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one thing I did notice before I got the vibe was that running mixed loads my tumbles came out more consistent polished in the rotary. in the vibe the harder rocks came out shinier than in rotary. but the soft ones came out with less shine than they did in the rotary. so right now I'm putting everything through the coarse tumble grind. then into the uv-10 with ao-80. then ao-polish. I'm currently in the process of setting aside any of the softer stones that don't take a wet shine until I have enough to fill my ar-12 barrel. then plan to do another polish in the rotary with generous amount of plastics. its nice to tumble the super hard rocks. but the thrifty bastard in me keeps his eyes open for them big flat rate boxes of mixed tumbles.

I'm trying to talk her into going to an old abandoned garnet mine in the near future. NOT BARTONS!

theres rocks worth picking up in ny?

cant say in this family oriented forum lol.

woody is back in the laundry room. all 4 barrels done and spinning. I don't get it I weighed one of the 7 inch  barrels on bathroom scale loaded about 75 percent full then reweighed.  holding about 15 lbs.  although it looks in reality much bigger than my ar-12 barrel I don't think my ar-12 could hold 12 pounds unless it was all really small stuff tightly packed. either way times 4 I'm tumbling 60 lbs I guess I can live with that.

ok back at it. on last set I used rubber roofing material. this time I got ahold of some rubber gasket material. pretty simple trace out with sharpie marker and trim out with old scisors.  fyi if you plan on using for different grits cut rings cause the rubber will wear out and grit will get trapped in behind it.  since mine are only ever going to see coarse grit I just left them whole. when they blow out ill just trim them out to the inside of the barrel with an exacto knife after.


I mark out the 16 spots where I want screws.  the lines are actually where the inside of the barrel is. I just eyeball halfway and drill pilot hole. I own 3 drill presses and yet end up doing them with a cordless drill cause its faster lol. I use the center drill to countersink.


then run in 1 1/4 inch sheetrock screws.


I clamp a lid to the one with the 6 inch hole and drill holes through both.



then drive carriage bolts into the "throat opening".  I dilled holes small and drove them in  because the uhmw is a pretty flexible plastic. so I drilled a 3/16ths hole for a 1/4 inch carriage bolt. so they would be very locked in and wont spin if you get some gook in a thread.  the last set I countersunk the bolt heads to flush but couldn't find my forester bit.




then drill holes in lid bigger to make up for slight misalignments.


screw top on same as bottom. add a washer and wingnut  and finished.




new barrel looking all pretty on top of woody.


you didn't think I was going to throw out the other 2 barrels did you? ok you got me top isn't done on the 1 barrel and gaskets need to be trimmed with razor knife.


drive for bottom off end of top shaft. didn't round off edges like the puleys on other end cause I just stacked all 3 and turned them at once. easier to get them all the same size. and I was getting tired.

drool tumbling material.

as a side note I wondered this morning if I left out the paddles and epoxied say 30 grit diamonds to the inside of the barrel what would happen. the idea sprung into my head thinking of the big sandpaper type barrels they use to commercially peel potatos. like having a coarse diamond cabbing wheel from the inside. no worrying about grit recovery ect. ahhh I get these silly ideas sometimes.

she got me the set with 6 attachments and 50 accessories so it came with the flex shaft and circle cutter. first time ive used it.