Lot-O-Tumbler Vibratory Rock Tumblers
Produce a fantastic polish. Faster than rotary and uses less grit.
| Age Recommendation This is a large-capacity tumbler that should be used by adults who are mechanically inclined.Find out why. |
Single-Barrel
Lot-O-Tumbler
Twin-Barrel
Lot-O-Tumbler
Lot-O-Tumbler Vibratory Tumblers
When we used the Lot-O-Tumbler for the first time, we were really surprised. It doesn't look like a tumbler, but it processed our rocks quickly and produced an awesome polish! The machine makes the load of rocks vibrate very rapidly and churn through the barrel with a thin film of grit on them. That thin film of grit turns every rock-to-rock contact into a rapidly-vibrating point of abrasion. The surface of every rock in the barrel turns into instant sandpaper!
The Lot-O-Tumbler is fast. It will process a batch of rocks from rough to polish in under a week if you rinse the rock and add new grit every 12 hours. That is an easy job, you just lift the barrel off of the machine, pull off the red cap, fill the barrel with water, invert the barrel to drain, rinse again, add grit, and place the barrel back on the machine. Watch our video below to see how easy it is.
NOTE: As with any tumbler, don't allow the used grit and mud to go down a drain - it can clog your plumbing.
Only three abrasives are needed. We use medium grit silicon carbide (220 or 150/220 grit), fine grit silicon carbide (500 or 600 grit), and polish (we have obtained great results on agate and jasper with inexpensive TXP aluminum oxide polish. The instructions that come with the machine give specific suggestions for other materials.
The Lot-O-Tumbler uses very little grit and polish - less than 1/2 the amount of abrasives that you would normally use for the same amount of rocks in a rotary tumbler.
With a Lot-O-Tumbler you will save lots of money on grit, and you will produce a load of finished rocks in under seven days - that's a lot faster than one month minimum in a rotary tumbler. That short tumbling time will save electricity too!
Here are the downsides for some people: 1) the Lot-O-Tumbler must be attached to something heavy; and, 2) it makes a little more noise than a small rotary tumbler - it hums!
We got a standard concrete block, painted it to make it look nice, then used "Goop" to glue a single-barrel machine to the block. It works great. Many people use the super double-stick tape strips supplied with the tumbler. The instructions recommend gluing the single-barrel machine to a standard 40-pound concrete block (we filled the holes in our block with concrete for extra weight). They recommend gluing the two-barrel machine to a heavy concrete block or a concrete floor!
As with other vibratory tumblers, the Lot-O-Tumbler "smoothes" the surfaces of the rocks and does minimal rounding. If you like your tumbles nicely rounded, just run them for one or two weeks in a rotary machine and finish the job in the Lot-O-Tumbler. Here is how we use the Lot-O-Tumbler. If you have a rotary tumbler that produces four pounds of rounded rock per week, then you can run both machines and finish a load of nicely rounded tumbles every seven days. You will be running a gemstone factory!
| For Best Polishing Results: If you are really serious about getting a high-quality polish, we recommend getting a separate barrel and using it exclusively for the polishing step. A dedicated barrel for polish (and a thorough cleaning of your rocks after the 600 grit step) will help avoid grit contamination of your polishing step. |