Random question: ROCK TUMBLERS?

So my daughter (a very bright and curious about to turn 4 year old) saw some rocks that had been polished in a rock tumbler. SHe wants one for her birthday.
My research shows that the process can take up to a month or more, and that the cheap "toy" ones will usually not last more than a few cycles.
Without going nuts on price, and having it stay SOMEWHAT kid-friendly (she will always be supervised), I'm looking for the fastest, quietest, "best" one for us to use together.
Looking to stay around $100.

Anyone happen to know anything about these things? I always prefer to come to my CPF bretheren as opposed to the nameless faceless Amazon reviewers who might be just as clueless as I am....


Many thanks!!!

The Thumbler's A-R1 is an EXCELLENT tumbler, but if you want your daughter to have a rewarding experience with really appreciable results, it's probably going to require some research. http://www.rocktumblinghobby.com/ is a great place to start. The Rock Shed ( http://www.therockshed.com/links.html ) is another good site with a great links page.

Like all hobbies, if you really plan to stick with it, you'll need to research, plan and purchase. If this is a trial basis, one of the 'toy' tumblers might not be a bad idea. On the flip side, if you want to start with quality, the Thumbler and Lortone tumblers fetch decent resell value if you don't stick with it. But you will still be buying the tumbling media, rocks, etc. To do tumbling 'right' is not a cheap hobby and there's always bigger and better things to buy...

How did I know that someone here would have a link to a place like that, along with fourms! Oh man, another rabbit hole. It is a trial basis to a degree. My daughter wants to polish her own stones after seeing some at a museam and the discussion starting up from there. I think I might start her with a "toy" and if she likes it, we can always upgrade. Do you have a recommendation on which of those "toy" ones are the best (least bad from what I can see).

Edit: Oh, and THANK YOU!!!

If you've got a Harbor Freight nearby they sell them as well. It'd be more durable and, more important, QUIETER than one of the toy ones. (That darn toy one we had was so loud you could hear it running in the garage through two doors.)

Oh, yeah, and check Craigslist. There always seems to be a few of them in my area.

There IS a harbor freight nearby...actually just bought some cheap (in price and quality) tools there.....hmmmmmm....perhaps a little trip is in order. Thanks again!!!!