FrazzledApril's Blog
FrazzledApril's posts about: rock tumbling
May 9, 2008 | 5:46 PM PST
Tag: rock tumbling
So, I was doing a bit of research and apparently, people who actually KNOW what they are doing as far as tumbling rocks, try to keep rocks of the same hardness together. Me? I was just tumbling what I had :)
So -- I opened my drums 12 hours early and I have cleaned them off. They really did reduce in size!! I've got the drums soaking and I'm going to hold back the rocks that have pits, flaws, and scratches still -- and they can go in for another cycle of the coarse grinding with the next set. The ones I think are the most smoothed out will be put into the fine grind cycle tonight for a week.
I'm probably going to have to order some rough stones online, because I only had enough to do just this one set and I'd like to do more.
Here they are after the first cycle. They still need to go through fine grinding, pre-polishing, and polishing:
May 3, 2008 | 5:01 PM PST
Tag: rock tumbling
That's right! I bought a rock tumbler!! What the heck does this have to do with gardening? Nothing, really -- except for the fact that the rocks I'm tumbling have all been found in my yard :)
Let me say this -- rock tumbling is a very foolish hobby for the impatient type. I wanna see them NOW!!!! However... it takes a month for them to be completely finished, hahahha
Today I set it all up. I had my rocks all cleaned up and ready to go and had my grit waiting -- so today when my tumbler came via FedEx -- I was ready! I put the larger and harder stones in one barrel and the smaller and softer stones in the other. I added my water, my grit, made sure the drums were sealed tight -- and away it went!
Now... I just have to wait an entire week before they start the next step... the "fine grit" (this week it is the "coarse grit"). After that -- they do a week of pre-polish and then another week of final polish. I can't wait to see how they turn out!!
And so -- here they are:
