Be sure to check out ALL the amazing channels in the description box ❤ Also, I'll be sharing some comments that you leave here in my next tumbling video! So be sure to leave your tumbling tips, or whatever!
I've got some tips for tumbling free form agates that are chunky and have pits..you would think that it's not smart to tumble them but if you start with ceramic media in the first 2 stages and continue with the media on step 3 and 4 they actually will polish very nicely..I'm actually gonna do this on my new channel..if your interested agate dad then here's my link ruclips.net/video/X1ByDZIDZ3U/видео.html I've been subscribed to your channel for a while under Luis Williams but I deleted my old account and made a new one..hope to see you there🙏
Hey Taylor, thanks for mentioning my channel! I also notice that you stole my term "Maygate". Or maybe I'm not as original as I think I am. I didn't read the other comments, so I apologize if I repeat something that someone else said. My first observation is the times that you spent on each stage. I am a perfectionist, so my method may not be what you want. I like all of the imperfections to be ground out of my rocks. This takes a very long time and makes your rocks much smaller at times. I spend way more time in the first stage than any other. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the next stage will remove any flaws left in the previous stage. Each stage after the first just removes scratches left by the previous stage. So I clean out my barrel after the first week, check for any rocks that look flawless and remove them, and add more rough rock. Then I add new 60/90 grit and run the first stage over. I often keep this up for a several months until I have enough rocks for the next stage. This not only makes the rocks more free of defects, but also by removing holes and cracks, you eliminate spots for grit to get stuck and get moved to the next stage. After the first stage, you don't need to inspect the rocks other than to clean them. I run 120/220 for a week, 500 for ten days, and polish for two weeks. The pitting you showed at 7:54 is called undercutting. Undercutting is when softer minerals wear away faster than harder minerals. It gets worse in the finer stages of grit. Rocks might look great coming out of 60/90 and then get really bad after 500. Granite does this, which is why I don't pick it up anymore. Some of those might improve if you rerun them. Start over in the first stage to remove the pits. If it's undercutting due to soft minerals in the rock, then rerunning them won't really help. The quartz was probably a matter of it banging around too much in the tumbler. How much plastic were you using? Maybe use more. How full was the barrel? You want it about 75% full. Too empty lets the rocks roll around a lot more and bangs them up. Are you only running one barrel? Seems a shame to spend all that time an only get half the rocks done. I'd keep one barrel continuously running just the first stage and the other barrel could do the ending stages. I LOVE that eye agate! The pattern on that last one in incredible too. Some of those turned out really well which tells me that the problem may be due more to your rocks than to your tumbling methods.
Lots of great advice, I actually have another barrel going with other things right now, so I've had two going for a while, but yes I figured I would use your method of rerunning stones but I am just working out kinks right now, I will eventually get a good system down so that I can have great results 😀 it will definitely take some time to get it down though
Suggestions: Re-run stage 1 over and over until the shaping is how you want. You have some bruising going on, add in mixed or just large ceramic media beginning in stage 2. Clean and reuse the ceramic media through the rest of the stages. Add in more each stage (used ceramics, no hard edges) as needed to cushion and that will cut down on the bruising. Ceramic is my preferred media for anything hardness 6.5+ (jasper, quartz, agates), plastic for softer stuff that I try to avoid anyway. Only use new ceramic in stage 1 and/or 2 to break it in, then safely reuse it after cleaning. Keep rolling! 👍
You rock! (Literally) hahaha because sharing experience and/or helpful tips is so kind, because that collaboration in the rock hound genre is necessary for growth and refining skills for all of us sharing this wondrous world.
There’s a progression to this thing, first you start collecting, then you notice all the rocks building up in your house with nothing to do with all these rocks , so then you want to do more so you naturally delve into the lapidary arts. I thought I would never be tumbling, cutting and now going into smoothing out rocks.. It’s so much fun and is just a extra extension of the fun.😃
First off... Great results for your first tumble experience dude! Those got pretty shiny✨ And 2nd... Thanks for the shout out my friend! I had loads of things to say but looking thru the comments most seem to be covered. So I'll only add a little... The biggest advice I feel I can give about the unwanted pitting and cracks is... Use your saw or even your flat lap to cut out or sand out those problem areas so that you don't have to tumble forever in coarse or spend countless hours cleaning with a toothbrush. It's so hard to "shave" off parts but the end result will be worth it. Another thing is... (Especially with smaller stones) you actually don't have to run a coarse run on river/beach tumbled stones...just repeat stage 2 twice and move on. I also do this when I don't want a lot of the stone to disappear (in coarse you loose a lot of layers). So for instance... The Agate at 9:49 I would use your flat lap and grind out those cracks...then start all over. The quartz (which should tumble nicely) I would start back off in medium but use more plastic media in final stages. And some of those that look a little dull but otherwise good...i would run longer in polish. Thirst Fast just posted a tumble he did of amethyst... He said he followed my pre-polish and polish advice and had the best results ever. Check it out...they are a mirror finish✨ I run my polish stage no less than 14 days and I swear by it! Lastly, don't use dawn dish soap to clean your barrels. It is too harsh on the Lortone barrel and will damage it overtime...borax or a mild soap is ok. Plus, a toothbrush will not damage the barrel (I saw someone wrote that😉) Ok one more! Those plastic pellets can ONLY be ran in one stage. Have some for each stage and only run them in those stage. And you will find themselves wedged in pits and that's ok as long as you get them out AND the grit they now trapped underneath them. Other than that, I can't think of anything else. But if I do I'll let you know. Feel free to ask me any questions at any time. And I am SO glad you got a tumbler! Happy happy tumbling those beauties Taylor! Cheers😎
Marlaina, you have left me the longest comment I've ever received, and every word of it was gold, thank you SO much!! I really have so much knowledge gained by your comment, I truly appreciate it! I am glad to know about the dawn fish soap tip and the polish 2week run, good to know!
So glad to see you tumbling Taylor. You reached out to a good one with Rob at Michiganrocks. He is an award winner. You two are the only rock hounds I watch. Have fun.
Coarse grinding is the most important step, the other stages are about removing scratches. Tumble them in coarse until you're satisfied with how they look...and it's critical to inspect the stones when they're dry. Water will cover flaws to a surprising extent, so dry them. I just started a load of very rough Laguna agate that I expect will take a minimum of 8 weeks in coarse. I use borax with every step...but be careful where you dump the slurry. Borax will kill grass and vegetation, so pour it where you don't want weeds. Quartz is hard, but brittle. Don't mix quartz with other types of stone, and keep the barrel full so that the stones aren't battering against each other. Listen to your tumbler, if the sound is a loud clacking/clattering noise, the barrel isn't full enough. Even then, you'll end up with rejected rocks. I have a 5 gallon bucket about half full of rocks that have gone all the way through the process and were rejected for various reasons. Those get recycled back into coarse when I need to top up the barrel.
My daughter wants me to post this comment to you: I really like the colors of the agates, like it's just so good, I love it. From me, I brought back a couple of bags of purchased LSA from the rock shop in Beaver Bay, going to crank up the Harbor Freight tumbler over the weekend. Thanks for the primer.
I started tumbling about 8 months ago after watching Rob of Michigan Rocks. Great advice there. Along the way, I’ve been trying different things to get better results. Marlaina Atkins is a favorite along with MeMiner. Some very good tips that I’ve picked up along the way are: Do not let your rocks dry out between grit stages. After you wash and brush them, keep them in a dollar store container immersed in water. On stones that have cracks and holes, grit or stone grindings can lodge in there and not be washed out easily. If you let the stone dry out between tumbles, that grit will turn into a concrete-like mass and will be almost impossible to get out later. Running them again for 6 hours or so with some Borax and water helps loosen the residue. Some stones with holes that contain some grit may never come perfectly clean. Better to eliminate those rocks from anything beyond the coarse stage or take care to remove the holes through grinding or splitting the rocks first. Michigan Rocks is a fanatic about that. One good exercise that I’ve learned from Montana Rock Mom is this: once you’ve cleaned and brushed your rocks and canister and you think they are perfectly cleaned and ready for the next step, put them in the tumbler and just add fresh water to the top of the rocks and tumble with no grit or any additive for six hours or so. Then open your canister and take a look at your “fresh” water again. You might be shocked. Time to run it again in fresh water only until the water is fairly clear after the short tumble. In this way, you are fairly certain that you are not transferring that cloudy residue or coarser grit from the rocks or canister to the next tumbling step with finer grit. Time spent doing this will pay off in the long run with a better shine. Just my 2 cents. Very nice and authentic channel. You’re doing a really good job.
Very pretty rocks! Nice for your first time. You just get better with more experience & time. Its a fun hobby which I'm just starting out to do too. I live in Utah, we have lots of different rocks here. Planning on doing plenty of rock hounding of very many different kinds of rocks and looking forward and getting into this very exciting hobby myself. Maybe both of us could share rocks from different parts of the country sometime? Good luck! 👍
Agate Dad, I grew up in a little town north of the Iron Range and rock hounded Lake Superior Agates from an old rail line that was buit using gravels from pits near lake Superior. The agates with quartz crystals are thin layers of agate and the more that you polish them the worse that they get. Your agates that have cracks need to be cut or you will end up with a very small agate. Cracking occurs from rolling in heavy Superior waves. Pit stones are better, less cracking. I have watched many videos and read many books on polishing and one thing that I really want to try is having plastic or ceramic beads for each step. Others have held back stones to fill up the barrel because they do lose mass as you polish them. The last step for me was tumbling with ivory bar soap after the polish step. Here in Washingington State, I am envious of Lake Superior Agates. We mostly have clear chalcedony but I have found Rain Forest Jasper, Zebra Jasper and Jade. Good Luck and Happy Hunting! Dan Fisher
Dude I’m only half way, but I’ve noticed that Benny had the same problem with the pitting, it happened after polishing and it was like the polish stuck to the pits. So the pits were there, but the compound just made them stand out. I’m absolutely still learning this stuff so I don’t have a solution, but yeah, that’s what happened with bennies. And the quartz ones, I’ve heard them called “Quartz Bombs” because the blow up in a sense. They fall apart so the polish on them doesn’t do so well, but also, the bits that fall out, end up being like having an even courser grit than the first one. They end up leaving scratches that you might not be able to individually see, but the luster will be dulled a bit. I’m not gonna pretend I know though hahaha! I’m still and probably always will be learning as I go. That’s the cool thing about this, you just gotta learn as you go. But damn the good ones, are bloody good dude! Keep tumbling!!!!!!!! I absolutely regret only doing one tumble last year and I can’t wait for the next one. First time is always the hardest after the polish. But there’s always gonna be things you see and don’t like that others won’t even notice. I think because when tumbling you’re focusing on a bunch the whole time. But if you held just one of them, without seeing it throughout, you’d think it was amazing. If that makes sense. Nice work brother 👊👊👊
Oh also, how cool is it when you can see the physical definition of the bands in the reflection. Even if they’re not as defined in colour etc. It’s nuts hey!?
Dude.. I agree about how if you just looked at each one, you'd notice a lot more details! Also, that definition on that last one blew my friggin mind!! Loved that!
So with PITTING, ESPECIALLY QUARTZ, I've noticed the more banging around the more fractures and pits that occur in my quartz pieces. If i keep the Tumbler 4/5 full, it does less bashing around and it pits less. However sometimes there are pockets of soft mineral in the rock, and they end up pitting no matter what. Sometimes ill cut the pits out using the edge of my wet saw. Oftentimes, i just unveil MORE pockets of soft material, but sometimes it works out.
Hey Taylor! Hate to have to say this, but the pitting was there all along, you just didn't notice it. When you go from stage to stage you usually don't look really closely until the final polish provides so much contrast they jump right out at you. If you really don't want the pitting and imperfections, you have to put in the extra time during the first stage. They say stones between 5 and 7 in hardness are best for tumbling, and I'm sure you know agates are a 7. So it really takes a lot to smooth them out so they'll be ready for the step two. I mean weeks and weeks. I take maybe 5 to 10 percent out after step one that are ready for step two. I set those aside. I even use a loupe to check them out. Only when I have enough to fill my tumbler to two thirds do I go on to step two.
I'm no professional but with the Yellowstone rocks I find I do two weeks every stage and barnish for a day and use ceramic pellets there a bit bigger and I have some good outcome on my rocks
Thank you for posting this vid. My dad gave me a double barrel Loretone tumbler. I haven't used it yet. I have piles of agate that I have picked up all over Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Minnesota, and all points in between. LOL The questions you asked and all the advice that has come in, thank you. All of you have helped me in the right direction.
Taylor, I think you did a great job for your first time! I have been trying the tumbling aspect of this since I started my rock adventure... my first tumble was a disaster they did not turn out and are still sitting waiting patiently waiting for me to put them in for another round of tumbling.... The pitted ones to me look great, seems more natural to me, but if it feels good for you then you should do it.
Nice. I’ve only been tumbling for about a year, but I’ve learned to be *very* patient in stage 1. With hard materials like agates and jaspers, I find I get the best results tumbling in coarse grit for *at least* a month (recharging the grit once a week), then 10 days in medium, 2 weeks in pre-polish, and one week in polish. My tumbles also started getting better once I added ceramics to stages 3-4, but you can also use pebbles, so I whenever I go rockhounding, I keep an eye out for small bits of chalcedony, agate or jasper to use as filler.
@@AgateDad Replacing the grit as it breaks down. Depending on how thick the slurry is, I’ll either add ~1.5 tbsp fresh coarse grit (for a 3 lb. barrel) or lightly rinse everything and start from scratch.
Thanks for sharing another great video with us! You've already gotten a lot of good tips here but I wanted to share something I just figured out recently. My rocks looked great after the first two stages and sometimes even the third but turned to crap in the last stage. I kept getting cracks and chips. Two things helped me....first, Rob suggested filling the barrel a little higher so the rocks aren't crashing into each other as much...and that helped a bit. Then, I read something that explicitly said to check and sort rocks between stages when they are DRY! Duh! Even though I was being very particular and using a loupe to assess the rocks at each stage, they were wet. When dry, everything stands out and the rocks I thought were perfect after stage 1 definitely were not! Being more selective in the beginning led to better outcomes later. Anyways, I learned a huge lesson. Hope this helps in some way. Keep on keeping on!!
Yes the ones that you're not happy with throw back in the Tumblr at stage one and yes quit using the plastic pellet especially if they have lots of pits and holes more smooth beach rocks is what the plastic pellets are for go get the ceramic ones and throw them back in the tumbler and check them every 12 to 15 hours and pull out the smooth ones and leave in the ones that still need work and run it until you run out of rocks in the Tumblr,that's what I've been doing and that's what I've learned watching all the RUclips videos from my other fellow Rock hounders.☺️😊🙃👍👍👍🙌🙌🙌
The nice thing is when you use your small agates as tumbler fodder, you end up with a lot of small polished stones to give as gifts or for craft ideas.
i'm not a expert but have tumbled alot and had advice from old timers. i use lots of tiny agates in my barrel. was told the tiny ones cushion the big ones. worked for me. Also i only use course for 30 days then polish for week. was told the longer you run the course media the more it breaks down as you polish to a fine. but i imagine you have to find what works for you.
Hi there, I'm new to rock tumbling too. I've been following Rob from Michigan rocks, he is the best. I'm from New Zealand, there's a fantastic blog called Tumblestone, written by a fellow rock hound. He uses a loritone and the blog is very detailed. From the stones I've tumbled, I can only recommend, leave them in the stage one for a bit longer, maybe a few weeks. Dishwash soap for washing in between stages and for burnishing
A lot of great comments here, I have been tumbling for a year, I am still learning. Definitely important to clean your rocks as much as possible before moving on. Also one thing to take into consideration when choosing rocks to tumble, try to avoid heavily fractured stones, as they may break apart when tumbling.
@@AgateDad you wouldn't think that a little grit from the previous stage would affect anything, but it can definitely prevent stones from taking to a good polish
I burnish between each step but also after I do the final polish I run them in the tumbler for about 2 or 3 days in water and grated bar Ivory soap (about 1/3 cup) It really brings out the shine.
If you tumble a stone that has loose bits of quartz, those bits will mess up your polish. As well, softer material that's been trapped within the agates will also erode more quickly once exposed. Maybe try the stage one, two and three tumbles in your tumbler, then polish by hand? In any case, you're making progress and I (very much) enjoy your videos! Keep up the good work!
Hi again TAYLOR Excited for you you're branching out and upping your rock game lol! The best suggestion I have would be to keep tumbling longer then recommended times. Yes they will come out looking beautiful but a bit longer always made them gorgeous! Oh how I especially like the Superior agates! Will say some will polish better then others. But the multi banded good old red/orange ones are always the best. Have fun getting familiar with your tumbler and enjoy! Catcha next time... PS I never have tumbled anything but agates!
Great video Taylor and thanks for the shout out! There isn't anymore advice I could give that Rob hasn't already. I will say that some of those rocks turned out pretty good. That last agate was really something and the eye agates look awesome!
@MichiganRocks is great! By watching his tumbling videos, I learned a lot, especially things that I was doing incorrectly. Both of you have helped me so much with my rock hounding/collecting hobby (more like obsession? LOL). Big thanks go to both of you for allowing us to watching your channels and learn from them! 😊
First of all, I'm ecstatic that you shared this video because I've been 50/50 on attempting tumbling my agates and chalcedony in my tumbler! 2nd---- before your video even began it was prefaced with an ad by zuPoo.. I watched the whole thing!! Everyone should! I've worked in healthcare long enough, and it's true! (The diner clip/waitress made me laugh so hard I woke up the dog.) 🤦🏼♀️
I just used a tin oxide polish on my jasper and agates and got a nice glassy shine, worth the money for the good ones! Undercutting and pitting are a pain I'm still trying to figure out why it happens in the last stages. I use a toddler toothbrush to clean all of mine between stages too. Those pebbles are too small! Use the ceramic media instead, but break it in in the first stage tumble first, always use worn media in your polish stages. Happy Tumbling! I'm excited to see your agates shine!
Love your videos. I live in the Wisconsin River Valley community of Mosinee, WI. I have been hounding for many years in Wisconsin as well as the U.P. I have been tumbling for quite some time and I’m still learning to improve. I have learned that silicon carbide has a unique property. This being that as it wears it will continue to exhibit sharp edges (microscopically). It’s very important to separate it from steps 3,4, and final burning. I mark cleaning tools and cloths with the step that there used for. Then segregate them from each other. This will reduce the possibility of cross contamination. Most of my beach and glacial till finds are smooth to begin with, so I will skip step one. If I have any that have a rough spot, I will use my dremel with diamond bits to smoothen. In this way your pretties will retain more material,(bigger pretties). If there are large areas of softer or pitted areas you can use your diamond saw to remove and smoothen. A lot of the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan Agates will contain some softer material . Dolomite, copper, Olivine, Feldspar, Basalt are a few. These other minerals and rocks will wear more readily and get banged up with the Agate and Quartz. This being said, it’s important to add more cushioning to those. I use ceramic because it has more weight to begin with. The weight is needed to aid in the polishing. For the final burnish I use un-dyed leather strips for cushioning. Hope this helps. Doug
They look like they turned out great for the first time......the only thing I could add is, if you like them keep them like they are & if you are not satisfied, tumble them some more because they could get better but you can't get anything back......just chalk it up to a learning lesson & move on......good luck & stay well & warm....peace !
Great video. Sub'd on recommendation of Michigan Rocks. Wonderful comments from your viewers. I dabbled a bit with tumbling over 30 years ago when my children were little with a Skilcraft tumbler knowing absolutely nothing and no mentor. Several of my grandchildren show great interest in rock hounding so now with RUclipsrs like you , Michigan Rocks and others I'm gaining a great knowledge base before purchasing equipment and supplies. Thanks for taking the time to put out content. God bless your efforts as a dad and on your channel
Happy that you're doing the rock tumbling. It can be a very pleasing experience , and a very frustrating one . Think of rocks as a onion each step takes a layer away from the rock. . I think that the first polishing stages does the same thing . The pitting is naturally occurring in the rock. It could be a softer sandy type stone inside the rock , it could be air pockets , or Crystal pockets . For the last stage run the 500 polish and then go up to a 1200 polish . Wash with your borax between each polish stage . Try cutting your larger stones several times , the flatter the better. Best of luck . Enjoyed !
I like how you knew where you found most of those rocks. I know that tumbling looks easier than it is, and I don't know why but I'm sure you'll get better at it and there was one that looked like a jelly bean an orange jelly bean I kept waiting for you to pick that one up but you never did. Fun video though!
Hi! Happy day, you started tumbling! It is a study in patience and cleanliness... Quartz: as a full rock, it can do well, but as crystals in another rock, meh. It will likely just keep shedding. Your lovely rock at 9:55 has so much to give! I recommend going back into coarse grit until the spawls are gone. But the brown pits are cool and I hope those stay. The little ones!! Can't wait to know about that project. Pitting on agates: I find that those tiny pits on agates are their natural texture and you won't notice them until they are full of something (like white polish). So, you can try getting the polish out using a water pick or Sonicare. You might find you like those pits when they aren't contrasting. Or just keep it in coarse grit longer in the beginning. Making corrections: If the rock has a good polish, but you don't like the shape or there are cracks&pits, always go back to coarse grit. Agates are hard, and won't change much in the other stages. If you have a big flaw, you can use your flat lap to grind out cracks and pits saving WEEKS in tumbling. I would love to know where you purchased the pale size grit!! Can't wait to see what you learn.
The QT66 and QT12 are the same machine with different barrel configurations at purchase. The QT66 comes with two 6 pound barrels, the QT12 comes with one 12 pound barrel. You can purchase either and buy the other barrel/barrels depending on your needs at the time.
I'm pretty new at tumbling too. I have been tumbling petoskey stones and other fossils mostly and my first batch was all busted up like yours. So I added ceramic media, alot of it, and haven't had this problem again. I add the rocks 3/4 full, then ceramic to about 1/2 inch from the top of the rocks, then water. I begin at stage 1 and use the same ones all the way through and put them in the wash cycles I do in between every stage with borax. I use the ceramic balls. You can order them in mixed sizes or all the same size.
I think you did an awesome first time rock run! So much great advice from others. Will you still be cutting and hand polishing big pieces? What are the largest that can be tumbled? Too many questions, eh? Cheers, Rik Spector
The polished ones look great. Similar to what Lance Dean said, adding some cushioning should help with the breaking up of the quartz and pitting. I'm just getting into the hobby and the group at RockTumblingHobby.com suggested using quartz or granite pea gravel for cushioning since it is hard and cheap. The ceramics I bought were $5.50/lb and the 3/8" crushed granite was $5.50/40 lb. I plan on having a load of granite for each stage and when they get low, take some from the next rougher stage.
I think the pitting might be from small rocks getting beat up by some fairly large/heavy rocks that were put in the mix. You do want a variety in sizes but some rocks here are a bit big.
Taylor, I have to say man, super pumped for you diving in to this amazing vein of rockhounding! First off, you did awesome for ypur first tumble bro, can't begin to tell you how many rocks i've ruined. The more you do it, the more you will pick up on those small details that set your polished pieces apart. Keep it up bro!
Sometimes it's nice to leave them looking, a little like a rocks, because you may lose the eyes and banding, sometimes you have to know when to say when.
Not sure if anybody has mentioned this yet but I take my Dremel or my RotoZip with a diamond bit and clean off all of the fractures clean up the pits and make sure that everything looks pretty even before you put it in stage 1. You can cut DAYS off of your tumbling.
Hey Bro , were in the same boat, I just got my first tumbler too...I got training wheels on...I check vids from Michigan Rocks and MeMiner to name a few....I learning on the go.. Im gonna do a tumbling vid soon...As soon as I feel kinda comfortable doing this...Dont sweat the small stuff..just have fun...It will come....I think they will get better and better...Im trying to get my full lapidary skills on so I can share even more with my subs and soon to be subs....Its all fun...I enjoyed the video Brother.
Hey bro, I just posted my first tumbling video last Monday starting out, and I just filmed the part two updated that I will be posting February first. 1)So far I’ve learned not to add so much water like the grit instructions say. 2) definitely make sure you wash the rocks and the drums completely with soap/water in between steps. 3) Don’t mix minerals with different hardnesses. 4) Also if you have a bunch of small slabs in the tumbler don’t mix with chunky stones to avoid them being broken/chipped. 5) stones with a hardness of 7+ I’d tumble for 10-14 days on the first grit. 6) so I accidentally added the plastic beads on the first step which I won’t do again since those are made for the last 2-3 steps. It’s all a learning curve for us newbies to the tumbling world, as we go we will make mistakes we will learn and become better. It just takes sooooo long lol 😂 I want them to be done already 😜. Some of yours look really good and others I’d put back in personally. I can’t wait to see the new update video. And I’m going to go get some of that borax right now.
Great job for your first tumble. Hardness affects the time in the tumbler, you can also remove defects and preshape rocks with your cutter. Reshape defects and put them in next batch. Did you change the beads with each different grit?
I have nothing to add as I sorta gave up tumbling cos mine looked like yours. I didn't know about burnishing, this was over a decade ago. One thing, I wouldn't use a brush to clean the tumblers cuz they'll scratch the interior plastic, allowing previous grit to remain. Just a thought. TFS 💖🦅🦅
Wow those look like exactly what I just dealt with. Media you need to tumble with media so they don’t get so beat up. I did all the right things and at the end mine looked very similar to yours so I’m putting some back in stage one, still waiting on back order for media hopefully will get it in a few days and can put the media in stage two with them
Hi Taylor, I would just like to have that many agates to tumble. Ha Ha I wish the first batch that I tumbled looked as shiny as yours !!! I don’t have much to add to what everyone else has said. I think you need to stay in the first stage until your rocks look like you want them to. Some rocks will be tumbled down to nothing if you try to get every imperfection out so you have to decide when to stop. Check out Rob’s rotary tumbling videos and you can’t go wrong !!!
I think all of those agates have potential. I'm no pro by any means but maybe with some better padding to keep them from crashing around and the tip of not mixing the ceramic Media or pellets in the different stages. I know Marlena has bags of different media that she uses for the different stages. I would just run them from first stage right back on up. Maybe some of that pitting could be ground out and you will end up with the gorgeous Stones you were looking for. I'm sure some of the Masters will watch your video and will be able to help you out. I'm so glad you're finally getting to tumble your pretties!
I'm reasonably sure what's happened to some of your rocks (given you said things looked fine up to stage 3), you probably needed more pellets to cushion things better. If there's not enough cushioning in the later stages the rocks will smash together causing "bruises" and chips like you seem to have here. Also, a lot depends on the make up of the rock as well, because softer spots will grind away leaving holes (mica for example) in the harder material. All being said though, for a first try you did get a pretty decent polish on them (if you ignore the spots), better than I did first time (or maybe even second or third haha). The thing about tumbling is, you don't have to scour beaches for agates particularly, because many other rocks will come out great. Quartz (believe it or not) is actually an excellent rock to tumble. It takes a fantastic shine given its so hard.
Great tips and good things to think about! I think more whole quartz, like you mentioned, would definitely polish nice, mine seemed to be loose which seemed to take a beating!
Congrats on your first tumble!! I think I'm on my 6th batch now. It sure is a learning experience. First step is patience lol. It looks like there was a lot of cracks and holes in your rocks after stage 1. It's best to get rid of them before moving on. Grit from the previous stages will get caught in the holes and cracks and will carry on to your next stage which will ruin your batch so it's ok to tumble them in stage 1 longer if needed. As far as the pits, you might need to use more tumbling media (plastic pellets or ceramic beads). It's also very important to have separate media for each stage as it will also carry grit over from your previous stage. You can also burnish between each stage. It helps to clean the rocks. And make sure your barrel is super clean. It's mostly about not moving grit from previous stages to your next stage, and having plenty of cushioning so your rocks don't smash into each other especially in your later stages. Your rocks have a great shine so you're almost there. And DO NOT pour your grit down the drain, it's like cement and will cost you a lot of money later in plumbing repairs. There's also rock tumbling pages on Facebook. There's lots of info out there and lots of different methods by different people, you just have to experiment to see what works for you. Hope this helps. Ric
Yes! Such a good reminder for beginners about disposal of spent grit. I have three holes dug on the side of my yard for dumping. But I cover it so that when dry, it doesn't blow dust in the air.
@@AgateDad outside in the back yard, even in the winter. Do your rinsing inside with a 5 gallon pail, then dump it all outside in a spot that won't ruin anything
The pitting is from undercutting... It happens when you have materials of different hardness. It tends to show up especially in phases 3 and 4. You can try shorter runs of 3 and 4... And that lottery tumbler is better for this sort of thing, but rocks with significantly different harnesses inside probably need to be hand-polished if you're going for smooth.
Fun! Glad to see you tumbling. That last one looks like some kind of motherboard tech screen. Unless you are Michigan Rocks guy, you are going to have tumble “ issues “ and questions. He is so fun to watch because he does it so well, and won’t put up with the possible transfer of grit. He takes them out of the tumble to be tumbled with the others in first grit. He reminds me of a school teacher, “ no, you’re staying in first grade “. I believe there might have been something beating up your rocks, like others have said. My first tumble came out great because after the second grits, the rocks went into two big vibratory tumblers I had. ( harbor freight 15? Lb. ) if you do get a harbor freight V. tumbler, get their warranty. They will replace it if, no, when it craps out on you. There are such better ones though. LotO. My last batch of rocks came out cloudy!? Even after a re- burnish. I think I put too much final polish in. But I do miss my vibratory tumblers. No HF near me. I’m curious what you said in first part of the video, what made up the rest of your poundage!? A large rock!?
Once you put them back in the tumblrt, what will you do with the stones? The end game of the stones will tell you whatyou need to do to reach your target.
So cool. Just got into tumbling myself, first round going now. I love Rob at Michigan Rocks. Thanks for sharing your experience, thanks for the tips and tricks. Did you ever figure out why they pitted out? Just as an FYI for me being a newbie? What ended up happening with these pieces?
I like my tumbled rocks to look like rocks but just with the colors and features highlighted so I don't mind imperfections especially if it saves some of the most important features of the rock. So you have to figure out what your aesthetic preference is because to some degree it determines how long you will tumble in stage 1 and 2 where you will be losing a lot of the rock itself and along with that, some of it's features. You can check your rocks during tumbling in stage 1 & 2 and separate out the ones that you feel have been shaped and smoothed to your satisfaction. They can be added back in to the later stages. For most loads, 2 weeks at each grit and then a 24 hr burnishing tumble with borax has resulted in very nicely finished stones. I use silicon carbide for the first 3 steps and aluminum oxide for step 4. I use small ceramic media in steps 3-4. but I just also ordered large ceramic media. I had a lot of quartz beach pebbles that my grandchildren gathered at the beach and I have used that as tumbling media as well! I have had rocks that have come out pitted after stage 3 or 4. Some of those were rhyolite so I wasn't really surprised. I figured that the final stages of tumbling wore off the last of the silicate shield over softer stone inclusions in the rocks but honestly, besides the rhyolite, I'm not sure why some of them pit. As far as throwing out or re-tumbling the pitted stones, you have nothing to lose, so re-tumble! It will be an experiment!
Oh, and just like Rob teaches us, I scrub the tumblers, lids, and rocks with a brush in hot, soapy water and rinse them several times after every stage and after burnishing.
@@AgateDad I use a medium bristle toothbrush usually but I also have a regular kitchen brush that I use on big soiled rocks and will also use to scrub the tumblers. I figure it can't hurt them anymore than sharp rocks and coarse grit.
Never seen that with the pitting in stage 3 and 4. very odd. I dont burnish in between... only after stage 4. But when they are done in stage 1, look them over closely and if they are not smooth enough, or you want them more rounded on smaller, throw them back in. same with stage 2. those will be most of the shaping and smoothing of the rocks. 3 and 4 really just shine them up and then the burnishing afterward if needed. I started by collecting rocks... then i needed to do something with them so i started tumbling.... then i needed something to do with those so now i wire wrap them into jewelry. Just so you know where youre headed. :)
Maybe try polishing them on your wheel polisher. Good job for first time, I added some of the youtubers you have, I have watched Rob and he does a great job
Pick your self up a wet tile saw and try cutting those agets up. the bands run deep sometimes, and don't be afraid to to repeat step 1 for more than a week. Step 1 could take several weeks agets are extremely hard. Also upon research most rock tumbling enthusiasts frawn on cleaning your rubber barrels with liquid soap apparently it harms the rubber in some way idk. I use Borax and individual scrub brushes 1,2,3,4 for each step in order to avoid cross contaminating the grits when going threw the various steps. I suggest using ivory soap for burnishing.
I have a wet saw, its just too cold to use it, I have a flat lap to ground out certain imperfections though! I've heard mixed things with dish soap in the barrels.
@@AgateDad Damn I feel like an idiot I thought I was just giving advice to a noob rock tumbler that Rob was promoting and I did not have time to check out your channel until now. WOW amazing good stuff man.
Learned most of what I know about tumbling rocks from Michigan Rocks and MeMiner. QT66 is when you use 2 6 lb barrels. Qt12 means you can use a 12 pound barrel on the same machine. I know you already know Rob from MR. 🤓. Good to see you start tumbling. 1 tip. Run the polish run at least 10 days. 2nd tip - if you burnish with borax and it doesn’t seem to get them as shiny as you would like, try burnishing with Ivory soap. Ran into that recently with LSAgates. Tip 3. Use a different barrel for stages 1-3, than for stage 4 and burnish. Clean them well. Have fun! Oh. Ok. It is good to clean with some borax between stages to be sure you get all the grit off. After you do the polish stage (Then you do a final burnish stage) with borax. Or ivory soap for from 2-12 hours (I let it run overnight). I tumble quartz all the time. Run these through with ivory soap for 6 to 12 hours. The pits are showing up because there is probably aluminum oxide in the pits. Use different plastic pellets between 3 and 4 and burnish - the plastic may have grit embedded in it. I am fine with the pellets going into the bugs. Just pry them out. So just put them (the stones) all in with soap and unused plastic pellets for a final burnish. If you don’t want them send them to me. 😇. However, I defer to Rob - he is the master tumbler. Do what he says to do. 😎
This is my second comment. There is some very good advice here in the comments. It would be best to work out the pitting on your lapidary machine. Hope this helps . Thank you .
Awesomw vid! Definitely learned some things! Hopefully looking to do some tuning myself once I can get a hold of a tumbler ! No advice here, but loves seeing the results Those!Those last few were so pretty, I love the copper agates, the blue and greens are so pretty! The last waterlevel is beautiful, and the fine details are so cool!
I'm torn I'd the copper agate is actually copper, I looked up copper replacement agates and I don't know anymore, I know coppers natural coloring is that green but what could that be if it's not copper?!?
I'd say it's copper for sure I have multiple agates with copper inclusions none of them have the green but I don't think the copper would oxidize if its not open to the air, all of my agates with copper are concealed within the silica so they are air tight but if the copper is exposed to the air then it may oxidize and create the greenish colour your seeing ! I have a few pics on insta ill tag you in to give examples
My best advice is tumbler fodder. Tumbler fodder is all those smalls you’ve been collecting that are between plus 1/4 inch and 3/4 inch. Instead of ceramic filler use your smalls. Still use plastic pellets on stage 3 and 4 as shock absorbers and you will have good results.
@@AgateDad just another hint. if you use a 6 pound tumbler I put 3 pounds of medium and larger agates, and 2 pounds of tumbler fodder. It may vary a little from batch to batch. Ps medium and larger means plus 1 inch pieces up to around half pound.
I use a rotary tumbler for the first stage which is strictly dedicated to my largest grit. I then move on to my Diamond Pacific vibratory tumbler which has 3 barrels and each of them is strictly dedicated to their own size grit. 220 for the first, 400 for the second, and my final polish grit for the third. Doing it this way I have no contamination from different size grits in the same barrel. In between each stage, I put all my rocks in an ultra sonic cleaner which mostly cleans all the grit out of all the crevices. If there is anything left I use my water pic as a power washer before they move on to the next stage. That works really well for geode pockets. Also, I will preform all of my rocks with an angle grinder with a diamond concrete cutting blade. I take out all of the dips and holes so as to make the stone fairly smooth. Doing this makes it so I can do most rocks in two days for the first stage. And then 2 days each for the last 3 stages. In most cases I can tumble any rock in a total of 8 days. I hope this helps.
Be sure to check out ALL the amazing channels in the description box ❤ Also, I'll be sharing some comments that you leave here in my next tumbling video! So be sure to leave your tumbling tips, or whatever!
They have helped me as well!
I've got some tips for tumbling free form agates that are chunky and have pits..you would think that it's not smart to tumble them but if you start with ceramic media in the first 2 stages and continue with the media on step 3 and 4 they actually will polish very nicely..I'm actually gonna do this on my new channel..if your interested agate dad then here's my link ruclips.net/video/X1ByDZIDZ3U/видео.html I've been subscribed to your channel for a while under Luis Williams but I deleted my old account and made a new one..hope to see you there🙏
Great ideas!!
I sub them all! Such great channels!
Ever try a vibratory ?
Check it out.
Time is was faster.
I love it.
Hey Taylor, thanks for mentioning my channel! I also notice that you stole my term "Maygate". Or maybe I'm not as original as I think I am.
I didn't read the other comments, so I apologize if I repeat something that someone else said. My first observation is the times that you spent on each stage. I am a perfectionist, so my method may not be what you want. I like all of the imperfections to be ground out of my rocks. This takes a very long time and makes your rocks much smaller at times. I spend way more time in the first stage than any other. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the next stage will remove any flaws left in the previous stage. Each stage after the first just removes scratches left by the previous stage. So I clean out my barrel after the first week, check for any rocks that look flawless and remove them, and add more rough rock. Then I add new 60/90 grit and run the first stage over. I often keep this up for a several months until I have enough rocks for the next stage. This not only makes the rocks more free of defects, but also by removing holes and cracks, you eliminate spots for grit to get stuck and get moved to the next stage.
After the first stage, you don't need to inspect the rocks other than to clean them. I run 120/220 for a week, 500 for ten days, and polish for two weeks.
The pitting you showed at 7:54 is called undercutting. Undercutting is when softer minerals wear away faster than harder minerals. It gets worse in the finer stages of grit. Rocks might look great coming out of 60/90 and then get really bad after 500. Granite does this, which is why I don't pick it up anymore. Some of those might improve if you rerun them. Start over in the first stage to remove the pits. If it's undercutting due to soft minerals in the rock, then rerunning them won't really help.
The quartz was probably a matter of it banging around too much in the tumbler. How much plastic were you using? Maybe use more. How full was the barrel? You want it about 75% full. Too empty lets the rocks roll around a lot more and bangs them up.
Are you only running one barrel? Seems a shame to spend all that time an only get half the rocks done. I'd keep one barrel continuously running just the first stage and the other barrel could do the ending stages.
I LOVE that eye agate! The pattern on that last one in incredible too. Some of those turned out really well which tells me that the problem may be due more to your rocks than to your tumbling methods.
Couldn’t say it better myself
Lots of great advice, I actually have another barrel going with other things right now, so I've had two going for a while, but yes I figured I would use your method of rerunning stones but I am just working out kinks right now, I will eventually get a good system down so that I can have great results 😀 it will definitely take some time to get it down though
Also, I thought I was clever with the "magate" comment haha!!
@@AgateDad We can both use it and maybe it will catch on.
@@MichiganRocks its definitely going to start showing more of a difference in the final tumble process 4/5/6, #1/2/3 will be learning curve barrels
Suggestions: Re-run stage 1 over and over until the shaping is how you want. You have some bruising going on, add in mixed or just large ceramic media beginning in stage 2. Clean and reuse the ceramic media through the rest of the stages. Add in more each stage (used ceramics, no hard edges) as needed to cushion and that will cut down on the bruising. Ceramic is my preferred media for anything hardness 6.5+ (jasper, quartz, agates), plastic for softer stuff that I try to avoid anyway. Only use new ceramic in stage 1 and/or 2 to break it in, then safely reuse it after cleaning. Keep rolling! 👍
Great advice and thank you!
You rock! (Literally) hahaha because sharing experience and/or helpful tips is so kind, because that collaboration in the rock hound genre is necessary for growth and refining skills for all of us sharing this wondrous world.
There’s a progression to this thing, first you start collecting, then you notice all the rocks building up in your house with nothing to do with all these rocks , so then you want to do more so you naturally delve into the lapidary arts. I thought I would never be tumbling, cutting and now going into smoothing out rocks.. It’s so much fun and is just a extra extension of the fun.😃
You are 100% correct my friend 🤘
😅 So true!
First off... Great results for your first tumble experience dude! Those got pretty shiny✨ And 2nd... Thanks for the shout out my friend! I had loads of things to say but looking thru the comments most seem to be covered. So I'll only add a little...
The biggest advice I feel I can give about the unwanted pitting and cracks is... Use your saw or even your flat lap to cut out or sand out those problem areas so that you don't have to tumble forever in coarse or spend countless hours cleaning with a toothbrush. It's so hard to "shave" off parts but the end result will be worth it. Another thing is... (Especially with smaller stones) you actually don't have to run a coarse run on river/beach tumbled stones...just repeat stage 2 twice and move on. I also do this when I don't want a lot of the stone to disappear (in coarse you loose a lot of layers). So for instance... The Agate at 9:49 I would use your flat lap and grind out those cracks...then start all over. The quartz (which should tumble nicely) I would start back off in medium but use more plastic media in final stages. And some of those that look a little dull but otherwise good...i would run longer in polish. Thirst Fast just posted a tumble he did of amethyst... He said he followed my pre-polish and polish advice and had the best results ever. Check it out...they are a mirror finish✨ I run my polish stage no less than 14 days and I swear by it! Lastly, don't use dawn dish soap to clean your barrels. It is too harsh on the Lortone barrel and will damage it overtime...borax or a mild soap is ok. Plus, a toothbrush will not damage the barrel (I saw someone wrote that😉)
Ok one more! Those plastic pellets can ONLY be ran in one stage. Have some for each stage and only run them in those stage. And you will find themselves wedged in pits and that's ok as long as you get them out AND the grit they now trapped underneath them.
Other than that, I can't think of anything else. But if I do I'll let you know. Feel free to ask me any questions at any time. And I am SO glad you got a tumbler! Happy happy tumbling those beauties Taylor! Cheers😎
Marlaina, you have left me the longest comment I've ever received, and every word of it was gold, thank you SO much!! I really have so much knowledge gained by your comment, I truly appreciate it! I am glad to know about the dawn fish soap tip and the polish 2week run, good to know!
So glad to see you tumbling Taylor. You reached out to a good one with Rob at Michiganrocks. He is an award winner. You two are the only rock hounds I watch. Have fun.
I'm very happy to be able to ☺
I just did my first tumble myself, and Rob, Rocks, from Michigan rocks has helped me he will answer your questions
He did answer my questions lol
Coarse grinding is the most important step, the other stages are about removing scratches. Tumble them in coarse until you're satisfied with how they look...and it's critical to inspect the stones when they're dry. Water will cover flaws to a surprising extent, so dry them. I just started a load of very rough Laguna agate that I expect will take a minimum of 8 weeks in coarse.
I use borax with every step...but be careful where you dump the slurry. Borax will kill grass and vegetation, so pour it where you don't want weeds.
Quartz is hard, but brittle. Don't mix quartz with other types of stone, and keep the barrel full so that the stones aren't battering against each other. Listen to your tumbler, if the sound is a loud clacking/clattering noise, the barrel isn't full enough.
Even then, you'll end up with rejected rocks. I have a 5 gallon bucket about half full of rocks that have gone all the way through the process and were rejected for various reasons. Those get recycled back into coarse when I need to top up the barrel.
I cannot thank you enough for this advice, gives me a lot to think about and great ideas for recycling rocks!
My daughter wants me to post this comment to you: I really like the colors of the agates, like it's just so good, I love it.
From me, I brought back a couple of bags of purchased LSA from the rock shop in Beaver Bay, going to crank up the Harbor Freight tumbler over the weekend. Thanks for the primer.
I started tumbling about 8 months ago after watching Rob of Michigan Rocks. Great advice there. Along the way, I’ve been trying different things to get better results. Marlaina Atkins is a favorite along with MeMiner. Some very good tips that I’ve picked up along the way are: Do not let your rocks dry out between grit stages. After you wash and brush them, keep them in a dollar store container immersed in water. On stones that have cracks and holes, grit or stone grindings can lodge in there and not be washed out easily. If you let the stone dry out between tumbles, that grit will turn into a concrete-like mass and will be almost impossible to get out later. Running them again for 6 hours or so with some Borax and water helps loosen the residue. Some stones with holes that contain some grit may never come perfectly clean. Better to eliminate those rocks from anything beyond the coarse stage or take care to remove the holes through grinding or splitting the rocks first. Michigan Rocks is a fanatic about that. One good exercise that I’ve learned from Montana Rock Mom is this: once you’ve cleaned and brushed your rocks and canister and you think they are perfectly cleaned and ready for the next step, put them in the tumbler and just add fresh water to the top of the rocks and tumble with no grit or any additive for six hours or so. Then open your canister and take a look at your “fresh” water again. You might be shocked. Time to run it again in fresh water only until the water is fairly clear after the short tumble. In this way, you are fairly certain that you are not transferring that cloudy residue or coarser grit from the rocks or canister to the next tumbling step with finer grit. Time spent doing this will pay off in the long run with a better shine. Just my 2 cents. Very nice and authentic channel. You’re doing a really good job.
I love thay "fresh water trick, ive heard that idea with Borax, keep running until the water is clear!
Very pretty rocks! Nice for your first time. You just get better with more experience & time. Its a fun hobby which I'm just starting out to do too. I live in Utah, we have lots of different rocks here. Planning on doing plenty of rock hounding of very many different kinds of rocks and looking forward and getting into this very exciting hobby myself. Maybe both of us could share rocks from different parts of the country sometime? Good luck! 👍
Omg at 19:06 thats incredible one of the most beautiful details ive seen 😮
Agate Dad, I grew up in a little town north of the Iron Range and rock hounded Lake Superior Agates from an old rail line that was buit using gravels from pits near lake Superior. The agates with quartz crystals are thin layers of agate and the more that you polish them the worse that they get. Your agates that have cracks need to be cut or you will end up with a very small agate. Cracking occurs from rolling in heavy Superior waves. Pit stones are better, less cracking. I have watched many videos and read many books on polishing and one thing that I really want to try is having plastic or ceramic beads for each step. Others have held back stones to fill up the barrel because they do lose mass as you polish them. The last step for me was tumbling with ivory bar soap after the polish step. Here in Washingington State, I am envious of Lake Superior Agates. We mostly have clear chalcedony but I have found Rain Forest Jasper, Zebra Jasper and Jade. Good Luck and Happy Hunting! Dan Fisher
Very beautiful up on the range! Definitely lots of education and time.spent on all process with this, I look forward to getting better each time!
Good job its fun to see what you get and how they change.
Dude I’m only half way, but I’ve noticed that Benny had the same problem with the pitting, it happened after polishing and it was like the polish stuck to the pits. So the pits were there, but the compound just made them stand out. I’m absolutely still learning this stuff so I don’t have a solution, but yeah, that’s what happened with bennies. And the quartz ones, I’ve heard them called “Quartz Bombs” because the blow up in a sense. They fall apart so the polish on them doesn’t do so well, but also, the bits that fall out, end up being like having an even courser grit than the first one. They end up leaving scratches that you might not be able to individually see, but the luster will be dulled a bit. I’m not gonna pretend I know though hahaha! I’m still and probably always will be learning as I go. That’s the cool thing about this, you just gotta learn as you go. But damn the good ones, are bloody good dude! Keep tumbling!!!!!!!! I absolutely regret only doing one tumble last year and I can’t wait for the next one. First time is always the hardest after the polish. But there’s always gonna be things you see and don’t like that others won’t even notice. I think because when tumbling you’re focusing on a bunch the whole time. But if you held just one of them, without seeing it throughout, you’d think it was amazing. If that makes sense. Nice work brother 👊👊👊
Oh also, how cool is it when you can see the physical definition of the bands in the reflection. Even if they’re not as defined in colour etc. It’s nuts hey!?
Dude.. I agree about how if you just looked at each one, you'd notice a lot more details! Also, that definition on that last one blew my friggin mind!! Loved that!
The agate with the eyes is so beautiful. Hope you can figure it out quickly. And Rob knows what hes doing!
I'm sure it'll take time 👍👍
I just started tumbling myself. I use tile crosses as my media. They cushion very well. I just need to learn more patience lol
Great idea, might need to try that!
I use tile spacers aswell and they work gr8 xxxx Rocks look gr8 Tayor xxx happy tumbing xxx
Might have to give them a try 👍
So with PITTING, ESPECIALLY QUARTZ, I've noticed the more banging around the more fractures and pits that occur in my quartz pieces. If i keep the Tumbler 4/5 full, it does less bashing around and it pits less. However sometimes there are pockets of soft mineral in the rock, and they end up pitting no matter what. Sometimes ill cut the pits out using the edge of my wet saw. Oftentimes, i just unveil MORE pockets of soft material, but sometimes it works out.
Okay so that’s what exactly happened to my first tumble too. So until you solve this problem, I will wait. Thanks for sharing 😊
Haha we will fix it together!
Hey Taylor! Hate to have to say this, but the pitting was there all along, you just didn't notice it. When you go from stage to stage you usually don't look really closely until the final polish provides so much contrast they jump right out at you. If you really don't want the pitting and imperfections, you have to put in the extra time during the first stage. They say stones between 5 and 7 in hardness are best for tumbling, and I'm sure you know agates are a 7. So it really takes a lot to smooth them out so they'll be ready for the step two. I mean weeks and weeks. I take maybe 5 to 10 percent out after step one that are ready for step two. I set those aside. I even use a loupe to check them out. Only when I have enough to fill my tumbler to two thirds do I go on to step two.
Yeah that seems to be the consensus, definitely need to take more time in the first stage! Great idea with the loupe!
Ditto on the pits being there all along. More time on first stage is best antidote to this problem.
I'm no professional but with the Yellowstone rocks I find I do two weeks every stage and barnish for a day and use ceramic pellets there a bit bigger and I have some good outcome on my rocks
Good advice, definitely need to get some ceramics, won't be in the next two tumbling videos, but someday lol
Thank you for posting this vid. My dad gave me a double barrel Loretone tumbler. I haven't used it yet. I have piles of agate that I have picked up all over Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Minnesota, and all points in between. LOL The questions you asked and all the advice that has come in, thank you. All of you have helped me in the right direction.
Taylor, I think you did a great job for your first time! I have been trying the tumbling aspect of this since I started my rock adventure... my first tumble was a disaster they did not turn out and are still sitting waiting patiently waiting for me to put them in for another round of tumbling.... The pitted ones to me look great, seems more natural to me, but if it feels good for you then you should do it.
Uuuuuhhhh...getting fancier! 🤪 congratulations on your new tumbler. That’s great!
Thanks!
Nice. I’ve only been tumbling for about a year, but I’ve learned to be *very* patient in stage 1. With hard materials like agates and jaspers, I find I get the best results tumbling in coarse grit for *at least* a month (recharging the grit once a week), then 10 days in medium, 2 weeks in pre-polish, and one week in polish. My tumbles also started getting better once I added ceramics to stages 3-4, but you can also use pebbles, so I whenever I go rockhounding, I keep an eye out for small bits of chalcedony, agate or jasper to use as filler.
Explain recharging
@@AgateDad Replacing the grit as it breaks down. Depending on how thick the slurry is, I’ll either add ~1.5 tbsp fresh coarse grit (for a 3 lb. barrel) or lightly rinse everything and start from scratch.
These turned out so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks 😊
Wow, they came out beautiful
I love your botryoidal video!So much going on! I just love all the interesting bits in one slice!
Thanks for sharing another great video with us! You've already gotten a lot of good tips here but I wanted to share something I just figured out recently. My rocks looked great after the first two stages and sometimes even the third but turned to crap in the last stage. I kept getting cracks and chips. Two things helped me....first, Rob suggested filling the barrel a little higher so the rocks aren't crashing into each other as much...and that helped a bit. Then, I read something that explicitly said to check and sort rocks between stages when they are DRY! Duh! Even though I was being very particular and using a loupe to assess the rocks at each stage, they were wet. When dry, everything stands out and the rocks I thought were perfect after stage 1 definitely were not! Being more selective in the beginning led to better outcomes later. Anyways, I learned a huge lesson. Hope this helps in some way. Keep on keeping on!!
I definitely agree, being more picky and patient will help in the process!
Yes the ones that you're not happy with throw back in the Tumblr at stage one and yes quit using the plastic pellet especially if they have lots of pits and holes more smooth beach rocks is what the plastic pellets are for go get the ceramic ones and throw them back in the tumbler and check them every 12 to 15 hours and pull out the smooth ones and leave in the ones that still need work and run it until you run out of rocks in the Tumblr,that's what I've been doing and that's what I've learned watching all the RUclips videos from my other fellow Rock hounders.☺️😊🙃👍👍👍🙌🙌🙌
Yeah I need to get something different than the pellets 👍
The nice thing is when you use your small agates as tumbler fodder, you end up with a lot of small polished stones to give as gifts or for craft ideas.
True!
Love the rock clock
i'm not a expert but have tumbled alot and had advice from old timers. i use lots of tiny agates in my barrel. was told the tiny ones cushion the big ones. worked for me. Also i only use course for 30 days then polish for week. was told the longer you run the course media the more it breaks down as you polish to a fine. but i imagine you have to find what works for you.
I've heard this and very true, gotta find my stride!
Thanks for sharing your advice and other. We need to all work together. The soon to be master of tumbling.
I agree! Teamwork makes the dream work 💪🤘
Hi there, I'm new to rock tumbling too.
I've been following Rob from Michigan rocks, he is the best.
I'm from New Zealand, there's a fantastic blog called Tumblestone, written by a fellow rock hound. He uses a loritone and the blog is very detailed.
From the stones I've tumbled, I can only recommend, leave them in the stage one for a bit longer, maybe a few weeks.
Dishwash soap for washing in between stages and for burnishing
Sounds interesting! I'll have to look into it!
A lot of great comments here, I have been tumbling for a year, I am still learning. Definitely important to clean your rocks as much as possible before moving on. Also one thing to take into consideration when choosing rocks to tumble, try to avoid heavily fractured stones, as they may break apart when tumbling.
Yes! Definitely being picky is a must, its so fun learning all this and I appreciate all the help. Cleaning is one of the top things it seems 👍
@@AgateDad you wouldn't think that a little grit from the previous stage would affect anything, but it can definitely prevent stones from taking to a good polish
I love Michigan Rocks!!!
I burnish between each step but also after I do the final polish I run them in the tumbler for about 2 or 3 days in water and grated bar Ivory soap (about 1/3 cup) It really brings out the shine.
If you tumble a stone that has loose bits of quartz, those bits will mess up your polish. As well, softer material that's been trapped within the agates will also erode more quickly once exposed.
Maybe try the stage one, two and three tumbles in your tumbler, then polish by hand?
In any case, you're making progress and I (very much) enjoy your videos! Keep up the good work!
I'm never going to polish by hand again haha but great advice!
Super vídeo meu amigo garimpeiro.
Tá finders superior my dear Friends...from Brasil
Hi again TAYLOR
Excited for you you're branching out and upping your rock game lol! The best suggestion I have would be to keep tumbling longer then recommended times. Yes they will come out looking beautiful but a bit longer always made them gorgeous! Oh how I especially like the Superior agates! Will say some will polish better then others. But the multi banded good old red/orange ones are always the best.
Have fun getting familiar with your tumbler and enjoy!
Catcha next time...
PS I never have tumbled anything but agates!
I'm also so excited to be in the tumbling game now! That's seems to be the common trend, keep them in for longer!
Great video Taylor and thanks for the shout out! There isn't anymore advice I could give that Rob hasn't already. I will say that some of those rocks turned out pretty good. That last agate was really something and the eye agates look awesome!
I think 4 turned out decent, my success rate isn't good yet hahaha! Someday!
@MichiganRocks is great! By watching his tumbling videos, I learned a lot, especially things that I was doing incorrectly. Both of you have helped me so much with my rock hounding/collecting hobby (more like obsession? LOL). Big thanks go to both of you for allowing us to watching your channels and learn from them! 😊
You did great. I think it's awesome that you are sharing your first experience and it will be interesting to watch your progress!
First of all, I'm ecstatic that you shared this video because I've been 50/50 on attempting tumbling my agates and chalcedony in my tumbler!
2nd---- before your video even began it was prefaced with an ad by zuPoo.. I watched the whole thing!! Everyone should! I've worked in healthcare long enough, and it's true! (The diner clip/waitress made me laugh so hard I woke up the dog.) 🤦🏼♀️
Thats funny, I don't pick the ads but so glad you enjoyed it!
It's a good one LOL! I hope someday you get to see it!
You're building it up pretty high, better be good lol 😆
It's a fantastic ad! (don't forget about the diner/waitress scene.) 😆
I just used a tin oxide polish on my jasper and agates and got a nice glassy shine, worth the money for the good ones! Undercutting and pitting are a pain I'm still trying to figure out why it happens in the last stages. I use a toddler toothbrush to clean all of mine between stages too. Those pebbles are too small! Use the ceramic media instead, but break it in in the first stage tumble first, always use worn media in your polish stages. Happy Tumbling! I'm excited to see your agates shine!
Bonjour quelle quantité d'oxyde d'étain utilisez vous ?
Pretty, cool and beauty😄
I would call Rob from Michigan. He is a agate expert.
Love your videos. I live in the Wisconsin River Valley community of Mosinee, WI. I have been hounding for many years in Wisconsin as well as the U.P. I have been tumbling for quite some time and I’m still learning to improve. I have learned that silicon carbide has a unique property. This being that as it wears it will continue to exhibit sharp edges (microscopically). It’s very important to separate it from steps 3,4, and final burning. I mark cleaning tools and cloths with the step that there used for. Then segregate them from each other. This will reduce the possibility of cross contamination. Most of my beach and glacial till finds are smooth to begin with, so I will skip step one. If I have any that have a rough spot, I will use my dremel with diamond bits to smoothen. In this way your pretties will retain more material,(bigger pretties). If there are large areas of softer or pitted areas you can use your diamond saw to remove and smoothen. A lot of the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan Agates will contain some softer material . Dolomite, copper, Olivine, Feldspar, Basalt are a few. These other minerals and rocks will wear more readily and get banged up with the Agate and Quartz. This being said, it’s important to add more cushioning to those. I use ceramic because it has more weight to begin with. The weight is needed to aid in the polishing. For the final burnish I use un-dyed leather strips for cushioning. Hope this helps.
Doug
They look like they turned out great for the first time......the only thing I could add is, if you like them keep them like they are & if you are not satisfied, tumble them some more because they could get better but you can't get anything back......just chalk it up to a learning lesson & move on......good luck & stay well & warm....peace !
Great advice! Thank you 😊
Thanks for the videos
Thanks for watching!
Great video. Sub'd on recommendation of Michigan Rocks. Wonderful comments from your viewers. I dabbled a bit with tumbling over 30 years ago when my children were little with a Skilcraft tumbler knowing absolutely nothing and no mentor. Several of my grandchildren show great interest in rock hounding so now with RUclipsrs like you , Michigan Rocks and others I'm gaining a great knowledge base before purchasing equipment and supplies. Thanks for taking the time to put out content. God bless your efforts as a dad and on your channel
It is a goal of mine to find an agate one day on Lake Superior ! Thanks for the great video!
Happy that you're doing the rock tumbling. It can be a very pleasing experience , and a very frustrating one . Think of rocks as a onion each step takes a layer away from the rock. . I think that the first polishing stages does the same thing . The pitting is naturally occurring in the rock. It could be a softer sandy type stone inside the rock , it could be air pockets , or Crystal pockets . For the last stage run the 500 polish and then go up to a 1200 polish . Wash with your borax between each polish stage . Try cutting your larger stones several times , the flatter the better. Best of luck . Enjoyed !
Thanks for the great advice!
I like how you knew where you found most of those rocks. I know that tumbling looks easier than it is, and I don't know why but I'm sure you'll get better at it and there was one that looked like a jelly bean an orange jelly bean I kept waiting for you to pick that one up but you never did. Fun video though!
Hi!
Happy day, you started tumbling! It is a study in patience and cleanliness...
Quartz: as a full rock, it can do well, but as crystals in another rock, meh. It will likely just keep shedding.
Your lovely rock at 9:55 has so much to give! I recommend going back into coarse grit until the spawls are gone. But the brown pits are cool and I hope those stay.
The little ones!! Can't wait to know about that project.
Pitting on agates: I find that those tiny pits on agates are their natural texture and you won't notice them until they are full of something (like white polish). So, you can try getting the polish out using a water pick or Sonicare. You might find you like those pits when they aren't contrasting. Or just keep it in coarse grit longer in the beginning.
Making corrections: If the rock has a good polish, but you don't like the shape or there are cracks&pits, always go back to coarse grit. Agates are hard, and won't change much in the other stages. If you have a big flaw, you can use your flat lap to grind out cracks and pits saving WEEKS in tumbling.
I would love to know where you purchased the pale size grit!!
Can't wait to see what you learn.
I think making corrections on my flat lap is such a great idea and time saver!
The copper agate is extremely rare, that’s so cool that you may have found one!
The QT66 and QT12 are the same machine with different barrel configurations at purchase. The QT66 comes with two 6 pound barrels, the QT12 comes with one 12 pound barrel. You can purchase either and buy the other barrel/barrels depending on your needs at the time.
Great explanation! Thanks dude!
I'm pretty new at tumbling too. I have been tumbling petoskey stones and other fossils mostly and my first batch was all busted up like yours. So I added ceramic media, alot of it, and haven't had this problem again. I add the rocks 3/4 full, then ceramic to about 1/2 inch from the top of the rocks, then water. I begin at stage 1 and use the same ones all the way through and put them in the wash cycles I do in between every stage with borax. I use the ceramic balls. You can order them in mixed sizes or all the same size.
I definitely need ceramics!
petoshey is a softer stone. so you might not use 1 stage on them
I think you did an awesome first time rock run!
So much great advice from others.
Will you still be cutting and hand polishing big pieces?
What are the largest that can be tumbled?
Too many questions,
eh?
Cheers,
Rik Spector
I won't be hand polishing, maybe with my flat lap, but thank you! It can only go up from here!
Rob is one of the best to go to,but there are many thar are good !
Yupp!
so nice
The polished ones look great. Similar to what Lance Dean said, adding some cushioning should help with the breaking up of the quartz and pitting. I'm just getting into the hobby and the group at RockTumblingHobby.com suggested using quartz or granite pea gravel for cushioning since it is hard and cheap. The ceramics I bought were $5.50/lb and the 3/8" crushed granite was $5.50/40 lb. I plan on having a load of granite for each stage and when they get low, take some from the next rougher stage.
Not a bad idea, might have to entertain that thought!
I think the pitting might be from small rocks getting beat up by some fairly large/heavy rocks that were put in the mix. You do want a variety in sizes but some rocks here are a bit big.
Taylor, I have to say man, super pumped for you diving in to this amazing vein of rockhounding! First off, you did awesome for ypur first tumble bro, can't begin to tell you how many rocks i've ruined. The more you do it, the more you will pick up on those small details that set your polished pieces apart. Keep it up bro!
hey tumbling rock is ace, love the video
Thanks!
Sometimes it's nice to leave them looking, a little like a rocks, because you may lose the eyes and banding, sometimes you have to know when to say when.
Absolutely agree
Not sure if anybody has mentioned this yet but I take my Dremel or my RotoZip with a diamond bit and clean off all of the fractures clean up the pits and make sure that everything looks pretty even before you put it in stage 1. You can cut DAYS off of your tumbling.
Great idea!
Hey Bro , were in the same boat, I just got my first tumbler too...I got training wheels on...I check vids from Michigan Rocks and MeMiner to name a few....I learning on the go.. Im gonna do a tumbling vid soon...As soon as I feel kinda comfortable doing this...Dont sweat the small stuff..just have fun...It will come....I think they will get better and better...Im trying to get my full lapidary skills on so I can share even more with my subs and soon to be subs....Its all fun...I enjoyed the video Brother.
It is all fun, always is! Looking forward to those vids!
Hey bro, I just posted my first tumbling video last Monday starting out, and I just filmed the part two updated that I will be posting February first.
1)So far I’ve learned not to add so much water like the grit instructions say.
2) definitely make sure you wash the rocks and the drums completely with soap/water in between steps.
3) Don’t mix minerals with different hardnesses.
4) Also if you have a bunch of small slabs in the tumbler don’t mix with chunky stones to avoid them being broken/chipped.
5) stones with a hardness of 7+ I’d tumble for 10-14 days on the first grit.
6) so I accidentally added the plastic beads on the first step which I won’t do again since those are made for the last 2-3 steps.
It’s all a learning curve for us newbies to the tumbling world, as we go we will make mistakes we will learn and become better. It just takes sooooo long lol 😂 I want them to be done already 😜.
Some of yours look really good and others I’d put back in personally. I can’t wait to see the new update video. And I’m going to go get some of that borax right now.
Yes man and I think I shared your video in the description box 🤘 there's a lot to tumbling and it's all circumstantial for what you're working with!
@@AgateDad oh ok cool thanks I appreciate the shout out... I didn’t see that at first. Thank you 🙏☺️
Yeah no problem, I'll share your tips in my next "tumble talk" vid, I think that's what I'm going to call these informal vids, what do you think?
@@AgateDad oh yeah I like it... definitely catchy 😁.
Can’t wait for the summer so I can get up there and meet up with you and find some goodies.
We will hit up the creeks man!!
I would take the pitted stones to my Cab King and see what i could do with them. Of course, I'm starting out too so they may not turn out so great.
Great job for your first tumble. Hardness affects the time in the tumbler, you can also remove defects and preshape rocks with your cutter. Reshape defects and put them in next batch. Did you change the beads with each different grit?
Yes I changed the beads, I figured I would burnish my pellets before using them again so they are extremely clean
I have nothing to add as I sorta gave up tumbling cos mine looked like yours. I didn't know about burnishing, this was over a decade ago. One thing, I wouldn't use a brush to clean the tumblers cuz they'll scratch the interior plastic, allowing previous grit to remain. Just a thought. TFS 💖🦅🦅
I've heard mixed things about the brushes in the barrel, how would you clean them then??
@@AgateDad TBH, I can't remember what I used. Sorry man. I just know that any interior scratches will hold the grit. Does Rob have a system?
Idk I'll have to ask
Wow those look like exactly what I just dealt with. Media you need to tumble with media so they don’t get so beat up. I did all the right things and at the end mine looked very similar to yours so I’m putting some back in stage one, still waiting on back order for media hopefully will get it in a few days and can put the media in stage two with them
Hi Taylor, I would just like to have that many agates to tumble. Ha Ha I wish the first batch that I tumbled looked as shiny as yours !!! I don’t have much to add to what everyone else has said. I think you need to stay in the first stage until your rocks look like you want them to. Some rocks will be tumbled down to nothing if you try to get every imperfection out so you have to decide when to stop. Check out Rob’s rotary tumbling videos and you can’t go wrong !!!
You're right, I have to stay in that stage until I'm ready, Rob has great methods for perfection that I need to mirror 🤘
I think all of those agates have potential. I'm no pro by any means but maybe with some better padding to keep them from crashing around and the tip of not mixing the ceramic Media or pellets in the different stages. I know Marlena has bags of different media that she uses for the different stages. I would just run them from first stage right back on up. Maybe some of that pitting could be ground out and you will end up with the gorgeous Stones you were looking for. I'm sure some of the Masters will watch your video and will be able to help you out. I'm so glad you're finally getting to tumble your pretties!
I'm definitely going to be working these stones for a while, some may take months and months until they get to the finished product!
I'm reasonably sure what's happened to some of your rocks (given you said things looked fine up to stage 3), you probably needed more pellets to cushion things better. If there's not enough cushioning in the later stages the rocks will smash together causing "bruises" and chips like you seem to have here. Also, a lot depends on the make up of the rock as well, because softer spots will grind away leaving holes (mica for example) in the harder material. All being said though, for a first try you did get a pretty decent polish on them (if you ignore the spots), better than I did first time (or maybe even second or third haha). The thing about tumbling is, you don't have to scour beaches for agates particularly, because many other rocks will come out great. Quartz (believe it or not) is actually an excellent rock to tumble. It takes a fantastic shine given its so hard.
Great tips and good things to think about! I think more whole quartz, like you mentioned, would definitely polish nice, mine seemed to be loose which seemed to take a beating!
Not a bad first crack at it.
Thanks!
Congrats on your first tumble!! I think I'm on my 6th batch now. It sure is a learning experience. First step is patience lol. It looks like there was a lot of cracks and holes in your rocks after stage 1. It's best to get rid of them before moving on. Grit from the previous stages will get caught in the holes and cracks and will carry on to your next stage which will ruin your batch so it's ok to tumble them in stage 1 longer if needed. As far as the pits, you might need to use more tumbling media (plastic pellets or ceramic beads). It's also very important to have separate media for each stage as it will also carry grit over from your previous stage. You can also burnish between each stage. It helps to clean the rocks. And make sure your barrel is super clean. It's mostly about not moving grit from previous stages to your next stage, and having plenty of cushioning so your rocks don't smash into each other especially in your later stages. Your rocks have a great shine so you're almost there. And DO NOT pour your grit down the drain, it's like cement and will cost you a lot of money later in plumbing repairs. There's also rock tumbling pages on Facebook. There's lots of info out there and lots of different methods by different people, you just have to experiment to see what works for you. Hope this helps.
Ric
Where do you dump your grit??
Yes! Such a good reminder for beginners about disposal of spent grit. I have three holes dug on the side of my yard for dumping. But I cover it so that when dry, it doesn't blow dust in the air.
@@AgateDad outside in the back yard, even in the winter. Do your rinsing inside with a 5 gallon pail, then dump it all outside in a spot that won't ruin anything
@@stephanierocks8503 Great idea about covering it, I never thought of that.
Thank you!!
The pitting is from undercutting... It happens when you have materials of different hardness. It tends to show up especially in phases 3 and 4. You can try shorter runs of 3 and 4... And that lottery tumbler is better for this sort of thing, but rocks with significantly different harnesses inside probably need to be hand-polished if you're going for smooth.
Fun! Glad to see you tumbling. That last one looks like some kind of motherboard tech screen. Unless you are Michigan Rocks guy, you are going to have tumble “ issues “ and questions. He is so fun to watch because he does it so well, and won’t put up with the possible transfer of grit. He takes them out of the tumble to be tumbled with the others in first grit. He reminds me of a school teacher, “ no, you’re staying in first grade “. I believe there might have been something beating up your rocks, like others have said. My first tumble came out great because after the second grits, the rocks went into two big vibratory tumblers I had. ( harbor freight 15? Lb. ) if you do get a harbor freight V. tumbler, get their warranty. They will replace it if, no, when it craps out on you. There are such better ones though. LotO.
My last batch of rocks came out cloudy!? Even after a re- burnish. I think I put too much final polish in. But I do miss my vibratory tumblers. No HF near me.
I’m curious what you said in first part of the video, what made up the rest of your poundage!? A large rock!?
Hehehe next tumbling video you will see!! Yeah Rob is awesome! He helped a lot!
I believe Michigan Rocks! is a school teacher. Good call!
The pitted ones I think are good ones for your Cabking.
Once you put them back in the tumblrt, what will you do with the stones? The end game of the stones will tell you whatyou need to do to reach your target.
As Katy did says, so many beutiful rocks!!! small, but nice.
Thank you
So cool. Just got into tumbling myself, first round going now. I love Rob at Michigan Rocks. Thanks for sharing your experience, thanks for the tips and tricks. Did you ever figure out why they pitted out? Just as an FYI for me being a newbie? What ended up happening with these pieces?
I like my tumbled rocks to look like rocks but just with the colors and features highlighted so I don't mind imperfections especially if it saves some of the most important features of the rock. So you have to figure out what your aesthetic preference is because to some degree it determines how long you will tumble in stage 1 and 2 where you will be losing a lot of the rock itself and along with that, some of it's features. You can check your rocks during tumbling in stage 1 & 2 and separate out the ones that you feel have been shaped and smoothed to your satisfaction. They can be added back in to the later stages. For most loads, 2 weeks at each grit and then a 24 hr burnishing tumble with borax has resulted in very nicely finished stones. I use silicon carbide for the first 3 steps and aluminum oxide for step 4. I use small ceramic media in steps 3-4. but I just also ordered large ceramic media. I had a lot of quartz beach pebbles that my grandchildren gathered at the beach and I have used that as tumbling media as well!
I have had rocks that have come out pitted after stage 3 or 4. Some of those were rhyolite so I wasn't really surprised. I figured that the final stages of tumbling wore off the last of the silicate shield over softer stone inclusions in the rocks but honestly, besides the rhyolite, I'm not sure why some of them pit.
As far as throwing out or re-tumbling the pitted stones, you have nothing to lose, so re-tumble! It will be an experiment!
Oh, and just like Rob teaches us, I scrub the tumblers, lids, and rocks with a brush in hot, soapy water and rinse them several times after every stage and after burnishing.
Hard or soft bristle brush?
@@AgateDad I use a medium bristle toothbrush usually but I also have a regular kitchen brush that I use on big soiled rocks and will also use to scrub the tumblers. I figure it can't hurt them anymore than sharp rocks and coarse grit.
No kidding!
Never seen that with the pitting in stage 3 and 4. very odd. I dont burnish in between... only after stage 4. But when they are done in stage 1, look them over closely and if they are not smooth enough, or you want them more rounded on smaller, throw them back in. same with stage 2. those will be most of the shaping and smoothing of the rocks. 3 and 4 really just shine them up and then the burnishing afterward if needed. I started by collecting rocks... then i needed to do something with them so i started tumbling.... then i needed something to do with those so now i wire wrap them into jewelry. Just so you know where youre headed. :)
Oh. Btw. Take before and after photos. And even between stages, at first. Help you see when things happen. Very pretty stones.
Great idea and will do next time!
Next next next time lol I have 2 other tumbling vids in the works!
Maybe try polishing them on your wheel polisher. Good job for first time, I added some of the youtubers you have, I have watched Rob and he does a great job
Not a bad idea!! Thanks!
Hand grind the pits out with a Dremel and diamond ball bit. Then put them in the next stage if you are afraid of losing a neat feature.
Pick your self up a wet tile saw and try cutting those agets up. the bands run deep sometimes, and don't be afraid to to repeat step 1 for more than a week. Step 1 could take several weeks agets are extremely hard. Also upon research most rock tumbling enthusiasts frawn on cleaning your rubber barrels with liquid soap apparently it harms the rubber in some way idk. I use Borax and individual scrub brushes 1,2,3,4 for each step in order to avoid cross contaminating the grits when going threw the various steps. I suggest using ivory soap for burnishing.
I have a wet saw, its just too cold to use it, I have a flat lap to ground out certain imperfections though! I've heard mixed things with dish soap in the barrels.
@@AgateDad Damn I feel like an idiot I thought I was just giving advice to a noob rock tumbler that Rob was promoting and I did not have time to check out your channel until now. WOW amazing good stuff man.
Oh I am a noob tumbler lol
Learned most of what I know about tumbling rocks from Michigan Rocks and MeMiner. QT66 is when you use 2 6 lb barrels. Qt12 means you can use a 12 pound barrel on the same machine. I know you already know Rob from MR. 🤓. Good to see you start tumbling. 1 tip. Run the polish run at least 10 days. 2nd tip - if you burnish with borax and it doesn’t seem to get them as shiny as you would like, try burnishing with Ivory soap. Ran into that recently with LSAgates. Tip 3. Use a different barrel for stages 1-3, than for stage 4 and burnish. Clean them well. Have fun! Oh. Ok. It is good to clean with some borax between stages to be sure you get all the grit off. After you do the polish stage (Then you do a final burnish stage) with borax. Or ivory soap for from 2-12 hours (I let it run overnight). I tumble quartz all the time. Run these through with ivory soap for 6 to 12 hours. The pits are showing up because there is probably aluminum oxide in the pits. Use different plastic pellets between 3 and 4 and burnish - the plastic may have grit embedded in it. I am fine with the pellets going into the bugs. Just pry them out. So just put them (the stones) all in with soap and unused plastic pellets for a final burnish. If you don’t want them send them to me. 😇. However, I defer to Rob - he is the master tumbler. Do what he says to do. 😎
So much good advice!! Thank you!
My tips were really disjointed as I kept editing as I watched your video. LOL
All good my friend 😁❤
This is my second comment. There is some very good advice here in the comments. It would be best to work out the pitting on your lapidary machine. Hope this helps . Thank you .
Thanks!
Awesomw vid! Definitely learned some things! Hopefully looking to do some tuning myself once I can get a hold of a tumbler ! No advice here, but loves seeing the results Those!Those last few were so pretty, I love the copper agates, the blue and greens are so pretty! The last waterlevel is beautiful, and the fine details are so cool!
I'm torn I'd the copper agate is actually copper, I looked up copper replacement agates and I don't know anymore, I know coppers natural coloring is that green but what could that be if it's not copper?!?
I'd say it's copper for sure I have multiple agates with copper inclusions none of them have the green but I don't think the copper would oxidize if its not open to the air, all of my agates with copper are concealed within the silica so they are air tight but if the copper is exposed to the air then it may oxidize and create the greenish colour your seeing ! I have a few pics on insta ill tag you in to give examples
So awesome!
My best advice is tumbler fodder. Tumbler fodder is all those smalls you’ve been collecting that are between plus 1/4 inch and 3/4 inch. Instead of ceramic filler use your smalls. Still use plastic pellets on stage 3 and 4 as shock absorbers and you will have good results.
My thoughys exactly, I did that with the smaller ones, ill keep doing that.
@@AgateDad just another hint. if you use a 6 pound tumbler I put 3 pounds of medium and larger agates, and 2 pounds of tumbler fodder. It may vary a little from batch to batch. Ps medium and larger means plus 1 inch pieces up to around half pound.
Good idea!
I love tumbling, I also made the mistake of not cleaning in between each process, it’s annoying when you find out after they are done!
Seriously, since it's so much time invested!
I use a rotary tumbler for the first stage which is strictly dedicated to my largest grit. I then move on to my Diamond Pacific vibratory tumbler which has 3 barrels and each of them is strictly dedicated to their own size grit. 220 for the first, 400 for the second, and my final polish grit for the third. Doing it this way I have no contamination from different size grits in the same barrel. In between each stage, I put all my rocks in an ultra sonic cleaner which mostly cleans all the grit out of all the crevices. If there is anything left I use my water pic as a power washer before they move on to the next stage. That works really well for geode pockets. Also, I will preform all of my rocks with an angle grinder with a diamond concrete cutting blade. I take out all of the dips and holes so as to make the stone fairly smooth. Doing this makes it so I can do most rocks in two days for the first stage. And then 2 days each for the last 3 stages. In most cases I can tumble any rock in a total of 8 days. I hope this helps.
You should make a shirt that says, "Well, ain't that the pits!"
Great idea 🤣
Better than my first tumble. But I started with rocks too scared to start with agates.
I definitely didn't want to use my "best" first time around lol
Your learning,a year from now,you will be really good, it takes a little time .