Another Vibe Question

Hi LL,,,

In order to determine which model you want would depend on what you are going to do with it.

If you are going to rough in a rotary and finish in the L-O then I would suggest the single barrel model.If you are using the L-O for roughing and finishing then the 2 barrel unit is what you want.

If you want your polished rocks rounded the rotary rough is the way to go.

If you like your rocks a little on the natural side and not having that "rounded" look then the vibe will give you that appearance on you polished rocks.

In either case a separate barrel should be bought and used solely for the polish stage to avoid cross contamination of the grit.

I have never seen the twin barrel unit other then the photo on the web so I don't know if it has 1 or 2 motors but I would assume it has just the 1 motor. This means that you MUST have both barrels loaded or you take the chance of breaking the springs and not getting the proper vibration as well.

If you want to use only 1 barrel you can fill the other with a "dummy" load to get the proper weight in the unit.

Hope this helps,,,,

connrock

I have both (single and dual), and I really haven't noticed any difference either in the action or reliability. But you do definitely need to have both barrels filled on a dual, even if (as suggested) the second one is just a dummy load. It does just have the one motor, and I'm pretty sure that it is the same motor on both.

Hey LL , are those your dogs ? They are beautiful , I have wanted one for quite some time now.

Oh yaa Welcome to the forum lol I use rotary tumblers 2 motors and 5 3lb barrels

Wolf

Thanks everyone. I can't wait for the Lot-O to arrive, and yes Wolf that is a picture of our Pyrs (8 years and 6 years). Both are females. The smaller one only weighs 100 lbs, the bigger one weighs about 145. They aren't a dog for everyone - they shed a lot, drool, bark a lot, and are very headstrong. You have to be fanatical about dogs like my wife and I to even consider one. If you can handle all of that though they are great. I love Pyrs so much I had a tattoo of one put on my leg.

Now back to tumbling: I've been reading and learning from you guys and gals for several months but just recently joined. My wife and I have collected faceted stones for a while and I know quite a bit about identifying gemstones, but I know next to nothing about rocks and minerals other that the ones considered gemstones. I bought me some books to help and I've learned quite a bit here. So far I've stuck to tumbling stuff I know like the various transparent quartz stones like citrine, amethyst, etc, but I have quite a bit of rough that I've bought (grab bag sorts of boxes) that I have no idea what most of it is. I'm sure I'll be seeking ID help in the near future. Right now I run one large homemade rotary tumbler which has two 24" shafts capable of running several barrels at one time. All of my barrels are made of various sizes of PVC. I love making things out of PVC, so it was the logical choice for me. So far I've never had any problems other than I use threaded clean out fittings for the lids and the least little bit of grit in the threads makes them hard to get on and off. I'm in the process of building another larger rig to replace the current one. The older one is starting to make to much noise. The new one will have 3 shafts. I have a 10" diameter section of PVC that a friend gave me that I want to make some larger barrels out of, but the fittings are extremely expensive for the big stuff so I need to come up with another way of making the ends. I have some 1/4" acrylic sheet that I've been thinking about trying.

A little about myself: Anything I do takes a while because I am disabled with a nerve disease in my back and I'm lucky to get more than a couple of hours a day out of the bed. Tumbling is somehing I did when I was younger and I got back into because I can do with out to much physical effort. My wife actually does any heavy work for me. I'm not supposed to lift wore than 10 or 15 pounds so she has to handle any larger drums. That's why that most of the time I use my smaller drums which only hold a few pounds at a time. I'll have to leave the rockhounding to the wife and kids though. All my rocks so far have come from on-line orders. Luckily my wife likes rocks and gems (she leans more toward gems) as I do. Actually she is the one who told me to go ahead and get a vibratory tumbler now that we have our finances straight because she knows that when I have bouts of depression that I have to have something FUN to do.

Another thing, I tend to get a little long winded when sending e-mails and when I'm posting to forums because I don't get to get out much and this is all the human contact I have for much of the week. Since I can lie down and type on the laptop it's also something I'm not as limited at. I also take a lot of meds and my brain doesn't seem to want to work right sometimes, so I'm liable to say something that makes no sense at all. You can probably tell that just from this post. If I start to ramble somebody just tell me to shut up.

Lee (L.L.)

Thanks. We really love them. The larger one's best buddy is our Yorkie, which somebody gave me. They make quiet a pair.

Mike,
I may be able to help you speed thing up even a bit more.

You say that you use this cycle to finish your rocks,,,,,

Now with the Lot-O it's
3 days in 220
2 days in 600
3 -5 days in polish

Try this once,,,,just once,,,,,,,,

24 hrs 220
48hrs 600
24 hrs polish
borax burnish 4-6 hrs on hard (quartz family) rocks.

connrock

Hi Conrock,
So Short you will soon be getting a polish on rough rock in a day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D

George,
In the vibe the grit breaks down every 12 hrs
so Mike &Conrocks recepie above before polish ,is
actualy down to 2400 g for the last few hours

This actualy works for a real Mirrow Gloss finish try it and see you will be amazed at the results

Hi LL,
I also have a Lot"O and its amazing so cheap to run both grits and power such a saving
So adaptable to experimenting with due to the short cycles At 67 I can actualy remember what I put in !!!! ;D.

jack Yorkshire UK

I have a KG-1 and I've seen several others mention having that one also, but don't think I've seen anyone mention having the 4-pounder. I'm not particularly impressed with the KG-1 as compared to the Lot-O myself, but don't know how the larger one might compare. The nice thing about the larger one is the rheostat control that will let you slow it down...but for the price difference between that one and the Lot-O (the DP is almost $100 more for the same capacity, and extra barrels are also more expensive, around $50/ea vs. $35/ea for the Lot-O), I might be inclined to experiment with wiring in a rheostat in the power line of the Lot-O before laying out that much for the Diamond Pacific.

Johnjsgems seems to like his, but sabre52 and I had the same complaint about the general design of the KG-1 - it is very fussy about the load size and also the amount of water. If there's too much in the load (which from my experience on the KG-1 can equal one quarter-sized rock, not kidding) or the load is too damp it will kick out liquid. Too little in the load and it won't tumble well, and too little liquid and it will dry out in a matter of hours. When running my KG-1 I have to check it several times a day because it will dry out so much more easily than the Lot-O will - I suspect the barrel design is why. The Lot-O having a curve at the top and the opening sitting above and not spanning the entire top tends to help it conserve its own moisture, where the KG-1's lid is even with and spans the entire top. There isn't anything in the design to direct the moisture that climbs up the side with the load back down into the barrel. Instead, it has a tendency to work its way out from under the cover and down into the U-shaped barrel holder, and that puts grit between the barrel and holder. Or even into the motor, if it kicks it out far enough. I don't know if the 4-pounder is as susceptible to this as the little one is, but given the same design I'd be hesitant (myself) to purchase one just to get the speed control, especially if it's possible to add a similar control to a Lot-O.

I mounted mine on standard 18x18 concrete pavers, painted over with latex paint as recommended. Mounting it like that might allow it to be put on top of something - but lifting it up there might be a challenge in itself, once mounted. I definitely can't pick mine up easily. It's probably going to shake the heck out of whatever you put it on as well, and you'd need to be careful of it 'walking' even mounted on a concrete slab. Mine were doing a bit of traveling and also making a lot of noise with vibrating the concrete pavers (which weren't perfectly flat) against the garage floor - solved that with a bit of cushion under the pavers.

(edited to change paver dimensions, don't know what I was thinking the first time...)