Thumler's A-R1 Rock Tumbler Kit
| Age Recommendation For use by children ages 14 and up with close adult supervision. Find out why. |
A-R1 Rock Tumbler Kit
AR-1 Refill KitsWith the kits below, you get all the rough rocks, grit, polish, and ceramic media needed to tumble and polish another batch of stones.        |
Everything You Need For Tumbling!
Here's what you get in this A-R1 rock tumbler kit...
Perfect for the beginner! A small, single-barrel tumbler is a great choice for your first tumbler or a tumbler that you are giving as a gift. They are inexpensive to purchase and have a low operating cost (the cost of grit, polish and rough rocks). This rock tumbler kit has everything you need to start tumbling right away.
You can buy this rock tumbler kit with confidence:
This is a hobbyist grade tumbler and a high-quality tumbler for a beginner. You can find less expensive machines on the market, but many of them are made from plastic and have a plastic barrel which will not last through more than a few loads of rock - and the rocks rolling in that plastic barrel will make a LOT of noise!
This machine has durable rollers and bearings that are made to last over years of frequent use. The motor is properly sized and thermally protected. If it overheats it will protect itself by shutting off automatically. The soft rubber barrel is thick enough to last a long time. If you use this tumbler a lot and a barrel, bearing, or belt wears out, you can purchase replacement parts and fix it easily yourself. You can find answers to some of the most common questions we have received about this tumbler on our A-R1 Questions and Answers page.
What's in the jewelry findings and grit kit packages?
Tumbling rocks in a Thumler's A-R1 tumbler is a four-step process. The A-R1 tumbler kit comes with each of the grits and polish pictured above. They are premeasured packages ready to be dumped into the barrel with the rough, and tumbled according to instructions. Refill kits are always available here.
Pictured above are the jewelry findings that come with the tumbler kit. These findings allow you to make one pair of clip-on earrings, one keychain, and one pendant necklace. You can always purchase additional jewelry findings kits here.
Optional Rock Tumbler Accessories:
A) Refill kits with all rough rock and grit needed to run the tumbler are available.
B) Most rock tumbler instructions tell you to tumble your rough rocks with coarse grit for seven days and then move on to the next step. This will work. However, we often run the rocks a second week in coarse grit to make them more rounded in shape. We feel that the second week makes a big quality difference in our stones.
C) Many experienced people have a special barrel that they only use for the polishing step. This significantly reduces the chance that grit - embedded within the rubber barrel - will cause scratches on your stones during the polishing step. We always have an extra barrel for each of our tumblers and use that barrel exclusively for the polishing step.
A Rock Tumbler Story:My father bought a small Thumler's Tumbler in the 1960s and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. I still have that tumbler. It still works great, and it has polished hundreds of batches of rocks. Now, almost sixty years later, that tumbler is still in service. We use it regularly to test the tumbling roughs that are sold on this website. We have kept it clean and oiled it regularly. In nearly sixty years it has needed a few new belts, a few new lids, a few retaining rings, two sets of barrels, and two new motors. The service that we have received from that tumbler is convincing. The Thumler's A-R2 tumbler is a very durable machine that is made to last a long time. We have sold thousands of Thumler's A-R2 rock tumblers to customers all over the United States and have received very few complaints. My father didn't realize that his gift of a tumbler would one day result in a family-owned and operated business that today employs his son, daughter, granddaughter, grandson, and daughter-in-law. Our business operates RockTumbler.com and publishes Geology.com - one of the most popular Earth science websites on the internet. The Thumler's A-R1 and A-R2 tumblers sold on this website are almost identical to the tumblers that were sold 60 years ago. In fact, all of the replacement parts sold today still fit those original tumblers! Very few products persist so long in the marketplace without major changes. Many of our customers are using A-R1 and A-R2 tumblers with their grandchildren that they received as a gift during their own childhood. If you have an old Thumler's Tumbler from your childhood, a good cleaning, a few drops of oil, and a new belt will likely make it run as good as new. Just follow our cleaning and oiling instructions. Your children might be delighted to be using the same tumbler that you enjoyed as a child. The Thumler's MP-1 tumbler, a "beginner's" grade tumbler, was first available for sale in 2009. We bought one of those early MP-1's in 2009, and we are still using it today. It has tumbled hundreds of barrels of rocks and is still going strong. We have changed the belt a few times, changed the barrel once, and replaced the motor once using these replacement parts. You will not get that kind of service out of a "toy tumbler". Happy Tumbling! Hobart King Owner/Manager RockTumbler.com |