what to use as cheap pellets in tumbling

Rock tumbling is the hobby of collecting a broad range of rocks and turning them into beautiful gemstones y'all tin utilise to make jewelry, crafts, decorations, or just to collect for fun.

Pro tip: meet our guide to the best rock tumblers for both kids and adults.

Information technology's a pretty simple hobby that can be enjoyed at home by the entire family. All you demand is a tumbler, some rocks, and a few other inexpensive materials.

Have yous ever picked up a rock on the beach or a river bed that was perfectly rounded and smooth to the touch?

That'due south a stone that has been 'tumbled' by female parent nature (water and sand) over the form of hundreds and even thousands of years.

Rock tumbling as a hobby is the verbal same process. The thousand years it would take nature to tumble a stone tin easily exist done at habitation in a matter of weeks.

Now that's pretty neat!

In this guide:

• What is a rock tumbler?
• A brief history of rock tumblers
• What to do with tumbled rocks
• Where to find rocks to tumble
• Which rocks Non to tumble
• Types of rock tumblers
  • Best rotary tumblers
• Supplies
• Four stage process
• Common questions

What is a rock tumbler?

A rock tumbler is a very simple device.

It's a minor machine that turns a butt circular and circular not-stop for weeks at a time.

Inside the barrel are your rocks, h2o, and dust. The grit is what makes your rocks smooth and acts as the sand that nature uses to smooth and polish your rocks.

Grit comes in several levels of coarseness. Think of information technology like sandpaper.

When you start your project, yous'll want to apply a very coarse grit to knock down the sharp edges of your rocks.

Then every couple of weeks, you'll move on to a slightly finer grit until you achieve the final stage where the grit is almost like a fine pulverization.

Bank check out our in-depth article all about rock tumbler dust.​

A brief history of stone tumblers

While nature has been tumbling rocks for millions of years, rock tumbling machines have merely been effectually since the 1950s.

It was a way to take uncut rocks from nature, and turn them into gemstones that could be made into jewelry.

The process of stone tumbling gained popularity very quickly. By the 1960s, dozens of companies in the U.South had begun to manufacture tumblers.

Barrels of tumblers were outset made out of pigment cans and eventually evolved to use better materials like rubber and plastic.

While the industry started with dozens of manufacturers, merely two were able to ascent to the tiptop and go the brands of selection: Lortone and Thumler's.

Both of these brands notwithstanding exist today and cater to both rockhound hobbyists and lapidary professionals.

In addition to the professional person-grade tumblers, in that location are a few brands of 'toy' tumblers that are perfect for kids. The more well-known brands are National Geographic and Smithsonian.

What to practice with tumbled rocks

You'll find that people dear rock tumbling for a number of reasons.

While many folks simply honey collecting a wide range of rocks to hold and display proudly, there are lots of other reasons why people get into rock tumbling.

Hither are some of the more common uses for tumbled rocks:

• Jewelry making
• Various craft making
• Vase/planter filler
• Holiday decorations
• Keychains
• Magnets
• Paperweights

Where to discover rocks to tumble

Now that you know the basics of rock tumbling and what you lot tin can practice with tumbled stones, let'due south talk near how and where to observe rocks.

What makes a rock good for tumbling?

It should exist very difficult, nonporous, and take a somewhat smooth surface (i.e., not gritty).

Some of the more popular types of rocks that fit these characteristics are agate and jasper – both mutual forms of quartz. Come across my guide to the best rocks to tumble.

While you can buy any of these rocks online or at your local rock shop, I personally observe it style more exciting to find them in nature (although not always realistic). For me, the thrill of the chase is a big part of rock tumbling.

Agate is probably the most popular rock to work with because it's translucent and has so many unique patterns and designs. Information technology's a blazon of quartz and shines up to be real beauties.

In the United States, agate is typically found in Western states – particularly in Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, S Dakota, and Michigan.

These rocks are typically found in coastal areas, lakes, and places with a past of volcanic activeness.

It'south best to visit rocky beaches during depression tide. Sometimes the agates volition be laying right on tiptop and other times they'll be buried between other rocks. Either style, they're pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to spot.

I love this video of Tim Blair finding agates on some rocky Washington beaches.​

Jasper is another grade of quartz that's quite popular and easy to detect. In the United States, it's likewise most commonly establish in Western states similar Oregon, Idaho, Washington, California, Arizona, and Utah. You can as well find them in Texas and Arkansas.

As with any rock hunting, your best bet will be to choice up a guidebook for your area to encounter what's abundant, and how best to find them.

Which rocks Not to tumble

As I talked about higher up, you want to option rocks based on their hardness according to the Mohs scale.

The Mohs scale was formed in 1812 by Friedrich Mohs (a German geologist).

In a nutshell, it's a scale from one-10 that measures a stone'due south scratch resistance (or hardness).

The lower the number, the softer the rock. For tumbling, it's best to stay in the seven range.

This is where quartz falls.

​Here is a great visual from the National Park Service.

You lot can see that talc is and so soft that it tin can be scratched with just a fingernail.  Harder minerals require steel nails and masonry drill bits to go out a scratch.

Rocks that are too soft or too hard can be tough to polish and not recommended for a beginner.

Examples of rocks that are too soft would be soapstone and marble. Examples of rocks that would be considered too hard would be gem varieties of corundum like ruby-red and sapphire.

Diamonds would as well be considered besides hard.

Types of stone tumblers

There are two different types of rock tumblers – rotary and vibratory.

Rotary tumblers are much more common and best for beginners. When most people picture a rock tumbler, they're thinking of a rotary.

This is the blazon of tumbler that volition knock off the edges, shape, and smooth out rough rocks during the fibroid grind phase.

Rocks tumbled in a rotary tumbler will alter shape and go rounded.

Vibratory tumblers are less common with beginners and are typically used for fine polishing rocks you've already shaped. A vibratory tumbler will not shape your rocks like a rotary tumbler.

If you simply want to polish your rocks and maintain the same shape and angles, and then a vibratory tumbler may be for you.

The chief advantage of a vibratory tumbler is that it dramatically speeds upwardly the tumbling procedure for stages AFTER your rocks accept been shaped (i.e., medium grind, fine grind, and polish).

And so while each of the four stages in a rotary tumbler can take a calendar week on average, stages 2-4 can all exist done in merely one week.

An ideal setup would exist to purchase both a rotary and vibratory tumbler.

This way yous can do your coarse grind and shaping during the first week in your rotary, then switch over to your vibratory the adjacent week to handle the other stages.

If you're ownership a stone tumbler for the first fourth dimension, become with a rotary.

Best rotary tumblers

Rotary tumblers range in size and toll depending on how many rocks you desire to tumble at the same time.

Sizing is expressed in pounds. A three-pound tumbler will concord near ii pounds of rock (and i pound of water and dust).

You tin can besides go a double-barrel rotary tumbler.

These are great if you lot're tumbling two different kinds of rocks at the same time especially if they're a different hardness.

Remember, e'er tumble rocks together of similar hardness. This is specially true in the polish stages.

If you really wanted, you could tumble rocks together of different hardness in stages one and two. Just be sure to divide them before stage three and four!

Some other good reason to have a double butt tumbler is if you have two batches of rocks in unlike stages.

So for example, if you kickoff the fibroid grind process on one batch, then a week after you want to start some other batch. Y'all tin can utilise one butt for the new batch's fibroid grind, and use the second barrel for first batch'due south medium grind.

It'due south similar having two tumblers for the price of one!

If yous're just looking to tumble a larger corporeality of rocks as i batch, don't purchase a double butt. Information technology's much easier to manage a single barrel that's double the size (simply ane barrel to clean and maintain).

The 2 brands yous want to look for when buying a rotary rock tumbler are Lortone and Thumler'south.

The nearly popular Lortone tumbler for beginners is the 3A Unmarried Barrel rotary.

See our consummate guide on Lortone tumblers hither.​

The most popular beginner rotary tumbler from Thumler is the Model T 3lb single barrel.

Thumler's also makes a very popular mid-sized tumbler called the Model B. You can read our review here.

Both of these tumblers accept iii lb barrels. You can't become wrong with either.

Supplies

Once you've picked out your tumbler, y'all'll need a few more than supplies such as:

Grit

When you're showtime starting out, stick to the simple four-step procedure (coarse, medium/fine, pre-smoothen, and polish).

The iv stages of grit y'all'll want to use are:

• threescore/90 silicon carbide for initial grinding and shaping of rocks.
• 120/220 silicon carbide for smoothing surface after initial shaping.
• Pre-polish aluminum oxide for preparing rocks for the final polish.
• Shine aluminum oxide for the final smooth.

The exact type of grit may differ depending on which tumbler you're using and so always refer to the teaching manual that comes with your machine.

You tin buy all four levels of grit as a kit from your local stone shop or on Amazon.

Plastic pellets

You'll desire to have these on hand for small tumble loads when you lot don't have enough rocks to fill the entire butt. These are bang-up for taking up the empty space in the tumbler and aid to deliver more than of the polish to your rocks.

Pellets likewise assistance to 'absorber' the impact of rocks in your tumbler, and tin can fifty-fifty speed upward the process since they encourage more tumbling and less sliding in the barrel.

Ane batch of these is all you need to final quite a while as they tin exist reused. Also, pellets should only be used in rotary tumblers – never in vibratory.

Equally an alternative to plastic pellets, some folks similar to use other materials like corn or walnut shells.

If you end up condign a serious rockhound, you may eventually look into things like slab saws, trim saws, arbors, and oscillating laps. But we'll salve those tools for another time since this guide is for the beginner!

Four stage tumbling process

At present that y'all have your tumbler and all the supplies you'll need, let'southward become into more than detail about each of the four stages of rock tumbling.

Stage i – Shaping

As I've mentioned a few times already, the outset step of the procedure is shaping with coarse dust. This volition remove the rough edges from your rocks and give them a circular shape.

To start, fill your butt about one-half to ii-thirds of the way full. For the all-time results, yous should try to use diverse size rocks.

If y'all don't have enough rocks to make full the barrel, exist sure to add your plastic pellets after adding the rocks.

Yous should also add pellets at this stage if your rocks are fragile or have a flat shape.

The side by side step is to add together your coarse grit (well-nigh two tbsp per pound of rock) followed past water to nearly the pinnacle edge of your rocks. Close the barrel firmly and clean up any water or debris.

Not everyone volition do this next step, just I like to weigh my barrel before starting the car. Every tumbler has a maximum weight. Information technology's of import to stay under this weight, so you don't wear out the motor.

Put the barrel on the tumbler, plug her in, and become going!

I should mention here that tumblers tin be noisy and then you lot should probably fix up in either your garage or basement – or fifty-fifty a shed if information technology has electricity.

After a few days, you'll want to cheque the progress to make sure the edges are existence knocked downward.

And then after your rocks have been tumbling for about a full week, and they are the shape yous want them to be, remove your rocks from the butt and rinse in a make clean bucket of water.

Note that your fourth dimension may vary depending on the type of rocks you're tumbling. Harder rocks and rocks with strong angles will take longer to shape than softer, smoother rocks.

If your rocks aren't the desired shape afterwards the showtime week, just put them back in for every bit long as it takes. Only exist sure to check on them every day or so.

At this stage, you'll too desire to clean out the barrel with soap and h2o as you prepare the rocks for stage two of the process. You'll want to make sure all of the coarse grit is cleaned out of the barrel.

Y'all desire to exist 100% sure all of the grit is out of the barrel, and then you lot're not mixing fibroid grit with the fine. Some people will even go so far equally to employ separate sponges for each type of grit when cleaning their barrel.

At all stages of cleaning, don't e'er dump your waste products (slurry) down the bleed – unless you lot happen to be a plumber and like repairing pipes 🙂

In one case clean, it's time to motility onto the finer grit.

Stage 2 – Medium/fine dust​

Follow the same process as before, again adding pellets if needed. Be certain to make clean the pellets good considering dust will stick to them. Sometimes it's easier simply to use a new batch of pellets.

Phase ii (the finer grit) should accept nearly the same amount of time as stage one.

What you're looking for hither is to remove whatsoever visible scratches/cracks/pits and to create a slow glow on the rocks when they're dry out.

Since time here volition vary, you should check on your rocks every mean solar day or so to encounter how they're progressing.

After some other full cleaning, stage three is the pre-smooth stage.

​Stage 3 – Pre-smooth

The purpose here is to make your rocks silky smooth and showtime to bring out a bit of luster.

This stage should also take nearly a calendar week, but mileage may vary.

One last full cleaning and we're onto the final stage – smooth!

​Phase 4 – Shine

This stage is going to utilise a grit that looks like a fine pulverisation. After some other week in this stage, your rocks should come out with a brilliant smooth and look absolutely stunning.

During the shine stage, you lot should consider using some plastic pellets to protect your rocks from hit each other.

At that place's nothing worse than ruining a batch of rocks after a month of processing!

Finally, at that place's a bonus stage that'south not necessary merely can heave the brightness of your rocks – especially with agates and jaspers.

Information technology'south called burnishing and is considered an additional stage of polish.

​Burnishing

Burnishing is the fifth stage of tumbling, merely instead of using grit, you lot're using some form of lather or powdered laundry detergent.

This will put even more shine on your rocks, brighten them up, and remove whatsoever haze and residue from the slurry.

If y'all're not sure whether the burnish stage will add more brightness to your rocks, a uncomplicated examination can be done.

Take one of your rocks and buff one side with a very soft cloth for ten-twenty seconds.

If the side you lot buffed is shinier than the other sides, it will benefit from a burnishing phase.

Well-nigh people will either utilize borax or shaved layers of ivory bar lather.

Whatever you use, brand sure at that place are no additives in the soap that will harm your rocks. Also, exist sure to add together your plastic pellets for protection.

The ratios here are the same equally in the grit stages. Well-nigh two tbsp per pound of rock is recommended.

All you need is 24 hours in a rotary tumbling during this phase. Just the longer, the better!

Tip: during both the shine and burnish stage, you may desire to batch your rock types.

Since you'll mostly be tumbling types of quartz as a beginner, group them all together for these concluding 2 stages. Remove all other families of rock.

So there y'all accept it. The consummate process for tumbling rocks in your rotary tumbler. Expect to await 3-vi weeks on average to complete the entire procedure.

Recollect, patience is a virtue!

Mutual questions

In this section, I want to address some of the more common questions I come across about stone tumbling.

While each of these questions likely deserves their own post, I'll endeavor to be as brief as possible with my answers.

Tin can my rock tumbler be used for other things like shells, drinking glass, or coins?

Admittedly! Allow'due south talk briefly about each of these.

Shells

You can tumble seashells in a stone tumbler – every bit long every bit they're non too thin.

But yous'll want to change upwards the process a bit. The same process used for hard rocks will not piece of work for shells.

Shells are very soft and frail, so you'll want to skip the coarse grit stage, and give very petty time to stage two – if any.

Because shells are so delicate, y'all'll want to fill up your barrel upwardly as much equally possible, using as much filler as you can.

Since tumbling shells is more about the smoothen stages, you may desire to consider a vibratory tumbler instead of a rotary.

Drinking glass

Don't you dearest walking on the embankment and finding a piece of naturally tumbled sea glass? Well you can actually brand your ain bounding main drinking glass at home in your rock tumbler

As a dominion, you don't want to tumble anything less than ¼" thick as it volition just autumn autonomously in your tumbler.

Stick to a thick glass like the kind institute in stained glass windows or fifty-fifty landscaping glass.

You can even utilise glass that you find on the embankment that nature has already started to tumble.

Glass is considered slightly harder than seashells, merely notwithstanding not as hard every bit your average quartz.

So you'll want to exist delicate in your tumbling process, and cut downward on the time in each stage – especially stage one and two!

Like shells, be sure to use plenty of filler to cushion the glass.

Coins

If you're into metal detecting and tend to find a lot of stained and crusty coins, you may want to throw them in the tumbler for a dainty, clean shine.

My disclaimer to this is to never make clean whatever coin of value. The moment you clean a coin, it's no longer worth anything.

A rock tumbler will completely destroy the collector value of your coins.

Typically the coins you'll desire to clean in a tumbler are modernistic coins that aren't worth more their face value or cook value.

For modern clad that you only want to accept to the coin automobile at the bank, you'll desire to do a quick cleaning or the auto may turn down the coins.

Similar rocks, you'll want to tumble coins in groups. For clad, this applies by and large to copper and zinc metals.

Practise non mix copper with zinc!

Lincoln pennies that are 1982 and older are copper and so you'll take to divide them from 1983+ zinc pennies, all nickels, dimes and quarters.

Also, any dimes and quarters pre 1965 are silver, and so separate those besides.

Instead of dust, a lot of people like to use aquarium gravel and dish soap. Limit your tumbling to a few hours maximum. That'due south all y'all need for some shiny coins!

What magazines and online forums exercise you recommend?

Interested in a magazine subscription for rock tumbling? Check out some of these:

• Rock & Precious stone
• Lapidary Journal & Jewelry Artist

Want to bring together a forum where you lot tin can connect with boyfriend stone tumblers? I highly recommend the Stone Tumbling Hobby Forum.

What are some expert media (or dust) substitutes?

Depending on what y'all're tumbling, at that place are a few media substitutes you tin attempt including:

• Ceramic pellets
• Aquarium gravel
• Marbles
• Sand
• Walnut shells
• Corn cob
• Stainless steel bb's
• Tile spacers
• Crushed glass

Please note that for this beginner'due south guide, I practise not recommend any of the above. Stick to the standard levels of grit recommended by your tumbler's manufacture.

Whatever medium or filler you decide to go with, be certain information technology'south right for what you're tumbling.

There's no quicker way to damage your rocks than by using the wrong medium.

Where to buy roughs?

If finding rocks in nature isn't your thing, or you don't alive near a source of the rocks you desire to polish, then purchase yourself some roughs.

Your local hobby or rock store will be the best place to buy these since yous tin can too talk to the owner and go some invaluable advice.

Only since not everyone lives near a rock shop, most times it makes more sense to buy your roughs online at places similar amazon.com.

There are also more specialized sites out there similar therockshed.com.

How to maintain tumbler?

Since tumblers will be running 24 hours per day for weeks at a time, it'due south important to properly maintain your machine.

Ever follow the instructions in the manual of your tumbler. Hither are a few general rules to remember:

• E'er proceed the outside of your barrel make clean.
• Apply a very modest amount of lubricating oil to the bearings every 30 days of operation.
• Make sure the bulldoze belt has the proper level of tension – non besides tight but not too loose.

Like anything else, the more you take intendance of your rock tumbler, the longer it will last.

How much grit to use?

The corporeality of grit you use will depend on the type of tumbler, the brand, size, tumbling stage and blazon/size/shape/hardness of rocks.

To give y'all a rough idea of how much grit y'all'll need and then you know how much to purchase, y'all'll typically want betwixt ii-4 tbsp of coarse and medium grit for your boilerplate 3lb rotary tumbler.

For smooth stages, usually about iv-6 tbsp for your boilerplate 3lb rotary tumbler.

These estimates assume you're doing a total load of rocks.​

Fibroid and medium dust usually sells in 16oz containers while smooth dust comes in viii-12oz containers.

Your best bet will be to buy a basic iv stage kit on Amazon.

Again, there are and then many factors at play here. This is simply to give y'all a general idea, and so y'all know how much dust to buy when getting started.

How much rock to use?

How much stone to use in your butt will depend on the size of the barrel. Every bit a rule of thumb, use 2lbs of rock for a 3lb barrel. The residual of the weight is for grit, filler, and water.

How loud is a tumbler?

A rock tumbler can be quite loud – especially the more inexpensive models typically marketed as toys.

Larger barrel tumblers processing larger rocks volition naturally be louder since the large rocks are clanging around, making more than noise.

Even pocket-size 3lb tumblers tin can be somewhat loud, so I recommend keeping your tumbler in a separate room altogether – particularly a basement or garage.

Where to buy rock tumbling supplies?

I like to purchase my supplies from amazon.com. Withal, you lot can besides become your supplies from sites similar rocktumbler.com or therockshed.com.

What is rock tumbling dust made of?

Rock tumbler dust comes in many forms, but the near common are silicon carbide and aluminum oxide.

Silicon carbide will be your fibroid and medium grit while aluminum oxide will be your pre-shine and polish grits.

Both of these chemical compounds occur naturally and accept been used equally abrasives for a very long time.

How to polish rocks by hand without a tumbler?

Rocks that are already shaped and somewhat smooth can exist polished by hand if yous don't have a tumbler.

Typically you'll only desire to manus shine soft rocks, as hard rocks will be almost impossible to do by mitt.

One quick way to determine this is a simple scratch test.

Scratch the rock with something hard and precipitous similar a steel file. If you're able to get out a permanent scratch on the rock, y'all have a soft rock which volition hand smoothen well.

If you lot cannot leave a scratch, the rock is probably too hard and is not worth polishing by hand. Your all-time bet will be to apply a tumbler.

All you need to hand polish is different grit levels of wet/dry sandpaper (or emery cloth) and soft polishing cloth material similar felt or leather.

The type of sandpaper you want is wet/dry and is the same stuff used on cars. So visit your local motorcar trunk paint supply shop if yous tin can't find this online.

Which rock tumbler is best?

The best stone tumbler volition depend on several factors so I can't make a coating statement here. It all depends on what you're tumbling, how much of it, and your level of feel.

I have a dissever mail on the best rock tumblers for different scenarios which you can find hither.

Generally speaking, the ii brands I favor are Lortone and Thumler's. If yous're looking for the all-time tumbler for kids, so check out this post.

Concluding thoughts

Rock tumbling is a very fun and rewarding hobby that people of all ages tin enjoy.

Whether you lot're making and selling jewelry with your rocks or only want to spend some quality time with your family unit, consider getting yourself a tumbler and try it out for yourself.

Happy tumbling!​

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Source: https://rocktumbling.co/beginners-guide/

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