Post by poweredbypoptarts on Dec 30, 2010 12:26:41 GMT -5
My name is Boris and I'm from northern Nevada. Here's a story for you.
I recently got a $10 tumbler from Michael's. It's a cheap plastic model that roars louder than a jet engine. I bought the tumbler as a present for my son but I ended up rediscovering rock hounding. When I was 7 or 8 years old I used to collect quartz - every and all kinds. There wasn't a whole lot of it in my backyard so it a was a precious find when it popped up. To satiate my hunger, I would gather up as many common stones or granite pieces as I could find. They would tumble in my pockets with dirt and grass and everything else that stuck to them. I would sneak the rocks into the house and hide them under my bed. When everyone would go to sleep I would sneak off into the bathroom to wash them. Don't ask me why I didn't simply wash them outside. Maybe that was too obvious for an overly excited 7 or 8 year kid? I don't know. All good things come to end and this did too. One day my Mom found me with my legs sticking out from under the bed as I was adding to my unwashed collection. She got pretty upset at the mess I had under my bed so my parents encouraged me to a new and cleaner hobby - coin collecting.
So now here I am again. It's many years later and I'm rediscovering the joys of digging in the backyard. This time it's with my son. And this time we will wash the rocks before we take them into the house. Lesson learned!
Northern Nevada has a rich mining history and there's lots of interesting geology here. My backyard here is peppered with all sorts of stones of every color. I don't know what it is but I'm sure it's pretty common stuff. It will be fun to run them through the tumbler!
The $10 tumbler from Michael's came with some sample stones and pieces of glass. I've been running it for about a week with the "Step 1" grit. Today I will start the tumbler on the "Step 2" grit. The tumbler itself is made of plastic and it is unlined. It has grooves and crevices where the smaller sample stones have been jammed into. Opening up the tumbler gives off a stinky plastic reek. It's probably just the plastic being scrapped off. We'll see. I'm sure I'll get a different tumbler soon so this problem will go away.
Anyways, hello from Nevada!
-- Boris
I recently got a $10 tumbler from Michael's. It's a cheap plastic model that roars louder than a jet engine. I bought the tumbler as a present for my son but I ended up rediscovering rock hounding. When I was 7 or 8 years old I used to collect quartz - every and all kinds. There wasn't a whole lot of it in my backyard so it a was a precious find when it popped up. To satiate my hunger, I would gather up as many common stones or granite pieces as I could find. They would tumble in my pockets with dirt and grass and everything else that stuck to them. I would sneak the rocks into the house and hide them under my bed. When everyone would go to sleep I would sneak off into the bathroom to wash them. Don't ask me why I didn't simply wash them outside. Maybe that was too obvious for an overly excited 7 or 8 year kid? I don't know. All good things come to end and this did too. One day my Mom found me with my legs sticking out from under the bed as I was adding to my unwashed collection. She got pretty upset at the mess I had under my bed so my parents encouraged me to a new and cleaner hobby - coin collecting.
So now here I am again. It's many years later and I'm rediscovering the joys of digging in the backyard. This time it's with my son. And this time we will wash the rocks before we take them into the house. Lesson learned!
Northern Nevada has a rich mining history and there's lots of interesting geology here. My backyard here is peppered with all sorts of stones of every color. I don't know what it is but I'm sure it's pretty common stuff. It will be fun to run them through the tumbler!
The $10 tumbler from Michael's came with some sample stones and pieces of glass. I've been running it for about a week with the "Step 1" grit. Today I will start the tumbler on the "Step 2" grit. The tumbler itself is made of plastic and it is unlined. It has grooves and crevices where the smaller sample stones have been jammed into. Opening up the tumbler gives off a stinky plastic reek. It's probably just the plastic being scrapped off. We'll see. I'm sure I'll get a different tumbler soon so this problem will go away.
Anyways, hello from Nevada!
-- Boris