Rock Tumbling Random Rocks From Our Driveway! 

Thank you Sharon! We certainly have a lot of fun with it. We're still learning, but that's half the fun! :)

Hi. He did a amazing job. I have some content also… Check out my RU-vid video Brian End the land artifacts.. like and subscribe.. thanks..

Sure thing! I'm glad it helped you a bit! As for 'hope', I'm a complete stranger, and I have faith in you! GO FORTH AND TUMBLE AWESOME STUFF! ;) And have fun, even if something goes sideways. :)

Do check your local law's regarding the removal of stones or gravel from creeks and river's, as they are habitat for spawning fish in spots in the world....( Fines can be atrocious!!!!..lol)..

@@daviddesrochers9439 well its not really that kind of creek, not more and 5 or 6 inches deep. But as far as I know we don't have laws like that around here unless it's state or government owned land like a state or national park. But definitely something to be conscious of.

@@daviddesrochers9439 That's a really good point! Mary and I did look up a couple of local laws and we actually managed to track down two parks and rec employees as well as a ranger and chatted with them about it. You're DEAD ON with the riverbeds etc. Another good one is private land! You might THINK you're on public land, but around here (Fluvanna) almost everything you step on is privately owned. That can be tricky. But you bring up REALLY good points! :)

I’m just curious. Why would someone have granite as driveway stone? Never heard of it

Right? Now consider this... It's been a while since we did that video, and we've learned that what we thought was a LOT of grit was actually just reactions from the soap, stone, and even the barrel. On top of that, we've also learned that burnishing TOO long after the final stage can actually remove some of the shine. So be careful! :)

WOW! Thank you so much for the info! We will TOTALLY do this! Do you record your tumbles and advice? I'll have to subscribe to you!

And YES! This REALLY helps! I'm so glad you saw our video and offered some advice! LOL Totally ordering some of that polish now!

Christine, We were JUST saying we should just try a lot of random (mostly boring) rocks and see what happens! You know, like straight up gray old gravel. LOL. I think all we'd really have to do is just research exactly what we had, and make sure they were all extremely close on the MOHS Hardness Scale so we don't end up with more boring dull rocks, only smaller, after a month. :) Now that we have two tumblers, I think we should try it and see! I'll add it to the radar. :)

Thanks Otto! We're actually recording a series right now where everything is VERY similar in hardness. :) We're already seeing better and faster results! We're learning as we go, but it's still a fun process! :) Thanks for the advice, and we're glad that you enjoyed the little video! :)

Wow! It sounds like he REALLY knows what he's doing! Maybe after 40 years we'll learn how not to do some of the things we do! :)

@@DavidShockley 😏😏😏😏😏

there are some videos on that out there..and they come out amazing

Thank you Meg! :)

100% AGREE! (Minus the quartz) And as luck would have it, we DID get a vibratory tumbler! We're going to start filming with that this spring! :)

@@DavidShockley awesome!

@@dreamlookautodetailingauto3353 Thank you! We're really looking forward to it! If you have any advice, we'd love to hear it. We need to start from scratch with this one, so our first video will probably be just mounting the tumbler to a big heavy cinder block or something. LOL. But hopefully, we'll learn in short order! :)

We think you are 100% right! After a few tumbles we came to the same conclusion. :) Thanks for the insight though! Clearly you can see we're still learning. :)

Thank you! We're still learning, but it's fun! :)

NICE! That's a great idea actually...

That IS a great idea!

Snap! Great idea. I live near Crewe, Va...huge train hub, hear trains all day and night. Named after a similar town in England. Wanted to try this since I was a kid. Great video! Thanks, y'all.

I am in Maine. Great feldspar and quartz along the tracks. This is also a great source of green glass from old power pole inslators Always tumble rocks of similar hardness together and most anything will look good

Wow! Thank you for the suggestions! At least there's something else we can do with it all now! LOL

Thank you so much Valerie! We're clearly beginners! LOL :)

Thank you Anne! We're still learning too. I hope you have some fun and enjoy this if you do decide to start tumbling! :)

WOW! Thank you! We've gotten a little better at IDing things, but every little bit helps! :)

@@DavidShockley yeah I have been a hounder for about 30+ yrs now and I still don't know probably half of what is out there still lmao! Then again my memory isn't what it used to be by far but almost every day I'm doin the damn thing again and again, and perseverance has a way of winning almost every time. 😎🤙 keep it up with your beautiful ass driveway you two lol. Love the videos 🧔👌

@@DavidShockley by the way I have aggots and opal and serpentine along my railroad tracks so at least that makes me feel like I'm not being left out next to your rock hounders dream driveway lmao🤣🤤😎🤙

@@theonewhosnortsfairys WOW!!!!!!!! That's awesome! :) I hope you continue to have fun with your rockhounding. We still enjoy it as much as we can! :)

Nice! I hope you get some fun results! :)

LOL! Right?!?!!! :)

That's awesome! One of our favorite channels is Michigan Rocks. You guys seem to have LOADS of awesome places to rockhound there! We're thinking of taking a summertime road trip to Michigan to explore. :)

Ahh! That explains quite a bit! And should you not use the ceramics when polishing? We've read that it does help. Maybe it doesn't?

@@DavidShockley I'm no expert so its just my next logical thought. If it's an abrasive then you should get a better result if they were removed during the polishing stages. 🤷 It certainly would make a nice experiment! 👍

LOL!

COOOOOOOL! Thank you for pointing that out! Now we have to go find that one again! :)

Thank you! We need to start taking Flashlights with us when we hunt! :)

Thank you Earl! Yes, we really do like how they turned out! :)

That's great! :) Mary and I are so happy you enjoyed our little 'adventure with rocks' :) We're still tumbling even now and a new video with new equipment should come soon. :) As for "What does Burnish mean?" All you are doing when you 'burnish' is taking your rocks after a stage of tumbling, cleaning them, and then running them in nothing but soap and water (along with any ceramics you might have used) for a few hours. That soap and water really helps make sure you are not cross contaminating any of the old grit with new grit during the next phase. It also helps the rocks shine a little more! ESPECIALLY When you burnish after the polish phase! :) If you check the 'Description' of the video, you can find the soap we used. And a lot of people use Ivory Bar Soap that's been shredded, as well as Borax. We use a Norwex brand, but all three do roughly the same exact thing. As for what people do with the rocks once they're polished, a LOT of tumblers find they can make jewelry with them, or gift them to those who can! As for Mary and I? We gift them to the local kids in and around our neighborhood, and line MANY of our windowsills with them. :) I hope that helps! And good luck with your adventure! :)

Thank you! :)

Thank you so much Ken! :)

Hello! And thank you! It's been a fun little experience for sure. :) I hope some day you are able to get into it! As for the names you mentioned, I don't really recognize them, but I agree, Shockley is a rare one out there! :)

Nice! That's awesome! You must be a professional tumbler by now. :) I wish we had started 50 years ago! Imagine what we could have learned in that time. :)

Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it! :) Happy rockhounding! :)

I'm not sure to be honest! But that sure would be nice! :)

Thank you! Who knew? It's crazy what you can find in the - dirt. LOL

Leo, that sounds fun! We've been wanting to cut some too! I think there'd be some nice discoveries in there.

I have cut driveway rocks. They are gorgeous

That's great! I hope you have a ton of fun with it! We sure do! :)

@@DavidShockley thank you. It's a very quiet machine. Almost sounds like heavy rain on my metal roof. A sound I like very much 🤗. Thank you for your great video.

@@oldgamerchick Well you can't go wrong with that sound! :) Enjoy your tumbling! :)

LOL!!! Nice!!!!!!! :)

Wanda, Likely what would have happened is we still would have gotten results, but they just wouldn't have been as drastic as you're generally looking for during your first rotary tumble with very rough material. In other words, we would have likely run Phase 1 with new grit for a few more days after we inspected them. :)

I'm positive that if we had to deal with the noise, we wouldn't be doing much tumbling either! So you're right about that. They can be super loud. :)

RIGHT!?!?!?!!?!?!!?!?? LOL!!!!!!!

Thank you! We've actually learned a little bit more than when we filmed this, and you're totally right. We kinda learned that the hard way! lol

actually I know many people use ceramic myself included..my thought would be you only use 1200grit as a polish..people I spoke to said even as high as 1600 is just "pre-polish" and polish should be 8000 to 12000 or higher grit

You really don’t need the ceramic media in the first stage, and you may see faster smoothing without it. However, it’s important in all subsequent stages, including polish, unless you have very soft minerals, in which case plastic media may be better. As others have mentioned, going to an 8000 grit with a longer run time is going to work well in most circumstances. Before that, I was stopping at 1200; the 8000 made a huge difference.

That depends! We DO sometimes keep them in water if we're not entirely sure if we managed to get all of the grit off. Otherwise, we just dry them off and add them to a collection that is marked (Phase 1,2,3...) etc. :)

DOH! Ugh... That sucks. Hope you feel better soon! Those things can be THE WORST! I got hit a few years ago while mowing the lawn. Ugh...

We think you're right! Thank you for the heads up! :)

I think we read the same thing! You can tell we were still beginners at this point. LOL. Thanks for the tip though!

Thank you Joe! :)

Hi Shannon! Thank you! We burnish on the slowest speed possible. One thing we learned too is that burnishing for TOO LONG can remove some of the final polish. So we're down to about 1 hour of burnish between stages, at the slowest speed. :) I hope that helps! And good luck! :)

@@DavidShockley that’s great to know. Thank you so much! Funny I also use Norwex soap but didn’t think about that!! S

@@shannonbyers3347, Oh nice! We were told to use Ivory or Borax, but we found that the Norwex used far less and did a much better job! And yes, we WERE burnishing for hours, sometimes overnight, before we learned that the process can actually remove some of the polish you managed to get. So these days we stick to about 30 minutes to an hour. :) If you ever get a chance to check out Michigan Rocks, that channel is a WEALTH of information of tumbling! It's also just a fun channel. You should check him out! :) Good luck, and happy tumbling!

Thank you! :) That's one of the best parts about this community of Rockhounds etc. It seems so welcoming and eager to help out the novices (like us!) LOL. That mica sure does look nice if you can get it polished.

There are far worse hobbies! :)

RIGHT??? LOL! We need to bring back BONKERS! :)

Alex, For this tumble, we used all the same media, and sometimes added more. And you're exactly right, we cleaned it with the rocks between each stage! :)

@@DavidShockley you might try a rubber media for the polish stage. The ceramic might be keeping you from the full candy looking shine. Ceramic itself is a grit. You sharpen knives with it. We don't run any kind of media in the polish stage...

@@maryc2102 I never really thought about that! But it makes perfect sense. We're gearing up for a new round, so we'll have to try that on the Polish Stage! THANK YOU!

Sure thing! Borax is usually used to burnish your tumbles between stages, or just at the very end. And by burnish, I just mean, to clean the rocks. Some slight sediment / residue might remain on the rocks from your slurry. So Borax (Or any soap without fillers) can be used to clean the rocks (and the drum) between tumbles or after your final tumble. Hope that helps!

Considering the price tag on the little National Geographic tumbler, it might be low considering the other tumblers (better) that are out there, but for what we paid, it's been great, and well worth the expense. Not to mention, we've actually had people offer to buy some of the stones we've tumbled, so who knows? Maybe it could pay for itself? ;) Just a thought. I hope you do manage to get your hands on one so you can see for yourself if it would gather dust, or be used! GOOD LUCK!

@@DavidShockley Thanks! :)

Yep! The only time we're not actually running the tumbler is if it gets way below freezing and we're worried the slurry might lock up. But in general we let it go day and night. :)

LOL!

I think Rob (Michigan Rocks) took down his store? We managed to grab some grit from him at one point, but these days we just see who has the best price and go from there. Here is what we search for on Amazon, and so far, they do a great job! THE GRIT WE USE: 60/90 Coarse Silicon Carbide Grit. 180/220 Medium Silicon Carbide Grit. 500 Fine Silicon Carbide. 1200 Aluminum Oxide Final Polish.

Thank you! I think people started using "Candy Coat" because the rocks kinda come out shiny like a hard candy might. Almost wet looking when completely dry. :)

@@DavidShockley I got a rock tumbler for Christmas that I have yet to use, mainly because my husband and I have not agreed where to put it as he's a light sleeper and is afraid of the noise. However, I'm going to use it soon because I didn't realize just how many steps there are, and that I have to dump the water outside. I collect 'Lucky Stones' (quartz) and have a pile of white ones with honey-colored veins going through and am curious as to what they'll look like polished, along with some other colored ones. I usually like to keep my rocks in their natural state, but as I said, I AM curious about how some would look like polished. Thank-you for inspiring me to get my rear in gear. lol

@@deirdrepasko9965, Awesome! We love tumbling Quartz! I'm sure you will do just fine! I know some people will make a nice thick base to set their rotary tumblers on to dampen the noise through the floor. And I've seen in some cases, that people will take an old cardboard box, drape towels over it, and then set that in the back of a coat closet with an extension cord and surge suppressor to further dampen the noise. We keep ours out in the garage so it can go all day and night without bugging us, but they CAN make a little bit of noise for sure. Good luck, and I hope you have some fun! :)

@@DavidShockley well, we happen to save cardboard boxes, so that's an excellent idea! Thanks so much again.

Thank you for the ideas! That does sound like something we can look into for sure. We've come a little ways since this, but are always looking for ideas! :) Thanks again!

Hello! I'm not sure laundry detergent is any better than regular soap. UNLESS the detergent has fillers like scents etc? That MIGHT make it less effective for burnishing? I'm not really too sure? We just used what he have, and there are no additional ingredients in there that could leave any sort of residue. I hope that help! As for burnishing between stages, we find we get the best results doing that. :)

@@DavidShockley , thank you 😃

@@dianequince8761 Sure thing! Happy tumbling! :)

Yeah it does a decent job. It's a little fast, so you can get bruising, but we've started replacing the motors with slower ones. Yes, you can just leave it going. It takes about as much electric to run as an alarm clock. :)

In our case? Trial and error. But watching RU-vid videos like MICHIGAN ROCKS is a great way to learn!

Thank you so much I'll definitely check it out. I love your channel so far too keep up the great work!

@@crystaltaylor3320 You're welcome! And thank you! :)

Thomas... You know what? We've NEVER considered that! Seriously, how could we not have thought about that? That makes so much sense now that you mention it! THANK YOU! I wonder if we should get the softer media? Like the plastic media? I know some people use Corn Cob etc. Hmm... Thanks again!

It actually costs less than running your alarm clock! :) Or so says National Geographic. :)

@@DavidShockley This takes .3 Amps, so (watts = amps x volts) OR watts = .3 x 110 which equals 33 watts. Now for one week would equal 33 watts x 7 days x 24 hours = 5544 watts or 5.54 kilowatts for one week. At $.16 per kilowatt it comes to $.89 per week. I uses the same energy as 6 LED light bulbs, and the only way your alarm clock is going to use 33 watts if it has a HIFI amp, or it's a NIXIE tube clock.

@@MegaMeaty Thank you! Wow, you did your homework on that one! That's actually really good to know. I'll be sure to update our "Descriptions" with this info. Thanks so much! I really do appreciate it. :)

I never even thought of that JB! Thank you! That makes total sense now that I think about it. Thanks again!

@@DavidShockley Thanks for the video - I live in the high Rockies, and have been collecting things that look good before you tumble them, and I think I will find a tumbler for myself - Just like to see What people are using, and to what effectiveness.

@@MegaMeaty Oh, nice! If you're still looking (Shopping) I would suggest taking a look at the LORETONE 33b tumbler. So far, it gets a LOT of great reviews and it's a dual barrel system which is very nice. You might also consider looking up MICHIGAN ROCKS on RU-vid, as that gentleman has a LOT of great advice and suggestions. :) I hope that helps!

@@MegaMeaty ooooh! Such different geology from here 🤩 Do you know what kind of rocks you’ve been finding?

@@maryelizabethshockley9002 Depends on what mountain you are on. On Jasper mountain - you can find a rainbow of colors of jasper. In the Sandstone you can find common white opal. In Recent volcanic areas you can find agates. I have piles of the stuff, and a lot of different types of quartz, and that is one of my favorites, because it has some interesting properties. I am really wanting to tumble the dendritic quartz I found. It should polish to something unique.

Agreed. You can tell we were still kinda learning what the heck we were doing! lol

its fun to learn and to watch thumbs up

LOL! Yeah, that's a TOTALLY different thing! :)

@@DavidShockley yeahhh I was like "that's a bandaid essentially... not the same thubg.. soooo not the same". Gonna forget I gained that knowledge lol

Susan, I think most of the gravel out here comes from the Luck Stone Corp. You can find them online, or here - 2981 Richmond Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22911. I hope that helps! :)

Thank you! Yeah, you can kinda tell we were still PRETTY new at it! LOL But we're learning. :)

Quartz is only one that's a rock. "Rock" is actually a scientific name and assigned to objects where the atoms aligned. Sandstone is formed of sands compressing so it's a stone so won't take a polish as readily plus it keeps breaking down, it's why it gets smaller. The stripped stone you thought was petrified wood is sedimentary.

Thank you Michelle! As you can see, we're still learning! It's nice to get some advice and hear from someone who knows more than we do!

Not right now. We're mostly giving them to the local kids. :)