If you tumble slabs in a rotary tumbler and they are “tumbling
and falling” all over each other, then you don’t have enough
material in the tumbler. Rotaries REQUIRE 3/4 to 7/8 of a barrel
full of rocks and grit for each load (coarse, fine, pre-polish &
polish) before they work properly. So, using a rotary tumbler
with too short a load will result in ‘bruised rocks’. Lortone
has been in the business for nearly 40 years and makes what we
think is the best rotary tumbler.
Vibrating tumblers do work much faster for the pre-polish and
polish grits. However, they do not do as good a job at cutting,
smoothing and rounding off the corners as a rotary tumbler does
in the coarse and fine grit loads. And they are very much more
expensive than a rotary tumbling system.
You should be aware that Thumbler’s Tumbler is much more
difficult to get replacement parts for as it is generally sold as
a whole unit in hobby-type stores. For instance, I know of no
store in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia which sells any
replacement parts for this particular tumbler. Be sure that
there will be back-up support for the type of tumbler you
purchase.
Jan MacLellan
Mountain Gems Ltd.
4611 Hastings Street
Burnaby BC Canada
V5C 2K6
(604) 298-5883
(604) 298-2669 fax
Open: Tuesday to Friday, 10-6; Saturday & Sunday, 11-5. Closed Mondays.