Shaping Stones for tumbling

I would think that your next shop acquisition might should be a trim saw. No need to spend much on such. Might even look around in your local pawn shops or check craigslist. No need to buy new.
They can be a bit messy, and your winters would limit outdoor use. Could use inside a garage if you have the space.

Reckon you could make dice out of most any (stable) rock. Got a specific color in mind?

ETA: tile saw

Well then, you just saved some $$ by already having one! Use it to buy more rocks.

I would think that making dice could turn into quite the project - to make them well...
Not something I would want to tackle myself. Making perfect dice would be extremely labor intensive.
Better be one heck of a friend to warrant that much work!

Folks here hare tried or done so, but it's more work than one might think.

Search function here is FUBAR since the forum change, so finding old threads where folks have made dice may be a challenge.

Good luck and we sure want to see any attempts should you do so!

Yup, saw those two when I did a search for "dice" as well. But, I am reasonably certain that I recall seeing other threads posted here by folks making dice. If I had all afternoon and cared enough, I might be able to find them.

You can still do searches here, just saying that the results aren't what they used to be. Think it may be due to the URL change, but I'm no computer geek able to figure such things out. No biggie, it is what it is.

Luminin , you may want to do some Google searching on making stone/rock dice. Doubt it is as easy as it might seem to be.

coloradocliff good call! I'm tumbling some now, IDK why it didn't cross my mind! It would look good too, rolling. Could do a lighter stone for the chips. Maybe howlite? It's soft so it would take well too glue/epoxy?

You might consider black Onyx (7 Mohs), but I do not know how brittle it is or if it will stand up to a lot of back alley action against a backstop. Another to consider is black Tourmaline (7-7.5 Mohs). It might be hard to find stones that meet the size and purity required for a many sided die (not to mention weight distributions).

All of my stone work for jewelry is done with a dremel and multi-grit wet/dry sandpapers (no room to house a nice Trim saw, Faceting machine, or Cab machine... How do you spell AMATEUR??? I only started this hobby 9-mos ago). I found Onyx to be easy to work with (a bit time consuming though). The small diamond saws and grinding wheels are expensive and require frequent changing (to new - $$$+++) while working the harder stones. Special care MUST be adhered to regarding the use of protective clothing and respirators to prevent inhaling harmful grinding dust, proper ventilation, and keeping your coffee free of chunkies.
Also... Although I do have a pound or two of black Tourmaline (from my Amazon insanity days), I have never worked or tumbled it... so I can't advise you on it's qualities when it comes to rock carving.