Tumbled agate and jasper inside a 15-pound rock tumbler barrel. However, if the gem tumbling machine is going to sit idle most of the time, purchasing a larger unit would be a waste of money. With a smaller tumbler, you may have to process your stones in two or more batches. For example, if you just want to polish a couple of dozen agates you found on vacation, you might not need a machine large enough to do them all at once. For the part-time hobbyist, it may not be worthwhile.Ĭonsider how often you plan on using your machine. For the serious lapidary, this is a reasonable investment. Moving up to a machine twice that size will cost twice as much and require twice the abrasives and filler. Therefore, your least expensive models with a barrel four inches in diameter can only finish two-inch diameter stones. The largest stone you can finish will be about half the diameter of the barrel.

Knowing what you want to polish and the size range of the stones you need will help you determine what size tumbler to buy. View the Course Gemstone tumbling simulates the conditions that weather rocks in a stream or at a beach, only greatly accelerated.

However, if you intend to work with stones the size of melons, you'd better be prepared to gather a lot of filler! If all the sizes you need aren't readily available, simply use a hammer to create them. Simply gathering stones in an assortment of sizes isn't too challenging. You cannot simply put a few large pieces in the tumbling barrel and expect them to come out nice. They need to range from not more than half the diameter of your barrel to about 1/10th the size of the largest stone. In order for the tumbling action to work, you must place stones of various sizes in the revolving barrel. Gemstone tumbling can bring out a beautiful polish in many hard gems. Nevertheless, before you buy your first gem tumbler, there are a few important factors to bear in mind. The only skills you need to start is the ability to read instructions and measure the abrasives. The only equipment you need is a tumbler and abrasives, often sold in kits, and the rough you want to polish. The simplest (and least expensive) lapidary art form to learn is gemstone polishing.

Gemstone polishing tools