r/RockTumbling

My very first supply order from Rock Shed included some Mexican Lace that I wasn’t super enthused about. Their website says they’ve restocked with higher quality material, so I ordered 5 lbs of small to use as barrel filler. It arrived today and I must say I’m very pleased. I know from using their extra small mix as filler/cushion that the tiny lace pieces come out really well. They clean up well and don’t even have to be super smooth, as long as you’re happy with lots of character and bumpy botryoidal bits.

Some of my faves from this new supply. If this is an example of their larger pieces, I’d grab some as there is some great color and pattern here.

And based on that, how many miles per gallon would the truck be getting?

Spotted on the I5 in Washington State.

Leopard skin jasper and flower peach agate.

The colors are so vibrant in this batch! I love a good ol bag of random mixed stones. They spent 16 days in stage 1 and I am determining keeping them in stage 1 as a few are still quite rough, or moving onto stage 2 as they already look great. Either way this hobby is so much fun!

I did my due diligence and read reviews for an excellent, quiet rock tumbler. I don’t know if marketing AI sent the numerous positive reviews for “Gem Forge” my way, but I read it was wonderful. $169. Quiet, new technology. I was in hook, line, and sinker. After almost 2 months, the “Gem Forge” was to arrive today. I left work a little early because I was excited. Only to come home to this little kid’s toy. I was so disappointed. Should have read the information here first. Going to look at the recommendations now here and start over. The local Harbor Freight is sold out. Even the “rocks” that came with the set were disappointing and fake. I was not going to use those, as I have decades of hand picked stones to tumble. Anyway, I plugged this little thing in and stuck a bunch of lake Mi and Lake Superior pebbles insides and we will see what happens, but this is not what I was hoping for……

Cat

This rock has been puzzling me for months - found in my backyard landscaping rock. It looks like a quartz, but all the dimples and textures have me puzzled.

I don't have a lapidary saw -- is there any way to determine if it's an agate? Should I try and tumble it? There's no way it would ever get fully smooth but I'm so curious what's going on in there.

Thanks for your insights/feedback!! I've learned a lot from this sub -- appreciate you all!

I am utterly shocked they shined up. I told my wife every stage, “I’ll be shocked if these get shiny.” Consider me electrified.

Been tumbling for about 3 weeks. Still looking a little rough so back into stage 1 it is.

Should the obvious quartz ones be separated after stage of this lot?

And that speckled rock, should that go with the stones or quartz moving on?

Before you say, "Nuh uh! that's not new"! It most certainly is! Harbor Freight does already have a four pack of grits they offer for rocks but it's by Thumler's Tumblers, not Central Machinery.

I wonder if they're really taking notice in how popular their dual drum rotary tumblers are and might possibly be expanding the rock tumbling line. Maybe a cheaper vibratory model or two?

Heck with all the (already present) flaws, look at that shine! These are bone dry! There were also a few different not-already-fissured stones in there too, they came out just as shiny and undamaged, so I'm concluding that this is as good as my material can get. This was in a UV-45, run about 3 days each steps 2, 3, and 4