ashley
Cave Dweller 
Member since February 2023
Posts: 937 
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Post by ashley on Jun 22, 2023 17:57:01 GMT -5
Looking at that picture I normally cut down the 120/220 to 2-3 days and run the 500 longer, 3-4 days. Most of the time you can even run the 500 longer, say 4-5 days and get them completely polished and skip having to put them in a polish cycle. I let the rocks dictate when they go to the next cycle.
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Post by Son Of Beach on Jun 22, 2023 20:45:21 GMT -5
This is what I have been using (go with grit from the rock shed if you can.) sorry if it is hard to read, I have tweaked it over time. They always call for way more grit then needed. Its 2 tsp 120/220, 1 tsp 500 and 1 tsp polish. Use borax in the 500 and polish cycle.  I like your writing style Ashley  Always found different writing kinda neat, older generations have a style. And I noticed what mood I'm in dictates how big or small my font gets, or how readable lol |
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Post by perkins17 on Jun 22, 2023 23:59:01 GMT -5
I kept a spray bottle right next to my MT-4 when it was running right, and sprayed it when it started to get low. That barrel needs quite a bit more water. YouTube videos show it best, but I'd describe it as a thin spread that you can see the color of the rocks through. You probably don't need to adjust grit, just add more water. Less rocks, and a better mix of small and medium stones would help with action. There are several stones in there that the MT-4 isn't really building to handle. A great way to start is with a rotary to get the stones smooth and less oblong so that they roll better too. Hope that helps.  |
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ashley
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2023
Posts: 937
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Post by ashley on Jun 23, 2023 13:00:59 GMT -5
Son Of BeachThanks Chad! That is my sloppy, fast handwriting because I was at work. (though it always tend to look like that because it seems I’m always in a hurry.)
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 14:43:06 GMT -5
This is what I have been using (go with grit from the rock shed if you can.) sorry if it is hard to read, I have tweaked it over time. They always call for way more grit then needed. Its 2 tsp 120/220, 1 tsp 500 and 1 tsp polish. Use borax in the 500 and polish cycle. Thanks for the recipe, I'll try yours next. I'm going with more grit first and I'll see what I can get away with as I try additional loads. |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 14:47:00 GMT -5
UPDATE: Thanks for the updates everyone! I continued running the remaining batch of rocks that didn't take a shine as expected in polish for another 2 days and they polished up much nicer. It might be the number of rocks or the size. I just put a new batch in and only filled it half way (I'm trying to use restraint, I want more rocks polished faster!) and it ran all night very well, so hopefully I did better with the size and number of rocks this time. I did notice some unpolished divots in a few of the rocks and I wonder if it was where they jammed up, I'm thinking it ground into them in that spot. Hopefully with fewer jams that will be prevented.
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 14:53:06 GMT -5
Less rocks, and a better mix of small and medium stones would help with action. There are several stones in there that the MT-4 isn't really built to handle. A great way to start is with a rotary to get the stones smooth and less oblong so that they roll better too. Hope that helps. Thanks, I definitely do most rocks in the rotary tumblers first, but I do have some larger rocks. The ones I put in were still medium by my standards and I have quite a few that are even larger. I guess I will either rotary finish them or try them solo or with a few smaller stones and media to see if I can get it to polish them. When I bought the vibratory tumbler, my goal was to finish more rocks faster with less grit, and I think I'm getting to that goal, but I was hoping I could polish slightly larger rocks in there too. Maybe I'll spring for the Thumler's UV-18 once they're available again. I guess my expectations were too high with the MT-4. |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 15:40:41 GMT -5
 Here are some pictures of the jams and of the unsatisfying results. Do the other vibratory tumblers like Lot-O, raytech, and thumler's just give better quality results in a shorter time, or am I maybe doing something wrong? I polished this one for another 4 days and it came out much better |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 15:42:25 GMT -5
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Post by perkins17 on Jun 26, 2023 16:27:53 GMT -5
Less rocks, and a better mix of small and medium stones would help with action. There are several stones in there that the MT-4 isn't really built to handle. A great way to start is with a rotary to get the stones smooth and less oblong so that they roll better too. Hope that helps. Thanks, I definitely do most rocks in the rotary tumblers first, but I do have some larger rocks. The ones I put in were still medium by my standards and I have quite a few that are even larger. I guess I will either rotary finish them or try them solo or with a few smaller stones and media to see if I can get it to polish them. When I bought the vibratory tumbler, my goal was to finish more rocks faster with less grit, and I think I'm getting to that goal, but I was hoping I could polish slightly larger rocks in there too. Maybe I'll spring for the Thumler's UV-18 once they're available again. I guess my expectations were too high with the MT-4. If you're just running a hobbiest operation, you probably won't need the output of a UV18 unless you have some pretty large rotary tumblers to feed it. The MT-4 is an amazing tumbler, which when used properly produces professional results. It takes time to learn, and as always, patience is key. Water is one of the main elements in this process, and quite a bit more needs to be added to what was in your picture to get proper results. Hope that helps, as a MT-4 owner of 3 years, I've got quite a few tips and tricks to share. |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 26, 2023 17:30:02 GMT -5
Thanks, I definitely do most rocks in the rotary tumblers first, but I do have some larger rocks. The ones I put in were still medium by my standards and I have quite a few that are even larger. I guess I will either rotary finish them or try them solo or with a few smaller stones and media to see if I can get it to polish them. When I bought the vibratory tumbler, my goal was to finish more rocks faster with less grit, and I think I'm getting to that goal, but I was hoping I could polish slightly larger rocks in there too. Maybe I'll spring for the Thumler's UV-18 once they're available again. I guess my expectations were too high with the MT-4. The MT-4 is an amazing tumbler, which when used properly produces professional results. as a MT-4 owner of 3 years, I've got quite a few tips and tricks to share. Thanks, I'll keep at it! I think I'm getting better at it, it's definitely more of a learning curve than rotary polishing and a little discouraging. I also chose it for durability and quiet, so I'd like to use it for many years if possible. Any other tips you have would be great. (I added another photo to the original post with a better picture of how much water I have had in there, it's more than it looks like in the photo of the jam up, I keep it milky)  |
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Post by broseph82 on Jun 28, 2023 20:22:55 GMT -5
This is what it looked like when it jammed overnight or while I was at work:  This is typically how wet I've had it   Here are some pictures of the jams and of the unsatisfying results. Do the other vibratory tumblers like Lot-O, raytech, and thumler's just give better quality results in a shorter time, or am I maybe doing something wrong? Too large. Make them smaller and start again. I know I know, large rocks polished everyone wants, but it really doesn't matter what tumbler you use. The smaller the rocks the better the outcome every time! |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jun 29, 2023 14:16:06 GMT -5
This is what it looked like when it jammed overnight or while I was at work: This is typically how wet I've had it Here are some pictures of the jams and of the unsatisfying results. Do the other vibratory tumblers like Lot-O, raytech, and thumler's just give better quality results in a shorter time, or am I maybe doing something wrong? Too large. Make them smaller and start again. I know I know, large rocks polished everyone wants, but it really doesn't matter what tumbler you use. The smaller the rocks the better the outcome every time! I hear you, but I'm gonna wanna keep pushing it because I want to find a way to effectively polish the larger stones while tumbling (IMO, anything that fits in my palm is not a large stone, but small to medium). If they're bigger than that, they won't even fit in the barrel and I'll rotary polish a large batch of them in my 17 lb barrel with a bunch of media. |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Jul 19, 2023 7:47:31 GMT -5
This is what I have been using (go with grit from the rock shed if you can.) sorry if it is hard to read, I have tweaked it over time. They always call for way more grit then needed. Its 2 tsp 120/220, 1 tsp 500 and 1 tsp polish. Use borax in the 500 and polish cycle. I tried this and even after 4 days in polish, they weren't very well polished. I ran them on 1000 grit for a few days and they're in polish again. 1-2 days in polish just doesn't seem to do it. Thanks for the suggestion though, I was hoping to skip a few days, but that doesn't seem to be possible. |
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moopiemotomom
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 50
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Post by moopiemotomom on Nov 18, 2024 12:34:11 GMT -5
Update to this, I've gotten to where things come out quite well consistently, what I've been doing is doing stage 2, 120/220 grit, in the rotary tumbler, then running smaller sizes/amounts of rocks that don't jam for 3 days on 500 grit, 3 days on 1000 grit, and 4 days on polish (borax added and burnishing with dawn between stages). The larger, more awkwardly shaped rocks sometimes take longer to get a good polish in concave areas, but otherwise it's a great method.
Dry Tumbling: I've also done dry tumbling with corn cob, stages 3-5 for 3 days each. I'll save up a big batch and then run all through each stage and clean them, then switch to the next stage and run them through that. It's much faster to just pull out and drop in new ones that way and the tumbler gets to just keep running.
TLDR: Overall really happy with the mini sonic now that I've gotten the hang of it.
Pros:
+ Durable (no motor)
+ Dry tumbling is great and easy to pull things out between stages
+ Uses less grit and takes less time than rotary
+ One of the few quality vibratory tumblers still available in the last 3 years
Cons:
- jams more than other vibe tumblers
- Takes a little longer than other vibe tumblers
- Expensive
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Post by pebblesky on Nov 18, 2024 12:46:16 GMT -5
Appreciate the update very much!
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