Anyone here do any Rock Tumbling & Polishing?

I have been thinking about getting a Rock Tumbler for quite some time now.
I collect a good bit of rocks, they are my suvinear that I take from many places that I visit.

Can any of you give me any input on this?
Tips & tricks, does & donts.

I am thinking about getting this Tumbler.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6054335009&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

~John

I have heard that you can use a case tumbler, the ones used for reloading. Alot cheaper. Just here say and not from experience.

jtice said:

I have been thinking about getting a Rock Tumbler for quite some time now.
I collect a good bit of rocks, they are my suvinear that I take from many places that I visit.

Can any of you give me any input on this?
Tips & tricks, does & donts.

I am thinking about getting this Tumbler.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6054335009&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

~John

Click to expand...

That is a very good unit. I do the same thing as you. I always manage to get something nice from wherever I travel. My employees have been bringing me rocks back from their vacations as well. I have stuff from all over the world thanks to them. China, Bulgaria, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Mexico, Laos, Syria, Iraq. I bought my grandaughter that same model a few years ago and she uses it a lot.

I have collected some pretty good crystals and minerals, not to mention a few important fossils over the years.

it sounds like fun to me having beautiful stones...

Do yourself a favour and get one made by Lortone Inc. They make the barrel out of heavy rubber so it is MUCH quieter during operation and more importantly seals watertight eliminating any leaks. Mine is several years old and still works like new and I tumble over 20,000 stones per year. Fifteen lb capacity is a commercial size which seems a bit large for polishing personal souvenir stones, a 5 lb capacity should suit your needs nicely and cost a lot less. These guys are the Surefire of rock tumblers. Here's the addy
http://www.lortone.com/

I have heard of that brand before also I think,

I want a large one, I plan to do alot of rocks, and at least, alot at one time.
The two barrel ones look kinda nice cuz I could do two stages, but doing so many at once, I should be albe to just run a large batch through it twice for the two stages.

~John

My best advice is to go to your local rockhound shop and talk to the pro's. You're going to go there anyway to get your different grits of tumbling media, so you may as well pick their brains about the tumbling equipment. They also handle any warranty claims on the equipment they sell.

I've done it 1-2 times - buit not in a "normal" rock tumbler OR a "Normal" vibratory polisher made for ammo cases - I have a "wet" vibratory polisher, and the proper media for it (I also have the "dry" bowl - Wet, flowthrough polshing works MUCH faster (removes the debris) and vibratory is always faster than tumble

Look into "Mass finishing"

I would imagine that the vibratory ones are faster,
but can they evenly do larger rocks? I might do up to baseball size alot.

Someone mentioned that the grit and solution could sink to the bottom.

I am trying to decide between a Tumble, or Vibratory Unit.

~John

jtice said:

I would imagine that the vibratory ones are faster,
but can they evenly do larger rocks? I might do up to baseball size alot.
...snip...

Click to expand...

John,
Depends on the size of the tumbler/vibrator

here is a fairly "small" one

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sweco-Vibro-Fin...ryZ92150QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/NICE-VIBETECH-V...ryZ25279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(no relation at all - just came up on a search)

I bought a cheap kit from edmunds scientific. It rolled for several weeks. Last step with the soap it leaked. That was rather noisy and I kept it under a large bucket to muffle the noise.

I dont recall the brand, but my geology class had a double barrow polisher and some diamond blade thing to cut rocks.

Holy Crap KC2IXE !

You are looking at WAY more expensive ones they I am willing to purchase.
I'm talking under $200.

I realize that isnt going to get me an actual industrial one,
but I just cant justify that much $$$ tied up in it.

I was looking at these.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6624968951&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Top one here.
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=16&min=0&dyn=1&

~John

jtice said:

I have been thinking about getting a Rock Tumbler for quite some time now.
I collect a good bit of rocks, they are my suvinear that I take from many places that I visit.

Can any of you give me any input on this?
Tips & tricks, does & donts.

I am thinking about getting this Tumbler.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6054335009&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

~John

Click to expand...

Get several sizes. It is a pain in the wallet to fill a large barrel with media if you only want to tumble a few rocks.

You should also realize that while it is tumbling you can't do anything else with the barrel. Between jewelry and rocks I never seem to catch up...

I have three lortone's 2 - 33B and a QT66 used mainly for rough work. I also use a 12 lb barrel with the QT66 for really big (slow) jobs...

jtice said:

Holy Crap KC2IXE !

You are looking at WAY more expensive ones they I am willing to purchase.
I'm talking under $200.

I realize that isnt going to get me an actual industrial one,
but I just cant justify that much $$$ tied up in it.

I was looking at these.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6624968951&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Top one here.
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=16&min=0&dyn=1&

~John

Click to expand...

OK - The Dillion is NOT going to do baseball sized - neither is the other one - thich is basically the setup I have, but with a flow through bowl - baseball sized means BIG, they need room to circulate, and you need HP - now, if you were saying golfball, I'd say "Yeah, probably"

After looking at things more,
I realize I wont be able to do baseball sized rocks,
and I wont be able to afford one that can.

I emailed Dillion with a few questions,
a main one being, if it can do wet solutions also.

I also want to be able to use it for polishing and deburring of AL parts.
and maybe removing rust from other small steel parts.
Thats why I think a Vibratory will be better for me than the barrel setups.

~John

Tumbling rocks is a lot more trouble than one would think. Vibratory is much faster, rotary GENERALLY produces a better finish.

First tip: Learn a little about mineralogy. Sort your rocks acording to hardness (Mohs). For best results all the rocks in one batch should be the same hardness. You can get away with maybe 1/2 step hardness, but try to get them all the same.

Rough and medium grinding is a piece of cake. Fine grinding not too bad. What most people have trouble with is getting a good pre-polish; a really mirror-like final polish is a very difficult thing to achieve without a lot of experience (and luck).

If you are pretty handy, you can build your own tumbler out of mostly scrap parts:

Use a used tire for your barrel, a scrap washing machine or swamp cooler motor will provide rotational power. You can build a frame out of scrap wood, but metal tubing would be better. You CAN do baseball (hardball, not softball) sized stones in a setup like this if you get a pretty big tire from heavy equipment or a Semi.

I cut stones for a (part-time) living for a couple of years: I used to facet but never really made any serous money at that. With the right material and marketing it is possible to make good money at cutting precious, semi-precious and even just ornamental stone 'en cabochon'.

Never liked tumbling but I eventually sold a few batches of tumbled stones that I (and my partners) mined myself and tumbled in a home built tire tumbler. But it wasn't worth the effort and irritation.

I reckon that more people give up rock tumbling after the first try than any other hobby. I bet I have known personally a couple of hundred people that spent good money on tumbling equipment and supplies, used them once then stuck away in the garage or sold at a yard sale.

If I haven't managed to discourage you completely, let me know and I'll try harder. Failing that, if you really want to do it, let me know and I'll try to actually help.

lol, wow, ah,,, thanks? :thinking:

I realize that getting the very smooth polished finish is probably very hard, and might take over a month just for one batch.
I have thought about getting little "toy" tumblers before, and then started thinking of things I could use the vibratory tumbler for. Taking rust off parts, deburring, giving a bead blasted or brushed look to AL parts, polishing AL parts, etc.

But I am finding that these things can get very expensive. Especially for one that can also do wet tumbling. Which I would need for rocks.
I still dont know if I can justify almost $200 for one.

I have also thought about making my own rotary rock tumbler.
I saw a couple home made ones on the net, and it looks really simple.
The hardest part for me, would be finding the bearing asemblies cheap.
And the rolls to fit them. I could simply put some heat shrink tubing on the metal rod rollers though.

Then theres the matter of sealing the tire.
I suppose just some plywood cut in a circle, and a bolt through the middle might work. Then clamp that onto the tire.

I think I already have a motor, and variable 120V power supply.

~John