Aquarium gravel for tumbling media

[jimg]

Bought this 20 lb bag of gravel from Petco: 

www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-river-rock-shallow-creek-aquarium-gravel-20-lbs-2558243

I picked out almost a gallon of smooth rounded pieces, mostly quartz. I didn’t select anything with a crack, vug, or sharp corner. There were a lot more of these smooth, round stones left from the 20 lb bag, but after picking a gallon I was done picking rocks!

I plan to use these hand-picked pieces for media in my Lot-o when tumbling soft or fragile rocks, following the lead of RTH member ingawh.

Because I have a 1/4” screen (I think the gold panners call it a classifier?), I also separated out all of the sub 1/4” pieces and saved a couple of cups of them in a plastic bin. Most of these sub 1/4” pieces are broken and angular.

I have 2 questions for the group:

1. Is there a good use for my several cups of sub 1/4” pieces in either a rotary or vibe tumbler?

2. Is there a good use for the remainder of the 20 lbs of gravel, after removing around 2/3 of the “perfect” stones and all of the sub 1/4” pieces?

[chris1956]

I bought a little jug of similar material and only did a test run on some of the material last week in 80 grit.  Probably not the best time as I was making a run of quartz which had a lot of little stuff in it.  Anyway, I think the quartz did fine.  Some of the jasper like stuff looks like it got well worn.  

My 2 cents worth is throw a bunch of it in an 80 or 220 grit run and what survives, survives and you can use the survivors in the vibratory.  I don't think I would spend the time picking out the perfect ones or smaller ones.  

[jimg]

I may have wasted the best part of an afternoon, then, because I hand picked the smooth stones. Live and learn!

I’ll try running the unsorted gravel that’s left over through a stage in the rotary, as you suggest. Thanks.