Customer Reviews

Model T Kit Rock Tumbler

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a great rock tumbler. Pretty easy to use, seems to be very durable, easy to clean, and not very loud. I read about how loud the tumblers would be but this one is pretty darn quiet. The rubber casing on the tumbler really helps. Still needs to be put in a garage or playroom where it won't bother you but generally just the sound level of background noise. This is a great tumbler for kids as the instruction booklet has great pictures and easy to follow step-by-step instructions. My boys (age 7 and 4) have been so excited with each stage of the rock tumbling process. We have marked the day when we will move the rocks on the calendar and made a ceremony of cleaning and moving the rocks and loading the next grit pack and water. The tumbler is easy to open and easy to clean. We have kept it oiled so things are working very well. **Make sure to order an extra grit pack as the tumbler only comes with enough for one tumble.**

** 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.

Got this for my son's 9th birthday. He had wanted another tumbler but after reading reviews I decided on this one. I'm so glad I did because I know it's a quality product. We have it working its magic in the garage since it's a little noisy. It comes with enough rocks and grit & polishing packages to do one tumble. It takes a total of 24 days to get the final product, but every 7 days its kind of like Christmas because you get to take the rocks out and see how they have changed (one of the processes only takes 3 days). Highly recommended - fun, educational and a gift that keeps on giving! Nice that it's American made also!

I collect rocks. I also collect sea glass. This is great because now my rocks are shinier then my sea glass. I LOVE this product even though I am 23. If I were you, who ever you are, I would get this. My rocks now look like they'er made of jewels!!!!!!! If you are a rock collector and you don't have this product, you'er collection is not complete.

After reading all the reviews on cheaper tumblers, we chose this for our 8-year-old daughter. It really works! We put it in the basement and we were not bothered by the noise at all. After 4 weeks of tumbling using the different grades of polishing grit, my daughter was rewarded with beautiful, smooth "gems". She was delighted. The sample rocks provided were varied and interesting. We will be ordering more grit to make more.

OK, the title is corny but its true. We've been using the tumbler for several months now and it just keeps working. 'Nuff said.

I bought this rock tumbler as a gift for my husband for his birthday, and it's fantastic. Does a great job. It's a bit loud and needs to run for four weeks, but he loves it so I can't complain. Comes with rocks to start with.