A new tumbler has been added to the mix! The Raytech 10lb Vibe, on special, purchased from MrGrit (NZ’s Aussie Sapphire Supplier) was just too good an opportunity to pass up! And she’s a beauty! Along with my good friend and rock buddy, Nicola, we made a reveal video which you can watch below.
It didn’t take much to put her together as you can see in the video and I’d been saving up stones to polish as soon as it arrived. Along with Batch 89 (log details below) I polished a load of Gemstone Stone Beach stones from the QT12 that did Stages 1-3 between 6 Oct and 8 Nov in the 10lb vibe. This is going to make a huge difference to the amount of stones that I can get polished in a much shorter time.
The vibe only takes 2 days per stage compared to 7-10 days in the rotary tumblers. You can not do Stage 1 in the vibe though and it is highly recommended that you have a separate bowl for grit and another bowl for polish. MrGrit came to my rescue and happily ordered me a second bowl which should arrive in a month or so!
Batch 89: 6lb Tumbler 1
Stage 1: F60grit
Quite a number of redo stones did another two rounds of Stage 1 in this 6lb tumbler including a large number of hydrogrossular garnets. Two of the larger hydrogrossulars were removed after the second round of the coarsest grit as I think they were bashing the other stones. One broken stone was removed and some stones have blemishes but are getting too small to redo at Stage 1 any further so they have been removed as well.
76 stones were ready to move to Stage 2 plus 19 stones from the readies drawer plus 25 hydrogrossulars found on Gemstone Beach on October 27th (skipped Stage 1 due to smoothness) were added together to create Batch 89. There are two particular stones of interest that I tracked for this batch. You can see their progress pre-tumble dry, pre-tumble wet and then final polish result in the images at the end of this post.
*Also noted during this batch is that 1 tablespoon of borax is enough to thicken the slurry so I won’t be adding extra anymore.
Stage 2: 220grit
Number of Stones: 76+19+25=120
Weight in: didn’t weigh
6 Tbspns of 220grit
1 Tbspn Borax*
Ceramic media added
Days Tumbling: 11
Weight out: didn’t weigh
Added to batch
Stage 3: 400grit
Number of Stones: 120
Weight in: 1624g
6 Tbspns of 400grit
1 Tbspn Borax*
Ceramic media added
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 1480g – loss of 144grams
Stage 4: 600grit
Number of Stones: 120
Weight in: 1480g
6 Tbspns of 600grit
1 Tbspn Borax*
Ceramic media added
Days Tumbling: 7
Weight out: 1402g – loss of 78grams
Pre-polish Borax:
As this batch would be going into the new vibe I decided to do a 2 hour borax cleaning cycle. I’d seen this done in a video when I was researching how to best use the Raytech 10lb Vibe.
Ready to Polish – Transfer to Raytech 10lb Vibe
Thank goodness for YouTube and the rockhounds out there who publish their processes for others to watch! I followed the process of Rock on Utah and will continue to tweak my own process as I learn along the way.
As you do when you try something new you check and double check and keep checking to ensure everything is going ok. The vibe takes a bit more “baby-sitting” than the rotary tumblers as you need to check that your stones are always coated well with polish and that they are moving quite freely. Slower movement means the stones have dried out and need to be “sprayed” with a couple of squirts of water. If they are not coated “white with polish” you need to add another tablespoon of polish. It is so tempting to add both when you’re not sure if you’re doing it right and you haven’t let enough time pass.
It is recommended to check your vibe after the first 15 minutes (then put the lid on). Next check at 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours and finally at the 48 hour mark.
Stage 4: Polish Mix
Number of Stones: 120 + a heap more from QT12 barrel!
Wet the stones in the bowl completely then tipped off all the water.
Polish Mix: Added 1 Tbspn of tumble polish mix powder + 1 Tbspn of borax. (Added another Tbspn of polish mix after 15mins as I didn’t see the “white coating” on the stones.
I did use some small ceramic media but you’re not supposed to in the 10lb vibe.
Days Vibing: 2
Polish Complete
Once the 48 hours was up, a squirt of dishwashing liquid plus a cup of water was added to the bowl. This vibed for 10 minutes as a soap rinse and helped to start the cleaning process. After tipping the stones out and rinsing well it was back into the vibe with 2 tablespoons of borax and 300mls water to run for 2 hours. After tipping off the water again and rinsing, the stones were left to dry.
Overall I was pretty impressed with the polish result and it only took 2 days! Usually a batch takes 10 days to polish and another 3 days in borax in the rotary tumbler. What a game-changer!
Tracking Two Stones – Before and After
Polished Stones of Interest: Batch 89
If I’m naming the stones in the captions, please note that I am by no means an expert and they are my “best guess” with some being more confident guesses than others. Gemstone Beach is my local rock/stone hunting ground and I’m slowing learning about the types of stones that are usually found there.
That being said, I am really keen for any thoughts, corrections, suggestions on the stones of interest (to me) that have come out of my tumblers so please leave a comment – it’s greatly appreciated!
Batch 89 | 6lb Tumbler 1 + Vibe | Gemstone Beach | 12 October – 3 December 2024