Touring the AZ Rockhound Expeditions Lapidary Shop

[@jennystone421]

Boy, I had to work to leave a comment! YT is so herky-jerky these days😒 What a great video. It's like hanging out with rock friends and you learn a ton of information just from them shooting the sheet. Julie and Brian are such an asset to the community, feel lucky that they share their info and experience with us! Julie is the agate whisperer!! You rock, thanks so much Jared. Oh and CLAIM 6:06 😎

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Sorry about that, sometimes KZbin isn't the greatest. I'm very appreciative when someone is willing to open up like this, as there is so much to learn from what they do in their shop.

[@sandmaker]

3 of my favorite folks all together. I love all the rocks and the shop. An in depth private look at AZ. Thanks for sharing it all with us.

[@leezardo9324]

I love Julie and Brian! I think I can say that I was the first person to rockhound at their house. I was visiting from Canada and was not physically able to rockhound, so I reached out to them, and they let us come to their house. Their stuff is PHENOMENAL! It's so great to see you feature them on your channel. They definitely deserve more subs!!

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

Yes Lee!😂 You were the first ever to Rockhound at our house! And we would have you guys back in a second! Thank you for coming over!💖 Hope you are doing well up in Canada!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I agree, they produce some excellent content.

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

Thoroughly impressed with your setup and extensive collection of materials.

[@GREEKEXPLORERS]

Amazing video!! Thanks for sharing!!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@claybowser698]

Very cool! Thank you for the video. I live in Tombstone, Az. I have a Rebel 17 rock tumbler and I've been tumbling rocks non-stop for a year now. Very tricky to get great polished rocks with just a rotary tumbler but I am definitely getting better at it. The largest size rock I can tumble is about the size of a softball and I've tumbled several now that size. The only rocks I tumble are the ones I find on the ground on my property. I have a dry angle grinder and have cut some rocks but mainly I am collecting lots of cool rocks waiting to buy a 10" wet saw and some kind of polishing set up. My neighbor had an old friend that passed away who slabbed rocks. When he passed away his family gave my neighbor all his unpolished slabs. He just gave me two 40lb plastic cat litter tubs of slabs. Lots of really beautiful big slabs of serpentine and some kind of translucent purple rock that looks just literally incredible. I can't wait to be able to polish them. He also gave me several palm sized amazing looking agates that are completely uncut, and several bags of raw Bisbee blue turquoise.

[@rachaelb9164]

That is some beautiful purple material!! So pretty.

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

Hey guy`s, good to see you.

[@cliffmiller1021]

How fun. I think I have never felt better about my abundance of rocks in my shed. After high grading them this summer it has been less plentiful but swimming in that much material for me had become overwhelming. It us good to see they have a system and a working plan. There was a lot of great specimens with loads of potential.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm all about having fewer rocks but higher quality rocks.

[@RobertHarrison-br5iz]

Wish i had the places to go to you have. Plus im disabled hard for me to get around.allways love to watch your videos.

[@patriciabock4299]

This was the best down home visit ever! Loved it!

[@elizabethlewis3509]

Love they are partners that love rock hunting

[@tigereye508]

Nice video. Its always fun to see rock hound shops, especially on this scale. Very cool vintage slab saw. 👍

[@sandmaker]

🎉tumble the cabs

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

I do both tumbled and finely shaped on the cab machine. Cab machine is used for materials not suited to tumbling liked backed turquoise and doubleted cabs.

[@pattycake3585]

Wow!! AZ 's collection is soooo Amazing!! Thanks for sharing!

[@soul_adventurist]

Excellent tour!! Thank you so much for giving us a peek inside their world ❤

[@patriciamckean4186]

Wow, love all those rocks. Nice shop. Thanks for sharing.

[@kzbay1685]

Nice....glad you got to hook up with them.

[@JnVrockhounding]

Great video Jared. Love to see two of my favorite channels get together like this. Julie and Brian are such nice folks and have amazing material coming from their claims. I have bought several boxes from them. They are on my bucket list of people I want to meet and go collect with. You Karen, Kurt, and Kyle are on that list also. So far I have met Theo, Travis, Katydid, tomcat josh, Ken Girourd, and Hunting Rocks Jeff. Several others in the community aa well. As always, love the content!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I hope to get out to their claim sometime this winter! Let me know if you ever plan on coming to Utah!

[@JnVrockhounding]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding I definitely will. I would love to go to some of the recent places you’ve been to. You have been collecting some nice materials! Can’t wait to see what you do with your shop. I am working on one now.

[@DanFarrar]

Cool tour! I’ll check their KZbin

[@jw7956]

Amazing! Love the beautiful finds!

[@tazman8271]

I love their channel and yours.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you!

[@johnfluegeman910]

Julie should use the Lot-O-Tumbler to finish her cabochons.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

That’s a good idea John.👍🏼

[@Mike-br8vb]

Awesome tour! This is such a great channel! Yours as well!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@curtd7117]

WOW absolutely beautiful material 💥!!! Sorry Jared this might be a stupid question but when will we see a tour of your new place?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Ohh its coming! I've been working on building out my dream shop. I can assure you it looks good, and the space is something I have designed over and over in my head hundreds of times over the past few years. I hope to be fully wrapped up with it in a few weeks but I think I also said that a few weeks ago. :D

[@shellyfahren1936]

I love collab videos!!!

[@melissawhite210]

saving this video so that when people comment about the level of rock hoarding I engage in, I can just turn this on and walk away. So many beautiful specimens! And yes, HOAs should be illegal.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Ha!

[@justlucky13]

Great tour Thanks

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it!

[@vernontafte1718]

Great video enjoyed it

[@DeeDeeDIY]

Fun stuff. HOA are the pits. Only good thing is the upkeep of the neighborhood park, US and state flags at the entrance, and landscape at the entrance. The rest is a bunch of hooey.

[@gator83261]

Very cool.

[@amberandrews6842]

This is a delightful video!! Thank you! HOA's are sometimes evil, always a nuisance...

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

I much prefer making cabs over flat lapping, but started out cabbing years ago and simply got better over time.

[@ocklawahaboyrocks]

I see those hillquist saws come up on occasion but Ive never been able to snag one.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

If you see one you gotta jump for it.

[@elizabethlewis3509]

Speaking of Giardia....got mine in Colorado Springs CO ....watch those creeks

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

Brian’s doctors kept telling him “ you can’t get giardia in the US” I said “ Do you know what we do? We found agates in poop!” 3 months of near death, in and out of the hospital, and 50 pounds of weight loss. Horrible. It only affected him like that because he has celiac disease and those little buggers had a field day.

[@elizabethlewis3509]

@@AZRockhoundExpeditions Time to change doctors. Sure hope you're on the mend.

[@elizabethlewis3509]

Had a big storm come thru here at our new ground level condo in NC beach area.. I poured ruff stones in the garden to help block water from entering our house. Mind you, no one could see the rocks. A member of the HOA told me I was not allowed to have rocks in my garden. How they knew is beyond me.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

HOA’s have spies and are very nosy!😳

[@Amethyst_Annie]

Ugh about the HOA. I hope your condo is ok after the storm! 🤞🏽

[@elizabethlewis3509]

@@Amethyst_Annie Thanks to my rocks water did not get to our door.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

That is completely insane that someone would care about something like that.

[@RaymondMosier-cp6pn]

They look so familiar...🤔😂

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

My latest cabbing machine cost approximately $80.00 to build including an expanding drum and belts. I do almost all my cabbing on silicon carbide. Flat lap work however is diamond. I scrounge used electric motors and use pillow block bearings and shaft setups

[@elizabethlewis3509]

How do you clean the oil off after you put the rocks in the cat litter?

[@evanshipley8523]

Dawn dish soap and water. And a soft toothbrush for the crevasses.

[@evanshipley8523]

I do the initial washing in a bucket so I do t get a bunch of rock grit in my drain and pipes. Then wash again in the sink.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

We clean ours with Dawn power wash. Works great.😃

[@kimdedominicis6893]

I would love to check out live sales. Is it on Facebook or KZbin? The link for Facebook didn’t work for me. Can someone help with this?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

They do their lives sales on their KZbin channel and the Facebook link does appear to be working fine.

[@kimdedominicis6893]

@@CurrentlyRockhoundingthanks. I’m sure it works. I can’t get it to open because it’s my phone and it always gives me a hard time. I tried to find them on Facebook and it won’t pull them up. I’ll figure it out.

[@rachaelb9164]

I agree wholeheartedly about the HOA’s. When you spend as much as you do for a house, it’s BS that someone else tells you what you can do on it. I live in a city close to an HOA and I swear they are trying to spread their rules across town. I want a home in the country. People should mind their own business unless you have a hazardous environment.

[@SissyMchill1]

HOA’s should 💯 be illegal. They started out with good for the communities but now they are just criminal. 💯 agree with all y’all on HOA’s. I adore these guys. My fellow Arizonians. I’m over my tile saw. I’m ready for a lapidary saw. My tile saw was pulled out of scrap yard (free) so us perfect for learning. BUT it does grab if you get into a rush and will shoot the rock in the direction the wheel is spinning. Thankfully I sat it up by an old barbecuer so it don’t shoot into my house. It does take a lot of material away from the rock and just horrible marks. But I’ll have to deal with my scrapped free tile saw for awhile longer, due to the economy. I have NO Patience for the rock tumblers. I am constantly checking on him and I cannot seem to get it right. 😥 takes forever to do a batch. Thanks for sharing this video. I adore these two and adore your channel. Great watching. I do have an acre sou definitely have them beat with amount of rocks I have but there’s are of much better quality and what people want. I am new. Abs learning So I typically pick up “just rocks” it’s ok they work great for landscaping.

[@nathans.3751]

The top of the saw can be easily repaired with fiberglass tape and resin from Home Depot.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

The top of the saw is polycarbonate.

[@nathans.3751]

@ I don’t believe that would be a problem. Using 220 grit sand paper to prep the surface should allow good adhesion. The resin would need to be applied first, then the FG cloth. The big thing is making sure that the FGC is fully saturated. Epoxy resin would be a better choice than the more commonly used polyester resin. Last use of an adhesion promoter should result in good to very good results.

[@elizabethlewis3509]

When we lived in AZ I tried to get a claim that had expired. The office workers were a joke and did nothing to help me.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

BLM doesn’t help with establishing claims. They’ll just look at you funny if you ask. It’s all up to you to fill out the paperwork and stake the boundaries. They will let you know if you did it incorrectly though.

[@sandmaker]

Try a felt wheel, not as grabby.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I need to do that but I have had a hard time finding thicker felt for my big 12" buffing wheel.

[@sandmaker]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding that could be a problem or downsize .

[@elizabethlewis3509]

How do best cut an egg shape specimen

[@RonBateman-vl2wz]

Rock hounding is the worlds oldest hobby.