Borax substitute in Lot-O

I am a newbie, so take with a grain of salt. But I think that you can use sugar instead of Borax.

My understanding is that Borax is used to help the grit stick to the rocks like a thickener. I read somewhere that you can use sugar the same way.

I'm sure that the more experienced members will chime in and let us both know for sure. And if I'm wrong, what can be used. 👍

Back in the long-ago days when I tumbled stones they made a thickening product called Tumble-Tabs. It did a great job but seem to be no longer available. I've often wondered what ingredients were used in them. Anyone know?

I am seeing a couple schools of thought as I come across more anecdotal information.

One is that the borax serves as a wetting agent. This ideas suggests to me that a few drops of liquid detergent might be a good substitute. (I use untreated well water, which is very hard, for my tumbling, so I am hesitant to use a true “soap” for fear of getting a coating of soap scum on my rocks).

Another is that the borax serves as a slurry thickener (since not much mud is created in the prepolish and polish stages). This idea suggests that sugar, psyllium, or kitty litter could be used.

I needed to be able to dump my rinse water into the lawn so this is what I use. I found it from ingawh 's post here. You're using hand soap and psyllium husk powder to create a slurry.


For medium grit I use 2 tsp of 220 SiC. I add 1 tsp when I start, and the second tsp several hours later (usually like 4 - 6) and typically only run it for 1 day. Then I do 1/4 tsp of 500 AO, 1/4 tsp of psyllium husk powder, and 5 pumps of hand soap. I do the same thing for the polish stage. I usually run these stages two days each. I find that after about 24 hours, the slurry has thinned out a little to much. I think this is from the friction of the rocks heating up the slurry. I usually add a little bit of psyllium at this point. It's probably like 1/8 of a tsp. It's also really easy to add to much water and thin the slurry to much. If the movement is good, don't add water even if it looks like it needs it.

Here are two different batches at different stages. The first is Tiger's Eye in 500 AO after about 48 hours. The second is Obsidian and also 500 AO, but after only a few hours.

 

If you have no moved your dowel, you very well might need to. I constantly had issues with my movement stalling after 12 - 24 hours before I did. 

I would not add anything to the 220 grit. It will make its own slurry. If you want to see some progression... here is the Tiger's Eye from above with no grit added. First video is before dowel adjustment and the second one is after.



 

Here it is after 46 hours running in 120/220 SiC




I do add a little bit of soap to the 220 stage when doing Obsidian though. This is 2 pumps of soap, 1 tsp of 220, and 1/8 tsp of psyllium.

As reported above, I felt the movement was poor in the 220 stage. 

For the 600 SiC stage, I was more careful about getting the water drained out at the start. And I added a few drops of Dawn and 1/4 tsp of psyllium. The movement was much, much better.  Over the 3 days of this stage, very little added water from my spray bottle was needed. 

Similarly, the polish stage went very well using a bit of Dawn plus psyllium. 

I think where I went wrong on the 220 stage was leaving too much water in the barrel at the start. It doesn’t look like I will need to tune the tumbler by moving the dowel. 

The saga continues (aka, reinventing the wheel, everything’s already been said but not everyone has said it, etc…)

The 1/4 tsp psyllium and a drop of Dawn seems to be a satisfactory substitute for borax in pre-polish and polish stages. After a few more stages completed, I am feeling good about that.

But burnishing using only Dawn and water hasn’t given me enough “slurry” to prevent the rocks from chattering and banging into one another. I think I’m going to stick with borax for burnishing, at least for now, and combine it with the rinse water from the previous stage for dilution before disposing in the grass.

I've only owned my Lot-O's for 10 months but I was given some valuable advice when I bought it. Fully drain the(almost on the verge of drying) load. Start the machine and add your grit and let if run for a minute or two. Then add one 'half pump' of Soft Soap brand liquid soap and let it go for 30 minutes before rechecking it. Usually I don't have to add any more moisture but each morning I check and to make sure things are still wet. If not then no more than two sprays of water and give the hopper a 1/4 turn clockwise. (Then do a little dance in front of it and go on with your day) 

A full pump of Soft Soap will get you too much suds. Too much moisture will get you too much suds. Any other cheapo Dollar store liquid hand soap will get you too much suds. Save yourself headaches and get the Soft Soap brand. 

I check my Lot-O's at 5am and 6pm daily and rarely have issues. I've tried Borax, Sugar, Dawn but I've skipped the Cat Litter and Psyllium thing. For my Mini Sonic I use a single drop of Dawn rather than Soft Soap. I put the drop on the tip of my finger and wipe it on a rock to add it, this is more controllable since it's very difficult to remove an extra drop of Dawn once it's in the hopper. (I've done that)

This isn't a 'How to'.... Just a 'What I do'... 
Mark

I've been dumping borax ladden slurry water on some weeds for about 20 years now. THey are the healthiest plants in my yard lol. Honestly the small amount of Borax really won't hurt things.