r/RockTumbling

Another fun tumble from the Rock Shed. These have been in stage 1 for 14 days, probably have another 14 days before moving on to stage 2, but they are looking fantastic so far. Absolutely love the color combinations going on.

Begginer here. I've had these going for 6 weeks using stage 1 grit and they're barely shaping... I know this batch is incredibly hard, but I'd still expect more progress by now. Even in my tiny Nat Geo kids tumbler. Is there anything I can do to speed it up? Or maybe something I'm doing wrong? The rocks fill the drum halfway and I've cleaned the drum and added new Grit every 2 weeks. Water filled just to the top of the rocks. Any advice would be awesome!

Some pics of them wet and dry and a couple before pics at the end

They aren’t perfect, there are some cracks and crevices I didn’t tumble out. A few didn’t take a shine as well as others but I really like this batch!!

I got a tumbler at the start of this year and knew it was gonna be pretty loud. But oh boy is this thing a constantly running engine. I purchased a tumble bee which I learned after is slightly louder than other tumblers. So I went down the sound proofing journey.

I first started with cheap amazon foam pads but it was too thin. Next thing I did was put the tumbler in the smallest cabinet I had which led to the entire cabinet feeling dangerously hot within a few hours. This did block the sound better though but I didn't want any fires. During this time I placed the tumbler on a few wash rags and a metal pan to keep it flat which did well to reduce vibrations.

So I moved it under the sink. This larger space did a lot better with heat. I decided this would be the permanent space for it. I searched around and decided to buy some butyl car deadening mats which I measured wrong a didn't buy nearly enough. Mostly because the right amount would be over one hundred. Using double sided tape and cardboard I did my best to put the foam pads and butyl rubber all around the space. I even found an extra piece of wood in one of the cabinets. All of this and the sound was still very loud. Too loud for me to comfortably relax with no sound but quieter than my AC unit.

After more and more searching I was left with two options buy an entire roll of mass loaded vinyl for hundreds of dollars or buy an entire pack of rockwool when I would only needed a few pieces. I went with rockwool and shoved it into every crevice along with one large piece to cover the door. This did the trick and the sound was significantly less. It was now around the same sound as my fridge. This wasn't enough for me though as the tumble bee has whining noise as it vibrated against the ground. I used a bunch of cardboard which worked very well but I knew I had a better option. I had some horse mats I bought years ago stored at my parents so I cut and used that. This stopped the whining noise. The noise levels are now around 39dbs which I've been happy with. I placed a thermometer inside and the temperature reached 90°f which I'm fine with. Now I only hear the deep sound of rocks tumbling but I'm happier with it.

My brother gave me 3kg of left over pieces from his lapidary work. I'm going to tumble them.

I was cleaning my grandmother's garage and came across this, I was ecstatic because i have been a rock hound for years and always wanted to get into tumbling. But...I can't seem to find much if any info on it. I plugged it in and it does work, my grandmother said it belonged to her mother who bought it new in South Texas many years ago. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Looking for any tips/links/hacks for those who run a Highland Park 6in trim saw.

Also a couple specific questions:

-What do people run for oil, and are there brick and mortar locations to pick up a gallon? I’d rather not have to pay to have it shipped, but not much in the way of lapidary suppliers near me (I’m in Vermont).

-Related, is oil the better option over just water? I’LL be using it to pre-shape rocks for tumbling, mostly agates and jaspers.

-Any additional splash guard solutions folks have made? It seems fairly contained with the blade guard and the plexiglass splash shield, but looking for any other tips on minimizing mess.

-Has anyone set up a fence to ensure straight (or at least more straight) cuts? I know they offer one for the 10in saw, but I didn’t see anything for the 6in.