r/RockTumbling

Here is a before and after! I tumbled it first, but then decided to experiment. Any tips for beginners?

Hello, this is the lovely moonstone we find here in central WI. If anyone is nearby the landowners have secured the proper permitting to offer "fee digs" on their land. Apparently listing prices flags it as a sales post. I am not the landowner or affiliated with them in any way! I usually leave with around 100 lbs. Easy collecting off the surface but you can dig holes as well.

It's very brittle material. I always run everything through at least stage 1 to let it break up naturally and show the shine. I mostly make cabochons but this load went all the way in a rotary tumbler (qt12). It is a trickier stone to tumble as grit tends to get stuck in the cleavage points and its prone to bruising. But it's a very unique "blue flash" true moonstone (orthoclase feldspar). One of the only known locations worldwide that produces blue flash k-feldspar!

Something I’ve always wanted to find has been an amethyst/carnelian agate. This past September in the EUP I finally found one. Though inverted from what I was looking for…ideally a carnelian outside with amethyst center, I’ll take this amethyst exterior with a carnelian center!

(Pictures don’t quite do it justice though as the purple of the amethyst doesn’t quite show up right.)

Mostly diorite I believe. Has some granite and gabbro mixed in.

6lbs of “Large Mixed Rock”
Purchased from The Rock Shed:

Stage 1 #80 Grit - 15 Days
Stage 2 #220 Grit - 10 Days
Stage 3 #600 Grit - 7 Days
Stage 4 / 22K Micro Alumina - 8 Days
Burnish (Borax/Ivory Flakes) - 5 Hours

Just wanted to thank this group! This is something I’ve always been interested in but never knew where/how to start. I read through a lot of posts. As many of you suggested, I watched a TON of Michigan Rocks on YouTube. I ended up getting the Lortone 33B and couldn’t be happier. It’s quiet enough to run in my house and I love having 2 barrels.

I’m really excited to tumble all the rocks I picked up when I went back home and drove half of the Lake Superior loop. This first batch is a random bag of rocks I got from the Rock Shed to test my setup.

Stage 1, week 1. All went back in (except the last one because the shape was funny, and I didn’t want it to break)

Collected in Utah. Pictured as collected in the third photo, after a rinse. First two photos are after a week of stage 1, pictured wet. Some quartzite pebbles are also included. Zoom in for detail.

Help! I was tumbling indigo gabbro for the first time, lots of cushion etc and it was going great until the polish load.😬 They totally undercut and are less smooth than before the polish! So frustrating. Any advice is appreciated!