r/RockTumbling

Beautiful stone

So many good ones in this batch. Tons of agates, some agatized coral, some big pieces of pet wood, and lots of others as well. These are out of my Rebel 17.

These pieces of fluorite plus others have been thru stage 1 at 220 a week , thru stage 2 600 a week, stage 3 1500 and polish above a week. They still look the same.

Theyre selling it for 130 but its used fair condition

I went to my local library to print out a few paper and found these two beauties!! They almost don’t even need stage one! Can’t wait to see them tumbled

This batch started by cutting fractured faces on Harbor Freight tile saw, grinding them smooth(ish) on the edge of the blade, then tumbling in Thumler UV-18 vibratory tumbler:

120/220 grit - 36 hours
400 grit - 36 hours
800 grit - 2 days
1500 grit - 2 days
8000 grit - 2 days
22000 MA - 2 days

There are still minor cracks and fractures, but I like the resulting rounded facets. That UV-18 is FAST!!

I’ll post a before pic in the comments.

New to tumbling, I just got a new batch started and wanted to see if anyone has any pointers or can confirm this looks like I’m on the right path! This is my second batch of rocks I’ve ever done. The first batch turned out great and i am following the same process!

I start with everything wet but once it’s all in the pot I make sure there is no standing water on the bottom. I add 3-4 hefty tablespoons of grit with a dash of borax and then use a squirt bottle and spray a few times here or there until I notice it turn into a slurry. I wait for it all to mix in and I spray it little by little and get it to turn into a thick slurry and just check it a few times a day and keep up with it to maintain that consistency.

This is the 120/220 stage.

All self collected Arizona agates!

Raytech VT10 Vibe Tumbler

The last three pictures are of the rock dry. I’m just wondering if anyone has experience tumbling this type of rock/features. Honestly, I don’t find a lot of real banded agate. Mostly I find stuff similar to this(if I’m lucky)or fairly boring chalcedony/banded chert(I love banded chert). I LOVE the little orbicular and eye type patterns and lace like patterns of these though. I think I’m going to throw it in the next batch and cross my fingers. Any suggestions?

I found a bunch of colorful red and yellow jaspers up at Rocky Buttte, OR a few weeks ago, and two came out of first stage tumbling yesterday. After the tumble it opened up a whole new world in the rocks! Are these Jaspers-Agates? Jasper Moss Agates? Something else? I only have tumblers but would sure like to have a cabochon made out of that yellow one!

Really love being able to mix hobbies. Organized my rocks in a cabinet within plastic containers.

Put 3D printed labels on each container. Also printed 3D dividers where I can have up to 3 separate sections in each container.

Some of my favorite tumbles over the last year… 🪨 ⛏️

I had enough green rocks to do a batch. Some didn’t polish up great. I guess they were too porous. Most of them are so shiny!

Decent batch of polished mahoghany obsodian. Came out of the polisher a couple of hours ago and let sit to dry. Some of this is knapping waste, some are broken spear points that broke when my buddy was making them and most are picked up off the ground and brought home to polish.

I have no idea what it is, I just tumble beach stones.

I didn't realise it could take months to complete stages.

Just finished my first ever batch and I’m incredibly pleased with how these turned out. Thank you for all the excellent advice this sub provided. These are Desert Jasper I got from the Rock Shed but my second barrel of hounded quartz-like just started stage 2.