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Anyone stack tumbler bowls like this that's had ill affects on tumbler. I've got my buffing bowl on bottom and polishing on top. I've had pretty good luck so far but have only been using it for about three weeks now- I'm not going to kill my tumbler am I?
I'm sorry about the pic size?!?
My experience with tumblers comes from rock tumbling. If that is what I think it is and has a plastic bowl some people tumbling rocks find the bowls wear out quickly. (My bowls are all rubber so I'm going on 2nd hand info.) Tumbling metal with steel or ceramic shot might not wear them out as quickly. Does running two bowls on one tumbler hurt it? It depends on how strong the motor is. Lots of companies make dual bowl vibes and the only difference is the addition of something to hold the second bowl on. Gyrock makes one that has a dual bowl option that consists of another bowl with a bungie strap to hold it on top of the first one. I know one genius that came up with a way to run 3 bowls on his and his old Gyrock is still chugging away without a problem. I attached a small skillet to mine to use as vibratory lap for small slabs of stone. I figured why waste all the energy put out by the tumbler so I put it to work. As long as the motor can stand it there shouldn't be a problem. If the motor sounds like it's really struggling or if it starts running unusually hot and starts to smell hot turn it off. You can always go back to running just one as long as no lasting damage has been done to the motor.
If you use the bowl for both rock and metal polishing be aware of one possible problem you can run into. The coarse grind stage for rock can scratch the inside of the bowl and then coarse bits of grit get stuck in them. These can turn loose when you try using the same bowl for metal polishing and they will scratch your metal. If you use your fine grind bowl to polish sharp metal that can scratch your bowl and then later when you use it for stone again the grit can form clumps in the scratches and turn into coarse grit that scratches your stones. If possible it's best to have a bowl dedicated for metal polishing alone. Write it on the outside of the bowl and store it away from your rock tumbling stuff. That way you get no nasty surprises and big disappointments.
Lori