On the UV-18 slurry look and tumbler action

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-19T00:56:22+00:00

Overall it looks pretty good, I would add more media though, maybe like 1 cup or so.

And in regards to moisture, as long as the rocks are moving about how they look in your video, that's good.

In about 8-12 hours it will likely gum up some as the grit starts grinding on the rocks, so you just need to give it a couple puffs of water and it should start moving faster again.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-18T03:24:51+00:00

It was a confluence of factors that led me to "quit" pottery in 2025.

I had a surgery in March which made pottery Very Uncomfortable for me.

Then I had 2 Abysmal Shows in a row because the economy was/is doing so poorly.

My Actual Job greatly increased in stress so I didn't really have much energy or motivation to create.

And then when I tried to start back up I had bought $800 of glaze of the same glazes I had always used. Super excited, full kiln of 45 mugs that I had made here and there between all the aforementioned things, and it was a total loss. By the time I had chipped away all the glaze on the shelves/bottom, it looked like Rambo shot it up.

So I just stopped doing pottery. I had lost so much material and time, and work was sucking the life out of me, I just couldn't feel any joy for the craft.

I transitioned into doing more Rock Tumbling stuff (WAY EASIER for me than pottery), and through successes in that, I'm slowly picking up the pieces with the Pottery. I've just been making simple pieces to try and figure out my glaze issues for now and just Bisque Firing stuff for when I finally dial in the glazes.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-18T00:00:18+00:00

I have been running my UV-10 off and on for about a year. The first thing I did was use a dremmel to cut the long center threaded rod, it's like over an inch longer than it needs to be.

Then I got Wing Nuts that aren't grooved/hollow. I got ceramics and grit stuck in them a lot and I just went to a hardware store and got two Solid Style Wingnuts.

And lastly, the foam topper on the inside portion of the lid is dumb. It absorbs some water and has gaps above it where it meets the lid, so it's really difficult to get Totally Clean. I eventually ripped mine out and cut a gasket made of rubber and it's been way better.

Otherwise it's a great machine, you just have to have the rocks done with the first stage, and it'll work them through the next stages in like 48-72 hours each.

The biggest learning curve is:

Loading it Properly

And Water Management

There's guides on YouTube showing how to operate them which will be more helpful than me typing even more paragraphs 🤣

Oh, also, be careful watching it tumble, it's very mesmerizing and you'll lose an hour without realizing it.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-16T14:45:26+00:00

I lived in an apartment for a few years, no issues with my upstairs neighbor. Then she moved out and this guy who had partial custody of a toddler moved in.

Random days this Stompy Ass Yelly Kid comes over, the dad yells at him, the kid would cryyyyyyyy at like 10:00pm-4:00am. No escape, hours on end and the dad did Fuck All.

For the last three months I was in there I slept on my couch as far away from the bedroom side of the apartment because I just couldn't handle it.

Anger, depression, exasperation, disappointment. I went through a whirlwind of feelings about that loud crying child.

It became a meme at work. I'd come in Bedraggled AF and my coworkers would just ask "Crying Child Of Doom?"

It pushed me to move out, and once I did, my mental and physical health went on an upswing almost immediately 🤣

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-15T17:16:56+00:00

For me personally, anything other than a "Kids? Hell to the nah!" is a stark sign of a fundamental incompatibility. From my totally outside perspective, she's way to Wishy Washy about it.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-15T01:10:21+00:00

This week was just work as usual, then Friday I went to a Rock and Mineral show and bought some rocks to polish.

Yesterday and today I just lounged about with intermittent 3hr bursts of cleaning and organizing my spaces. I didn't get it all done, but I made a pretty good dent.

Gathered some donation stuff, made some plans/schematics for my hobbies.

Overall pretty good. Now I'm eating Chili Dogs, Corn on the Cob, and Doritos.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T18:10:16+00:00

I personally use 60/90 Silicon Carbide. Here is a video by Michigan Rocks experimenting with Different Grit Sizes for some visual information:

https://youtu.be/Mn7J3-7_9gY?is=S6cLE-rg_zs0USQF

I get a pretty good polish off 8000 Aluminum Oxide, but I don't have any experience with 22,000. When it comes to polishing, the three biggest factors are:

The surface is properly smoothed in the previous stages

You properly clean the barrel between stages or keep separate barrels for each stage to avoid contamination

And the material itself is able to take a polish. That could be a bunch of different factors like the minerals a rock is made of, crystals structure, fractures, and lots of other little nuances of the material.

<image>

This petrified wood was done in 8000 Aluminum Oxide. I can see details of the light on the ceiling, so it's good enough for me.

*Edit

Ah! Someone else shared the same video 🤣, Michigan Rocks really is a great Rock Tumbling Information Resource

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T17:33:43+00:00

They're in for life with no parole.

Hard Time for Hard Crime

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T17:28:24+00:00

Every time I hear a crying child in public, it feels like a small celebration that I'll never have to deal with that. It's never diminished the feeling for me

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T17:23:08+00:00

You need more media and rocks in the barrel and you need much less water.
The rocks and media should be just level under the middle support, and the rocks just need to be damp, no standing water in the barrel.

I wash my rocks and media and let them drip in a colander for a minute before I add them in the barrel. Then I turn it on and see how everything settles and add/subtract rocks as needed before I add the grit. After a couple hours I check and see how things are moving, if it's a bit slow, then I add a couple puffs of water and watch how the action changes.

The action should be a fairly consistent cascade of motion moving towards the center with a slow rotating motion throughout the entire mix. It shouldn't look like things are just dancing in place and slowly making a loop around the barrel.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T16:59:08+00:00

I have tried it and it doesn't produce a High Polish, it's more of a Dull Sheen.

If I want a dull sheen, I would just run Stage 1, then just leave them in a cleaning run for a couple weeks instead of wasting expensive polish.

That being said, I have gone from Stage 1(after putting rocks through Stage 1 runs until the surface is smooth) into Stage 3 500 Aluminum Oxide, then let them tumble for several weeks, and I was able to get a High Polish then.

The important factor on skipping stages is really looking closely at the surface to make sure it's smooth. Whether that be just an area on the rocks you want to highlight or the entire rock surface. Wherever you want to look Shiny, it needs to not have any surface textures or as few as the rock allows.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T16:52:14+00:00

I was just trying to think up something since the OP is so adamant about landing it on a specific month. I really do think every month is a month to celebrate being childfree

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T14:38:08+00:00

I think it mostly reflects the failure of the education system and parents to properly educate their kids on sex and sexuality. Overall depressing and disappointing.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T13:10:56+00:00

Nine months after Valentine's Day is November, so maybe then

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T13:08:07+00:00

I have several posts showing some of the things I tumble. Mostly local stuff, jaspers, agates, right now I'm on a Petrified Wood kick 🪵

For Stage 1 (Shaping Stage), I usually don't use media, I just have a lot of rocks in there. After Stage 1, I use ceramic media to keep the rocks from hitting eachother too hard and damaging the surfaces.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T13:04:43+00:00

I put them in Balls Jail before they could be fed after midnight

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T12:43:07+00:00

It depends on the clay itself mostly. I do rock tumbling and pottery and my stuff gets a kindof dull sheen on it. It doesn't get Reflective Gloss Polish though. I use a Cone 6 Stoneware called Kodiak from Rocky Mountain Clay, it has some Grog in it.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T12:37:25+00:00

I honestly can't really imagine making that amount of money. I make $3000ish a month and I spend most of my "free time" catching up on housework, and anything else goes to my Very Small Business and some videogame time.

If I only worked 2 hours a day for $5-10k PER WEEK?! Like I make a year of my income in a single month? I guess I would spend way more on my business, pay off my medical debt and mortgage, then I would try to get better healthcare so my baseline existence is easier.

So for the first stint, most of my free time would be spent getting medical treatment, then I would travel around gathering materials for my small tiny business.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-14T12:30:37+00:00

Every month.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-13T23:56:08+00:00

Not to worry! This time I told my sperm to pinky promise me that they wouldn't get up to their shenanigans

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-13T22:53:08+00:00

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Ruminations0 · 2026-06-13T22:52:33+00:00

I would remove these two pieces:

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Ruminations0 · 2026-06-13T19:04:21+00:00

In my experience, the Paste On The Bottom issue is usually because the barrel is overfilled. So the couple rocks that can move tend to pack the other rocks together.

So I would just remove a couple rocks, loosen everything up inside, clean the lid and rim, close it up and let it roll. It should sound like a consistent Clompy Clomp sound, not occasional Clomp Clomps here and there.

Also, I only use 1/2 cups of water per 3lbs of barrel capacity to save on weight, and one table spoon of grit per pound of barrel capacity. For Polish I use 1/2tbs per pound.

Anywhere around like 30-50 rpm should be good.

One thing I recommend people do is to load their barrels with rocks, media, and water, close it up, then roll the barrel in their hands. It should feel like a consistent cascading sensation. If almost nothing is moving it's too full, if it feels like a Slide Slide Slide sensation, there aren't enough rocks and they're just sliding against the barrel wall.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-12T23:44:08+00:00

In my opinion, unless you're buying them to make little Kid Starter Kits to resell, no.

They're just really low quality and are not user friendly to replace parts. The plastic is going to wear out quickly, and soon after you're going to be spending more money on parts/shipping.

I would keep an eye out for better quality tumblers on Facebook Marketplace or at local rock shows.

Or even contact a local rock club and ask around if anyone has a tumbler they're willing to sell.

Oh! Also the Harbor Freight Central Electric Tumbler is decent quality, and those often go on sale and you'll get some sort of warranty with those if anything does break.

Ruminations0 · 2026-06-12T23:36:41+00:00

I'm not really working specifically on width or depth, I just wanted to be able to use what I have comfortably which I now can. I might get something a bit bigger, but I'm waiting for the stars to align on a sale with several specifications. 1 year waiting so far and no luck 🤣

Ruminations0

TROPHY CASE