After embarking on an adventure of a lifetime traveling New Zealand in our caravan Rosy we returned back to our hometown and brought a pretty neat piece of land to begin our homesteading journey.
Join us as we attempt to live a simpler and more sustainable life, spending more quality family time and hopefully learning a few new skills along the way!
We look forward to sharing this adventure with you!
Milford Sound (Correctly fjord) is one of the most isolated places in the world so don't have expectations of Vegas. The bus day trip from Queenstown is an absolute horror. Exhausting. Instead stay at Te Anau. We left Te Anau early like 07.00 and caught the first cruises for the day. Then take your time getting back to Te Anau. And the Te Anau caves trip is great too. Comments about the keas (birds) are all true.
Yeh I think I’d agree on the bus, I’ve not done it but it looks like a very long trip. Good idea to stay in Te Anau like you said, it’s a nice spot and it allows you to take your time going into Milford Sound
I’m planning a 4-5 week trip to see both island in November 2025. When do you advise on booking hotels and activities? If I book in advance it doesn’t offer me flexibility if weather changes the circumstances. Should I just pay when I do that activity? Or book online? Paying at the venue offers flexibility but don’t want to miss out if no open spots. For Franz Josep hello hike will there be a high chance that I have to reschedule? Your advice is greatly appreciated!
I think definitely book your hotels, for Milford Sound there are quite a few different boat operators so you could probably book a week or so in advance, so once you get to NZ check the weather and then book your activities I reckon. I’m not sure how busy the helicopter companies are for Franz Josef but they probably won’t be super busy in November so you could book a few days out. I’d book accomodation ahead of time though just so it’s secure 😀
A great DIY project with the typical test and evolve process. I think you've done pretty well streamlining it, definitely making it safer, and fine tuning as you go. Keen to see some DIY barrel options trialed at some stage again.
If you want it to look like actually beach glass you need a bigger barrel and faster speeds. You don’t want to polish them at all either. As for ur medium use large stones, ur glass of choice and a stage 1 grit or larger(sand works just fine). The grits purpose is to smooth and round the glass but to get a realistic beach glass finish you need to really beat the glass up good. Let’s assume ur piece has spent the necessary amount of time tumbling a genuine piece of beach glass will have different finish depending on its size. The larger the piece of glass the rougher the finish.
Ah interesting, I skipped the first few stages which will be why mine does not look beat up at all. I might have it a go with the sand one day to see how that turns out. I was wondering about the other rocks in there too but wasn’t sure if those rocks would chip/crack the glass?
I suggest using rough grit to shave the glass down until you get ur desired shape. Rinse out the pulverized grit every 3 days for best results. (I know that might sound like a waste of grit but that’s why I suggested sand)
@@AdventuresWithRosy if you have a large drum and use fast speeds it will break the pieces into a size that are structurally sound. Most tumbler kits aren’t big enough or fast enough to worry about breaks even with large rocks tossed in since you only wanna fill ur tumbler half way at most
Oh it was a Bombay sapphire him bottle 😁 I just forgot to put the shot in the shirt. There is a full video on my RU-vid channel if you want to see that one get smashed 👍
Hi, I’ve been buying my grits from Rotorua Rock & Gemstone shop (online) I did buy some cheaper grits off trademe but they were not going as good of a job 👍
Mate you owned that earth problem, took on the advice & even used it for another video opportunity! Ka pai - very well played :) Loving watching build and not gonna lie, you got me wondering if I need one of these contraptions now...
Ohope Top 10 used to be our goto camp and summer vacation spot for over 10 years. When new owners a couple of years ago almost doubled the price to over $100 a night, for 2, in the summer, it became very prohibitive. Our new spot is at Waiotahi - Island View Camp just another 25 mins down the road. It doesnt have all the bells and whistles but ambience it certainly has. Happy camping guys.
Love a good rock tumbling episode. It's a brilliant addition to your content repertoire. My only thought on design is that I like that you've decided to keep everything electrical above where any liquid could ever spill.
You may want to make a few thin strips of PVC and primer and solvent glue them to the inside of the PVC barrels. I noticed that sometimes rocks don't tumble if there's nothing inside to help assist and prevent them from just SLIDING. - Oh and step one grit is mostly for rough edge stones.
Yeh I think you are right about adding some strips, I can hear the rocks sliding around in there rather than tumbling. I definitely need to try that and your other plug idea because if I could get them dialed in I could do some good volume with them!
With the motor the slower you go the more torque you have. Use a larger pulley on it and smaller on the shafts. Slower motor = lasts longer while maintaining the same speed on the shafts. The first video you did I commented on, the end PLUGS for the PVC - work better than the tumbler barrel you bought but same sort of concept - just a lot stronger and nicer. Usually they are Red.
Im going to track down some of those plugs for sure! Thanks 🙏 you are right about the motor, so currently I run a 3:1 ratio but the wrong way around, the smaller pulley is on the motor so I have to run the motor at about 30% to get the speed I want, I’m thinking I should reverse the gears then the motor would be running at like %10 which would be better right?
You should use a end PLUG - it's a bit like a big rubber stopper that expands when you tighten the center bolt - use one on BOTH sides of the PVC pipe. Vibrating is the worst thing for PVC solvent glued fittings! I see it failed in a thumbnail on the row of videos next to this one of recommended to view! Just remember that some rocks react to others and water and can build up pressure in the PVC or any barrel, so you need to kind of "Burp" them at least daily to release the pressure and make sure the ends don't blow off! These plug ends also make it so each side has the same weight and doesnt make one side taller than the other causing issues. As for what should be used around the PVC so it has grip onto the rollers, Use bike inner tube like you said and put it on the PVC in a few places around the PVC using Contact Cement on both surfaces, let them dry and then press together. Also, you'll want a little fan to blow on that motor to make sure it doesn't overheat, the same with the power supply and speed controller if you notice any of them that are hot to the touch. Adding a temperature switch can help, this would be inline of the motor and controller - if it gets a certain temp using a probe that comes with the temperature switch it can cut the power of the controller for 15 minutes or so and then turn back on automatically. Just a few things to keep in mind that you can do in upgrades. Nice motor choice by the way! Box fans and the like don't have much torque at all and 1/4hp and so on motors, spin fast but they are a lot more open with vents while the ebike type motors are mostly sealed, which is the only drawback. A positive though is the easy speed control ability, which you happen to have! The motor is meant to be air cooled. Even a 200mm computer fan would work with a shroud around it going toward or around the fan and the motor - to help keep an airflow around it. Anyways! I hope these tips help in the future! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment that, I’ve just been reading up on the burping because I didn’t know that was a thing! Interesting to see that some rocks can actually build up a bit of pressure! That is the sort of thing I would have found out the hard way haha. The deeper I go the more I realise just how much there is to this hobby! It’s not as simple as just chucking a few rocks in a barrel and leaving them for a month 😂 fun hobby so far! Appreciate you stopping by and watching
I don’t pay my rates to stand in line at the beach while three tourists do their morning ablutions, including showers, before I can just rinse the salt and sand off before I go home. Or not be able to wash my hands at public conveniences because all the basins are being used by tourists doing their laundry. They should all have to go to a commercial campground and pay there way like everybody else. And no their tourist spending doesn’t redeem anything because .havent you noticed, they don’t want to spend.
Yeh I think the argument is always “well they are spending money in your town” BUT how much are they really spending? A few groceries and a bit of petrol? Bit different to say a tour bus or cruise ship I guess?
@@AdventuresWithRosy Dont start me on Cruise ships, catering to that market is little, if anything, more than sophisticated begging. And we allow ourselves to be manoeuvred into that predicament.
And the self contained should mean just that, everything should have to remain in the vehicle and the three day thing should have to be proven by people being required to demonstrate remaining in the vehicle for three days.
That is interesting because all they tell you is X litres of fresh water per person, I wonder how they come up with that number and if it includes showering or dishes etc?
Hi Adam 👋 just an upgrade really, we wanted slightly more ground clearance etc. in hindsight I wish we brought a Jayco Journey Outback rather than the standard Journey…
@Adam-ol5mp yup it was still fine on unsealed roads, we lived in it for 15 months and its was great. We did bottom it out a few times getting in and out of driveways which is maybe why we would have liked the outback. But yeh it was a good caravan, I’d definitely do a lithium upgrade on it if you were to buy one, extra solar panel can’t hurt too
The barrel needs paddles like the inside of a concrete mixer, to make the rocks tumble, not just slide on the interior of the drum. Make a stand to carry a small thrust point that touches the centre of the fixed end cap, and raise the other end an 1/8th of an inch. The drum will then move down to rest gently on this limiting point. Yes, the "stuff" will migrate to the lowest point, shouldn't matter.
Yeh I think you are right, they seem to tumble in my rubber barrels but slide around in the plastic ones, I’ll give your ideas a try, they sound great!
Funny thing, I bought a rock tumbler quite possibly more than 25 years ago and it is still in the box and even still in the original store bag sitting on a shelf in my basement. Haven't gotten around to using it!
I reckon your local windscreen repairer could probably keep you in little glass cubes for life. Amazing how you've made rock tumbling so engaging. A brilliant addition to your other content. Show us yer rocks...
You are too kind haha! I definitely feel like a beginner. I’ve been watching lots of his videos, really makes we want to go to Lake Michigan and hunt for rocks!
Interesting to see it progress through and shine up, looks like you've got it figured out pretty well already. I wonder if it's best to do a lot of one type (hardness) of rocks all at once rather than a big variety?
Good idea! I should do before and after shots of the key rocks and maybe shots between stages. This batch started out big but then halved when I switched barrels haha
Yous are doing well, can see the shine, it's ok too skip depending on type , shape of stones , Just try different ways, can't do any harm, You only polishing rocks ,Have fun, Cheers Bevan 🤠🦘🦘🇦🇺
