there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish.
do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on?
===== Kate,