Thumler's Tumbler Rock Polisher

We bought this for our 10yr old daughter and she loves it. It's been a great activity for us to do together and the whole family enjoys finding good rocks to polish and gathering around to examine the changes in rocks with each changing of grit/polish. Rocks are free and grit can be found cheap and only needs to be bought about once a month, so after the initial expense of the tumbler, this is an inexpensive, educational and fun hobby. I had the exact same model when I was her age (25 years ago) and used it for a good 10 years before it got lost in a move. Keep it clean, dry, and put a drop of oil (3-in-1 works well) on the motor bearings before starting a new batch of rocks and this machine will last for many years.

This is my first rock tumbler, which I actually bought for my nine year old grandson. It works very well and wasn't too noisy I didn't think. I kept it in a spare bedroom so the noise wouldn't bother us too much. The only problem I had was when it got jarred somehow and came off the track and the black rubber started rubbing off but that was easily fixed. It also seemed to need a little oil about once a week otherwise it became squeeky. The rocks, even after the three and a half weeks of tumbling, didn't turn out as shiney as I thought they would, but they were still pretty. It is a fun hobby if you have the patience to wait for the outcome,.

These things are wildly over priced considering what makes them up, but nobody put a gun to my head to buy it. I read some of the reviews where people talked about leakage. That didn't occur with our unit. I gave it to my daughter for Christmas, and without reading the instructions she had tried to make it work. She was way off. So it was a good learning moment when I had her read the instructions. She needed help putting the barrel lid in, and getting the O-ring on around the outside. I used a clean moist towel to wipe clean the inside lip (where the lid is seated). No leakage to report. We had two minor issues, that were easily remedied. 1) the cylinder favored the one side, and rubbed against the nylon guide on the un-powered roller. I wound a piece of gaffer tape, a couple times around the roller to keep the cylinder from going too far. 2) We had the occasional squeak come from the rollers, I have a little sewing machine oil, and a couple drops put that squeak to an end. I imagine any kind of lube will do though. Some people complain of noise, yeah, I can see that as a problem. Luckily we have a small room that my daughter does her crafts in, so it stays in there with her. I have noticed, after 48 hours, that there isn't as much noise coming from the rocks, compared to day one. So hopefully the smoother they get, the quieter the unit will be. I must say that the cylinder is made of rubber, and it is much quieter than the plastic cylinder tumbler I had as a kid.

First the bad : Tub is way smaller than I expected ( About the size of a large roll of toilet tissue ). The whole entire unit could almost fit in the glove box of your car, it is that small. The motor does get real hot real quick ( I fixed this problem by setting a tiny personal fan in front of the motor vent holes and it cooled it right down ) There is no on/off switch so you have to pull the plug out to turn unit off. You can plug it into a power strip to fix this or if you know how, wire up a switch inline of the cord but this could be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. The good: Once sealed, I had no leaks even though others said they did It was quiet ( I kept it in garage but even standing next to it )the rubber tub makes less noise It comes with a bag of rocks, 4 different bags of grit and polish and a bag of jewelry parts if you want to make polished rock jewelery. I bought mine for coin cleaning as many of the coins I find metal detecting are un-spendable due to dirt and stains. I ran some coins with rocks, water and soap for about an hour and they came out really nice. Have only used it once so far but if it last, I think it will do the job.

Got this for my son's 9th birthday. He had wanted another tumbler but after reading reviews I decided on this one. I'm so glad I did because I know it's a quality product. We have it working its magic in the garage since it's a little noisy. It comes with enough rocks and grit & polishing packages to do one tumble. It takes a total of 24 days to get the final product, but every 7 days its kind of like Christmas because you get to take the rocks out and see how they have changed (one of the processes only takes 3 days). Highly recommended - fun, educational and a gift that keeps on giving! Nice that it's American made also!

This unit takes about 3 lbs of rock which means you can pick and choose your rocks carefully. the larger units you have to fill and sometimes it's hard getting the right amount of rocks with the right hardness. It's probably ideal to have at least two tumblers going at the same time so you have more flexibility. That being said, the tumbler is working exactly as anticipated and our first batch produced some truly beautiful specimens. I was surprised though how much the rocks shrink after polishing losing at least 1/3 their size, plus the big ones may do a number on the smaller ones- some of the agates seemed to disappear. I would choose as close to exactly the same size and hardness in the future. In the meantime the little tumbler keeps on tumbling along, not quiet but not too terribly loud either. Next stop- the local hobby shop for more polishing materials- just enough for one batch provided with this unit.

I've read all these reviews, and take my word for it--here's the bottom line. It works perfectly. It is NOT too noisy, considering it's shuffling stones inside a tumbler. Put it in a room that you don't use all the time, and close the door. You won't hear a thing. As for the cover coming off--clearly operator error. It's a great little system, but that means that you have to follow the directions. This little motor is a thing to behold! AND, best part--it's MADE in the USA!

I bought this a month or so ago and it is functionally useless now. The problem seems to be due to poor design but it may just be a defective unit. The drum sits on top of roller bars (as you can see from the picture). As the roller bars turn in one direction, the drum turns in the opposite direction and the white discs at the ends of the roller bars rub against the rubber part of the drum, gradually leaving a pile of rubber fragments at the bottom of the device. In other words, it eventually shreds the rubber. More seriously, when the drum moves towards one of the white discs (and it does even on a perfectly level surface), the drum will, afer a day or so, jump over the white disc and cause the motor to freeze. This might be a failsafe feature, because you can plug the unit back in and it will start again, although just for another day or so before it jumps off again and you have an even larger pile of rubber shavings on the bottom of the unit. Another thing I really didn't like is how difficult it is to get the cap to the drum on and off, especially on. It's hard to describe, but if you buy this unit you will see immediately what I mean. I don't know why the unit got such good reviews, maybe this one was just defective. Good luck if you buy one.