When I was a kid, my brother ordered a kiddie rock tumbler out of a catalog. It had a plastic drum and a REALLY loud motor. It ran for over a week in the carport, making tons of noise and not doing the world's best job at polishing the rough stones. That experience more or less turned me off of the idea of using a tumbler in my jewelry making. I used to handpolish my pieces... until I took a class at the local bead store and saw what came out of the tumbler after only a few minutes. Tumbling not only polishes, but also work hardens and de-burs (smooths anything tiny and sharp) pieces with MUCH LESS effort than hand polishing.
After doing some research, I settled on a Lortone 3A. The motor is relatively quiet for the price and the rubber barrel helps greatly by muffling noise and also providing a soft surface that doesn't scratch the metal. The tumbler is rated to 3 pounds, which includes whatever you use to tumble/polish the stuff you add in. For fine silver, I use 2 pounds of steel shot. Then I add enough water to cover the shot plus about an inch or so higher, add a couple drops of Dawn detergent, the plop the pieces in. The Lortone has a 2 piece lid, and no on/off switch you you should seal up the barrel first, then plug it in. You don't want to run the motor with no load for extended periods of time. (That's actually worse for the motor than overloading the barrel.)
Most people tumble their pieces for 15-30 minutes. If all you need is a quick polish and work hardening of more delicate pieces, 15 minutes is usually sufficient. If your piece is larger or heavily hammered with sharp edges, then you want to let them tumble for 20-30 minutes.
For pieces with chains, you probably want to tumble them separately from other pieces... just to avoid tangling.
You can also use the tumbler to help get that contrast on textured/stamped pieces by oxidizing first, then tumbling...but you definitely don't want to "over tumble" in that case and remove too much of the oxidation. The resulting piece looks much more natural than smashing an indelible ink pen in the cracks and using a polishing cloth with some rubbing alcohol to remove the ink from the surface.
But, I digress. Here are some of the things I've tumbled recently. Oh, and before I forget, you should never dump the contents of the barrel directly down the drain. Always use a colander to catch the steel shot and jewelry... and I run the water through a coffee filter before I let it go down the sink to catch any slurry or other small chunks of metal. The steel shot and jewelry should be rinsed with fresh water to prevent a soapy film from drying on your pieces.
There are competing schools of thought on how to store your steel shot once you're done. The issue is preventing rust. So anyway, some folks think you should store your shot in a jar covered with water or oil to prevent exposure to oxygen (and therefore prevent oxidation). The other theory is that you dry your steel shot out really well and put it in a ziploc bag or other air tight container. I live in an extremely humid climate just minutes from the beach, and rust is an issue... but I strongly prefer the latter.
First of all, storing your steel shot in water will not really have the effect of preventing oxidation. Storing your shot in a lightweight oil would but then you have a gigantic mess when you take the shot out of the oil to tumble pieces. If you have your shot properly cleaned and dried prior to storage, you should be just fine. Rust will eventually take hold, particularly if you decide to use something like sand or other rough, abrasive material with the shot... but I think the shot will last longer if you limit exposure to moisture. (As opposed to oxygen... which is MUCH harder to control and present in tap water ANYWAY.)
And there you have it!
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