Maybe my steps will help ...
1- 220 or 240 silicon carbide, not sure about making your own mix of 120/220 but could be good. Here in The States we can buy it that way.
2- 600 silicon carbide. 400, 500, or 600 should work here and Aluminum Oxides are also a good choice.
3- 1000 Aluminum Oxide. This step is optional but I like to run it on all my tumbles.
4- Aluminum Oxide polish compound. I get mine from the Rock Shed. It is about 14,000 mesh.
I am looking at that tumbler Ken. Interested in buying one. It may be a different breed.
It looks like it has a thick polyurethane hopper like many industrial tumblers have. Similar to my Vibrasonic.
It has a 1/3 HP motor on a 16 inch diameter hopper, a 1/4 HP motor on a 14 inch hopper, so it has some serious power.
I have been talking to the ceramic media companies about special high density ceramics.
I also asked them what kind of hopper liner do they use for running metal parts with silicon carbide impregnated ceramic media.
Because the silicon carbide media eats hoppers about as fast as anything. Polyurethane formulations are the most common.
Note the hopper on haz3h's machine has a thick liner inside of a container like the industrial machines have.
And my Vibrasonic is rated for SiC 80 but I have run SiC 30 in it with no ill effects.
The SiC 30 is used up in 12 hours in the Vibrasonic. 24 hours for sure.
The Vibrasonic may shape rocks faster than a rotary if you used 2 tablespoons of SiC 30 and did clean outs every day(too much work for me).
I am concerned that this vibe is for metals, which will ruin rocks. Supplier is promising
haz3h it will polish rocks....
This tumbler costs way less than a Vibrasonic(way way less).
It apparently has a 1500 RPM(probably at 50Hz) motor which is slower than most US vibes. Probably 1725 RPM at US 60 Hz.
Just saying, that vibe interests me. And I have seen polished fluorite and calcite coming out of China. How do they do it ?
would this vibe do the job ?
Look at number of springs. That is typical to industrial vibes.
I say that is the bad ass of all small vibes I have ever seen.
Apologies
haz3h, I am posting the prices for this vibe for the good of the RTH. I think they need to know.
Price DOES NOT include shipping:
12 - 155 $
14 - 165 $
16 - 200 $
This must be a smaller unit with 7 to 8 springs. See electrical plug for scale of unit size.
I see what looks like a 1/4 HP motor bolted axially in line with the hopper below.
Guessing that the motor shaft is pointing down and has a counterweight mounted directly to the motor shaft for a swirling action at the hopper.
Compared to Industrial Raytech, WITH A DRAIN !!:
Compared to UV 10 and UV 18