Polishing Stones from 2 Rockhounds - How I stage my rock tumbler??

[@MichiganRocks]

I'm not 100% sure that fossil was favosites. That would be my guess, but that one looked a little different than usual. With favosites or Petoskey Stone, I usually only run them for 3-4 days and only with other limestone fossils. They're very soft and will wear away quickly, making your slurry really thick. I'm interested to see how that other barrel does with so many tiny rocks. In my experience, putting in too many small rocks or ceramics results in such a gentle tumble that at the end of a week, most of the grit is still left in the barrel. I have never done a barrel with almost all smalls like you did. I can't wait to see what happens there. Oh, and congrats for over 1000 subscribers!

[@rodenbergrocks]

Thank you for the insight on only tumbling them for a shorter period of time. They have been in there for about 5 days now so I will take them off the tumbler and check them this afternoon. Good to know that isn’t favosites either, I’m not sure what it was then! Now that you mention it, sometimes with all of those little rock in a tumbler like that, I have experienced not all of the grit being turned to slurry even after 10+ days of tumbling. That makes sense why… so we will see what happens in the next couple days 😅 Thank you! Couldn’t have gotten to this point so early on without you and few others help and guidance :)

[@MichiganRocks]

@@rodenbergrocks It might be favosites, I'm just not sure. Favosites would be my first guess.

[@ThirdPlanetRocks]

Congrats on 1k! I'm getting into tumbling shortly, so this was really informative. Rob set you up with some sweet petoskeys 🙌 Appreciate the breakdown of the time you let it run at the end too based on the stage it's at.

[@rodenbergrocks]

Thanks so much :) it has been a great milestone to achieve! Rob gave me some great stones to work with, as well as Maple. Glad you enjoyed the breakdown and I will make sure I go through each stage in upcoming videos!

[@ThirdPlanetRocks]

@@rodenbergrocks I’ll be watching!

[@kengensjewelry]

I'm so interested to see how the tinies turn out. I often have small pieces coming out of the final polish, but I've never tried mostly small pieces. Keep us updated!

[@rodenbergrocks]

The agates are typically very hard so they don’t breakdown too much. That has been my experience, but we will see with this batch!

[@sjolson-3243]

Will you show us the finished product?

[@rodenbergrocks]

Yes, I will show the progress through all 4 stages :)

[@abbyW]

My tumbler is in the garage and right now it is too miserably hot to fool with, so I will watch your videos instead!

[@rodenbergrocks]

Maybe a good trade off until the heat resides 😂

[@10Agates]

Congrats on 1K! I think I messaged you a while back when you got your tumbler. Have you had any issues with the harbor freight tumbler yet? The motor seized up on mine after about 2 weeks. They replaced it with a new one but I took the new one and replaced the plastic bushings with ball bearings. Let me know if you ever get to that point.

[@rodenbergrocks]

Thank you!! Crazy to have hit this landmark already. It was my goal to do by year end :) I have had a little issues in regards to being squeaky, so I use some lubricant to help fix that. No problem with the motor thus far, but I still think I need to take you up on replacing the plastic bushings. If I get to that point, I will most likely need to reach out 😂

[@kengensjewelry]

Forgot to ask, do you weigh your barrels? I've found my Chicago Electric tumblers can get a bit grumpy if I don't make sure they're close to three pounds in total weight.

[@rodenbergrocks]

I don’t weight my barrels, but I think it may be something I should consider because mine can become grumpy too. I always ‘guessed’ on the weight and adjust if needed.