I wash all my rocks between stages with soap (dish soap or boraxo) in the rotary tumbler for 2+ hours. Set it, forget it. You are way more dedicated than I am to be hand scrubbing all those stones. Keep up the great work!
The second run I did I left two thin pieces thinking they would be fine but both snapped and scratched so I have to do step three on them again. But live and learn. Thanks for your videos.
Thanks for the comments I'm glad you enjoyed them!! (I had some ceramic media break up and scratch up a whole batch - that's seriously frustrating. And that was before I had the vibratory so it cost me a whole week!)
What type of Vibratory Tumbler are you Using? Reason- i PURCASED A 5lb Vibratory Tumbler at Harbor Freight and had to exchange it 3 times and the third time I just finally had enough. So frustrated.
You have to be careful. There are actually two kinds of vibratory tumblers. One is designed just to tumble brass. (Used bullet casings). The hollow brass is much lighter than rocks and those tumblers aren't designed to handle the weight of rocks so they don't hold up if you put rocks in them. The vibratory tumbler I'm using in this video is a Thumlers UV18 with an 18 lb capacity.
For anyone who watches this video now... this batch came out great, but looking back I don't think I have nearly enough rock/media in there. I should have almost filled the bowl and I'm maybe 3/4. I may have to try another batch in the Thumler and see if I'm right on this. (I'm mostly using a LotO now.)
@@kathysanders7162 My thought is that it is just rocks wearing the inside of my bowl. It doesn't seem to be wearing extremely quickly so I'm not real worried about it. Also, now I'm doing most of my vibratory tumbling in my LotO and I haven't had that happen. (LotO bowl is rubbery not plastic.)
@@kathysanders7162 Hello, i just did my first full batch in the v10 and got lots of black specs also, have you figure out a way to stop this from happening? A good way to clean them off? any help would be great, thanks!
@@jamiejc224 Hi James, I did not figure it out. The specs only happen on the final polishing stage. They do rinse off easily when I rinse the rocks. I can’t even find where it’s coming from, as the bowl seems intact (no scrapes). Let me know if you come up with anything.
Hi Ed. Could you tell me if you've had breakdown issues with this tumbler. I'm considering changing from my Lot-O to this one. Please help if you are able
I’ve never had a breakdown with any of my tumblers. *knocking on wood! I switched from this to the lot-O mainly because it took me forever to get enough rocks through step 1 to fill it. It has 4x the capacity of the LotO.
I started watching this series because we are debating buying a vibratory tumbler for softer rocks. Have you noticed any difference between vibratory/rotary tumblers on soft rocks? FYI: I use a small, soft brush on a handheld rotary tool @ 10,000 RPM to remove the grit from cracks and pits. I keep both the brush and the rock wet during cleaning. This gets the rocks very clean, so most can go on to the next step. (However, we do remove any rocks that look like they may break due to cracks.)
I have a dremel and never thought of that for the cracks! That's an awesome idea! This was only my 2nd or 3rd batch through the vibratory, but I'm thinking it may not be the answer to your issue. I will say that I think everything comes out a bit shinier from the vibratory, but the softer stuff in my opinion just looks a little better than from the rotary. It still isn't fantastic. I haven't yet, but I'm considering trying to do a batch of all softer stuff. I just don't have enough for it yet. Part of my problem is that mine is an 18lb model. I've had two 3 lb barrels and a 12 lb barrel on my rotary doing step 1 (60/90 grit) since I finished these videos and I still don't have enough to fill it again. I am very happy with the vibratory, but if I had it to do over I might go with the 10lb model. One other issue with the vibratory is that it is way faster. You can go start to finish in 7 to 10 days. That means you need a lot of rocks to feed it!! That can get expensive if you don't have a local area to gather stuff. I'm considering shutting down for the winter, I have two local places I can get rocks, but right now they have snow on them! Best of luck to you and thanks for the comment!!
@@edcctf I have the same rotary and tumble quite a bit and often. I find that dental tools, a tooth brush and a strong squirt bottle (set to as intense jet as possible), also does a great job of removing any grit from the crevices and pits. You can purchase dental tools online for amazingly cheap.
Would like to see some more videos on tumbling hacks. Possibly your thoughts on the best rocks to tumble. My son has taken a liking to this hobby and we both are green. Any tips would be appreciated
I'm probably going to put out a video in about a week and a half. I will give my thoughts on the best stuff I've found for tumbling! (preview: jasper has been easiest for me, tiger eye is my favorite but it is hit and miss and flint tumbles well and I like it because it is available locally! I'll think and add some more though!
@@edcctf would also be interested in hearing about "mistakes" to avoid. I do the whole UA-cam content thing as well so I know how much of a pain making videos can be. Appreciate what you are doing!
You have to be careful. There are vibratory tumblers that are not designed for the weight of rocks. They are used to tumble empty brass for bullets. The bowls are not as durable and the motors not as strong. It sounds like you got into one of those and they just can't handle tumbling rocks. Sorry to hear about this.
With the vibratory tumblers very little water is required at all. You want everything wet when you add the grit and then you add more only if the slurry gets too thick. I use a squirt bottle and usually only squirt once or twice so that's probably like one or two teaspoons of water at a time. I have no idea why, but it does seem to me like the pre-polish and polish stages seem to thicken up more than fine (step 2) and I think I do add more water with those two stages, but that is still very little water.
That's what I would do. The good news is that the vibes don't use a whole lot of grit so you aren't out a massive amount. I'd clean it all off and start over. The rocks should be wet, not immersed. I use a squirt bottle and rarely add more than 5 squirts at a time and usually none when I first start! Hope this helps! -Ed
@@edcctf , thank you very much for your quick response! Been watching your videos with the vibratory. I bought the small one from Raytech because I just want to polish lots of beach pebbles from Greece. They don't need to be shaped so I skipped the rotary step. It came with 4 different grits though and I am on the first one right now wondering if that is even necessary? It's a coarse 60 grit.
@@selinalomu I wouldn't do the 60 grit. Usually they say it is too coarse for a vibe. I'd start with the 120/220 (fine) and then do prepolish and polish. I go about 3 days in each.
Where in Ohio are you from? I live near Cleveland, and we have a lapadary club that i would love for you to visit! You could bring your son . would love to have you as my guest. Let me know.
Hi!! I'm in Bridgeport, just across the river from Wheeling, WV. Is your club involved in the rock shows up that way? I went to the Cleveland Area Rock and Mineral Show and the shows in Cuyahoga Falls and Stark County last year. I'll probably try to attend those again this year if I can, Liam loves them, but I'm coaching track this year so I'm not sure which ones I'll be able to attend. (Have to be Sundays for the most part.) I hit the Z-Rock shop in Canton sometimes too.
@Susan Boggs Liam and I are planning to attend the rock show in Cleveland next weekend. We'll be up on Sunday (I have a track meet on Saturday). We'll probably get up there around noon or 1PM. I'll have to check when it opens.
*impressed with quality. my unit came 🔎🔍 **allabout.wiki/Lyman** with a pound or so of what looks like stainless steel shot and more importantly a spare o-ring for the access hatch and a toothed-belt for the motor-drum drive. Nice touch.the drum and base are both larger than I expected and heavy.the materials and build quality seem good to very good.it's been running on the slowest speed for the last couple of hours with2 pounds or so of my steel parts to be deburred,4 pounds or so of 1" ceramic stars andwater with a little bit of dawn soapfilled to 1/2 the drum volume.I weighed the drum half filled with the previous mentioned items and it came out a little under 9 **pounds.like**: I like the way the drum hatch gets locked.the robustness of the build and motor.con: no instructions that I can see on how to work the base dials/controls, but I got it running by just turning the knobs.grin.not sure if the timer is on or what the 1/0 switch does (it's not on/off to the motor), timer use maybe ??I'll have another look in the box for the instructions or maybe on line .... this is not a big enough of an issue to take rating stars off my initial 5 star rating.update 10.1.2017: ran it 24hrs/day for 4 days straight with 4 different batches of parts and it worked without issues. My a36 steel parts came out as expected with a nice even finish.BTW not mentioned but as I state in the previous line, I've been running it without a 'timer' limit. I suspect the '1/0' switch when switched to '0' disables the timer ... however I got it to work this way, it's the way I wanted, so I can run it overnight without a 3hr reset of the timer.*
I wash all my rocks between stages with soap (dish soap or boraxo) in the rotary tumbler for 2+ hours. Set it, forget it. You are way more dedicated than I am to be hand scrubbing all those stones. Keep up the great work!
You can’t take the nature out of a rock brother. The gafs and dings are beauty . Leave it be it looks great
The second run I did I left two thin pieces thinking they would be fine but both snapped and scratched so I have to do step three on them again. But live and learn. Thanks for your videos.
Thanks for the comments I'm glad you enjoyed them!! (I had some ceramic media break up and scratch up a whole batch - that's seriously frustrating. And that was before I had the vibratory so it cost me a whole week!)
Dont let soft things go longer than needed or they go right away.
Always learning 😊
What type of Vibratory Tumbler are you Using? Reason- i PURCASED A 5lb Vibratory Tumbler at Harbor Freight and had to exchange it 3 times and the third time I just finally had enough. So frustrated.
You have to be careful. There are actually two kinds of vibratory tumblers. One is designed just to tumble brass. (Used bullet casings). The hollow brass is much lighter than rocks and those tumblers aren't designed to handle the weight of rocks so they don't hold up if you put rocks in them. The vibratory tumbler I'm using in this video is a Thumlers UV18 with an 18 lb capacity.
For anyone who watches this video now... this batch came out great, but looking back I don't think I have nearly enough rock/media in there. I should have almost filled the bowl and I'm maybe 3/4. I may have to try another batch in the Thumler and see if I'm right on this. (I'm mostly using a LotO now.)
Ed Liberatore did you figure out what caused the black specks? Happened to me too. Maybe from putting the inside washer on upside down?
@@kathysanders7162 My thought is that it is just rocks wearing the inside of my bowl. It doesn't seem to be wearing extremely quickly so I'm not real worried about it. Also, now I'm doing most of my vibratory tumbling in my LotO and I haven't had that happen. (LotO bowl is rubbery not plastic.)
@@kathysanders7162 Hello, i just did my first full batch in the v10 and got lots of black specs also, have you figure out a way to stop this from happening? A good way to clean them off? any help would be great, thanks!
@@jamiejc224 Hi James, I did not figure it out. The specs only happen on the final polishing stage. They do rinse off easily when I rinse the rocks. I can’t even find where it’s coming from, as the bowl seems intact (no scrapes). Let me know if you come up with anything.
If your moisture gets to us too low they quit vibrating in the circle and they will fracture themselves.
Hi Ed. Could you tell me if you've had breakdown issues with this tumbler. I'm considering changing from my Lot-O to this one. Please help if you are able
I’ve never had a breakdown with any of my tumblers. *knocking on wood! I switched from this to the lot-O mainly because it took me forever to get enough rocks through step 1 to fill it. It has 4x the capacity of the LotO.
I started watching this series because we are debating buying a vibratory tumbler for softer rocks. Have you noticed any difference between vibratory/rotary tumblers on soft rocks?
FYI: I use a small, soft brush on a handheld rotary tool @ 10,000 RPM to remove the grit from cracks and pits. I keep both the brush and the rock wet during cleaning. This gets the rocks very clean, so most can go on to the next step. (However, we do remove any rocks that look like they may break due to cracks.)
I have a dremel and never thought of that for the cracks! That's an awesome idea! This was only my 2nd or 3rd batch through the vibratory, but I'm thinking it may not be the answer to your issue. I will say that I think everything comes out a bit shinier from the vibratory, but the softer stuff in my opinion just looks a little better than from the rotary. It still isn't fantastic. I haven't yet, but I'm considering trying to do a batch of all softer stuff. I just don't have enough for it yet. Part of my problem is that mine is an 18lb model. I've had two 3 lb barrels and a 12 lb barrel on my rotary doing step 1 (60/90 grit) since I finished these videos and I still don't have enough to fill it again. I am very happy with the vibratory, but if I had it to do over I might go with the 10lb model. One other issue with the vibratory is that it is way faster. You can go start to finish in 7 to 10 days. That means you need a lot of rocks to feed it!! That can get expensive if you don't have a local area to gather stuff. I'm considering shutting down for the winter, I have two local places I can get rocks, but right now they have snow on them! Best of luck to you and thanks for the comment!!
@@edcctf I have the same rotary and tumble quite a bit and often. I find that dental tools, a tooth brush and a strong squirt bottle (set to as intense jet as possible), also does a great job of removing any grit from the crevices and pits. You can purchase dental tools online for amazingly cheap.
@@frydaddy6640 I never even thought of that! Sweet idea! Thanks!! :)
Would like to see some more videos on tumbling hacks. Possibly your thoughts on the best rocks to tumble. My son has taken a liking to this hobby and we both are green. Any tips would be appreciated
I'm probably going to put out a video in about a week and a half. I will give my thoughts on the best stuff I've found for tumbling! (preview: jasper has been easiest for me, tiger eye is my favorite but it is hit and miss and flint tumbles well and I like it because it is available locally! I'll think and add some more though!
@@edcctf would also be interested in hearing about "mistakes" to avoid. I do the whole UA-cam content thing as well so I know how much of a pain making videos can be. Appreciate what you are doing!
@@PaulLinn717 I will do that, the mistakes part is fun! I've messed up a few times! ;)
@@edcctf much appreciated 🙏🙏
I need this machine
It's big... but it is awesome! I'm building up step 2 ready rocks right now just to pull this baby out!
Anyone tell me how long that now last I bought a harbor freight 18 pound three weeks it wore holes in the sides very frustrating
You have to be careful. There are vibratory tumblers that are not designed for the weight of rocks. They are used to tumble empty brass for bullets. The bowls are not as durable and the motors not as strong. It sounds like you got into one of those and they just can't handle tumbling rocks. Sorry to hear about this.
Is more water required for this step thanks the previous 3?
With the vibratory tumblers very little water is required at all. You want everything wet when you add the grit and then you add more only if the slurry gets too thick. I use a squirt bottle and usually only squirt once or twice so that's probably like one or two teaspoons of water at a time. I have no idea why, but it does seem to me like the pre-polish and polish stages seem to thicken up more than fine (step 2) and I think I do add more water with those two stages, but that is still very little water.
@@edcctf thanks!
I just started my first batch in a vibratory tumbler but I see now that I have added probably way too much water. Any suggestion? Just pour it out?
That's what I would do. The good news is that the vibes don't use a whole lot of grit so you aren't out a massive amount. I'd clean it all off and start over. The rocks should be wet, not immersed. I use a squirt bottle and rarely add more than 5 squirts at a time and usually none when I first start! Hope this helps! -Ed
By the way - Good luck! Hope you get some nice shiny rocks!
@@edcctf , thank you very much for your quick response! Been watching your videos with the vibratory. I bought the small one from Raytech because I just want to polish lots of beach pebbles from Greece. They don't need to be shaped so I skipped the rotary step.
It came with 4 different grits though and I am on the first one right now wondering if that is even necessary? It's a coarse 60 grit.
@@selinalomu I wouldn't do the 60 grit. Usually they say it is too coarse for a vibe. I'd start with the 120/220 (fine) and then do prepolish and polish. I go about 3 days in each.
@@edcctf , thank you. I will try that.
Where in Ohio are you from? I live near Cleveland, and we have a lapadary club that i would love for you to visit! You could bring your son . would love to have you as my guest. Let me know.
Hi!! I'm in Bridgeport, just across the river from Wheeling, WV. Is your club involved in the rock shows up that way? I went to the Cleveland Area Rock and Mineral Show and the shows in Cuyahoga Falls and Stark County last year. I'll probably try to attend those again this year if I can, Liam loves them, but I'm coaching track this year so I'm not sure which ones I'll be able to attend. (Have to be Sundays for the most part.) I hit the Z-Rock shop in Canton sometimes too.
@@edcctf you can google our facebook page.Parma lapadary club. And yes we hold a "Rock arama in may in North Olmsted ohio.
@@susanboggs7986 Awesome! We were there last year and unless something comes up we'll probably be back this year!
@Susan Boggs Liam and I are planning to attend the rock show in Cleveland next weekend. We'll be up on Sunday (I have a track meet on Saturday). We'll probably get up there around noon or 1PM. I'll have to check when it opens.
Muito
Po
سلام.اشتری.الحجار.کریمه
*impressed with quality. my unit came 🔎🔍 **allabout.wiki/Lyman** with a pound or so of what looks like stainless steel shot and more importantly a spare o-ring for the access hatch and a toothed-belt for the motor-drum drive. Nice touch.the drum and base are both larger than I expected and heavy.the materials and build quality seem good to very good.it's been running on the slowest speed for the last couple of hours with2 pounds or so of my steel parts to be deburred,4 pounds or so of 1" ceramic stars andwater with a little bit of dawn soapfilled to 1/2 the drum volume.I weighed the drum half filled with the previous mentioned items and it came out a little under 9 **pounds.like**: I like the way the drum hatch gets locked.the robustness of the build and motor.con: no instructions that I can see on how to work the base dials/controls, but I got it running by just turning the knobs.grin.not sure if the timer is on or what the 1/0 switch does (it's not on/off to the motor), timer use maybe ??I'll have another look in the box for the instructions or maybe on line .... this is not a big enough of an issue to take rating stars off my initial 5 star rating.update 10.1.2017: ran it 24hrs/day for 4 days straight with 4 different batches of parts and it worked without issues. My a36 steel parts came out as expected with a nice even finish.BTW not mentioned but as I state in the previous line, I've been running it without a 'timer' limit. I suspect the '1/0' switch when switched to '0' disables the timer ... however I got it to work this way, it's the way I wanted, so I can run it overnight without a 3hr reset of the timer.*
Edit the spam please