Rock tumbler

[beer batter]

Santa was thoughtful enough to bring our family a rock tumbler this year. Our first batch is nearly complete, coming soon is the polishing step. We have a rotary style where it's basically a cylinder rotating around for a week at a time during each stage. The directions state to use some form of dry powder soap like Ivory soap during the polishing stage. Where does one find powder soap for this polishing stage? Only Ivory soap I find are the hand bar soap, or liquid dish soap.

[ramjam]

I use 50 Mule Borax, which is available at just about every chain grocery store. I also tumble my stones with Borax for a day between each grit. If you use plastic pellets in the later stages make sure you wash them too.

[DARK30]

I use a product called "Bar Keepers Friend" found in most grocery stores and Ace hardware stores. Its a cleaner with mild abrasives and it polishes as well. I'll also add saw dust to the polish and cleaning stages for a nice cushion.

During the polish and cleaning stages, I use the 3# barrel verses the 6# because the tumbling stones can actually be damaged by falling farther inside.

Those Lot o tumblers work really good for the final stages but a tumbler is better for roughing down.

Have Fun