How to Cheaply Polish Rocks!
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- In this video I share how I polish my cut rocks using my drill press and a series of diamond pads.
You don't need to use a drill press, you can also use a hand drill or an angle grinder.
Diamond Polishing Pads 4"- amzn.to/2AHpxa7
Drill Bit Adapter 1/2" to 5/8" - amzn.to/339lTlg
Drill Bit Adapter 3/8" to 5/8" - amzn.to/2VecTc4
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About how much water do you use? Ord does it not matter? I've used these a couple times, but I don't know if I'm using too much water or I'm not being patient enough or not enough pressure
Polishing rocks is so stinking fun! Never ceases to amaze me. How beautiful they can be with a little work. Everyone unique, kinda like people when they are doing good things and at there personal best.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate these types of videos that show how to get things done without having to spend a small fortune for equipment like a dedicated cav machine. I'm a woodworker so I understand about going slow when just starting out. At this point, I think that I'll just do small stuff and see how much I like lapidary.
Oh yeah... those pads work slick. I just got a set... I was working on Popeye arms trying to hand sand quartzite... omg lol 3 days with 120 grit aluminum oxide resin paper still a scratch in it... 8 min on these pads I can see myself in it... yeah... I'll work on the Popeye arms carting more rocks 😅
I live in Karachi Pakistan I like your comments send 4 month ago
Drill press are so versatile, I'd still use my drill.
i like doing it by hand but i use super cheap diamond hone plates. just keep em cleaned off and under water occassionally flipping them over to clear out stuck junk by lightly slapping them on the surface of the water and i do pretty well. sure its not a machine but it sure is therapeutic lol.
Great "how to" video Jared. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of all things rocks.
Thank you for this video!!!! I appreciate all your hard work and editing to bring us these gems!!!
I'm glad you liked it.
Thanks for the video. Just getting back into lapidary work and this alternative is an excellent idea. All the lapidary tools are so expensive. Thank you for sharing this set up. Bless you in your rock adventures.
Thank you, I appreciate the information I’m currently trying to figure this new hobby out. Much ❤️
If your new to it I have a Playlist of videos for new rockhounds where I explain a lot of it.
Great tip - thanks . . . I'll be ordering up a set next week.
Its hard to keep a super flat face by hand. I'd suggest trying an old watchmaker's trick for awkward shape work holding. Make a little frame with a flat bottom and put some hot paraffin in the bottom, or if you have a beefy glue gun you could place a big gob at the the bottom. Now place your facet face against your lap and use the drill press to squish your work piece into place. You now can consistently mate the facet to the lap and with a little extra clamping and a weight on your arbor wheel leave this thing going with a super fine grit!
You got a killer set up my friend!! Great video!
Thanks man. You gotta start cutting and polishing some of your agates!
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I would love to get into cutting, need to find bigger agates first! But I am looking into getting some equipment for doing some polishing to the ones I do have.
$17.99 for the 3” pads and $21.99 for the 4” pads, on Amazon. Both sets come with 2 mounting pads and 2 arbors. Just got mine this morning after watching your video yesterday. Thank you!
You should also watch the video of the bird bath I made with these.
I appreciate your information more then I can put into words!!!!
Just biught these! They do a great job! Thanks
This is the informative video I have been Waiting For!!!
Thank you!!!!! Yes
Thanks for the video!! I love learning the cheap methods for polishing my treasures!!
I have used a set of diamond grit knives sharpeners from Harbor Freight and polished by hand lapping until I moved down to sandpaper spray glued to a piece of glass !! Works very slow, but makes the same results !! And makes you appreciate the stones more !! If I was selling them I'd assembly line the prosses! ! With power tools of course !!
Great job. Just found these. I got mine from wish. Super cheap, but I wanted to see what it would do. Thanks for sharing.
They do a great job.
Loved the info here. Had seen Rookie Rockhound do similar with angle grinder, but as a newbie the more info/ options the better! Just got a saw and cant WAIT to polish my finds! Been catchin up on lots of your videos the last week- just found u and subbed at beginning of June...every one is informative and well done! Plus u r only one of 2 Rockhound channels I'm aware of from Oregon/ Washington area so it's great to see the vids where u r out and exploring and learn more about the geology of the PNW!😁
Thank you! I got lots to catch up on here for sure.
There's a few other northwest rockhounds as well.
Wow, that’s amazing. Thanks for taking your time to share. 😀👍
Thanks for cool affordable polishung method
Thankyou for the video , good useful information , the polished rock ,looks great 👍
Thank you so much! I am relatively new to rockhounding and have been gradually building my tools. I am polishing thundereggs for the first time, I've only done Geodes that I can crack with a chisel until now. I was trying to figure out how I could shine my thundereggs.
Brother, You Rock ! Thank You so much, for the knowledge.
I happened to find a rock with actual meteorite metal in it !
That's very cool!
Dude, your videos are freaking awesome. Good to see another guy from Spokane!
Thank you! I got lots and lots of content.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I know! I'm binging right now. I've been to a lot of those places around Spokane and now I'm mentally checkmarking everywhere I need to look!
@@savage1r When you have some time you should also check out my website.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Bookmarked. I have a lot of content to work through! I'll be keeping my eye out and checking out all the locations you have pinpointed! This is awesome!
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Hey, some construction crews made a huge cut into the east side of the Five Mile Prairie off of southbound Country Homes Blvd. You should check it out to see if there's anything interesting there.
GREAT advice!!!..and a neat set up!..you can't beat 40.00!!!... especially seeing how I just dropped 300.00 on new wheels for my cab machine...I have a milwaukee drill,..I may just have to dabble in this set up a bit, for the price you just can't beat it. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah and they do work well for some bigger things. The only downside to them is if you run them dry you need to make sure they stay cool or if you run them with water do it outside in the summer cause it will make a mess.
I think this will totally work for my project. I’m surprised no water is needed! I’m using and very delicate sedimentary stone called Zebra Stone, found exclusively in Purnululu Nation Park Australia. I’ve cut them into tiles with water saw. Guys were making jewelry with it and a messy slurry was really off-putting. No water! That’s a bonus. I may even go over to car polish and buffing at the final stages to gloss them up.
Thanks for the vid.
Using water keeps the diamonds in the polishing pad and the rock cool and can make your tools last longer. For smaller pieces just have a bowl of water to dip your piece in periodically
As soon as I saw those polishing pads I thought if using an old wood lathe, and I happen to have an old wood lathe!
Nice, thanks for sharing this helpful information been looking for something similar.
These work great, and the price is hard to beat.
I just found a really cool stone. Like wow it's cool, like dang I'll keep that and I'm not a rock guy lol
Thank you for the video,very useful information
Love the video!
I use pads like this everyday to polish stones for work
Try alpha turbo pads ceramic hard pads with no flex with water they will become a mirror
Mb 20 and hogs hair will burnish the shine to permanent
Thank you for this clip!
Great info and ideas, thank you.
Great info for people on a budget .
I'm glad you liked it.
You ara my hero im now buying some pads for my drill press
Awesome thank you my friend for sharing your knowledge show time LoL new viewer glad l found your videos cool
Welcome to the channel.
Do you use any water or oil or polishing compound? Do any washing of the stones or pads along the way ?
I love your videos, thanks for sharing!
Thank you.
Thanks for the video 👍 have to try this too 👍
That's cool drill press might be better for them then my five inch grinder . I do have a Richardson sander that I've been using for ten years . Really likes worn out 60 grit paper though and wow if you hit the edge wrong that paper sanding disc takes of at warp speed . Every one owns one knows exactly what I'm talking about
First of all I want to say I appreciate your visions and enjoy your relaxed presence. I am going to give some constructive criticism. If you don't want to hear it please stop reading. I am speaking to you from the perspective of a retired critical care nurse. Please trust me and wear a mask. The by products of cutting stones creates an inflammatory response that's end consequence can cause change of the DNA cancer et Al. Thank you for listening. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. I frequently get called one because of my opinionated nature. "I care."
Thank you for the Video, if you have small stones, a set of knife sharpening stones works great to ...
The whole process was dry sanding?
Does water help the pads last longer?
Any polishing compound at the end?
Great ideas ❤
So, are you dry polishing with the drill press?
Thank you friend!
Cheaply Polish Rocks....walks over to $1,000 drill press:) Just giving you crap, great video and interesting approach with the edge grinder!
Thanks dude. Been trying to figure which of my 8 spinning tools has the best attachments for the rock polishing sequence. Good to see something in action.
FYI Amazon reviews are full of complaints that the pads rip apart when people use them on angle grinders (10k+ rpm).
Yeah they really are not met to spin that fast.
I just got a 6 speed variable grinder/polisher and the pads from canadian tire... 300 rpm to 2400 rpm works awsome ...I couldn't even fathom trying to hold a rock on one at 10k lol... I think I would fear for my life at 5k
Grinder was on for 74 bucks pads 49... pretty cheap... ive been polishing rocks almost straight for 2 days 😅
@@geosobservations9496 yeah I had the same thought... I'd be rippin my fingers up at 10k. Ended up using my drill which maxes out at 2k rpm. It isn't as fast as I'd like on the high end, but it's good enough and I ain't gotta buy nothin.
Yeah I complained enough trying to hand sand ROCKS 🤣 my woman and mother got me an early birthday present...😅
Nice video. You had briefly touched on polishing the outside of a rock. I have a couple of softball size rocks that I think would polish up pretty awesome. How well do these pads work on not so flat/smooth surfaces? Is there any other step after the 3000 grit to get a "wet" look shine?
You can use them on none flat surfaces but they don't really work as well for those. You can get higher grits as well as make a carpet wheel and use cerium oxide.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I hate to say this....but you're speaking a foreign language! lol I don't know much of anything about rock polishing at this point.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding My first thought before commenting had been using some sort of wheel pad on a bench grinder. Is that what you're referring to?
@@brianp2714 Do a search for ' Arts N Crafts: Making a polishing pad! ' and watch that video on the World of Rockhounds channel he shows exactly what I'm trying to explain here.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thank you! I'll take a look at that.
Thanks for this video, been trying to figure out a cheaper way to polish rocks. Does the drill press need to be a certain amp or will one of the cheaper web or harbor freight types also work? Thanks!😊
Would recommend also dipping the rock in water often as you polish it
Agreed.
I’ve never used this kind of thing, brand new. My local gem & mineral club, we have flat laps with grit. It’s very difficult & time-consuming. This looks easier… also, are you grinding them dry?
Was there a link to the polishing pad kit ?
Wouldn’t doing this with some water added give you a better finish, and safer because of the fumes?
That is true but this still works and adding, a water system raises the price and well this video is how to polish cheaply, I have plenty of other videos showing how to polish rocks using all kinds of more expensive systems.
yes. I did something similar years ago. I used a cheap buffer grinder clamped upside down in a craftsman workmate table so the spindle was all that poked out above the work table. I used a big tupperware with a hole in the middle taped to the table to catch the splatter. For water I just used a spray bottle. It worked really well for a good while. I think harder stone gets trapped in the pads and after a while won't do as well on anything softer than whatever got in them. cleaning helps some.
Edit: my polishing pads went up to 10,000 and were 7" I think. Shop around, different sets have more variety.
Some shells, minerals and semi precious stones can produce toxic or harmful dust, definitely need a decent mask! Good question about utilising water in the polishing & finishing process 👍
Wish the polishing pads were that cheap here in New Zealand. I priced some and they were $43 each pad, cheapest I found were $31.99 each. ouch. Love your video's.
Yikes, that's really pricey.
Welcome to paradise. I hope your wallet is fat, you're going to need it lol. Yep, hella expensive here. And purchasing online doesn't help, have to convert NZD to USD as well as pay delivery costs + GST. Thanks for your comment, I was wondering about purchasing these products here. KiaOra from Hawkes Bay.
@@sixthsenseamelia4695 keep an eye on trade me, I managed to finally get a 9 piece set for around $75 and were on afterpay ( big bonus ha )
Great video :) Thanks so much for tips.
My pleasure.
Wonder if it would work on drill mounted upside down. So, would be like a table polishing set-up. Can you use water to rinse away rock dust. Or just vaccuum and fans.
People have made all kinds of setups just like that.
Thanks for sharing going to try it.✌&❤
I have never done this and I can’t find info to my question. I’m sure anything can be polished but I don’t know if it will have beneficial results. I have 100lbs of blue green river rock from Home Depot and I love the raw color. Can they be polished to a shine?
My grandfather had a disc sander set up to polish the stones he used for jewelry. Using a dowel and that green jewelry epoxy keeps your skin intact, and makes curved sanding and polishing much easier. I wonder if that pad base can be mounted on one?
I've just done my first mining and I've got some rather large pieces of corundum from a mine in Franklin, NC... not looking to get professional quality or anything, just trying to get something that looks more like a crystal than a red clay covered rock. I want to have some of them professionally cut for my wife, but I can't really see inside them as is. Perhaps down the line more involved lapidary would be in order, but this looks like it will fit my needs for the time being.
Its always good to test something like this on something you don't really care about first until you get the hang of it.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I have several pieces I am sure are low quality, but good size. Even got a nice 1000ct piece.
Does using water with the pads keep the dust down? Would you recommend that?
I also have a milwakee drill like you have in your video. What speed would you say gives you roughly the correct rpms?
Water is ideal.
Thank you for showing me a cheaper way to polish. Where is the link to find the disc and that adapter that is needed. I see the diamond disc on Amazon which say its for wet but, dies that matter? How long do these disc last for? Think of buying a use.drill press that's cheap to try this out. I need your help and where to find that adapter. Please.
Running them wet is best. The pads last a long time but it depends on what you're polishing. You can also check out my video making a bird bath out of stone to see them working.
Ive been trying to find a cheaper alternative to a cabbing machine for larger pieces of limestone with calcite vug inclusions. This is a great alternative. Thanks.
This does get the job done but I wouldn't really say its a replacement for a cabbing machine.
Thanks for sharing
My question is about how long did you spend on each disc? I want an actual machine so badly especially since I have carpal tunnel and arthritis of the hands but I figure with my medical hand equipment and proper breaks for my hands, that I can polish my stones cheaper. Oh and did you have to use any sort of liquid polishing paste to the last step? I have seen so many ppl show many steps on polishing & then realize that their added info at the bottom states that they used other material as well that they failed to mention or show us. Not saying that’s what you did hun, just making sure 😊
That's going to depend on the rock, after all the process of polishing is just making scratches smaller and smaller until your eye doesn't see them.
In this video which is rather old at this point for me the process is purely done with the discs shown.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding thank you so much for your response. Truly appreciate it 😊
How long do these diamond pads last? If you use them wet does it not last as long? Do you have any reccomendations for what to use as a polish after? ex. mineral oil, car wax/polish, diamond glaze, acrylic gloss spray
It really depends on how you use them. They will last longer if you wet them, they will last long if you make sure they don't get hot when using them dry.
Rocks are generally polished with cerium oxide.
I purchased similar pads, and I noticed that I have a really difficult time getting all of the scratches that are at the depths that 50 to 400 grit pads should be able to remove. I had to purchase 50 grit pads from another manufacturer and they actually work way better, but I am still left with deep scratches that my 100 grit won't remove. One more thing, I have to use a drip line on mine or else the pads burn because they are wet pads.
Thanks for your videos!
When I do mine with a drill I spent about 40 minutes on the first pad using water and dish soap to keep the friction down so the ting u are working with doesn't get hot or warm enough to crack
thanks for vid, are the diamond pads only for polishing once the rock is cut? or could you grind a spherical rock down to having a flat surface with just the diamond pad and some pressure?
These really not meant for grinding a shape but rather polishing a flat surface.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding thanks so much for your reply.... so i am collecting some rocks and i want to grind/sand them down to sit flat on a table this probably isn't the method? im sure it depends on the hardness of the rock some. but is there a good tool to grind a flat base without cutting using an angle grinder or tile saw?
@@maxwellcarlscottHe has videos of smaller trim saws for a couple hundred dollars that would probably be your best bet.
Have you tried mating these polishing pads to the Richardson sander? It spins faster than the drill press, but the pad states it can handle the speed. The only drawback I could think of is the way the pads are sectioned, I would fear flying thundereggs if they catch.
I have not tried that but I fear something catching on them.
Do you have a video that shows you using those pads with the hand drill?
I do! If you look at one of may latest videos where I make a bird bath I use these with a hand drill.
I have the pads mounted on a variable speed drill press. What rpm do you run yours at? I am not having very good luck getting my rocks super shiny like yours. There is always swirl marks on the rock. What the hell am I doing wrong? Also, loved your video!
I have been running these around 3000 RPM
Bro cross hatch the lower grit
Up down left right
Then squirt a bit of water on the rock for the high grits and polish in a circular motion
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thanks!
@@Dungeonofman Thanks!
Good video.
Should these pads be used with water? Or can they be used with water?
They should be ran wet but its not really needed.
I have a rotozip rotary saw, do you know what attachment I would need for that to use this?
I'm not sure.
In the diamond polishing pads used, the highest was 3000. Would there be a noticeable difference in shine if a 6000 pad was used after? Love your channel!
I do have some 6000 pads and the excrescence in polish is lightly noticeable.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thanks
if you guys have a belt sander , you can just tape the trigger down and flip it over , a lot easier than this and way cheaper. if gets really good when you wear all the grit off and you have a high velocity piece of reinforced cloth , you can shine metal with that .
I would imagine you could probably use a dyno-orbital sander as well. I would think that would be the easiest hand held method. Please let me know if that's not really an option. I do not have a drill press.
I think that could work.
i recently got the same polishing pads that you're using in this video. on average how long do you usually have the rock on the first grit (50)? i seem to be having a really hard time getting the saw marks off, and they're pretty minimal at that. once I go higher up in grit it takes a great polish, i just seem to be spending an unusual amount of time on the first grit. do you aim to take off all of the marks at the first grit, or does that start to happen a bit higher up? what grit do you usually see the first bit of shine on?
sorry for all the questions, I've never been much of a handyman so all of this is very new to me!
one last quick question, do you ever use it wet?
I'm still using my first pads, if you have deep saw marks in a stone and your pad isn't really cutting you could also try giving you pad a good washing, I always keep my rocks wet and that helps the material flow away, in the perfect world you would have the pad facing up towards you (not a drill press like I use) have had some water dripping on it.
Currently Rockhounding thanks for the response man, I’ll keep using them wet. How long does it usually take you at 50 grit to get the sawmarks off?
I know this video is a few years old. If you dig this piece up and tape half of it with packing tape, then apply it to your home built polisher, you will see an even better shine than what you get with 3000. Just peel back the tape to see the difference. You'll be amazed.
Did you do this dry, no water? I use a ton of water maybe that’s why I’ve been seeing a lot of scratches
You can do it both dry or with water but with water is better.
If you're getting scratches you might have some cross contamination of your pads.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding What do you mean by cross contamination? I usually polish multiple rocks at once. I’ll do them all at 50 grit, then all at 100 etc etc. is that what you mean? I also just ordered a Vibra lap, hopefully I see much better results
@@froggytmvr2595 These pads have diamond in them and you run the risk of bring 200 grit diamond over to the 400 grit pad if you dont clean your rocks between stages.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thank you! I’ll give it a try again and scrub them in between, I appreciate the info!!!
what about polishing non flat surfaces? the outsides, not cut sides of the petrified wood?
You can try it, they do have some bend to them but you might find it hard on really small tight curves.
You can try using a Dremel tool for the smaller surfaces.
good video but what type of rock is that. I have a couple smaller ones just like it.
It's a thunderegg.
Do you know if you can re-polish a rock? I’ve been using these pads for a couple of years now and never had an issue. I buy the same ones every time but unfortunately they were out of stock last time on Amazon. I purchased a different listing, same grits. They looked exactly the same just different color backings. Not that the backing color matters but it let me know it was definitely a different brand. I polished 3 different agates and when I took a look I realized every single one of them had bad surface scratches all over even after 8,000 grit diamond pad. I grabbed one more agate that was cut in half, polished it with the new set and then the other side with the old set and again the new set had a ton of nasty scratches while the old set left a beautiful polish. If I take my old set and just start at 50 grit and rework the rocks will it take a shine, or should I use my diamond blade and take 1/16 of an inch off?
You can 100% re-polish a rock.
I prefer to use the pads wet, on a wet polisher. They will last longer and I think you get a better result.
Agreed.
and no dust.
I use these wet
It would be nice to see that slab cut thinner as it would likely e more transparent....god ideas thx
I did the same thing, glad I'm not the only one!
Is 3000 the highest you go with these pads or is there a way to go higher.
They do go higher.
Curious how much time do you think you spent on each pad before going to the next?
That's a good question. There is no set amount of time, you just need to do it until the scratches from the last stage are gone.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Very nice
Can you share an affiliate link to the drill press you use if possible (or I guess any appropriate drill press you would recommend, hopefully on the cheaper side)? I want to know the size/model but also get your some commission if I end up purchasing!
If you don't have a drill press already or some other kind of drill it may be cheaper to just get into real lapidary equipment.
Thank you
I'm glad you liked it.
How would I further polish them after 3000
Hi, would I be able to use this system on smaller rocks? I would make something to hold them while doing it.
Yes but the smaller the rock heat is a concern when doing it dry.
Pretty nice
But great video buddy!
After polishing to the highest grit, would a "Mop 'N Glo type product layer improve the depth of the polish?
Generally it's considered bad form to coat rocks.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding So yes, it would. The same thing is done with water. I’m not going to sell these, but just want the best presentation; I’ll even explain the process.