So I had a rock tumbler as a kid (Christmas gift) I think one batch ran through it as they were likely designed as a throwaway machine.. I bought one for my now defunct fiancés daughter this past Christmas - I finally got it running after the rocks and polish disappeared... long story for another thread. Anyways the first batch got me thinking of something bigger Bader and capable of processing rocks so I started putting together a list then found a setup on marketplace close by with tons of extras for way cheaper. Assuming there are some other Lapidary enthusiasts around here. AS always I am alive doing well, life has thrown some curveballs that I swung at, not ones that blindly hit me in the head. Miss some of you guys - Not you Eric j/K lol
Hey basod , I was into lapidary a long time back. Lots of agates on the beaches around here and geodes and such east of the Cascade mountains. Not to mention Ellensburg Blue which is extremely hard to find anymore. There was an older Gent and his Wife down road from me that were crazy into it that got me started doing some slabbing and shaping cabochons and such as well as tumbling. Be careful, it could easily become an all consuming hobby! One very positive aspect of lapidary is that it can get you outdoors a lot searching for new raw material. I really enjoyed the beach combing and expeditions searching for geodes and crystals. There are some comparatively less expensive imported vibratory tumblers out there that are durable and much faster than rollers. Please post some pictures of your setup. I'm sure you will be having have some fun! Best wishes on your new hobby!
So here’s my bigger tumbler I found marketplace after going and forth with building my own. For $300 and all the extras the nice older gentleman threw in I couldn’t pass up. I plan on getting a third barrel but dang those are some coin. I also have a Lortone 22b for pre polish and polish stages and still running the National Geographic I bought for her daughter. The Nat Geo didn’t do too bad on its first run.
This was the Nat Geo with only their grit packs. I’ve since rerun several of them and have them back in a final polish.
Looks like a nice setup and a good price! Pretty stones in the Nat Geo. If you run out of raw materials, broken colored glass was all the rage around here for a while. I don't know all the particulars but you might look into it.
I actually have a bunch of slag glass I collected from old iron furnaces in the area that I’ve tumbled a bit. That’s my next planned batch, if I was still drinking I’d have those bottles that used to take up trash space.
It is tigers eye. Unfortunately somewhere between stage 2/3 polishing it chipped on the left side. I reran it to try and smooth it out some.
Hey, neighbor. You have been missed. Glad you found that hobby again. I too, had a tumbler when I was a kid, even got a nice saw and sanding wheels set up. Don't remember what happened to it, probably up at mom's house somewhere. Had the templates for different size stones and ring, necklace settings. Good luck with it.
