This is a few weeks in now, almost half way through.

  • bluefrog95@lemmy.todayEnglish
    2·
    29 days ago

    Those are beautiful. I’ve wanted to begin rocking tumbling for a while now. Does anyone have any tips to start? I know there are cheap, small ones to start with on Amazon. Would it be better to just start with a nice one? Also, how loud is it truly? Drying running loud? Will it be fine in my garage? Is it energy consuming, electric wise?

    • Wren@lemmy.todayOPMEnglish
      2·
      28 days ago

      I got a cheap $80 one and it’s been running pretty much constantly for about four months now. I have no experience with nice ones. Mine came with a pound of different rocks to try, too. Mainly, you want to have similar size and hardness rocks together, or else the big, dense ones scratch up your subby weak ones.

      It’s white noise and louder in the first stages than later on as the rocks get smoother. Sounds like a babbling brook, but I wouldn’t want it in my bedroom. Should be fine in a garage, but maybe put it on a grippy mat so it doesn’t rock itself off a table. I keep mine sandwiched between blocks of wood.

      I haven’t looked at what kind of power it’s drawing but haven’t noticed a difference in the electric bill either. It’s just a motor that turns so I doubt it takes a lot to run.

      • bluefrog95@lemmy.todayEnglish
        2·
        25 days ago

        Hey, thanks for your reply! I started looking at Amazon and the many reviews. Hopefully I can choose a decent one. That’s also reassuring that I can pursue a hobby that doesn’t raise the bills LOL aside from the fun of going out and finding the rocks of course.

        • Heydo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          I would suggest buying a set of rocks to tumble first, so that you can follow the process and get some good results.

          Lots of rocks won’t tumble very well and it can be disappointing to find that out after weeks of tumbling. So I always suggest buying rocks that are known to be good for tumbling for your first time, so you can see how the process works and what the results should look like. After that you can experiment with different rocks and see how they tumble and compare against the first batch.

          As OP said, you’ll need to tumble rocks of similar hardness, otherwise you may grind a rock to nothing.