!jewelry comes out sticky & yellowish

by Lor Demis
(Archdale NC)

I have used the Lortone tumbler for a year or so (a friend's) I bought the Harbor Frieght one this year. And when I use it my jewelry comes out yellowish and slightly sticky.!! None of my rep friends have had this problem. And HF said they have never heard of this either....but my be defective barrels. But I must have a receipt in order to get 2 more replacements. Is there anything I can do to the barrels to fix this problem? HELP! I need to clean my jewelry!!:)
Thank u

Stacy's Answer:

Hi Lor!

Yellow and sticky? What a pain! I'm not surprised the folks at HF claim not to be familiar with your problem. Those tumblers are sold for tumbling rocks - which of course is what most if not all rotary-style tumbler's were designed to do. We've "re-purposed" them for polishing metal!

From all the personal accounts folks have shared with me and from what I've experienced a few times myself, sadly, the rubber used in the HF tumblers seems to vary in quality. I don't think your barrels are fixable. If you have been unable to obtain quality rubber barrels from HF, and you've consistently gotten good results with the Lortone, then I would think you need to purchase yourself a Lortone or at least get yourself a Lortone barrel that is compatible with your HF.

I have a few Lortone tumblers and haven't had any "leechy rubber" problems with any of them.

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