Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!
If you cannot see Amazon ad banners directly below this text, please whitelist this site in your ad blocker(s). The ads below have been hand-selected for relevant content, and your patronage directly benefits this forum community, thanks!
SO! I have a tire tumbler that I built! I discovered that tire tumblers can really smooth stones FAST!
Will be posting pics, but heres some specs
1/6 hp motor 1725rpm, belt drive, tire (currently) is a toyo all terrain truck tire, (29" OD x 9"across tread) spinning @ approx. 24rpm/165' per min, roughly 3mph
incorporated spring loaded tracker arms to keep the tire on the roadway.
The loads have been large 2-3-4" rocks jasper/agates/quartz 15-20lbs and also smaller 1/2"to 1" stones.
A "natural" look smooth (river tumbled) in 24-48 hours. The cool discovery, at the final coarse grit charge, add more water, leave it for 12+ hours, and the coarse grit gets pounded down to fine and smooths the stone a great deal, and is part of the 48hr run. total 3 charges 60-90 half cup at 8 hr intervals
Input! I have to get a couple more tires, and then I will develop the polish stages. I am wondering if it would be better to load polish media, (I use both plastic bead, and hardwood) and run it with a wet slurry, or possibly dry. (have done this with hardwood on a couple 3lb tumbles, good results) I will have to run less rock/high media to keep the rocks from post grind chipping etc.
any thoughts or questions?
Last Edit: Jan 6, 2013 5:11:07 GMT -5 by cherdarock
Hey! I love rocks more than MOST people! Well... except for, you know, kidney stones and stuff...
"Got enough rocks there honey? You can barely walk!" She says, "I know, (huffpuff) I have to go back and get the rest... WATER PLEASE!"
I am wondering if it would be better to load polish media, (I use both plastic bead, and hardwood) and run it with a wet slurry, or possibly dry. (have done this with hardwood on a couple 3lb tumbles, good results) I will have to run less rock/high media to keep the rocks from post grind chipping etc. any thoughts or questions?
Question(s): Are you saying that you are using hardwood as a polishing medium?
Are you using a dry wood (ie;... seasoned) or is the wood green?
When you say 3 charges of 60/90 @ 8 hr intervals are you doing a clean & recharge or just adding another 3/4 cup every 8 hours to make the slurry thicker?
if you have a good slurry (thick) to run the rock through for polishing, you can run a regular size load, what you have that is ready to polish, and significantly reduce the risk of rocks banging into each other as the slurry will slow their movement so they don't hit each other as hard as they would when running through water & polish. (some use corn syrup or sugar for this as there is never really a slurry made from used polish) Add to this the media to help move the polish around the stones and you have little to no issue with damage.
If you want to develop a slurry before you add the rocks so they don't bang into each other before the slurry thickens, add water, thickener, and maybe the polish to the tire, let run for 10 - 15 minutes, then stop and add rock to the already thickened mix and let it run as you normally would for polishing.
I am going to try this to my next cycle of the stones I am tumbling now as I have a batch that is coming due for polishing. and if I like it may use it on all batches after course. during course it doesn't matter as much if they bang as it will grind away the marks easier. I use a slurry of old dried batch mix to thicken my course & medium batches as it has ground grit in it that actually help wear the stone as it cushions the batch. less expensive than using sugar or syrup, which I save for the per-polish & polish. and don't forget to burnish after. I use ivory but not a fan of it so I got some 20 Mule team borax which works better, if I can keep my wife away from it!! she likes to use it in the Laundry of all places!! sheesh!!!
Last Edit: Dec 23, 2012 9:10:59 GMT -5 by The Dad_Ohs
Mario
“I'm allergic to rocks hitting me in the face.”
― Mike Rowe
Still Seriously Silly After All These Years
If it weren't for the rocks in its bed, the streams would have no song. And if it weren't for the rocks in my head, I wouldn't be able to hear/sing it
I had a tire tumbler Cherdarock.I had a hard time with it.It would round the rocks off very fast but fracture/frosted them.Like an avalanche within,it was rough on the rocks.May have been that my rocks were not good for that arrangement,but I doubt it.I used all kind of padding.Usually newspaper or peat moss. And larger diameter barrels give me a hard time.Always have.I know that once the tire lifted the rocks to the point they start to roll they sure did hit each other hard with a cracking sound. Here is a photo of my local petrified coral.This one was close to being free of fractures.I am embarrassed to post it;i ffel like Abdul The Rock Destroyer:> PS I would inflate an excercise ball to seal the wheel hole.
Yep, wifey sez the Borax works good, she's the tumblung engineer. The only thing she lets me do is help her clean the rocks between stages. I have heard of hardwood "pellets" consisting I think of cut up dowels, we use plastic cause they use it at work and sometimes dispose of supplier samples.
Lee
“If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.” - Ludwig Von Mises
AWWWEEESOME ;D Yes, I am using seasoned oak cubes and cedar cubes when I polish
I have done the 3 charges 8 hours apart due to the extreme speed at which the large rocks/load pulverizes the grit to fine. The extra charges keep the cutting at max.
My observation has shown me that the tire tumbler is better when the slurry is minimal at the initial coarse grind, watery even. if you check my other post on the tumbler, you see the rock wear, that one didn't even get recharged. 3/4 cup period, and I bleeve a 20 hour tumble.
A thick slurry on smaller sizes has led to the discovery of stones sticking and riding the loop. Larger stones can be carried to the top, and dropped. I get a bit of breakage depending on the rock, but overall I love the speed of the grind, and I will continue to do various tests and experiments to find where the tire tumbler is best suited.
A TREAT! video of the tumbler. And I know, the shop is a little messy. the sign of a rock freak possesed. Actually it is clean now, will post pics ASAP lol SO CHECK THE SPIN!
Hey! I love rocks more than MOST people! Well... except for, you know, kidney stones and stuff...
"Got enough rocks there honey? You can barely walk!" She says, "I know, (huffpuff) I have to go back and get the rest... WATER PLEASE!"
Going to get a few more tires, smaller diam, to experiment with.
RPM will have to be dropped, thus I am looking at modifying the pulley to a step type. Make the changes quicker! I am sure I will arrive at a suitable polishing system.
polishing larger rocks can be tricky. One of our goals we met, with "River Rolled" stones. River rolled have little stress fractures that seem to frost alot of the stones.. The look is natural. Out of these, if I find something really off the charts, I put those aside for further tumbles. Mostly it has been DATA gathering. The tire really grounds the stones down. I thought about a couple of "pocket spares" the tiny spare tires, which I could put two side by side.... I also want to try some industrial amounts of smaller sizes. It's fun even when scooping out the quarts of thick slurry. Going to see what that might be useful for. I have to get some stainless screens to grade the grind too....
Hey! I love rocks more than MOST people! Well... except for, you know, kidney stones and stuff...
"Got enough rocks there honey? You can barely walk!" She says, "I know, (huffpuff) I have to go back and get the rest... WATER PLEASE!"
This space is for temporary chat only and all posts drop off automatically and are not saved.
Members with real questions or comments that need an actual response, please post on the main forum - not here! Casual PG-13 posts only, no politics or religion please!
Warzy Raptor: Nah that’s the DMV for sure!
May 3, 2024 1:05:56 GMT -5
Wooferhound: My phone is constantly still ringing constantly
May 4, 2024 10:26:44 GMT -5
ThomasT: Turn it off... drop out and tune in. Life is short...
May 5, 2024 19:16:43 GMT -5
Wooferhound: Ding-a-Ling
May 5, 2024 21:06:09 GMT -5
amygdule: Don't call me, I have Phone-Phobia...
May 6, 2024 1:38:10 GMT -5
Wooferhound: Are you interested in Changing your Long Distance service ?
May 6, 2024 7:50:13 GMT -5
RickB: "Is this the party to whom I am speaking?"
May 6, 2024 8:15:06 GMT -5
*
Wooferhound: Have you got Prince Albert in a can ?
May 6, 2024 14:56:44 GMT -5
parfive: Nah, they parked Eddie in a big oak box.
May 6, 2024 16:04:57 GMT -5
Wooferhound: Doing an Appliance Survey . . . is your Refrigerator Running ?
May 6, 2024 17:03:22 GMT -5
RickB: I thought the dryer was shrinking my clothes... Turns out it was the refrigerator all along.
May 6, 2024 19:31:44 GMT -5
werejen: I need opinions on rocks that cannot safely be tumbled. I have found a lot of quartz/mix with nice edges that I do not want to lose. Some have told me to use lacquer on them, and others have said a clear coat nail polish. Thoughts?
May 6, 2024 21:22:55 GMT -5
*
Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!