Comments for Rocks & Gemstones

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:57:15 +0000

I have the HF dual drum tumbler and had problems with belts breaking too.

I returned the first one I bought after burning through both belts that came with the thing in a week. HF replaced the whole works for free, since it was still under factory warranty.

I found that if you lube the bearings with WD40 once a day and wobble the shafts back and forth to make sure the oil goes into the bearings, the belt will last months, not days. My tumbler has been going 24/7 for the last 2 months and I am still on the new one’s first belt.

Also, be careful you don’t overload the barrels with rocks. I put my barrels on a scale and weigh rocks, grit and water up to 3 Lbs in each one. Too much weight and the belt breaks.

Put the tumbler on a sacrificial piece of wood or something absorbent – you’ll have a big black puddle of oil under the tumbler in a few weeks, with this lubrication schedule!

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by kevin

kevin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:00:02 +0000

if you open the Hb tumbler up, you can adjust how the wheels align and it helps the tumbler work much better.

Comment on Gemstones-The Addiction Starts by Anamika

Anamika — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:51:35 +0000

Your wife is not alone there. Majority of women cannot resist the beauty of gemstones.

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by M

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:01:39 +0000

Thanks for posting this! I was looking on eBay for something affordable that wasn’t and NSI…you’ve saved me a lot grief.

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by Ron

Ron — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:47:30 +0000

I found this site looking for info on the HF tumbler, so for all you Googlers out there you can get belts of just about any size/diameter through McMaster Carr (mcmaster.com). I repair medical lab equipment and a lot of them use oddball belts, and I’ve yet to be stumped by one. All you need to do is measure the total belt length, diameter, then choose a material on their site. Their site even explains what each material is best suited for. Good luck!

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by Cassie

Cassie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:09:08 +0000

Sorry, I meant HF, not HB.

Comment on Harbor Freight/Chicago Electric Rock Tumbler by Cassie

Cassie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:07:10 +0000

I’m glad I found this. My son has the HB tumbler and the belt broke on the third day running the machine. The belts are back ordered through January 2010 (no wonder), so I have been in search of an alternative. I wonder, has anybody tried using the replacement belt for the Lortane 1.5 or 3a for the HB tumbler? They would certainly be a better quality and I think they would fit with a 9″ circumference and 1/4″ thickness.

Comment on Freeing quartz crystals (Herkimer Diamonds) from calcite matrix by Bella

Bella — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:15:19 +0000

hello, I am a huge rockhounder, have been most of my life and I am not getting into more of the what is what and looking for certian types, I have some big chunks of white rock, which i then believed to be calcite, now I have to try the vineager!! I am excited! THANKS!!

Comment on Tools for Herkimer Diamond mine trip by Harmon

Harmon — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:20:50 +0000

They’re nice tool too. I wish my helpers would quit losing them on me.

Comment on Tools for Herkimer Diamond mine trip by jeremy

jeremy — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:06:27 +0000

A good place for a prybar or other heavy duty stuff is Cook Iron Store on Andrews Street downtown. They have alot of stuff there. I’m a plumber and I’ve gotten a few huge prybars from them over the years. They have stuff from 3′ on up( I like the 6′ variety). They’re nice tool too. I wish my helpers would quit losing them on me.

Comment on Freeing quartz crystals (Herkimer Diamonds) from calcite matrix by diamonds

diamonds — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:13:39 +0000

It seems indeed a good idea to use vineager or muriatic acid to solve the calcium, as any chemistry course will learn you, you can also add water if you want the process to go slower, good luck with finding diamonds

Comment on Bought vintage Lortone rock tumbler on ebay by Mark

Mark — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:34:34 +0000

Thanks,
Yeah I’ve searched everywhere no luck finding any thing about it, Strange…

Comment on Bought vintage Lortone rock tumbler on ebay by Rob

Rob — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:25:26 +0000

Nice on the old rock tumbler! Not familiar with the brand either. I did a search, but didn’t find anything. If it’s slow to start, the motor might lubed. 3in1 makes some electric motor oil. I found it at Home Depot. You might need to clean the old gunked up stuff out of the motor with some WD-40 like I did. But make sure you lube it up afterwards.

Comment on Bought vintage Lortone rock tumbler on ebay by Mark

Mark — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:04:13 +0000

I just got this old rock tumbler from my grandfather, It’s called a Galaxie made by Moccasin MGF Corp.

I can’t find any info on it I think it’s from the 50s or 60s, takes a minute to get going, LOL

Comment on How to make a screen box for rockhounding by Kathleen

Kathleen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:05:39 +0000

I bet you wish you could have found such a useful article when you were building your screen box! This sounds like the perfect size and all. We are going up to Murfreesboro in the fall and I would rather bring my own things.Do you know if this size screen is small enough for diamond-hunting? We have never done this before and are looking forward to it. Thank You for these helpful instructions.

Kathleen B.

Comment on Removing rust stains from Herkimer Diamonds by Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:43:54 +0000

I’ve pulled out a few yellow tinted herks over the years, same thing though nothing huge. I don’t think their worth much though because the main interest in herkimer quartz is it’s clarity, double terminations, and symmety. I’ve even pulled some out with a smoky haze in the middle, bubbles of water, even a “ghost crystal” inside of it. All sorts of wacky things.

Comment on Rock splitting wedges from spring steel car leaf springs by Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:39:42 +0000

yet another post I can help out on… the best place to get leaf spring pieces is ThruWay spring service on Mt. Read Blvd. I got a whooole bunch from them many moons ago and they hold up like a champ. Free too. The best way to cut them is with an oxy acetylene torch. Burn through the middle and that way you don’t wreck the strength at the ends. Also the other thing that works good for opening up faults is log splitting wedges. They last a long time and hold up surprisingly well (still using my original set from 15 years ago)

Comment on Agate hunting along the Genesee River by Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:34:32 +0000

I stumbled on your post because I was looking through my Audubon field guide for minerals to hunt next year and It has a picture of chalcedony that was taken from the Genesee River gorge. I’d love not to have to travel boocoo hours to go rockhounding, and some agates would be nice to add to the collection. I was planning a trip to the gorge myself. I don’t have the book you’re referring to, but was going to try the same area in my search. You mention gray rocks in your post, and the picture in the book is a collection of bluish gray nodules. Nothing extravagant, but would look nice sliced and polished if it had some slight color variance in it. I was going to try to go shortly after the spring thaw and the water has washed some fresh material through. Let me know if you’re going to go another time and I’ll help expand the search.

Comment on Freeing quartz crystals (Herkimer Diamonds) from calcite matrix by Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:25:51 +0000

Muriatic Acid works super good at dissolving the surrounding rock from matrix pieces and can clean up some of the quartz from higher elevations where it was closer to the soil and subject to staining and streaks through inclusions etc. Just be careful what you put it in and around, as the fumes that are emitted are super nasty, probably toxic, and will nuke your grass if you leave it closer than a few feet to it. If it comes in plastic, leave it in plastic (the acid that is). you can only buy it at pool supply places now in rochester (I buy it at Leslies in Greece). Lowe’s and the Home Freakshow do not stock it anymore. By the way, if you use it to clean stones and it leaves a yellowish residue on your quartz, change the acid out and dilute with water 1:1 and let it sit out of the sun for a day or so, they’ll clear right up (freaked me right out the first time it happened). I had a whole box of them from crystal grove from a few years back (was digging the easy stuff near the soil that trip) that were all crusty and brown and it cleaned ‘em up nice enough to put on my desk @ work (one is hardball sized and is now nice to have all squeaky clean).

Comment on Bought vintage Lortone rock tumbler on ebay by Rock Polisher

Rock Polisher — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:10:24 +0000

Great post. i’ve been trying to get an old tumbler I bought working but to no avail yet. I these might be just what I need.