Thumler's Tumbler Rock Polisher

These things are wildly over priced considering what makes them up, but nobody put a gun to my head to buy it. I read some of the reviews where people talked about leakage. That didn't occur with our unit.I gave it to my daughter for Christmas, and without reading the instructions she had tried to make it work. She was way off. So it was a good learning moment when I had her read the instructions. She needed help putting the barrel lid in, and getting the O-ring on around the outside. I used a clean moist towel to wipe clean the inside lip (where the lid is seated). No leakage to report.We had two minor issues, that were easily remedied.1) the cylinder favored the one side, and rubbed against the nylon guide on the un-powered roller. I wound a piece of gaffer tape, a couple times around the roller to keep the cylinder from going too far.2) We had the occasional squeak come from the rollers, I have a little sewing machine oil, and a couple drops put that squeak to an end. I imagine any kind of lube will do though.Some people complain of noise, yeah, I can see that as a problem. Luckily we have a small room that my daughter does her crafts in, so it stays in there with her. I have noticed, after 48 hours, that there isn't as much noise coming from the rocks, compared to day one. So hopefully the smoother they get, the quieter the unit will be. I must say that the cylinder is made of rubber, and it is much quieter than the plastic cylinder tumbler I had as a kid.

We bought this for our 10yr old daughter and she loves it. It's been a great activity for us to do together and the whole family enjoys finding good rocks to polish and gathering around to examine the changes in rocks with each changing of grit/polish.Rocks are free and grit can be found cheap and only needs to be bought about once a month, so after the initial expense of the tumbler, this is an inexpensive, educational and fun hobby.I had the exact same model when I was her age (25 years ago) and used it for a good 10 years before it got lost in a move. Keep it clean, dry, and put a drop of oil (3-in-1 works well) on the motor bearings before starting a new batch of rocks and this machine will last for many years.

This unit takes about 3 lbs of rock which means you can pick and choose your rocks carefully. the larger units you have to fill and sometimes it's hard getting the right amount of rocks with the right hardness. It's probably ideal to have at least two tumblers going at the same time so you have more flexibility. That being said, the tumbler is working exactly as anticipated and our first batch produced some truly beautiful specimens. I was surprised though how much the rocks shrink after polishing losing at least 1/3 their size, plus the big ones may do a number on the smaller ones- some of the agates seemed to disappear. I would choose as close to exactly the same size and hardness in the future. In the meantime the little tumbler keeps on tumbling along, not quiet but not too terribly loud either. Next stop- the local hobby shop for more polishing materials- just enough for one batch provided with this unit.

Negatives: Arrived with the motor housing and base plate bent, several of the “rivets” loose or not attached. There was no external packaging damage so it must have been shipped this way. It still works, no leaks and hasn’t eaten any belts after 48 hours of running. As long as it spins it will do the job.Positives: I like supporting a US based seller, so I’ll keep it. Its not too loud, but it’s also running in the garage. Good paperwork, grit, and starter rocks in the bundle. It also still has better reviews than the Chinesium models in the same price range.

Bought this for my 10 year old son for Christmas. Spent the next month going thru the rock polishing steps to produce an amazing & beautiful set of polished rocks. He has been extremely patient with the process and enjoyed each step. I will warn you that if you buy for kids, you need to make sure they are prepared for the weeks of each step, plus the expense of materials. Found the replacement grit packs on ebay in kits vice buying individually on amazon. Amazon was by far best place for the tumbler and the only reasonable place to buy replacement rocks/gems to tumble. Final warning, find a spot in your garage to run this thing - it is noisy!! I was a little concerned that the 24/7 operation would cause it to overheat, but so far -- no issues. It's pretty simple technology and seems like a decent set-up!

I bought this product for my grandson for pressure cleaning my house. He did such a good job too. He got to the last stage of the rock tumbler grit, and looked at it two days in to see the progress of the polish. He put it back on the tumbler and the lid came off. He had luckily bought more grit with the purchase of this machine. After putting it on the tumbler it burst again. It burst four times in total. I don't know what he would do if he didn't buy extra grit for the rock tumbler. The seal on the lid won't stay closed.

I use this for cleaning brass casings that I reload. It works great! You can't clean that much at a time, but I've found I don't need to clean 1,000 casings at the same time to keep me busy. I live in an apartment and this tumbler is quiet enough that you can close a door and barely hear it! Fill the bowl up about half way with casings, dump in corncob media or whatever you use and let it go overnight and your brass will be nice and clean. You don't have to worry about overcleaning your brass either, i've tried it and it didn't round any edges off, the brass was sure clean though! Just make sure it's not loaded so full that you can't hear a tumbling action. When you hear the brass thudding around in there then it's working at its best, if it's too full expect to wait a long a 8 hours for it to clean, when it's loaded right expect about 4 to 6 hours.

We got this about 15 years ago for our son. It’s still working today and does produce nice looking polished stones.