Hi so title.
Also I read that they get smaller every stage and I like this size so I was wondering if I could just hand polish them from here?
Edit: 2ish days on a Nat Geo tumbler. I watched Michigan Rocks to get it working right.
This is a mix three different sizes from Gem Center USA: .5-1” / 1-1.5” / 1.5-2”
I tried an extreme regime of stages, without a crazy improvement. Results are fine, but not EXTRA FINE, and that’s what I was hoping for.
Rotary QT-66:
Vibe- 2 barrels of MT-10, intermingled at each stage grit change:
Step 8 was a surprise. My first time using Raybrite A from Kingsley North, .5 Micron approx 60,000 grit. It was a downgrade from the 22,000 Micro Alumina. I was expecting little black mirrors, but the surface had a very fine haze. I thought I might have contaminated the mix, but this was spread across two different barrels. I returned to what worked on previous batches: standard grade (not optical) Cerium Oxide. I believe that polish is about 3 micron, more “coarse” than the 22,000 Micro Alumina, but it seems to produce a better polish on obsidian. My understanding is that CO generates a chemical reaction producing heat that results in a finer polish.
I don't know specifics but my husband wanted to reclaim part of his shop. He built this to consolidate my rock tumbling and I love it!
Bahia agates that I started on April 19, just finished today. They were freshly scrubbed and wet in the first pic, and I tried to put them in the same positions in the second. A couple are MIA, I think they're in barrels that'll be finished later this week. Super pleased with the transformation in these!
And a bonus pic of my other new obsession, itty bitty carnelian nodules. I didn't take a pic of those rough but I love them!
My husband and I went to Petosky a month ago. We are new to hounding and tumbling. We didn’t see any obvious rocks. Another couple pointed out a few that had potential. When we got home we cut them open and found that one indeed looked like a Petosky.
I tumbled 1/2 in my tumbler through all the stages including 22000 micro alumina. The other I have begun handing polishing the other half. I wanted to see the difference in the results. I posted photos, one with them dry and one wet.
First, I was shocked at how much was lost in the first stage of tumbling. The two rocks in the photo are the two halves. Is that normal?
Second, the tumbled rock has gone through the entire process including 22000h grit micro alumina. It doesn’t look much better than the half I started hand polishing. Why?
I’m nervous now that I might ruin both halves.
All 5 barrels are going for another round of stage 1, plus a scoop of stage 2 grit since I ran out of stage 1 grit. Bonus pic of the froth from the Mexican Lace Agate, plus a surprise at the end 😋
What can I use if I’m out of all my grit 🥲
I’m tumbling amethyst
When the Harbor Frieght coupon was around in February, I got two. I accidentally let my inner child be in charge of the new tumbling hobby, so instead of starting with the HF machines and seeing if I even stuck with tumbling, I also had a Lortone 3A, and two different versions of NatGeo machine when I started. (I've since added a Lortone 33B and an older, high-speed model Rebel 17 that I refurbed the rollers on. 😅)
The point is, I've been using multiple brands of tumblers for about five months now, and I feel like I've done a pretty good job of figuring out how they work, and keeping them in good working order.... except my third HF machine just died. Yes, you read that correctly. I bought two, and my third just died, because I'd already replaced one within the 90-day regular warranty. I'm going to have to take it in for an extended warranty replacement tomorrow, and I would really like to understand if there's something different I can do with the new one to help it live better. I apply a drop of 3-in-1 oil to each end of the roller bars each week, but is there other maintenance I need to do? Or some other trick to keeping them happy?
Of the first two machines I got:
- One seemed to be "good to go" immediately, and ran without any apparent issues until it started making a bit of noise after approx 4 months of continuous running. I planned to replace the belt a couple of days later (waiting for weekend) because it was still rolling normally just making a little higher noise.... and then the next day the motor seized and got scary hot. That was about two weeks ago, so this machine definitely lasted the longest.
- The other original machine was NEVER right, even straight out of the box. The big pulley wheel was warped in a way that could only be improved, not fixed. That meant the machine was constantly putting some sideways pressure on the belt and chewing the belt up. But it did run, and I had a lot of rocks I wanted to tumble. So I decided that it would be good for me to learn to maintain the machines, and instead of taking this one back for an exchange immediately, I'd keep it alive as long as I could. I made it around 9 weeks, with my last belt surviving almost 4 weeks after multiple adjustments to the big pulley wheel position. (Still a bit impressed with myself!) The last belt that died, died in a weird way and melted bits to the pulleys, so they just replaced the whole device for me.
Which brings me to today. Now, the replacement I got on May 9 suddenly appears to have developed a catch in the motor. It's not fully seized, but I'm not going to run it because I believe it will, and I don't want to risk another scary heating moment. But I don't really understand what happened with it.
It sounded a little labored when I turned it off earlier today to recharge the barrels, but had been running okay otherwise. I turned it off to recharge the barrels, set them back on the bars, and nothing happened when I turned it back on. I tried helping the barrels go, thinking tomorrow I would check/change the belt, if maybe it was slipping a bit. Nothing. So I tried rolling the drive bar by hand, and it felt stuck. I figured the belt must have died (though that shouldn't freeze the bar, I know. it was wishful thinking), and bummer but I needed to change it tonight. But after I unplugged it and opened up the covers, I saw the belt looked fine. I tried rolling the bar by hand again, and suddenly it moved easy. It would roll normally for a moment, and then seem to grab/seize, then after a rotation or two with lots of resistance, it would go smooth again. I changed the belt and adjusted the motor block position to see if the amount of tension on the belt made a difference, but it didn't seem to. No matter how much or how little tension was on the belt, the motor would turn smoothly for 10 or so rotations of the drive bar, then freeze up and have lots of resistance for 1-2 rotations. It seemed to be in the actual motor housing where the 'sticking' was happening, and I noticed there was a mahogany colored fine dust on the fan and on the front of the motor. It seems like something in there has been rubbing, perhaps.
So, my question is, are the Harbor Frieght machinesjust this unpredictably made? Or am I missing putting oil somewhere and killing them unknowingly? Am I doing or not doing something else that's causing them to croak? (Aside from the first lemon I got. It was definitely the machine manufacturing on that one.)
My Lortones, Rebel, and NatGeos have been rolling away. My Harbor Frieght machines have been passing away. Is it me?
I realized that I was quickly losing ground. I have 2 HF tumblers running and the un-tumbled rocks were just adding up too quickly. I had buckets of rocks that I wanted to tumble but it was taking me 2-4 weeks to rough them out in my 3# tumblers. With the help of Chat, I designed and built my own tumbler using 6" ABS pipe, some wheels from a portable shelving unit that I never needed and a motor I found the cheapest through Walmart online! I just finished my first 30# of rough tumble today with 80 grit and it only took 4 days! I unloaded it, rinsed them and now have them running with 220 grit. I will check back on Monday and I bet they are done. At this rate, I should go fro rough to polish in 2 weeks and these are a lot of agates and quartz. I couldn't be more pleased with the unit and it came in around $187. Granted I used a free 28" length and I lined it with some rubber underlayment from a job (to keep the sound down) and the wood I used for the base was scrap, I think you could have done it with buying everything online for under 200. This first batch started at 30# but doing the calculations, I think I could load in close to 50# and cut my time down from 6 to 8 weeks for 12# to 2 weeks and for 50#. It runs around 80 dbs where the HF runs around 77dbs.The middle picture shows the interior. I cut some 1 1/2" pvc pipe to use as someway to hold the rubber padding in and to roll the rocks a little better.
So I received a lortone 33b for Father’s Day. It was pretty cool at the beginning, researching and going through the steps, to ultimately attain my shiny rocks. My first batch was just a beginner bag the gemstone lab sent with the tumbler. I tried to ID some, pulling some of the softer stones, but it was pretty difficult to get them all sorted.
This was my 3 week check. I have been running 4tbsp of 60/90 silicon carbide grit, with 2 tsp of borax. Today, I finally was able to pull enough rocks to combine them from the previous week to start a stage 2 batch. I started that batch with the barrel about 50% full, then filled to 75% with ceramic media (a mix of large and small with more small). It has 4 TBSP of the 120/220 silicon carbide grit, with 1 tbsp of borax.
During the first week of tumbling, I found someone selling an 8” flat lap and another lortone 33b a few hours away. Both barely used for $350 total. I have since been using the flat lap and keeping the other two barrels running constantly. I have some questions about pulling rocks and the timing of stage 1 in particular.
It seems like some of my rocks went from almost ready for stage 2, to not even close, from week 2 to 3. Is that normal? I assume it is, because from using the flat lap I’ll work on crazy lace, have it almost how I want, then find a pit or something. I want to make sure I’m not overfilling the barrels or something and it’s somehow harder on the rocks. I definitely do not think I’m underfilling. It was difficult to tell the percentage of the barrel that was full, so I measured and marked the inside with a pen at 50% and 75%.
I also tried to take 1 lbs each of crazy lace, moss agate, and black obsidian for tumbling. I rounded all the edges off, to try and speed up stage 1. I put them into stage one, then in the barrel next to it, ran 3 lbs of the same mix, just straight rinsed from their bags. When I checked today, the ones I rounded seem to be larger in mass, like they lost less size, but they seem no further along than the ones rinsed straight from the bag.
I know it’s a hobby of patience but I feel like I will make progress, then lose progress one week after. Is that normal? If you get a rock that’s been tumbling a few weeks, you rinse them to change the grit, and it’s got big cracks and cleavage in it, do you just pull that one and toss it? Seems like it’d take forever to round it out, and potentially just break apart in the barrel.
Any guidance would be appreciated. Maybe I’m just being impatient, especially after using my flat lap and seeing I can run through 60>100>220>325>600>1200>3000 (haven’t done a polish yet on any stones, waiting for a large batch) grit wheels in a couple afternoons, and have a good pile of stones most whatever shape I want ready to be polished.
The pictures are of my first batch still in stage 1. I pulled a few of the stones out today, washed with soap and a toothbrush, and started the stage 2 barrel with ceramics. Many of the ones on the table, and all of the singles I’m holding, had to go back in for week 4 of stage 1.
Hi everyone,
This may not be the right place since I'm not actually tumbling rocks, but I'm hoping some of you might have experience with tumbling acrylic.
I laser cut small clear acrylic flame shapes, about 2–3 inches tall, from 1/4" cast acrylic. In the past, I've sandblasted them to achieve the uniform matte/frosted finish shown on the flame on the left in the photo. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to a sandblaster.
I'm wondering if a rotary rock tumbler or a vibratory tumbler with the right media could produce a similar frosted finish while allowing me to process larger batches at once. Has anyone tried tumbling acrylic parts like these? If so, what type of tumbler could you recommend. I batch produce maybe 50 parts at a time.
Any advice, recommendations, or things to avoid would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and rock on!
Some of those tinies i didn't know were agates before i threw em in.
Found some excellent rocks in Big Sur and looking. To start a new hobby that has been in the back of my mind for awhile. Please share best first pieces of equipment and must know bullet points to getting started. Thanks😁And when I say I’m new to rock tumbling I mean I collect so many rocks and they sit around. I didn’t know rock tumbling was even a thing until I watched shrinking.
This isnt the whole batch, i was taking too many pics 😅 recipe in comments
I bought a central machine dual drum tumbler from someone off fb marketplace and they came like this, I am wondering if anyone knows where I can get replacement parts for free or cheap? Thank you in advance for any assistance
We’ve been tumbling rocks for a couple of years now, we usually order from the rock shed and sometimes the gem shop. I’ve looked into rock and tumble and they’re very expensive. Does anyone have any cost effective places? We live in Florida, the land of sand lol, so rock hounding isn’t an option unfortunately. I appreciate your time and suggestions!