Rock tumbling and jewelry making (Not RC related)

[Doom!]

It’s fun inside your head, ain’t it?

It ain't boring, I can tell ya that.

 

[Velodromed]

Texas red moss agate. Still one of my favorite finds. This is the largest of three pieces and the last one I’m working on. Eventually, I will cut this one up to make cabochons. Eventually…

 

[Velodromed]

West Texas petrified wood to die for. I love this piece! We’ve had many storms this winter and some nice rocks have been uncovered around creeks and parks. I’m tumbling this one very carefully. I want to keep the ‘wood’ look and just bring out some of the color that I think is in there.

 

[Velodromed]

I stumbled upon this thread and wanted to share my excitement about rock tumbling and jewelry making! It's such a rewarding hobby, isn't it?

Yes it is, very much!

 

[Velodromed]

I decided to get a dozen pounds of Bahia agate. I found a source with some real quality ones. These things look amazing before I even touch them.m! Can’t wait to see how they look once polished.

 

[Doom!]

Oh man these are going to be sweet! Some great patterns in there.

 

[Velodromed]

Oh man these are going to be sweet! Some great patterns in there.

Meanwhile lol… I fit the bug body I did years ago for one of my Voltages to my Granite. I like it, just rolls back on its wheels now all easy like.

 

[Doom!]

Gotta love self righting vehicles.

 

[Velodromed]

Unakite- From Lake Superior. This one was already lake tumbled so only took the last month or so to polish.
I’ve been a member of a rock tumbling forum for almost a year now, and have set up a nice little thing where I trade Medium Freight Boxes full of rocks with members in other states. So far I’ve gotten rocks from South Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, New York and Las Vegas. In return, I sent all those kind folks a MFB full of nice Texas rocks. It’s so much fun! The forum is called RockTumblingHobby.com in case anyone’s interested. It’s an extremely good forum with a lot of folks that enjoy helping beginners, including me. Of course I go by the same name there.

 

[Doom!]

Looks like a potato with a sunburn.

 

[Velodromed]

Looks like a potato with a sunburn.

ya always got something to say that’s just a little little bit off and make me crack up every time!

 

[Velodromed]

I got two high-end tumblers today and am taking things to the next level. The guy had gone all in on the hobby for his daughter in 2020, but she ended up dropping it after a month and got into volleyball. The dual barrel Lortone tumbler retails for $200, but since they’ve been impossible to get for years, they run as high as $400 on eBay, used. The Lot-o vibratory Tumblr retails for $300-350, but those are hard to find also and used ones go for that or more on eBay. The miscellaneous grit and supplies are worth around 80 bucks retail and he included a Dewalt roller toolbox thing, which I have no idea what they cost.

There is also a brand new in box Deluxe Rock and Mineral Hardness kit, which costs $125 retail. Lastly, he threw in a toy grade National Geographic tumbler, which retails around $50. It’ll make a good gift to a kid. The tumblers are barely used and in excellent condition. I paid $400 total so feel pretty damn good right now and really freaking excited. I may hate Facebook, but sometimes there are killer deals on marketplace. if I turned around and flipped everything, I could almost double my money. Screw that though, all this is mine mine mine mine

 

[Rowdyray]

Nice! I have the single and double Lortone tumblers. Thrift store finds. They're well made and last for years. Highly recommend you grab a pack of replacement belts. No idea how long mine had sat, just replaced them right away. And now have spares. Cheap and easy to replace. Call it insurance.

 

[Velodromed]

Nice! I have the single and double Lortone tumblers. Thrift store finds. They're well made and last for years. Highly recommend you grab a pack of replacement belts. No idea how long mine had sat, just replaced them right away. And now have spares. Cheap and easy to replace. Call it insurance.

Nice!! Those were really good thrift store finds as they are incredibly expensive now. Someday they’ll be back in stock but nobody knows how long that’ll be. I got really lucky with my find. The guy lived in a small town four hours away wanted to do a package deal for 500, but nobody was interested in the small town. He couldn’t mail the package because he had industrial glue mounted the Lotone on those cement blocks. We went back-and-forth for a month, I kept trying to get him to mail me the Lortone, but he wouldn’t separate them. Finally, he ended up having to take his daughter to a volleyball tournament two hours away from me, so we met halfway at my cousin’s house near Austin. I had already managed to negotiate $100 off and we had a great visit with family at the same time. It was like the perfect day

I actually order the material and make my own belts. For $5.50 on Amazon I got 6 feet of 4mm transmission round belt. I fuse the ends using a soldering iron. Simply have the soldering iron on the table (600f) with the tip up, put the ends of the belt on both sides and the soldering iron tip till they’re melting nicely then slide off the tip, pressing them togethor firmly. After it dries I take a razor blade and trim off the excess. Smells like crap and then I have to clean my soldering tip really good, but the ones Ive made for my other tumblers have lasted for more than a year so far.

 

[Doom!]

I got two high-end tumblers today and am taking things to the next level. The guy had gone all in on the hobby for his daughter in 2020, but she ended up dropping it after a month and got into volleyball. The dual barrel Lortone tumbler retails for $200, but since they’ve been impossible to get for years, they run as high as $400 on eBay, used. The Lot-o vibratory Tumblr retails for $300-350, but those are hard to find also and used ones go for that or more on eBay. The miscellaneous grit and supplies are worth around 80 bucks retail and he included a Dewalt roller toolbox thing, which I have no idea what they cost.

There is also a brand new in box Deluxe Rock and Mineral Hardness kit, which costs $125 retail. Lastly, he threw in a toy grade National Geographic tumbler, which retails around $50. It’ll make a good gift to a kid. The tumblers are barely used and in excellent condition. I paid $400 total so feel pretty damn good right now and really freaking excited. I may hate Facebook, but sometimes there are killer deals on marketplace. if I turned around and flipped everything, I could almost double my money. Screw that though, all this is mine mine mine mine

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Gotta love when a good deal comes your way!

 

[Velodromed]

Got wood I love it when colors like these pop after a few weeks in course grit. Threw in an ugly yellow rock and pulled this beauty out.

Orbicular Jasper
This is a rare find and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s about halfway through tumbling here.

 

[Doom!]

Got wood I love it when colors like these pop after a few weeks in course grit. Threw in an ugly yellow rock and pulled this beauty out.

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Orbicular Jasper
This is a rare find and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s about halfway through tumbling here.

Ok, this round of bizarre things that circle around in my head and then get blurted out without thinking. Looks like your holding a hot charcoal brickette.

Your right some really nice colors popping out, especially cool when unexpected.

 

[Velodromed]

Ok, this round of bizarre things that circle around in my head and then get blurted out without thinking. Looks like your holding a hot charcoal brickette.

Your right some really nice colors popping out, especially cool when unexpected.

Curious, what kind of strange thing you’re gonna say about this little guy. I’ve been trying to figure out what it is…could be petrified palm root, or Oolite that’s converted to agate (yeah you’ll have to google that lol).

 

[Doom!]

At first glance it looks like a granola bar made out of bird seed, but if you examine it closer it looks like something you would see on CSI when they look in their microscope.

Very interesting look, I like it.

 

[Doom!]

Natures tumbler at it's finest. The beach in Cambria California is made from fine smooth pebbles. I can spend hours sitting there sifting through it.