[HN Gopher] Rock Tumbler Instructions
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Rock Tumbler Instructions
Author : debo_
Score : 135 points
Date : 2025-10-25 16:32 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (rocktumbler.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (rocktumbler.com)
| YZF wrote:
| I had a rock hounding phase in my life ... It was something fun
| to do with the family and we have a lot of interesting rocks in
| BC.
|
| I built my own rock tumbler using some wood, hardware store bits,
| and an old geared DC motor... I also used commercial rock
| tumblers. Those worked better ;)
|
| It takes a really long time to tumble rocks, you have to go
| through the grits like a week or two at a time, and they sort of
| come out without a lot of character. Hand polishing them (with
| power grinders and polishers) is a lot more satisfying and you
| can make them into your own. That does require more equipment
| though.
| debo_ wrote:
| My first tumbler was built from a lawnmower my dad discarded
| when I was around 11 years old. I buried it in the forest and
| topped up the gas whenever I had time. It really did not work
| at all.
| noman-land wrote:
| Loved the twist ending.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry
| Ellison!
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15886728
| zahlman wrote:
| What does that have to do with attempts at DIY rock
| tumblers?
| clort wrote:
| the lawnmower is the link
| DonHopkins wrote:
| ...You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think
| of a lawnmower.
| zahlman wrote:
| ... and your thinking is that because someone else
| mentioned a lawnmower, you should bring up that meme
| about Ellison, even though it's clearly nothing to do
| with the OP?
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Yes, the first thing that pops into my head whenever
| anyone mentions lawnmowers is Larry Ellison, and the
| other way around too.
|
| Just like couches and JD Vance.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I have a rock tumbler that I got as a present. It's neat, but
| this page is right - it takes _a long time_ , and you end up
| using a lot of grit as well, and it must be done in order. Oh,
| and did I mention that it's noisy? Definitely not a hobby for ...
| me.
|
| But! One thing I have found interesting is that you can make your
| own "sea glass", by breaking wine or beer bottles, and tumbling
| the big-ish chunks. The thicker the glass, the better, of course.
| I'm experimenting with just using some sand as the grit material;
| the glass doesn't come out shiny and smooth, but it definitely
| wears down the sharp edges.
|
| (And I run the tumbler thing in our detached garage.)
| debo_ wrote:
| I add ceramic fillers to make sure the barrel is at least 3/4
| full. It makes very little noise that way; I can't hear it when
| standing outside the door of the room I'm running it in.
|
| I like the glass idea, that sounds fun.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > ceramic fillers
|
| Thanks for this tip. I'm planning on buying a friend a
| tumbler for xmas, and if this works as advertised, I feel
| this would be a must have as part of the gift.
|
| Edit: of course, TFA mentions this as well for those willing
| to click the link <facepalm>
| debo_ wrote:
| It's a long article :)
| Mistletoe wrote:
| My girlfriend loves sea glass and has a rock tumbler. I think
| we will try this, thanks!
| zafka wrote:
| You can pick up Silicon Carbide grit pretty cheap online (
| impure moissanite ). I have several tumblers, but have yet to
| finish the process of making polished gems- but it is still on
| my bucket list :). I have made lots of "sea glass: though. I
| have taken quite a bit to the local beach ( about 40 miles
| north of Palm Beach Fl. ) I toss it into the surf, figuring it
| will make some beachcombers happy. My logic is that once it has
| been in the ocean a few days, it will actually be sea glass. I
| would not make that claim for any of the glass that comes
| straight out of the tumbler though. Next time you visit a craft
| show and see folks with "Sea glass" Jewelry, note if they have
| separate displays for "real" sea glass, and man made.
| teiferer wrote:
| That's cool and all but ... what's the point? What do you do with
| these rocks afterwords?
| debo_ wrote:
| I have several children in my life who are going through a
| shiny objects phase. I ask them to give me rocks that they
| like, and then I tumble those rocks for them. They really seem
| to like it.
| photonthug wrote:
| Most people do this so that they can eat the rocks afterward.
| They are shiny and very nutritious, and it strengthens the
| teeth. It's normal for some teeth to break off during this
| phase, but a) you already have colorful rocks to replace the
| teeth with, and b) old broken teeth can now be placed inside
| the tumbler for smoothing. 9/10 geologists agree that
| unsmoothed teeth that aren't made of rock are the number one
| cause of oral hygiene problems
| lossyalgo wrote:
| +1 can confirm. Also the best rock candy is made with actual
| rocks.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| You can train the smart ones [1], and even wirelessly
| remotely control them with a mobile app [2], as long as you
| restrict yourself to commanding them to do things they were
| going to do anyway, just like cats.
|
| Kudos to the Stoned Republicans of the High Frontier Panel
| and The Heritage Foundation for their groundbreaking earth
| shattering work on Smart Rocks!
|
| [1] Brilliant Pebbles:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Pebbles#Smart_Rocks
|
| >In March 1988, Teller and Wood were able to directly brief
| President Reagan on the concept, taking the model pebble
| with them and theatrically hiding it under a black cloth
| when reporters were allowed to take pictures. Teller
| reiterated that the price for the system would be on the
| order of $10 billion.
|
| Photographic proof (not AI generated): https://en.wikipedia
| .org/wiki/File:Brilliant_Pebbles_present...
|
| [2] Pet Rock Remote Control:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg
|
| Featuring my Finger Flicking Pocket PC Pie Menus!
| sumnole wrote:
| Halite is my favorite. I grind it up and put it in
| everything.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| This must be the first true troll to ever land on this site,
| freshly escaped from Discworld.
|
| For those who don't understand I'd just point at the dietary
| habits of Discworld trolls.
| jdlshore wrote:
| People like the way they look and feel, and I imagine they get
| some satisfaction out of having turned a rough rock into
| something beautiful. They put them in their house where they
| can admire them, and others can admire them. Many are probably
| given away as gifts. Some might be used to create larger works
| of art, such as earrings or other jewelry.
| j4coh wrote:
| As best I can tell you can't even properly monetise this or get
| VC funding. Seems like a waste of effort.
| noir_lord wrote:
| Indeed spending time on things that bring you pleasure but
| other people may not understand isn't part of that grind
| mindset, if you aren't grinding you should be sleeping and
| honestly if you are sleeping a healthy amount you aren't
| grinding enough.
|
| Or something - "because I find it enjoyable" is a perfectly
| self contained reason as long as you aren't hurting anyone
| else (or yourself).
| conorh wrote:
| I really appreciate the grinding puns in this comment.
| ternus wrote:
| > If you are sleeping a healthy amount you aren't grinding
| enough
|
| Unless you build a soundproof box for your rock tumbling -
| then you can run it 24/7.
| Nition wrote:
| Gronk think, did man become so obsess with grindset that even
| forget like shiny rock? Even word based on grind stone. Once
| was, whole economy based on like shiny rock! Special ritual,
| give shiny rock for marry girl. Human like shiny rock seem
| very basic thing. Gronk wonder... what we become?
| RebeccaTheDev wrote:
| I mean, it's a hobby? It doesn't necessarily have to have a
| point other than to enrich your existence.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| My son and I get a kick out of it. For a while he was selling
| them on the street outside our town home, and that was absurdly
| lucrative for him. He has made around $200 so far. I'm pretty
| sure it's because he's cute. In any case, it's just a fun thing
| to do and experiment with, learn, and explore.
|
| I've also thrown a bunch into an aquarium as 'river stones',
| because it's illegal to take them from rivers here and buying
| them is way too expensive. Those are just bland, small pieces
| of dark granite to simulate the environment the aquarium is
| modeled after.
| andai wrote:
| Is shiny!
| sunrunner wrote:
| No, they're minerals! Jesus teiferer, I've got some geodes
| coming that are very delicate, alright?
| xpe wrote:
| After carefully weighing, cataloging, chanting, and valuation,
| the custom is to skip them into river of their birth. (This is
| why river rocks are so smooth.)
| ofalkaed wrote:
| Lots of people use the end result in some other hobby like
| jewelry or other crafts. The stores here that cater to tourists
| are filled with things made from/with local tumbled stones,
| mostly agate. I considered getting one for a mancala set but we
| have a lot of rocky shoreline and river beds, finding well
| enough polished stones in the required shape/size is not all
| the difficult.
| jackbeck wrote:
| I have strongly negative connotations with rock tumblers. When I
| was about 8 I saw one in a store and thought it would turn
| regular rocks into precious stones. One of the biggest
| disappointments of my childhood.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I hope you didn't buy Sea Monkeys next.
| throwup238 wrote:
| Or XRay Specs
| Tempat1 wrote:
| Fun fact: Both were invented by the same guy, Harold Nathan
| Braunhut.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Wow, that guy is a piece of work.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_von_Braunhut
| djmips wrote:
| I was lucky to live in an area with a lot of interesting semi-
| precious stones that you could just find by looking around.
| jackbeck wrote:
| I wasn't aware that there were places that had semi-precious
| stones just lying around. Where are you from?
| ascorbic wrote:
| Anywhere with granite will have lots of quartz of various
| types
| t-3 wrote:
| Yeah, I dug up a bunch of quartz crystals, some granite
| containng small fossils (tiny clams, small spiral shells
| etc), and a few pieces of turqoise in the backyard as a
| kid. How interesting the rocks in your own backyard are
| depends a lot on the geological history of the area
| though.
| ternus wrote:
| The claims made on that kind of hobby tool, in that era, serve
| as a fantastic argument for truth-in-advertising laws. Looking
| at you, the perpetual ad for (plans for) time machines and
| force fields in the back of Boy's Life.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I think I like this post because, simpler things, simpler times.
| kyrofa wrote:
| Loved this as a kid. But as a parent, even putting it in the
| garage is just too much noise for my household, haha!
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Lots of comments are talking about how loud rock tumbling is. I
| have an interest and space in my basement but I'm reticent to
| pull the trigger without knowing if it's going to be intolerably
| loud upstairs. Does anybody know how many dB the process actually
| generated?
|
| Edit: Finally got to a PC to do some search-engine investigation
| and found this: https://rocktumbler.com/tips/how-much-noise-does-
| a-tumbler-m...
| thangalin wrote:
| Rock tumbler enclosure, soundproofing box.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| I worry about heat dissipation, but maybe that's considered.
|
| When I printed my "underground newspaper" on a dot matrix
| printer, back in high school, I thought I'd get away with so
| much printing without my dad knowing by putting a cardboard
| box over the printer to deaden the sound. It worked until it
| didn't. Luckily the printer had a thermistor on the printhead
| and just stopped versus continuing to brainlessly grind until
| seizing-up.
| japhyr wrote:
| We had a largish cooler for fishing. I ended up putting a
| towel in the bottom of the cooler to absorb vibrations,
| closed the lid over the power cord. I checked the
| temperature a bunch at first to check for overheating, but
| it wasn't an issue.
|
| We didn't keep at it long, but that kept the noise from
| being an issue. It was a slow, messy process and we were
| too busy to pay attention to it over long periods of time.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| It's not that bad. Put a box over it with a blanket or two and
| you'll be fine.
| bcraven wrote:
| I let Home Assistant turn it on once the house is empty, and
| then off once someone is home.
| pvankessel wrote:
| I got this one a few months ago and have been running it in my
| basement directly under my living room, separated only by the
| floor and a bit of insulation. Can't hear it at all. It's been
| working well and it's a fun low-investment hobby. I live on a
| glacial moraine so there are lots of unique rocks in my
| backyard, and my son enjoys digging for them.
| https://a.co/d/4HSnVVX
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I have favorited this thread. It has the best comments I have
| read in 10 years of hn.
|
| I want to go and build a tumbler now. I'm imagining it is another
| good use for an old sewing machine (I hoard a few for projects)
| juris wrote:
| I'm making one out of a treadmill that I snagged over Covid
| (and subsequently never used)! Idea is to make a jig to hold
| the tumbler in place. Maybe make it removable so I can still
| choose to not use the treadmill.
| ascorbic wrote:
| You did see how long it takes, right?
| nsxwolf wrote:
| We had one last year and followed the directions exactly. The
| stones came out very smooth but cloudy and dull. Not sure what
| went wrong.
| debo_ wrote:
| If you want a cheap trick, take the cloudy stones and put them
| in a clear glass jar with water. They are usually lustrous when
| wet, and the jar can serve as a decorative item in a bathroom
| or something. I've thought of coloring the water, too, to see
| how that turns out.
| sunrunner wrote:
| I see a missed opportunity to use the domain rocktumblr.com.
| thom wrote:
| My mum spent much of our youth, upon return from yearly holidays
| to her small seaside home town, tumbling rocks. We were kinda
| cluttered people growing up, so among other things (an extensive
| sci-fi collection, hundreds of kitchen gadgets, every
| microcomputer under the sun) we always had little piles and
| containers of beautiful shiny rocks strewn around the place. I
| never had the patience for the tumbling process, but on every
| beach I considered it my responsibility to find the most
| intriguing shapes and colours of rocks, fill my pockets, and
| bring them home. She died this year. We were supposed to scatter
| her ashes on that beach but my dad refused for inscrutable
| reasons. And I have a big pile of boring, dull rocks, that
| neither my mum, nor the relentless sea, is ever going to
| transform.
| collingreen wrote:
| Sorry for your loss. I hope you find good closure when you're
| ready - your rock collection is a great treasure and might
| serve as either a memento for you or a surrogate for ashes if
| you wanted to spread them on your nearby beach. Kind of a nice
| metaphor for a life well lived; collected from the chaos of the
| beach, polished up, and eventually returned, hopefully leaving
| things a little bit better.
| technothrasher wrote:
| Your mum sounds very much like someone I would have liked.
| 01100011 wrote:
| Funny, was just thinking about this the other day as my daughter
| is currently obsessed with rocks. Did some research and.. nah,
| I'll just buy polished rocks off the jungle store.
|
| A long time ago I had a brief rock-hounding phase and found some
| cool rocks. Polished them on a friend's polishing setup. That was
| pretty fun. I'd rather get back into that vs tumbling.
| jglamine wrote:
| What's the difference between a polisher and a tumbler?
| 01100011 wrote:
| IIRC the setup my friend had included a diamond wet saw and
| various polishing and grinding wheels. For instance I used
| some wax to stick a rock on the end of a stick and shaped it
| into a cabochon and, using the various polishing wheels, got
| it to shine.
|
| A tumbler is just a bunch of rocks and polish bouncing around
| for a week and you never know what you'll get.
| orliesaurus wrote:
| I've been tumbling rocks with my kids for about a year now. Two
| tips that made it actually sustainable: (1) ceramic media is a
| must-have, not optional - cuts the noise by 80% and you can run
| it indoors, and (2) skip the "perfect rocks" hunt and just tumble
| broken glass bottles instead. Takes 2-3 weeks vs 2-3 months,
| looks amazing, and my kids can actually see results before they
| lose interest. We keep a jar of the sea glass pieces on the
| kitchen counter and it's become a surprisingly nice conversation
| starter when guests visit.
| fainpul wrote:
| Similar tumblers (just a little bigger) are used to deburr and
| finish metal parts after fabrication.
|
| https://www.enginebuildermag.com/2020/10/parts-tumblers/
| mikestew wrote:
| Or polish brass bullet casings for those that reload their own
| ammo.
| gclawes wrote:
| Small pieces of the old world still exist, if you can find them
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