Finally Done!

The rocks are finally done. I have been working on these since January and they are finally done. If I had my old tumbler I would probably be working on these for another couple of months. It's probably a blessing that it broke. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Remember to click on the pictures to see them in full size and detail.

This one is probably my favorite one of the batch. Like most of them, I don't know what it is but I like it.

If you look closely at some of these you can see me reflected in them.

Pre-Polish

Here's a look at the rocks after the pre-polish stage. Now its off to polish for about 2 weeks.

Stage 3

I've gotten behind on my posts. Here are the rocks after the fine grit (500) stage. They are actually just finishing up the pre-polish stage tonight so hopefully I can get those pictures up a little faster.

What's in the other barrel?

As you can see, my tumbler has two barrels. The first barrel is currently running the rocks I've been documenting here on the blog in the fine grit stage, so what's the second barrel doing these days...Granite.

The near universal conclusion on the forum is that tumbling granite is usually not a good idea. Granite tends to be a bit on the soft side (although that can be compensated for) but the big problem with granite is that it is made of lots of flecks of different materials which are not always the same hardness or toughness. This means that when you tumble granite, it is really hard to get it smooth and round and to get it to take a polish. All that being said, granite is about the only remotely nice looking rock that seem to occur here naturally (meaning I can gather it for free) so I thought I'd give it a try anyway. Besides, it's like Strong Bad says, "when have I ever backed down from a bad idea." We'll see what happens.

Progress Report

Well, the rocks have now been in the medium stage (120/220 grit) and an overnight wash in borax. Here's how they're doing so far.

This was taken outside just before sunset so the angle of the light was too low. We took the next two inside.

I'm excited to see how these will turn out since they are already starting to take a shine. This level of shine is about the best you will probably get even after the polish stage if you follow the directions that come with a tumbler. This is why I'm really glad that I found the rock tumbling hobby forum. Now it's on to the fine stage (500 grit) for two more weeks.

Here's my two year old son getting pictures taken of his rocks. He loves to "help" me when I work on my rocks. I give him his own rocks now that he plays with while I play with mine. He loves rocks. We have a great time together.

Current Project Update

Finally ready to move on. As you know, I have been rough tumbling a few pounds of rocks that I got for Christmas for months and now at long last they are ready to move on to the second stage. Things should move a lot faster now. Here's a picture of what some of them look like after the first stage.

I love me new tumbler, if I were using me old one I would probably still have a few months of stage 1.

New Arrivals

I've been really busy lately so that's why there haven't been any posts for awhile.

It didn't take too long after my tumbler broke for me to really miss it. Lucky for me my birthday was right around the corner. A few people sent me money and I was able to by this...


This new tumbler has two barrels allowing me to work on more than one project at a time. As you can see it is quite a bit bigger and it's also easier to use than my old tumbler and surprisingly, a lot quieter. So far it has been running really well. I also got some more grit and polish as well. All that's left now is to think of a name for it. Any suggestions?

Death of a Rock Tumbler

When you first start a round of tumbling, one of the things you want to have happen pretty soon is the formation of a nice thick slurry. This is where the water, grit, and pulverized rock mix together to form an abrasive mud that covers all the rocks so that anytime they move they are being ground down by the grit. This really helps the process of polishing the rocks along but this slurry can cause a few problems. Mostly, you just have to be a little careful how you dispose of it. If it dries out it tends to harden like cement. Another problem is that is it quite abrasive so you want to be careful it doesn't get into any machines like the dishwasher. All in all though, a good slurry is a rock tumbler's friend. Occasionally though there are disasters. For instance...

The plastic barrels on my little rock tumbler eventually wear out. After a couple months in the course grind they start to weaken and show signs they need replacing. In the past I have always been able to catch them right before they went. This time however, I wasn't fast enough. I knew the barrel was reaching the end of its life but I thought I could stretch it out a few more weeks, I especially wanted to because replacement barrels are no longer available. One day I went down to the basement for something and noticed that my tumbler was making some strange noises (it always sounds like it is in pain but this was different). I lifted up the cardboard box I have over it that I use to dampen the sound and saw...

Losing the barrel was a blow because it left me with just two barrels when I like to use four (one for each stage), but the worst part, as you can see, was that all that nice abrasive slurry had leaked out and gotten into the tumbler itself. Now instead of my rocks being coated with mud that ground them down every time they moved, it was the moving parts of my tumbler. I tried to clean it out as best I could but the damage was already done. I nursed the tumbler along for a few days and used all the spare parts I could to fix it but in the end it was a lost cause, my little tumbler was dead. It's very quite in the basement now.

Current Project

My current project is a batch of mixed rocks I got from my parents for Christmas. I have no idea what most of them are. There were originally about 5 pounds so it has taken a long time in my little tumbler. It has been running 24/7 on the rough grind since January (I did say my tumbler was small). I'm finally getting close to being ready to move on to the next stage, hopefully in a couple more months. This project has depleated my supply of rough grit. Here's a couple of pictures of the rocks as I got them.

As far as what's what, about all I know is that the farthest rock on the left is amethyst. One of my and my wife's favorites. We really hope it turns out well. Anyone with any ideas as to what the other stuff is, please say so.

Make sure you click on the pictures to really see them.

Rock Finds

We have been away in Idaho for a couple of weeks and while I was there, like I do everywhere, I looked for rocks. Its always exciting to find cool rocks yourself, especially when you can't afford to buy them from anyone else. I was able to find quite a few really nice ones that should help to keep the tumbler busy for a while.

I found these at a family reunion in Pine Idaho. These are not for tumbling, they are really interesting just the way they are. I think they are mostly quartz but they have that cool silvery stuff in them which I think is mica.

I found lots of rocks like these in Pine. I think they are quartz and at the reunion I was trying to find a piece of glass to scratch with them to get some idea of how hard they are. I also wanted to rule out the possibility that they were really just white marble which is too soft for tumbling. I wasn't able to find any broken glass or anything so when my wife wasn't looking I used one of the baby's bottles. They scratch glass quite easily so I'm pretty sure that this is quartz.

I also found some granite (I think). The pink granite is from Pine and the black is from Blackfoot. Most people don't bother tumbling granite because it is a bit on the soft side but I can't ever seem to say no to an interesting looking rock and beggars can't be choosers as they saying goes. I'm going to try it with a fifth stage (1000 grit aluminum oxide, if I can get it).

These are some more interesting rocks I found in my parent's back yard in Blackfoot. I really have no idea what they are (I really don't know much about rocks or identifying them) if any one does, let me know. I can't scratch them with the quartz so they should be hard enough to tumble.

I also found a bit of obsidian. I was especially excited to find some that was a greenish blue. I've never seen any but the black or the snow flake varieties. I was really excited. I'm going to wait a while to tumble this. I understand that obsidian is fairly difficult to tumble well so I'm going to practice for a bit first.

Here's a close up of one of the pretty green ones.

So that wraps up of the trip. Be sure to click on the pictures to see them their full sizes. If any of you know what these rocks actually are or have any tips on how to tumble them leave a comment.

My Rock Tumbling Story

When I was a kid I got a rock tumbler for Christmas from my grandparents. I had never seen nor heard of a rock tumbler before but it sounded cool so I tried it out. Well, like most little kids who try rock tumbling I was soon a little disappointed. The process takes a long time, patients is something kids seem to have in short supply, and the results were not that fantastic, certainly not like the pictures on the box (the directions that come with tumblers seem to be designed to guarantee failure). So after a few attempts, the rock tumbler was set aside and largely forgotten for a few years.

Some time towards the end of high school for unknown reasons, I began to have a renewed interest in tumbling, but again had disappointing results. This time however I had access to the Internet and was able to find lots of great ideas to improve my tumbles. Unfortunately, I was not able to put these into practice then because the time had come for me to go to college (for some reason, roommates don't seem to appreciate the 24/7 noise of a rock tumbler). So once again the rock tumbler got packed away, not before I was able to get my hands on some decent rough (unpolished rocks) and grit though. There it sat unused but not forgotten for a year of college, two years of a mission for my church, about three more years of college, and a year while I was working and living with relatives. During this time I also got married, had a son, and my wife became pregnant with our daughter. Finally, at the start Dental School we found a house to live in with a basement where I could set up my rock tumbler again. So, once we were sort of unpacked I dug out the old tumbler and have had it running ever since, probably about 9 months or so.


Here it is, the classic, much maligned rolling stones rock tumbler. A lot of serious tumblers hate these things, but with a fair amount of baby sitting, they will polish rocks and besides, since on a student budget with a family of four we can barely afford the electricity to run the ten watt motor, any tumbler that I already have is a good tumbler. It is also nice because it is very small and so it doesn't cost much to keep it full of rough and grit. Of course the small size also means that my pile of rough to be tumbled grows a lot faster than what my tumbler can keep up with. My biggest problem right now though is that the manufacturer seems to have gone out of business and these things do require replacement parts to keep them running. Perhaps the time has come to rebuild my grandfather's old tumbler.