Ok I’ll admit it! I’m hooked on tumbling stones! My stone collecting has increased many-fold and the stones waiting to be polished are quickly piling up! There are 5 stages of tumbling and each stage takes about 7-10 days, with a couple of 24 hour soap tumbles thrown in there too. That means it usually takes between 37 – 52 days to tumble a batch of stones from start to finish non-stop!
Now that I’ve also tumbled 3 batches of stones, my holding box is filling up fast with stones that need redoing at certain stages or are smooth enough that they can skip a stage or two! So ……
I bought a new barrel – well two actually – but technically only one purchase because I bought the Lortone 33B Tumbler. It’s a twin 3lb barrels operating on one motor – from the Rock and Gemstone Shop in Rotorua. When I first looked there were none in stock. So I reached out to Colin and Bev, via their website contact form and Bev responded immediately! They had more arriving (their order had just left the USA) but a customer had already put dibs on the 33B. Thankfully, that customer no longer wanted it and I was able to secure the double-barrels!
This means I now have 3 working barrels. I have 2 x 3lbs which can hold approximately 3 cups of stones (depending on size but that’s approximately 50-60 stones) and 1 x 4lb which can hold approximately 5 cups of stones (depending on size – approximately 80-100 stones). I’m currently thinking that I will use the twin 3lb barrels to do the grit only tumbling and use the 4lb barrel to polish and borax only. We’ll see how that goes!
More Barrel Information
Tumbler 1 – Lortone 33B Twin Barrel
- Weight empty: 408g
- Grit: 4 Tablespoons
- 20mm x 30mm max rock/stone size
Tumbler 2 – Lortone 33B Twin Barrel
- Weight empty: 402g
- Grit: 4 Tablespoons
- 20mm x 30mm max rock/stone size
Lortone 45C Tumbler
- Weight empty: 672g
- Grit: 7 Tablespoons
- Polishing Compound: 7 Tablespoons mixed in 600ml of water
- 20mm x 40mm max rock/stone size
These tumblers are designed to operate 24 hours a day for several weeks at a time. They are very quiet and I also have them sitting on a rubber mat (the thick type used for standing at a standing desk.) It is important that they are level and I’ve found that the little rubber “feet” come off the bottom of the tumbler frame very easily – so keep an eye on that! Both tumblers have had their shaft bearings oiled recently (only did it because they started squeaking!) The drive belt on the 4lb tumbler has been replaced too. (In stock and available through the Rock and Gemstone Shop).
Currently the tumblers are underneath my standing desk in my office. I am patiently waiting for a purpose built rock-tumbling shed to be built for me so watch this space.