chromenut
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2009
Posts: 1,971
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Post by chromenut on Feb 5, 2012 14:48:49 GMT -5
Hey all. I'm in a quandary here. I want a new tumbler, and from what I'm reading both the Lot-O and the UV-10 are faster than your normal rotary tumblers. So I'm trying to figure out which one to buy. Volume isn't an issue, I mean if I get the Lot-O it'll be the double-barrel version. If I get the UV-10 it's going to have to include two extra buckets. I haven't really looked at the cost of the UV-10, but the double Lot-O is only $250, which to me is a good price.
So, need your sage advice here. Going to be buying a vibrating flat lap, but can't make up my mind about the tumbler. I know there are many of you using one or the other, so please give me some advice. Also, I want to know an estimate of the time it takes to go from start to finish with say agates, that'll give me a good ball park estimate for all other stones to tumble. I've seen both in action, and both seem to really be the way to go for a good, solid tumbler. Both also seem to be able to handle a decent amount of stone. I'm not interested in like a 40 pound barrel, just enough for me to do some cool tumbles.
Oh, on both, what's the largest size stone you can tumble? And also have any of you used these to tumble preforms for cabs? Also what compounds do you use in these for tumbling? LOL... started out with one question - which one....hahaha...
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Feb 5, 2012 15:53:41 GMT -5
My experience is with the Lot-0s,love 'em.I dont have the double but have 2 singles.What I like is that one is in 1000,and the other is in polish.I have them on the same schedule,take one out of polish,and put the prepolished ones in polish,put another one in prepolish. This way I have a polish batch coming out every 3-5 days. As for size,the Lot-o will handle any thing that will fit through the hole in the top,about 2 1/2 inches.I rotary tumble all my rough,so all I use the loto for is 1000 and polish. snuffy
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 5, 2012 16:21:26 GMT -5
I've never had the Lot-O but love my UV-10. You can expect to replace your fine grind tub in a year and your polish tub in two at a cost of about 55$ each. The UV-10 will polish some pretty large stones. I've done several 4-6 ounce pieces with ease if you only put three or four in a load with the rest being smaller stuff. The coarse stage of course, is best done with a rotary, as vibes don't round the stones much and the coarse grind will eat up your UV-10 tubs much faster. For fine grind I use either unsorted 110/220 or 220 graded. I use tripoli for prepolish and Rockshed AO for all hard stones, tin oxide for obsidian. The one drawback I can see for the UV-10 is it takes a large amount of stone to properly fill it. Takes awhile to gather 10# or so of rocks ready for a fine grind load....Mel
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Feb 8, 2012 15:17:23 GMT -5
I'm a week or so into the UV10 - I really like it, it was less money than even a 4# single barrel lot-o, and I bought 10# of ceramic media so I could vibe as needed until I have enough left-over stones to keep it full. It also did not need anchored down, as the Lot-o seems to need additional work to be useable. I didn't want to get block and mix concreted.
Another things is thumler now sells a 3# barrel so you can do smaller batches.
I got mine at the rockshed, and also got a large (2x6#) lortone rotary so I could handle the coarse grind for shaping.
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Post by helens on Feb 8, 2012 15:39:23 GMT -5
I have a new Lot-O, and it's only running my 2nd batch. But while I haven't had a lot of experience with tumblers, I can tell you that I just LOVE this tumbler. I definitely looked at the UV10 also, but as a hobbyist without access to a lot of rocks (Florida, land of sand and seashells), I wanted a smaller sized tumbler because I wasn't sure I would always have enough materials to fill a 10# bucket. I'd rather run more small loads than spend a lot of time waiting to fill a big one. If you live where there are tons of rocks, you'd obviously want the bigger:).
The biggest thing I love about the Lot-O is that I can always see the tumbling batch, and pick out rocks to individually look at. I keep a bucket of water next to it, and I just pull a rock out, dip and wipe in the water and I can decide if I want to tumble it longer or pull it out. Because the batches are small, in a few minutes, I can see every single rock in the entire tumble. It can't be easier to use too.
And it's GENTLE for a tumbler... my FIRST batch was a 1/2 lbs of precious opals... yes, with fire. I made a mistake in the first grit cycle by having it run with some agates, but once the harder rocks came out, it did not damage the opals at all, but knocked off matrix and clay, and essentially cleaned and polished them rough. I would not have trusted doing this in a 10 lb barrel, because the more filler the more risk to my most precious stones. The other thing I wanted the tumbler for was fire agates... where the color layer is cellophane thin. I just needed to be able to see every single stone anytime I wanted to, and the Lot-O lets me do that.
As for the anchoring... I did anchor it per directions (concrete block), but that was a very very easy thing to do, and it is very quiet because of it. The entire unit fits INSIDE a single concrete block, it's not big at all.
There is one small drawback, and that is in the very bottom of the barrel, there's a little indent. I fixed that in 5 minutes by mixing 2 part epoxy and dropping it in there til it was full. It is running the 2nd load right now, and when I did a rinse out, it's just fine.
Would I buy it again today? ABSOLUTELY. I would consider a UV-10 if I needed a bigger barrel tho, but for my size needs, I absolutely would buy the Lot-O. It's easy to use, it's easy to clean (just dunk whole thing in a barrel, let it fill up, flip it upside down holding rocks in), it's not loud (almost sounds like a static ocean wave machine people buy to help sleep), and I am enjoying everything about it. I bought it at the Rock Shed, which has a great price for it, and sells the grit pack and mixed starter tumbling rocks.
Buy AT LEAST 5 lbs of mixed rocks, I was dumb and only bought 2, so was scrambling for more rocks - and the mixed bags of rocks are GORGEOUS!!! I mean lace agates, amethyst, citrines, jade, and all kinds of really beautiful rocks that will tumble together.
If I wanted a smaller 4# tumbler, Lot-O for sure, hands down, it's absolutely worth the money. If I wanted a 10# tumbler, I'd consider the UV-10 just from all the happy recommendations.
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surreality
starting to spend too much on rocks
is picking up too many rocks at the beach again
Member since January 2012
Posts: 217
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Post by surreality on Feb 10, 2012 13:31:51 GMT -5
This post was amazingly helpful! I'm looking at both options now myself, having a rather unholy amount of beach stones to work with and the ability to easily get obscene amounts more of them at almost any time,. I might actually grab a good size bucket or two of 'em as some spare filler next time, and if something comes out as a nice, unexpected surprise, hey, bonus! I do have one really stupid question, though: the Lot-O is always shown mounted to a concrete block or heavy duty work table in all the images I've seen. I get that, and the reasoning for it. The UV-10, in the vid clip I saw, seemed to be standalone on a level concrete floor. Is this accurate, or is it mounted/drilled into the floor/grounded in some other fashion that is not as readily apparent? It may sound like a silly factor to consider when making a decision between the two, but due to a few peculiarities of my house, it's definitely on the list. Also, is there a noise comparison known of between the two? I'd -guess- 'about the same', but if one is significantly louder than the other, it's something to I'd also need to consider. Apologies if it's uncool to tack on these questions here, but hopefully they might be useful ones for other folks, too.
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Feb 10, 2012 13:46:43 GMT -5
my UV10 sits perfectly still wherever I sit it, it is quiet and does not need mounted to anything - ready to go out of the box.
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surreality
starting to spend too much on rocks
is picking up too many rocks at the beach again
Member since January 2012
Posts: 217
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Post by surreality on Feb 10, 2012 14:16:40 GMT -5
That is fantastic -- I think that just made up my mind for me. 'Can perch in a corner of the garage' vs. 'requires cleaning out too much of the garage in the dead of winter to wrangle concrete blocks in from outside', well, it certainly counts for a lot.
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Post by helens on Feb 10, 2012 14:31:18 GMT -5
I have a quick question on the UV10 too... does the barrel just completely lift out like the Lot-O does, or do you have to unscrew it first? I was curious how easy it is to clean once full of rocks, since you have to clean it out every day in the lower grits. There are no moving parts inside the Lot-O, so you just lift out the entire barrel and dunk the whole thing in a bucket of water to wash out the rocks, there's no mess other than your own splashing.
I'm just curious in case I want a bigger tumbler later, and I haven't seen anything that said how easy or messy it is to clean a UV10 barrel full of rocks out.
Surreality, there are no stupid questions when you don't know something:). For the quantity you need to tumble, the UV10 sounds like a better size for you.
I THINK the Lot-O may be gentler too... that is, it's more of a polishing machine than it is a shaper... so far it's done almost no shaping at all for me. On the batch I'm running now, I put in some VERY sharp edged preforms on some jasper pieces, about as sharp as an arrow head edge, just to see what the machine would do to those edges. After 3 days in 120/220 grit, those edges have not really dulled or changed, I can still use those rocks as skin scrapers if I wanted to, even tho the overall rock has smoothed in texture. It's fascinating how the tumbler works!!
The shape you put in is pretty close to the shape you get out, just cleaner, overall smoother, and shinier. I don't have the UV10 to compare, but from photos, it may do a better job shaping the rough stones at the early stage? I'm curious about that as well.
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chromenut
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2009
Posts: 1,971
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Post by chromenut on Feb 10, 2012 15:07:59 GMT -5
The UV-10 is shaped like a bundt cake, it has a rod that runs up the center of the bowl and ties the two sides together. If you watch the action, you'll see the stones and mix climb up the sides of the bowl then flip over once they reach the top. Quite an interesting item to watch. I'm thinking maybe the UV-10 is what I want, especially now that John has mentioned the smaller bowl. Up front I'll need at least two larger bowls, one for the rougher mix, the other for the finish mix. I'll likely get the smaller bowl for the final polish stage. This way I don't get any of the shine stuff mixed up amongst the rocks. So, off I go to find me a good priced UV-10!!!!
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Feb 10, 2012 16:57:53 GMT -5
Robin, I searched, the best deal I found was therockshed.com. I bought a spare bowl from them as well. I did not buy the 3# bowl, but I believe I saw it on their site a well.
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Feb 10, 2012 17:04:56 GMT -5
Helen, the same rod you thread the lid wingnut on with has a second wingnut at the top of the bowl, right under the lid. I didn't think of dunking it, I cleaned it out the hard way but I will dunk it next time.
I am running my 120/220 as well as my 500 2 days each, and I did the 120/220 twice.
Tonight I will be cleaning it out from the 500 run and putting the new bowl on to do 5 days of polish.
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Post by helens on Feb 11, 2012 20:20:22 GMT -5
Hi John:). Yah, the dunking is way easier for cleaning, especially with the coarser grades, since you don't have to clean it out IMMACULATELY as you do to switch to polish. I didn't buy a spare barrel, so I have to do the IMMACULATE cleaning out part each time at the polish stage. The barrel on the Lot-O is rubber and very slick, so that's not hard either. I hope it stays this way a while, if it gets beat up inside, I'll have to buy a spare bowl for the polish too.
Your batch is going FAST!!!
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