So you're the best tumbler in the world now, huh?
well I've got a trophy to prove it
yup it's
it looks cool, and
congratulations
so you going to give away all your secrets?
well we made a video, so
alright, so we started about 8 months ago, so we're just going to rewind to
then and show you how he did it
[rewind noise]
hey everyone
I'm here with my neighbor Sam
Sam comes over every week for the last couple years and tumbles rocks
with me, so usually has a barrel or two going, and just uses my equipment, and
turns out a lot of nice rocks
so what are we doing today, Sam?
today we're going to be starting our entry for the Worldwide Rock Tumbling contest
it's hosted by the Feather River Lapidary and Mineral Society
and this year's rock is Lahontan Agate
from Nevada
so
we're going to be showing you
not all the steps along the way, but some of the steps
we won't be checking in every week or anything, but we'll show you
here and there along the way
so
what do you think of this rock?
it's not the best rock I've ever seen for sure, for tumbling at least
and that should set us apart from the competition
yeah I've done this contest 4 or 5 times
and they send you pretty crummy, hard to tumble rocks, that way they can tell the
difference between somebody who's good at tumbling and somebody who's not
if they
sent really easy to tumble rocks they'd probably all look the same in the end, so
hopefully we're up to this
this is Sam's contest, I'm just
letting him use my equipment, and I'll
I'll guide him along the way a little bit
so, let's look at a few of these, we've got these black ones
they're not too interesting, but they look like they'll tumble ok
(Sam) this one looks almost like limestone
not high hopes for that one
lots of little holes and pits (Rob) it does not look good
this one's cool
(Sam) yup
hopefully it'll look nice but might undercut in those orange parts
some sort of maybe brecciated
(Rob) yeah, looks kind of brecciated right in here
so
yeah, quite a variety
for all being called the same kind of agate, it looks like
looks like several different kinds of rocks
some of these are pretty small
what you do is
you
everybody can tumble them any way they want, you can do some grinding on them,
you can grind before, like right now we could
we could shape these on the
on the
cab machine over there
and then tumble them
or you can grind them in the first stage and then
and then grind them
so
there's
in that first stage you can use other equipment
at the end you pick out, is it 5 or 6?
5
your 5 best rocks and you mail them back, and that's what they judge you on
so, along the way we'll just stop in here and there and kind of show you how
things are going and
hopefully we've got a winner
we got one trophy over here, maybe we can get another one
alright, so we'll see you after these get a little bit of tumbling time in
alright, it's been about a week
they've been tumbling in the rough polish
the black ones seem a bit harder, they're
not polishing too quick, which is good because it means they'll probably
take a better polish
this one's a little bit softer, they look okay, a couple
crummy ones that look almost like cement
so
we'll throw them back in for a couple more weeks, then we'll check back in
when we decide if we want to grind any of them
(Rob) alright, Sam, how are the rocks coming along?
(Sam) they're doing pretty good, it's been about a month
been tumbling them in the first stage grit
got a few spots still, we're going to have to grind them out
(Rob) so the rules for this contest say that you can grind some stuff, so I'm
going to read the
the appropriate rule here
it says
applicants are permitted to remove before or after your rough tumble
spalls, chips, cracks, and any other imperfections on a grinding wheel
after this initial cleanup, the rock must be allowed to go through and complete
the tumbling process without any further hand work
so that's what we're going to do, this is after the rough stage, and they might still
go back into the rough stage a little more but we're going to do a little bit of
grinding, so
show just a couple examples of what you're going to grind out?
(Sam) probably when there's a little chip
line right there, or something
lots of holes
right there
(Rob) so you could tumble those out, but the rocks are going to get a lot smaller
in the process, so
(Sam) there's one we might cut
there's a crack in one of these
it might have been
this one
(Rob) yeah, that crack right there
so yeah, we might
grind or
maybe even cut off a little piece, so
anyhow, these rocks are not the prettiest rocks I've ever seen, but hopefully
they turn out shiny in the end
that one's kind of cool, that's maybe the most interesting one
(Sam) there's little tiny itty-bitty holes in that one, though
(Rob) oh, there are?
(Sam) probably not going to send that one, but
(Rob) yeah, only have to send five in, so we'll be picking the best ones in the end
alright, so
get to grinding
(wheel grinding)
(Rob) alright, how'd it go Sam?
(Sam) it went pretty well, did a lot of cutting and grinding
so, these should do really well, another couple
weeks in the tumbler probably
and most of them will be done hopefully
these are the ones that we don't have a whole lot of hope for
that one looks like cement
but we'll throw them in anyway
see how they grind
two of them are done
and those are saw scraps we'll throw in with them
(Rob) alrighty
so, Sam did this all on his own, I peeked over his shoulder once in a while, but I
was doing other stuff, and
he tells me these don't have any
any hope, but
(Sam) a lot of them have little holes
(Rob) oh okay
I still think that one looks cool
(Sam) it looks cool, but
little holes
can trap grit
(Rob) yeah, no I agree
alright, so throw them back in the tumbler, and we'll check on them later
alright, so
where we at, Sam?
So they've been through the rough stage
and they're all smooth
some of them have some holes, but
the black ones seem to be doing a little better, they don't have very many holes
so now we're going to put them in the vibratory tumbler for three days
in 220 silicon carbide, and then we've got some filler rocks to go with them
how long have they been in the rotary tumbler?
approximately 4, 5 months
give or take, depending on when they came out, they all came out different weeks
-that'd be like the last ones took that long -yeah, the last ones took 5 months
alright, so
put in your time there
and
oh, you weighed those too, what did you say they weighed?
they weigh about 14.5 ounces, just under a pound
we started with 3 pounds, so they've lost about 2/3rds of their weight
yeah, they're a lot smaller than they used to be, aren't they
and then what are these rocks for?
these are just filler
they're easily recognizable
mostly just quartz and other things, a couple like
fossils
and yeah
Michigan rocks
that way we won't get them mixed up and
this just wasn't enough to fill the whole thing up
alright
so let's, we'll put those in and we'll check in with you on the next step
(tumbler buzzing)
so it's been three days, where we at, Sam?
so we just rinsed them off
and then put them through a cycle with some water and borax to clean them some
more
now we're going to put them in 500
aluminum oxide
and borax
yup, and
we'll probably run them for
probably 4 days?
something like that
alright, so we'll see you then, we're not showing you the rocks right now
because we don't want them to dry out between stages, so they've just been rinsed
and they're still wet
then we're going to put them back in before we
before they dry out
(tumbler buzzing)
alright, it's been four days now, right Sam?
not quite, not quite
it's been 7 instead
yeah we both got busy and just didn't have days when we could get together
and do this, so
anyhow, here we are 7 days later, and it's not going to hurt them to run a little
bit longer, so
anyhow, show us how they're doing
here's where we're at, this isn't a competition rock, this is just one we had
going in with them
to fill the barrel
so next we're going to put them in aluminum oxide for 4 days
yup, aluminum oxide polish, and
then we
we'll tell you what happens after that, so
stay tuned
(tumbler buzzing)
alright, we're back
it's been 4 days, right Sam?
no, it's been 10, we keep forgetting
not "we"
this is all him this time, I've been available, and he just hasn't come
over
yeah I've been busy
so we're going to put them in for another 4 days
and this time it has to be 4 days, because we have deadlines
and it's going to be in Rob's magic sauce
yes, magic sauce is actually a polish called OMG2
I just looked on the internet, I couldn't find any more, I got it from a place called
JS gems I think was the name of it
it's .3 micron aluminum oxide, so the polish we did last time for 10 days
was 2 micron
so 2 versus .3, so this is finer, so hopefully we get a little bit better
polish
I won this contest in 2016 I think?
yes, 2016
and this is what I used for my last stage so, secret's out
so
you going to be able to come back? Because I'm leaving town in 4 days
I'll be here
okay, he said it, you heard him
so
this is where we're at, this is not a competition rock again, this is
shiny
we're going to make it more shiny
(Rob) yes
it's looking very very good, so
hopefully the contest rocks look the same
you haven't dried one off yet, have you?
no I haven't
okay, we're keeping them wet because that way no polish will dry in the cracks
alright, ready?
ok
okay, it's now August 9th
so
the deadline is the 15th, you've got to have them in
they're done polishing thankfully
that's a good thing
we've been looking at them for about half an hour now
we've sorted out the ones that have lots of pits
and cracks and stuff, that we're definitely not submitting
and then we've been looking between these
two piles
and we've picked our top five
-so -and I had nothing to do with this, when
he says "we", he means his girlfriend and
and him
I'm
not worthy, because I've got old man eyes
so
so, you picked out all kind of black ones?
yeah, they ended up much better, turning out better
they've got some holes, obviously some of them didn't turn out very good, there's
some deep holes
and little pockets of druzy, with maybe some crystals in some of these little
teeny tiny pockets
a few cracks, but
they seem to be the best
so when we looked through the rules, it doesn't say anything about handing
in a variety of rocks, it just says that they
are supposed to be free of flaws, and
no
-grit in the cracks, or something -yeah
they're judging it based on if there's any grit left in the cracks and holes and stuff
and how shiny they are
alright
so let's
maybe take a quick little look at them up close, and
I guess the next thing, we'll have to say whether you won or not
-yeah -so
we'll have to wait until September for that
(Sam) okay, here's the top five we picked out
that one's got one little hole in it, but
not terrible
it doesn't have anything in it that we can see
nice and shiny
these are the ones that didn't make the cut, this one was cool
nice patterns and stuff, this one has got lots of pits in it
really cool color
here's that one
that looks like concrete, that one definitely didn't make the cut
not even close
there's the finished rocks
it was funny, when you won you sent me a text in the middle of the day
were you at school at that time?
I think so yeah
probably should've been listening to what your teachers were telling you
anyhow, Sam sent me a text, and then about an hour later, Matt Johnson sent
me a text telling me that he won 2nd place
so, Matt thanked me, he said he's learned some stuff from my videos and thanked me
for those, so congratulations to Matt, and the third place winner was Zachary Belknap
who I don't know, so
I'll say congratulations to him anyhow
so, I was wondering
near the end there
you kept not coming over when it was time to tumbler - or open the tumbler
so do you think your procrastination helped or hurt you?
I think it helped
it never hurts to go a little bit longer, so
I've been wondering, like
if we would've been opening those in 4 days
would you have won?
or maybe Matt would've come in first, I don't know
it was only a couple point difference on the score sheet
so don't
don't start procrastinating all the time thinking it's always going to help you,
it's usually a bad thing
there is a deadline
so
trophies
I got mine in 2016
just thought it was interesting how they make the trophies, they take a rock that
you tumbled
mine was Arizona petrified wood, so
the base of my trophy is Arizona petrified wood, and what's yours called again?
Lake Lahontan Agate
alright, and we saw black and that grey-ish color in there, so you were
saying, I wonder if it's even the same kind of rock, well you can see now from the
trophy, that
it all comes from the same stuff
the agate part is debatable
yeah, I don't know if that would classify as an agate, but
I guess
we'll go with it
so
if you want to learn more about tumbling
I've got a playlist here for you
I've got stuff like will sand be a good tumbling grit?
or what do you do with your slurry when you get done with it?
rotary vs. vibratory tumblers
talk about different kinds of grits, so check that out and maybe you can learn
a little bit and win a contest yourself