model, which has a hexagon style cylinder. This seems like it would agitate the coins more and get them to separate better while tumbling.
Has anyone tried this? Is my opinion/theory valid? Or could the hexagon style actually end up tumbling the coins in a bad way?
Any thoughts, opinions, experiences would be greatly appreciated.
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