Hello! I'm new to the game and have a few questions about rock tumbling, and a recent tumble that went badly.
1. How important is it to have the same type of rock in a tumbler? For example, beach rocks which are all over the place.
until you get some experience and can tell what hardness each type of rock is you should stick with one type of rock2. For the blue rocks in the link below, after about 6 days each of the four types of grit (that i know about), the blue ones came out kind of blurry and white. Any ideas about what caused this, and where to start back up with the grit?
Those could be sodalite which is not a great beginner rock. If that is what it is then even experienced tumblers have trouble with it.3. How much of a risk is it to have rocks that could break up? I'd like to be able to toss a bunch of random stuff together, but I'm always concerned that certain ones will break up and scratch the others, so how likely is that I guess?
Rocks with cracks, pits, fractures and other imperfections should not move on to stage #2. As long as those are in stage #1 there are no risks of damage to other rocks.imgur.com/a/eAx4uIn the pictures above, the first few pictures have blue rocks that i got from the local rock store, with a few random white rocks I got from Lowe's, and a few other rocks i had previously bought from the rock store. The next few pictures are rocks I got on vacation on a beach in Greece. The last picture shows red rocks that I got from the local rock store. Sorry no idea on names..
Other random questions/ comments:
4. Rocks always seem to lose a lot of their material through the process and I try to reduce the number of days for each grit. Don't know if this is a bad idea. Very rough material will lose the most volume during stage #1.
stage #1 as long as it takes to get the imperfections removed. Stage #2 through polish all go 7 days on common rock.
5. Can I start on one of the less coarse grits for the beach rocks? They are already pretty soft. For example, mix into the red rocks? I still do a minimum of 7 days in stage one even on beach rock. Patience is the hardest part to learn about tumbling.6. The 3 pound bags I buy from the rock store only fill up my 3 pound barrel about 2/5 of the way after the coarse grit. No idea what tumbler barrel you are using so I can't help with capacity questions. Your barrel should be 5/8 to 3/4 full of rock when you start each stage. If I want three pounds of tumblers of any rock I order six pounds. I often tumble 30 to 50 percent off each rock during the stages.
Do yourself a huge favor and poke around old threads. I guarantee in a short period of time you will learn a ton from what others have asked and had answered. Most of us started with the same questions.
Welcome to the forum.Thanks for any help!