I am crying it's been only 1 week

My Harbor Freight tumbler is toast, and my big homebuilt tumbler is, well, too big. What's the "step up" 2x3 lb. (or similar size) tumbler? Lortone? Highland Park? Tumble Bee?

Where we live in Mexico has a tremendous amount of calcite, and every now and then in our gravel driveway I find a fragment of what I think is a calcite concretion. How do you folks think these would tumble? I'm working with the Nat Geo tumbler (which I know runs way too fast) and have not yet acquired the device needed to slow it down, and so far my experience tumbling calcite has resulted in the fragments wearing down absurdly quickly. If I tumble these, do you think I'll lose too much of the relatively thin exterior shell? Photos are of the fragments first dry, when wet to fully demonstrate their appearance.

These rocks have been in stage 1 for weeks. As they are getting ground down, what I believe is mica started popping up.

2 and 4 are definitely NH beach rock. I think 1 and 3 are as well, but they may be landscaping rocks I picked up. Will the mica come out and scratch the rest of the batch? It was hard to take the pics, but I’m talking about the white specks. In person, there are more sparkles than show.

My son got a TT MP-1 about a year ago. We’ve run a few batches through it, but now the motor doesn’t want to turn anymore. There’s a slight hum, and I’ve tried to get it going with a spin with my fingers (belt off), no luck. I’m guessing the motor is dead, or almost dead.

Is there any benefit from trying to replace the motor, or should I just bite the bullet and get another tumbler? I’m guessing this is a pretty basic one, and we might have just worn it out.

Thanks

Big ol load of mostly quartz and quartzite going back in for a 3rd week in stage 1.

I don’t need them to be perfectly round. Just a bit polished would be nice.

3 weeks into stage 1 and the rocks are not where I want them to be. I feel like I have the barrels correctly filled and used enough grit. Should I try a different grit? Am I supposed to change grit each week or are these just extremely tough rocks. Most are agate, chalcedony and jasper. Any help from the experts would be appreciated.

Looking good 👍 that’s only 4 days with 1000 grt A/O. Can’t wait when it’s time to hit them with the 8000 A/O! But the sad part is we have to wait lol and wait we do but it’s almost always more than worth it, am I right peeps! Happy tumbling yall

I think I just missed it on sale but I would like one, Thanks!

I've got a relatively quiet nat geo tumbler, and I added boxes 9ver the tumbler padded in noise reducing materials, then covered by cloths and such.

The noise is lower, but any tricks or tips would be great.

Just got the Harbor Freight Rock Polishing Abrasive, and it comes with 4 levels of grit. Tomorrow will be 7 days of tumbling with coarse grit for stage 1 for me.

Now my thought is I'm going to give them a look tomorrow. Clean them. See if they are smooth enough or to my liking (it's my understanding this is all an eyeball type of science). The. Throw them in the next barrel for stage 2 with the fine grit. The next two stages are the pre -polish and polish.

Do I need to get these ceramic things I'm seeing people rolling? Where would one get that? And also any stores sell grit (Like a Michaels or Hobby Lobby or somewhere else) I feel the $15 Harbor Freight packages are convenience charged.

My 1st attempt turned out the standard hazy that stones get when you screw something up. I think these are my 1st "soft stone" success. Any thoughts where I need to improve?

I just finished step 1, is that enough for step 2?

It ran for two weeks on high speed until I got the adaptor. This happened after 3 days on slow. I changed the belt but it is weird. Like the belt is not bad yet. Why is it spitting out black stuff on week three on 1/2 speed? I guess I need to find more replacement belts?

I wasn't weighing my barrels and I noticed that the unit was overheating. I took some media and rocks out of each so that each was under the limit, but now they're only like 1/2 full. I restarted the unit and it's still very hot to the touch.

Has anyone here had a Harbor Freight unit overheat and catch fire or stop working? I don't want to ruin it. I am already keeping the unit on top of an a/c vent, but obviously that won't work long term. Suggestions?

ETA: Thank you, everyone, for your advice! Sounds like I'm probably over-thinking it and shouldn't worry, but I'll point a small fan at it anyway.

Howdy Hounds,
First I hope you all are doing fantastic. Second I was wanting to gather some opinions/ thoughts on what you all use for filler in your polishing stages. What’s been working for me so far is small and medium angle cut ceramic pieces for stages 1, 2 and 3. I use only the small ceramic ones when I start stage 4 but it looks like I’ve been getting some bruising after stage 4. Any way I was gifted a box of rock tumbling stuff and there was a few other items for filler and wanted to see what you guys think. Per the pics 2 of them are a type of plastic, one is small puck like pieces and feels somewhat soft or softer then other container. The other plastic is a little bigger rough cut chunks I guess is what I’d call it. The last is either some walnut shell or it’s not soft like cork so I’m sorta miffed on the light brown colored one. Has any one else used these types of filler? What stages did you use them? What results did you see? better? Worse? Pointless? Any way let me know guys if you have used what I have in the pictures and if you use something else and get good results what’s your secret sauce as it were. Thanks and happy tumbling.

Howdy hounds,
I hope all is well for everyone. I was hoping to gather some opinions on what others use for filler when your in your polish stages of tumbling. I use small and medium ceramic angle cut filler for stages 1, 2 and 3

Or ways to make it quieter? I don’t want my downstairs neighbor to be disturbed.

Hi all. My 5-year-old son is really into rocks and was recently gifted a rock tumbler, so we’re learning together. The photos above are from our very first batch.

We’re using a National Geographic hobby tumbler with KomeStone grit, and all of these rocks were collected at Rodeo Beach in Marin, CA.

We ran stages 1–3 for roughly a week each. We initially ran stage 4 for only about 3 days because my son was getting impatient to see the finished rocks. When we took them out, though, they actually looked cloudier/duller than they had after stage 3. We decided to go backward and run stage 3 again for another week. The photos are what they look like now, after that second round of stage 3.

I’d love any general advice for our next batch, but I have a few specific questions:

1. Polish: Any idea why the rocks became cloudier after stage 4? Was pulling them after 3 days likely the problem, or could something else be going on? Should we now move these back to stage 4, or do they need more work first?
2. Rock selection: Any tips for choosing which rocks to tumble together, particularly when collecting beach rocks? Should we be paying more attention to hardness, rock type, size, or some combination of those?
3. Ceramic media: We used ceramic media during our original stages 1–3, but removed it for stage 4. When we went backward and repeated stage 3, we didn't put the ceramic back in. I noticed a few new dents/bruises afterward. Should we be keeping ceramic media in the barrel through stages 2, 3, and 4?

Thanks in advance! We’re complete beginners, but my son is fascinated by the whole process, so I’d love to learn how to get better results with him on our next round.

Should I go to step 2?

I'm surprised all the color and variety, and some mica on the current layer. Should these go to a full 7 days on stage one or can some rocks strip to nothing?

I don't want to mess these ones up.