A Tour of My Lapidary Shop 

My, my, so impressive. You are possibly the most organized human being I have ever seen. Deep respect for your system.

"My rock tumbling trophy, that's not allowed upstairs"... made me chuckle just a bit... I feel your pain my friend!!! Thank you for the tour! Have a great weekend!

Really quite clean. A well loved area of your life. But needs posters, like ,"New Zealand Rocks". Ready for anything, you rock!

How lovely of you Rob taking us on a tour of your neat and well organised workshop ! 👍😍

You cannot believe how many of my questions you answered with this video. Thank you! I've always wanted to see the "Inner Sanctum". Much appreciated....

Fun! Very nice rock cave!😉😆

Wow no wonder all you stones look so good. You have done well in accumulated the right tools for the right job. You pick what you need instead of what others think you need. I like all the videos you produce please keep them coming. Be safe and stay healthy 😷⚒

Thanks Rob, for telling us your dirty little secret about your clutter. I don't feel so bad now--lol!

Wow, cool setup 😎. 😍🥰😇👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thanks for sharing your awesome and amazing rock studio. Very nice.

Nice antler effects at the atart!

Thanks for the great tour. This may sound weird as I am older than you, but you remind me so much of my 89 year old dad. His setup was similar. He was an engineer, so he invented many things for his own use. He even faceted gemstones. They had more facets than the regular ones, so they really sparkle. Faceting is very time consuming and intricate. He still has everything,, but rarely uses it anymore because of his age. Your cabinets are really organized. There’s nothing wrong with buying stuff used and dollar store items. It’s a great way to save money. I recognized the glass cutter in the cabinet because my dad was doing stained glass for a while too. Pottery too. Lol. He had a lot of hobbies when he was younger.

The petoskey stone beside the sink is magnificent!

Thanks for the tour!

Great breakdown of your space, it's impressively clean and nicely put together. Thanks for showing us around.

Awesome setup! 😎

Love the Flatlap! Looks so homemade goodness♥️

Love your setup! New to tumbling...one day I want to cut rocks!

I love lapidary

Thanks for the behind the scenes video it was Awesome! Judging by your videos I thought it was bigger but totally perfect 👌 With that being said I have to assume the rest of your basement is finished and you have some sweet movie theater set up.

Very cool set up.

Really interesting video, thank you for sharing!

Absolutely love your setup. Jealous of you equipment. LOL someday I will have more and better equipment and set up. It's just a hobby so it's a slow build up. I so want a larger saw for cutting and slabing bigger rocks. I have just a tile saw for now. But im just starting out in this adventure of lapidary. I have 2 tumblers that have stopped running and wish I knew someone that could look at them and help me fix them ,if they are able to be fixed. I love how organized you are too. Can't wait to set up my new workshop in an older camper I am getting soon. That will be a project in its self. Pretty much going to gut it and remodel it for my workshop. Running out of space in my little home. LOL. You were the first rockhounder I started watching and I just fell in love with the whole world of lapidary because of you. You are an inspiration. I now have several around the world I watch and I have learned so much from all of them. Thank you for the tour of your workshop. Awesome video.

as for cameras: you could look into a Panasonic G7 second hand. they're a few hundred dollars. fantastic 4k recording capability which means if you only want to do 1080p videos to youtube, you can crop in digitally in editing(as long as you dont go less than what a 1080p image would be), a lot without sacrificing image quality (think of that as a secondary zoom) it is a micro 4/3 camera, which means it has a removable lens system that is compatable with Panasonic lenses and Olympus lenses. This opens up a wide array of opportunities for different lenses and tasks. I am a content creator and educator in scale modelling techniques so im flinging paint everywhere and working at really tiny scales so our use cases are pretty similar. As any photographer/videographer will tell you, invest in glass (lenses) over cameras. With that said, i'd heavily consider a micro4/3 camera and be looking at 2nd hand for either a panasonic G7 (very cheap punches well above its weight but has poor autofocus - which as a video creator in the studio shouldnt matter as you'll be setting focus at your hands or the rocks and you'll want it to stay there. or on you and stay there. Or its bigger brother the Panasonic GH4 (also second hand) the GH4 is much more capable. With that said, - the invest in glass i could recommend a pair of lenses or a few options at least. Firstly, There's a Panasonic 30mm 2.8 Macro lens. this can get extremely close up and has cinema quality. this lens costs around 300ish dollars. its a big chunk, i know but you can use that lens on the G7, GH4, the cinema quality GH5 and the heavily rumoured to be announced GH6. However if you're really serious about upgrading to something tank-like i'd be looking at a GH4 camera (it has weather sealing) with a pro level Panasonic 12-35mm which is around 1000bucks on amazon. This also has weather sealing. grab a UV filter for the front to protect the front of the lens and you dont need to really worry about spashes or water etc. I'll drop you a follow on Instagram from SoulwayStudios, if you ever want to pick my brains on camera set ups or see examples of what i can get from my G7 and GH cameras please just pop me a message. it'd be the least i could do for all the hours of entertainment and knowledge.

hi Rob! a few days ago I bought my first lortone 3a! I love! fantastic machine! it's already working and I can't wait to admire the final result. thanks for giving me the passion for rock tumbling! I really admire your videos, and your advice is invaluable

WOW.....WOW........WOW, thank you for the great information.

My wife has the same problem with the Thumblers lid leaking in the center. I had a local hardware store cut new lid out of plexiglass and no problem since...and cheap.

So organized and clean! You could teach my husband a thing or two on how to be that way. He doesn't listen to me! Anything he touches turns to dirt! LOL

My dream is to create a tumbling cabinet like you've made, it's so amazing!

Love the work shop great idea 😄

Class operation, class guy, we love the channel. Chris & Lisa

I was speaking with my grandmother about you; I told her you.must be a teacher! I've really enjoyed watching your videos. Would you consider creating a tutorial showing how to make a multi tumbler cabinet like you have?

Sweet set up Rob!

Que belas pedras amigo. Great video

Thank you for giving the tour. I’ve started putting my own together and your video was immensely helpful.

Other than disagreeing with your tumblers assessment I love the video. I run thumlers and have zero issues (other than the lid design which I fix with acrylic liners and super glue.) Anytime you want to seel those thumlers machines just let me know.

Now I need to confess that I'm a bit envious of your space dedicated to rocks. One of these days I'm going to get a shed for my equipment, which is pretty minimal compared to what you have, but I think it would be so nice to go there and escape sometimes. Just surround myself in rock stuff. Thanks for the great tour!

Awesome video and incredible set up. Thanks for sharing and identifying a lot of the equipment and supplies

Awesome magnificent set very organized and clean sure is nice to see some one really take of their stuff great variety of tools awesome awesome thank you

I am not being critical but have a suggestion. On my computer (which is old) when you shoot a shop vid it seems to me that the light off the walls shines brighter than the light on the rocks you are showing. If you put a temporary darl cloth behind it might help. Again, this may just be my screen so if no one else has mentioned it just forget it lol. I admoire your shop. I work in my carport which badly needs to be reorganized and it is a mess. LOve your vids and have learned a great deal about tumbling from you. Havagudun Rob and keep em coming.

I have a refrigerator and range in my basement too. It’s so handy for large family dinners. In fact I think we used to have a green range just like yours. I spied the camera next to the basement window even before you mentioned it. I have a workbench/ table and it’s been in a heap for weeks. Ha Ha !!! I’ve been eyeing the Thumlers model B tumbler. It looks like it would be really easy to pop the top off and check your stones without making a big mess. I have one of the gold classifiers it is so handy. I need to get additional colanders instead of just one and ditto for the measuring spoons. I did buy a new set of spoons but my wife confiscated them and gave me her old ones. Before I knew it the old ones got confiscated too. Does your wife mind going downstairs to get her toothbrush ? Thanks for the tour Rob, nice set up !!!

Great video, thanks for sharing. I started with a slant cabber for Petoskey stones because took to long with a dremel. Then wanted to polish other types of stones and bought a lot o tumbler. I quickly bought a lortone after watching some of your videos where you explained the reasons why you use each or in some cases both.

Really impressed with your shop. I really like your organization. Someday, I’ll have a “she shed” and I’ll use some of your ideas.

Your organization is admirable!!!

Great video! I'm just starting to rockhound in retirement. I live in the Austin, TX area. Not much here that's good for finding cool rocks in the wild, but I'm just starting. What is the best rock saw and a polisher to buy now that's not real expensive? I bought one on Amazon but it's broken. I don't want a wet saw for tiles because they do get messy. You're a great teacher, so I look forward to your advice.

Nice shop. I am just starting. Just ordered the Hi-Tech Diamond all you need flat lap. Can't wait for it to come in.

Really nice setup. Did you ever get an answer on your camera? If your Sony camera has interchangeable lenses, you would not need a different camera. For a very inexpensive cost, you can buya set of three extension tubes. The tube would attach to the camera, and the lens would attach to the tube. These tubes drastically shorten the minimum focus distance (MFD). They will operate as a "macro" lens, so that you can do some really close up shots. Just make sure that you get tubes that have the electrical connections running through them, such that the camera can automatically control the lens.

My dad used to use extension tubes on his camera to do close-up photography. They are less expensive than a new lens. There are some drawbacks (flattening of subject).

This is awesome. WOWOWOWOW!

Thank you for sharing. It give me ideas to organize my shop.

Awesome!!!

Great setup there, Rob; very useful, but not too much equipment that you're constantly tripping over. I like the idea of enclosing in the area under the stairs for the tumblers. Unfortunately, we can't have basements here as there would be a constant 2+ ft. of standing water in it. I don't know your budget, but you may want to look into getting a good used/refurbished SLR camera, something that you can replace the lenses on. There are ones out there that won't break the bank and would likely be better than the Sony you're using now. Oh, and sadly, TC is not in our future..... :/

Very nice interesting video thanks for showing

I still think you are very clean and organized! You sure have a lot of equipment! Very interesting telling us what everything is used for in your lab! Thanks for sharing! 😊

Locked away in its own containment unit, just where the NatGeo tumbler belongs!

Cool setup, I'm jealous! A goal to work towards.

THANK YOU! I FOUND IT! I just queried you on another video because I couldn't find this one in your video library. 1 caveat, you didn't show your safety wear...respirator, goggles etc. How about an update???

Love your tumbler cabinet , love your set up awesome 😊💙, oh wow I got a thumbler tumbler too it’s a single barrel only spent a couple bucks on it at a gold show awesome 😊

So actually the sound quality in your basement is not too bad. If you want to improve it, you can try three things this would be in order of expense. The issue is the concrete walls that will reflect all the sound waves and produce echos. If you tack up sheets or tapestries, would be the cheapest solution. The next is hang rockwool. The are two flavors, exterior walls and interior walls. Either will work. I think though the interior will give you more bang for your buck. If you bought a bale for about $30ish dollars would go a long way to deading sound. Finally is the professional foam with the egg crate texture. IDK how much that could cost, you might be able to find some cheap stuff on Amazon. I'd start with the cheapest easiest solution first. Before you put up anything. snap your fingers and listen for the return. Then go and put up the sound mitigation and snap your fingers and see what the difference is.

Very Nice.

Howdy from Texas! I recently got into rocks. So much fun to see what a rock can be if given a little love. Have a couple sizes of the NatGeo tumblers and have a few Dremels, what would you recommend as the next “essential” tool, or two, to obtain? Great videos btw.

Awesome work space! Glad you mentioned the problem with Thumler's. I was considering going that way eventually because they look easier to maintain than my Harbor freight which I assume is similar to Loritone. I'm not up to speed on budget friendly cameras, but you might want to look at Markus Pix on the tube. He likes compact, budget friendly stuff and does some comparisons. He also shows how to get the best bang for your buck with said gear. If you time it right you might even get lucky in one of his giveaways.

I enjoyed this video :) You're cabinets are WAY more organized than mine!

Very impressive system! Looking at all those tumblers you have, I was wondering if you also have some sort of a tracking system for the different loads in each barrel. We made a tracking sheet recently, but if you have a system that is proven, it will be great if you can share it. Maybe an idea for a video if you haven't done one already?

Did you brew any particular type of beer? Stouts? Ales? There are traps you can put under the sink to capture bits and pieces and particulate matter (I would still not rinse out tumblers in the sink). Greco, trap-eze, some others. Cool setup, and very interesting.

A very simple layout. Going to turn my Garage into a workshop

Great tour

Todos Muy bonito limpia las piedras 👌la guarda buenas noches felíz día del niños

The focal length is the issue with your camera, you need a macro lens, you can get them pretty cheap, but they will give you the zoom at a much closer space.

Question: Do you use water when drilling holes with dremel drill press?? Thank you for your great videos: so helpful for us.

Nice tour of the shop. Looks great. Question: where do you dump the used slurry after a tumble?

Great area to work on rocks. When I get a tumbler I was thinking about putting in my storage room in the basement. I live in an apartment building with 6 apartments. Am just a little worried about noise from the tumbler. Why I haven't bought one yet. And I'm not sure if I should get a rotary or vibratory tumbler. I probably won't be doing a whole lot of tumbling. All I do know is I want a good tumbler. Don't mind spending money on a good one. So is one more quiet then another. Rotary vs. vibratory? I really like how you put them under the stairs. And thanks for telling us not to put a box over the tumbler because I was wondering about that. You really have some neat equipment. I need to go back and watch your tumbling videos again. Just got the tumbling media from the Rock shop last week. The ones you recommended. Used the link you provided. So I guess it's time to buy the tumbler. Cool to see where you make those shiny rocks!

So interesting!

After seeing this video, I was surprised at how similar our tumbling origins are. I bought a Lortone 3A for my grandson (who lost interest pretty quick), but my interest was piqued! Next came the 33B, 66QT, Ultravibe UV-10, and Thumbler model B. I really like your setup and have had better polishing results from watching your videos. My next piece of equipment will be a trim saw. To cut up a fist size rock, what size would you recommend? Right now, I just want to cut big pretty rock down to a more manageable size for tumbling and polishing only. When you find time, could you give me a recommendation? Thank you much!

Greetings Michigan, You are so very, very lapidary. That's a good thing! btw

Great video, I love seeing all the different tools and hardware you’ve acquired through the years with this hobby. I have a question I hope you, or someone else in the comments, might be able to help with. I have a Lortone Double barrel Tumbler like you featured in the video, I have a problem with the barrels shifting to one side during use and rubbing on the plastic washer. I have yet to come up with a fix for this other than changing out the static plastic washer and adding one that can spin, hopefully reducing the friction. Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Thanks for your great content. I am coincidentally about to begin the same journey with my son and a 33a. Thinking a vibratory is in our future so he doesn’t lose patience, but I’m really afraid that it would be too loud in the basement. Any advice? Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this positive hobby.

Great setup, Rob! I’m really curious about your tumbler cabinet-how did you set it up? Is there a motor for each row? I’m not there yet, but that’s a pretty great idea, since you can cut down on a lot of noise if you insulate the cabinet...

Great setup. Thanks, it gives me some great ideas.

Do you have a video on the build of your big tumbler cabinet?

Hey Rob just wondering what the wife thought when she found out where her missing kitchen containers and colanders went to :) lol , great set up and vid thank you cheers from Australia

I loved the tour! Thank you. I do have a question though. Your large tumbler in the cabinet, how does that work? Did you buy it or create it? Is it noisy? Thanks! Looking forward to learning about its mechanics! It looks amazing!

Thanks for the tour, you have a great space there and well organised. My next project is to make a tumbling cabinet like you've got, it's a great idea. Do have any hints on the building of it? I was wondering if I should buy all the barrels first so I get the dimensions of the rollers right. I'd like to be able to run different sized barrels at the same time.

Started with the son. Great. Now dad has it :)

Which camera to get? Get a Sony A6000 and the 18-105mm lens. It'll cover everything you need. They just discontinued it this year since they have so many newer models (a6300, a65000, a6600, etc). If you have a little more money to spend you may want to consider the a6600. I have both and the 6600 is much nicer if you ask me. The bigger battery is why I bought it but then I discovered that it if you connect it to the WIFI remote control app on your phone...you can actually control the zoom wirelessly that way. I don't think my a6000 did that. Though I'm not sure off the top of my head. The 6600 also shoots in 4k while the a6000 does not. The 6600 also has more memory modes. I use memory modes addictively. They are one of the best things God has allowed man to design. Get your settings dialed in for a specific purpose...then "lock" them into a memory mode. Once you have a few you can just flip through them quickly and be ready to go in an instant instead of fiddling with camera settings.

Hey Rob! I've been following your channel for a little bit now and was wondering if you could recommend some public spots in michigan? I've only been rockhounding on lake Michigan near betsie point lighthouse. And would like to expand and try a new place. I really love eunakyte and any kinds of quartz and have quite a bit of those. Anyways I hope you're having a good week!

Nice tour. Wish I had direct access from basement to garage. I replaced my Thumbler's lid with one made out of 1/8" steel. Who rides the unicycle?

Just love your setup! Do you sell the end products? Or is it just for your pleasure? All this equipment can be expensive otherwise I would copy your setup and it would be just for my pleasure!!!

I'm looking for one of those classifying screens that fit on a bucket. The rock shed is out of the 1/8". Would you recommend I wait, or got to 1/4" or 1/12" ?

Whoa... go back to the sink! Is that a giant Petoskey Stone on the right side of the sink? That should be talked about, if so, eh? At the risk of asking before watching further, is your sink plumbed to the outside, or does it drain into the house plumbing?

Nice video. Why is your trophy not allowed upstairs?? If you don't mind me asking.

You sound so much like the guy who did the voice of Ernie on Sesame Street.

Nice! I've been watching for a years now and really enjoyed this. Do you do tumbling for a fee? I have rocks from CA that I need tumbling.

I just picked up two tile saws from my parents house yesterday...(why my dad needed two I can't fathom, but he also had two really nice miter saws which I think he only used on one project. They're all in my garage now so no complaints.) Is there any reason you couldn't use the tile saws to cut rocks? Also, a few years ago, I got my father's reloading equipment. In it was a Thumler's tumbler. It must be the "Model B" (18:33) because it has a single big, all-metal drum with a metal lid. He used it to clean and polish empty cartridges...but is there any reason I couldn't fill it with rocks and grit instead of spent brass and sawdust? I did buy a few pieces of real lapidary equipment at a going out of business sale once. A "Star Diamond Industries 10" gem making trim-slab saw model #TS-10"...but it didn't come with a motor (or the plastic cover), and I'm not sure what motor to use to power it, and I really haven't had a place to mount it *and* a motor. I also got a weird polishing wheel set up...it's a pedestal with two wheel off either side, powered by a belt running out the back of the stand. The aluminum wheels are covered in foam, and take a specific size sanding belt. I tried to buy the store owner's 4-place wet grinding set up, but he said this dry system was better, and proceeded to buzz through a piece of scrap rock with a similar set up he had on his bench. It was cheap, but like the Star Diamond saw, it didn't come with a motor, and I'd need to dedicate a place to bolt it down and mount a motor too. I have so many rocks I brought home from gold panning, which I wanted to polish or slab...finding this channel has made me want to finally get to it.

Nice workshop! Is it okay to ask you where do you get your rock tumbling grit from?

Thanks, do you want to sell that old gemlap saw? I would love to buy it.

Do you suggest getting a saw or some type of grinder to aid in your tumbling? I have a 12lb lortone and a lot o tumbler and am getting good results but I am starting to see why you grind and or cut some of your tumbles during the first stage of tumbling. I have been trying to decide which would be best next purchase. Thanks for sharing!

How vampiric of you (the window). As for a camera, I recommend the Canon EOS M series. They are small, mirrorless cameras that use interchangeable lenses and large, high quality image sensors like their DSLR big brothers. I have the first generation and the third generation. Both take top quality photos and videos if you learn how to use a few of the settings. They use the same sensors as Canon's DSLR cameras, so there is no reason they can't take as good of quality photos and videos as cameras costing 3 or 4 times more. You should be able to get a good deal on one of the models from a few years ago like the EOS M3 (the one I have) or the M10. If you have never owned an interchangeable lens camera it will open a world of opportunity to you. You can get a macro lens which will allow you to focus down to 1 inch or so (my favorite lens for these cameras), and they also have many prime and zoom lenses. You can get a waterproof case and a screw on lens cover if you are worried about water and grit splashing on it. The M3 also has an articulating screen, so you can flip it up and see the screen as it is recording you. A nice feature for making youtube videos. I own a full size Canon DSRL (6d mk II) and I rarely use it. I use the EOS M series almost exclusively, for work and play. There is Canon software that allows you to control the camera remotely via Wifi using a tablet, smartphone, or computer. Could be useful for your purposes also. I can tell you more if interested, or I could just loan you one to play around with if you'd like to try before you buy.

Scooping rocks from water

I was thinking about getting that same dremel drill press. Would you buy it again or do you recommend something else?