Before these stones officially became Batch 70 the majority of them had already tumbled once in F60grit. Out of the 50 stones, 33 were ready […]
Batch 69: Rubber Band Fix on Barrels
The QT66 that I got thanks to an awesome barter unfortunately doesn’t want to turn both barrels. The drive shaft works ok and the belt […]
Batch 64: Using Less Silicon Carbide Grit
One of the smaller tweaks I have been making to my whole tumbling stones process has been using less silicon carbide grit in my barrels […]
Batch 66: Lortone Tumblers Galore!
All of my rotary machines are Lortone Tumblers. I now run 2 x double 3lb barrels; 2 x 4lb barrels; 1 x 12lb QT12 and […]
Batch 63: Gemstone Beach Hydrogrossulars
Most of the 65 stones in Batch 63 are Gemstone Beach hydrogrossulars apart from a couple of quartzites (?) and a jasper. They had been […]
Batch 62: Slope Point Nuggets
It took three F60grit (Stage 1) tumble cycles before there were enough Slope Point nuggets (stones) ready to make up Batch 62 to carry onto […]
Batch 60: Working the QT12
I introduced the latest addition to my stone shed in this post. My early thinking was I would only use the QT12 Lortone Tumbler to […]
Batch 59: Gemstone Beach Mix of Colour
Batch 59’s stones have all come from Gemstone Beach and the mix of colour plus the various types of stones that one can find here […]
Batch 61: Readied for Polish in the QT12
The stones for Batch 61 were readied for polish in the QT12 tumbler. They had previously tumbled in F60grit and 220grit so were waiting in […]
Batch 57: Picture Stones from Gemstone Beach
A type of stone that you can find on Gemstone Beach, according to this poster (available from Te Hikoi Museum in Riverton for $5) is […]