Model T Kit Rock Tumbler
Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at
3:05 am
Model T Kit Rock Tumbler
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
- 3lb. capacity
- One rubber barrel
- 115V continuous duty motor
Product Description
3lb. capacity tumbler. One rubber barrel. 115V continuous duty motor – impedance protected. For the beginner. Does a quality job of polishing stones. Lighter motor than other models. Besides tumbler, kit contains polishing rock, 4 grades of polishing abrasives, jewelry findings and booklet A Guide For Rock Polishers…. More >>
Tagged with: MODEL • Rock • Tumbler
Filed under: Learning Toys
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
As a kid I had a pretty solid rock tumbler by Skilcraft. That was 30 years ago. Ten years ago I got one for my step daughter and it was plastic, noisy and leaked. The neighbors have one like that now.
This Rock Polisher exceeded all my expectations. I bought this more expensive polisher because I didn’t want that same experience with the noisy, leaky, cheap plastic one. And this was just as good as I had hoped.
First, anyone trying this for the first time must realize that any time you put a bunch of rocks into a container and roll them for weeks, it is going to make noise and it is going to take patience. You should be prepared to put a rock tumbler in a garage, basement, or shed. And if it squeaks, oil it.
This polisher was relatively quiet in the garage. When the rollers started squeaking on the metal axles, I just put a drop of oil on it and it was perfect. This unit is less noisy than the plastic units because the barrel is made of hard rubber. This is a great design. The chassis and motor are all metal.
The barrel did not leak, like the others I have owned.
The best part is that this thing is solid and Made in the USA. At least there is something of quality we can still build here.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Model T seems functional enough, but the smaller motor on the Model T concerns me. I bought in a hurry and should have considered the time necessary to tumble a batch of rocks. The larger motor and the dual barrels of the AR-2 would have better suited my needs, but for a first tumbler the Model T is great. If you intend to keep the original shape of your rocks then you may want to seriously investigate a vibrating polisher. The loss of edge using a tumbler is not to dramatic, but it does round off the edges on crushed or broken rocks. Rock tumbling is an exercise in patience! If you are not willing to wait then try another hobby. Overall I am quite pleased with the Model T, but I think I would have been happier with the AR-2. A couple of other notes: we have experienced minor leak problems with the barrel on the Model T, but I am not entirely convinced that it was not operator error. Keep it in a pan or cookie sheet just in case. For those concerned about noise, I could sleep in the same room with my Model T (for that matter I have dozed off in the chair in the room with it). The rubber barrel and use of water in the process are great noise reducers.
Rating: 4 / 5
OK, so I didn’t just buy this one. I’ve had mine for 25 years now, and it’s still rolling. Same model and everything! HA! As far as people complaining about noise – yes. It is noisy, but so are all the others! Put it in the garage and be happy with that. If you buy this product it will last you. Its a great brand, and I completely stand behind their products. The polish and grit are easy to find at most hobby stores, which is another thing you want to keep in mind. I’ve polished rocks my self, with my nephew, and my neighbors son. Its great to see the kids minds go with checking out the minerals in the rocks, etc. I highly recommend this tumbler.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have used this unit for one complete tumbling/polishing cycle. The build quality appears to be excellent. The unit is solid, well-made and the rubberized barrel is relatively quiet. I operate the unit in the basement and it runs 24/7 through each cycle with very little noise. I gave this product a 3 star in the fun category, only because I could not honestly say it is fun to watch it simply do its job and tumble the rocks. But overall my 7 year old daughter and I are very pleased with the unit’s operation and results.
Rating: 5 / 5
** UPDATE: If Amazon would let me, I would change this to a 2-star rating. So, after running continuously for 4 days, this thing has gotten so loud and squeaky that we moved it to the garage. Well, we could hear it inside the house and in the front yard it was so insanely loud. So, :( we had to unplug it with 2 1/2 weeks left to go. Disappointed!! **** ORIGINAL REVIEW: Did you know that this process would take about a month from beginning to end? Neither did I or my 8 year old. At first, we were kind of shocked. But then it dawned on me that everything he does is about instant gratification, and when we started talking about this being worth the time, and how accelerated the process is versus it occurring naturally, we agreed that it was actually really neat. You put in coarse grit for a week, fine grit for a week, pre-polish for 3 days, and polish for a week. You will use these up on one round of polishing with the machine, so save the brochure for ordering more (about $9 for all four). It comes with a decent amount of stones, and there is room in the rubber barrel for more if you have a collection you’d like to add. My son did have a collection he wanted to add, so it would’ve been disappointing given the time investment if we hadn’t been able to add those, but the barrel is big and of nice quality. Anyhow, we are now in our first week, and my son is actually excited that he only has to wait 7 days to see how they look after that first round of polishing. (The only negative is that the jewelry fittings are so flimsy that they may as well not be included, but we’re not intrested in them anyway.) If the machine konks out, I will update the review, but wanted to say how great it was for us to have a real experiment with nice equipment which also involved teaching patience.
Rating: 5 / 5