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I have only used the Lot-O. Drummond Island Rocks has both a Lot-O and a Mini Sonic and also tumbles cabs. He's probably the best one to answer your question. I think I know his answer, through.
The Lot-O is very popular here. There's a rock tumbling contest put on by Feather River Lapidary club in California every year and the first place winner has come from this forum and has used a Lot-O for about the past ten years. The other two tumblers don't get talked about nearly as much as the Lot-O. I can't say anything bad about them because I haven't used them.
Use the search box at the upper left part of this page to read up on the Lot-O.
Here's a thread comparing two of the three tumblers you asked about: Lot-O vs. Mini-Sonic
The Rock Shed probably has the best prices and is a great place to buy from.
Why Thumler's UV-10 of course. Not sure what kind of volume you are talking about but for about $40-45 more than the Lot-O you can have more than double the capacity. My favorite thing about the UV-10 is how adjustable it is. By mastering just three variables (fill level, moisture and slurry thickness) I can run anything from very hard to softer materials with the same success. It can run as violently as I want or I can slow it to barely a crawl, as gentle as can be. I highly recommend it.
That being said, our next major tumbling purchase will be a Lot-O. We have room for a smaller vibe with what we have running as far as rotaries but really do not need another UV-10. After researching the other options we decided on the Lot-O, largely because of how many happy users of them are on this forum.
Whatever you choose expect to put in some time learning your machine. I had no idea as to the versatility of the UV-10 until I started experimenting with it.
Al, thanks for your info. How long would it take to tumble these with a UV10? I think they are a mix of jasper and agate.
That will be a different animal than cabs/pendants which are already rough shaped by the time you start them in a vibe tumbler. Most of us who use a vibe for tumbling rocks roll them in rotary tumblers (could be from a few weeks to many months) first to get them to their desired shapes as a vibe is terrific (and fast) at scratch removal and polishing but not so great at transforming the shapes of rocks.
A very rough summary of what you will find here on the forum for vibe usage: -120/220 Silicon Carbide grit for 48 hours -500 Aluminum Oxide/Silicon Carbide for 48 hours -1000 AO for 48 hours (Some do this, some do not. Depends on the material for me.) -Polish for 48 hours, maybe more -Burnishing (again some do, some do not), time preferences vary greatly
This is assuming you already processed these through rotary tumblers. Obviously everybody will have their own recipes and tricks they develop along the way, but this is a pretty solid place to start. If you do not want/cannot run these in a rotary first, I would suggest multiple cycles of 120 to smooth them out as much as possible. It is not really a substitution for a rotary tumbler but it will make them a bit nicer, just do not expect them to look like a lot of the pictures you see here. I highly suggest you check out some posts by Jugglerguy where he has made informational videos on tumbling, here is one video:
If you do not want/cannot run these in a rotary first, I would suggest multiple cycles of 120 to smooth them out as much as possible. It is not really a substitution for a rotary tumbler but it will make them a bit nicer, just do not expect them to look like a lot of the pictures you see here.
Yep, Jugglerguy has done that experiment as well. In my opinion, there's no substitute for coarse grind in a rotary.
If you do not want/cannot run these in a rotary first, I would suggest multiple cycles of 120 to smooth them out as much as possible. It is not really a substitution for a rotary tumbler but it will make them a bit nicer, just do not expect them to look like a lot of the pictures you see here.
Yep, Jugglerguy has done that experiment as well. In my opinion, there's no substitute for coarse grind in a rotary.
Post by NevadaBill on Jun 12, 2019 12:23:55 GMT -5
If you are new to tumbling, and want something that can best do the job that you have right now, and only have the money to spend on one tumbler (like most people do when first starting out), then I would highly recommend a Rotary tumbler as mentioned by the experts above. It will do the job, from beginning to end, and you will be very happy with the results, if you are patient.
The Vibratory tumbler is best for polishing or finishing the later stages of tumbling. I can't give you a comparison between models but use the Lortone tumblers with success. They can often be picked up in very good shape from EBay, for 1/2 price.
Post by lapidarycentral on Oct 9, 2022 15:31:47 GMT -5
Sorry for this big bump, but I have the same question as well. I have a minisonic and just got a used lot-o tumbler and so far the sonic seems easier to use and has much better action. The lot-o seems to require a lot more maintenance and the action seems terrible in comparison. The shape of the barrel also seems to encourage grime buildup on the bottom that has to be mixed up by shaking it daily on 220 grit. I'm not sure if I'm just doing something wrong, or if my lot-o needs tweaked better than the person who I bought it from (refurbished) had tweaked it. The only thing I'm wondering is that many people talk about grit breaking down daily in a vibratory tumbler, and I don't seem to get the same results as I see others posting with that kind of grit break down in the sonic.
This is my first batch with the lot-o, so still learning it. I have it mounted to a 35 lbs cement block, and I'm thinking maybe it needs to be a little heavier? I figure I must be doing something wrong since I see so many people here swearing by the lot-o, which is what encouraged me to look for one in the first place.
Check out our website for some high quality slabbing, cabbing, and tumbling rough! lapidarycentral.com/
You might need to tune your Lot-O to get it to run right. Here are a couple troubleshooting things to look at:
1. Check to see if there are any broken springs. Pray that there aren't because they're about impossible to find right now. 2. Look at the fans on either side of the motor. There are weights on them and they need to be aligned with each other. For example, if one is on the bottom the other one should be too. 3. You have it mounted to a concrete block, right? It needs to be mounted to something very heavy. 4. The dowel under the springs can be adjusted. If you adjust it to be too vigorous, then you run the risk of breaking springs. If it's too far the other way, then you will get very weak action, which sounds like your problem. I tuned a brand new one in this video. I think I actually went a little too far and plan to move the dowel back some. I would tune it by moving it around, not by just measuring. Measuring should give you a good starting point though. Make sure you have a full load in it while it's running. Running it empty can also break springs.
You might need to tune your Lot-O to get it to run right. Here are a couple troubleshooting things to look at:
1. Check to see if there are any broken springs. Pray that there aren't because they're about impossible to find right now. 2. Look at the fans on either side of the motor. There are weights on them and they need to be aligned with each other. For example, if one is on the bottom the other one should be too. 3. You have it mounted to a concrete block, right? It needs to be mounted to something very heavy. 4. The dowel under the springs can be adjusted. If you adjust it to be too vigorous, then you run the risk of breaking springs. If it's too far the other way, then you will get very weak action, which sounds like your problem. I tuned a brand new one in this video. I think I actually went a little too far and plan to move the dowel back some. I would tune it by moving it around, not by just measuring. Measuring should give you a good starting point though. Make sure you have a full load in it while it's running. Running it empty can also break springs.
I actually saw your videos. They were very educating and helped me decide to get a lot-o, and I checked the dowel and it seems to be about the same location you had it.
I did notice the fans themselves were about a cm in different locations on their shafts, but havent adjusted to line them up. Didn't check the weight then, I'll do so in the morning though.
All springs looked good. Some of the nuts that hold stuff together don't seem super tight, should these be tightened up or do you want a little give, as long as they don't come loose?
It is mounted on a 35 lbs cement block. It does not move, but in the directions for the lot-o it does recommend a 40+ lbs block and says heavier than that is better, so tomorrow I'll also glue another cement block to the bottom and see if that helps.
I'll give it another look though, thanks for your tips, much appreciated!
Check out our website for some high quality slabbing, cabbing, and tumbling rough! lapidarycentral.com/
Follow jugglerguys recommendations. My lot-o wasn’t really going the way his was in his video. After dowel adjustment, it was all systems go. Don’t rely on ,”it looks about where his dowel was.” Adjust your dowel with the machine running with a full load of material. You will get real time results and adjust accordingly. Lot—o’s work great, you just have to dial them in and get used to what works best.
You might need to tune your Lot-O to get it to run right. Here are a couple troubleshooting things to look at:
1. Check to see if there are any broken springs. Pray that there aren't because they're about impossible to find right now. 2. Look at the fans on either side of the motor. There are weights on them and they need to be aligned with each other. For example, if one is on the bottom the other one should be too. 3. You have it mounted to a concrete block, right? It needs to be mounted to something very heavy. 4. The dowel under the springs can be adjusted. If you adjust it to be too vigorous, then you run the risk of breaking springs. If it's too far the other way, then you will get very weak action, which sounds like your problem. I tuned a brand new one in this video. I think I actually went a little too far and plan to move the dowel back some. I would tune it by moving it around, not by just measuring. Measuring should give you a good starting point though. Make sure you have a full load in it while it's running. Running it empty can also break springs.
I actually saw your videos. They were very educating and helped me decide to get a lot-o, and I checked the dowel and it seems to be about the same location you had it.
I did notice the fans themselves were about a cm in different locations on their shafts, but havent adjusted to line them up. Didn't check the weight then, I'll do so in the morning though.
All springs looked good. Some of the nuts that hold stuff together don't seem super tight, should these be tightened up or do you want a little give, as long as they don't come loose?
It is mounted on a 35 lbs cement block. It does not move, but in the directions for the lot-o it does recommend a 40+ lbs block and says heavier than that is better, so tomorrow I'll also glue another cement block to the bottom and see if that helps.
I'll give it another look though, thanks for your tips, much appreciated!
Jimmie is right. Adjust your own machine, don't rely on measurements from mine.
I think you want all of your screws and nuts to be tight, just be careful not to strip anything. I filled the holes in my block to make it heavier but gluing two together should have the same effect.
I did notice the fans themselves were about a cm in different locations on their shafts, but havent adjusted to line them up. Didn't check the weight then, I'll do so in the morning though.
Just to add, because I see it asked often, the fans are friction fit. If you need to adjust them, just keep the shaft from spinning and move them. It's a really tight friction fit, but they will move and you're not going to break it. Aligning the weights is easy. Just hold one fan in place and spin the other on the shaft. What I've done is use a Sharpie to mark the ends of the weights on the outside of the fan. Makes it a lot easier to align.
For the dowel, you can't really just go off the measurement. It's a good starting point though. When I adjusted mine, very small movements in the dowel made drastic differences in the movement of the rocks. When adjusting, I loaded it full of wet ceramic and rocks as if I was about to start a batch and turn it on. You can slide the dowel forward and back and observe the movement of the rocks. Once you find a good spot, turn the motor off and then hot glue it back down. Here is a thread I made a while back about my results before and after moving the dowel.
EDIT: Also, the motor on my Lot-O died after about 4 months of use. So I've been without it for about 5 months now. I've been waiting patiently for a motor to come back in stock, but I've also been thinking about getting the Mini Sonic. I like the idea of not having a motor that can die. Seems like it runs off magnets so you'd just need replace the springs every so often I'd imagine. How are you liking it?
Last Edit: Oct 10, 2022 10:14:58 GMT -5 by waterboysh
Post by lapidarycentral on Oct 10, 2022 12:21:52 GMT -5
I aligned the fans and magnets a little better but didn't see much improvement. Glued it to a second block (These are already solid, but only 35 lbs blocks), so I will wait and see once its cured if that improved things at all. If not, then I'll see about adjusting the dowels and tighten things up a little more.
So far I love the Mt-4sv. I has so far been easy to work on, I haven't had any major problems, and it seems to have really good action. It is quieter, lower profile, and the barrel seems better built (but does not seem to fit quite as large of stones as the lot-o). I am still new though, so still learning, but as far as I can see the mt-4sv is a good competitor. Just seems like they cost more which is a big factor to a lot of people. But, in this market, Diamond Pacific seems to be doing a better job at keeping them stocked, and I know Suva just said yesterday they have a few sonics in stock and ready to ship. I was honestly tempted to grab a second but need to learn things more before making additional investments.
Check out our website for some high quality slabbing, cabbing, and tumbling rough! lapidarycentral.com/
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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
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link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
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