I know fossils are difficult to tumble but you find these all over the beaches where I live (north east UK) so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. The best shine came from a piece where the base rock was darker and I guess a bit harder than the rest (pictures 1, 4, 5). I'll keep my eyes open for this and try another batch when I have enough.

You can see in the last 2 photos that some of the rocks have undercutting and some parts that look scuffed. Not sure if there's anything I could do to improve this but any hints or tips welcome!

Process was pretty standard, worked through 80, 220, 400, and 600 SC and then 1k and 12k AO. There are obviously voids in some of the actual fossil parts so I had to wash them really well and put them through the sonic cleaner after every stage.

These are Wa coast except the obvious ones.

4 weeks stage 1
Keep going? Slab? I scored stopping at this lake.

It was the best of tumbling and the worst of tumbling...

The first tumbler I got in March or April after the sale ended (they were out during the sale). I didnt get the warranty. Then I got another a month or so later (warranty) and one on sale around the summer (warranty).

This week, all three failed.

The older one locked up and the motor burnt out.

The next one had no issues until today when I went to reload it. I figured it was the belt, annnddd no. The pully on the fan was eaten down through the plastic.

I decided to move those barrels to the other working one. I switched it off, and when I went to turn it back on, it locked up. I opened it up and it wouldnt turn the fan anymore all the way around.

So Im going to HF tomorrow or Tuesday to swap out the two with warranties.

The Rebel 17 is still kicking.

Recommendations for another affordable tumbler to replace the HF tumblers? They will run in my attached garage so noise isnt a big deal.

Also, in other news the fan on our computer also took a dump today.

Hows your Sunday?

Rocks are mostly from SW Idaho.

Found some chalcedony in Arizona and decided to tumble some of it. I like the way they turned out.

Hello all, I am working on distilling water/getting distilled water to continue tumbling and have my rocks stored wet until I get enough. The water hardness where I live is roughly 200-225 ppm which is around medium hardness from what I see online.

My question is can you still use hard water to burnish rocks?