Tru-square Metal Products Single Barrel Rock Polishing Tumbler and Geology Kit with Grit and Accessory Kit

Got this for my daughter who is really into rocks. We live in the desert so we have an abundance of rocks to choose from in our own backyard, but the kit also came with some really great ones.My tumbler had no problems with leaks until we put the final stage of polish in. Not sure if it was not sealed well enough or just the constant opening of the rubber tumbler might have pulled it slightly out of shape. We will have to see how well it seals on our next batch.The kit comes with all four stages of grit and polish (enough to run one load), you could probably reuse both sets of grit, just dump it out on something you can rinse and not lose the grit in the process. The process of tumbling the rocks is a super messy one. You don't realize how dirty rocks are until you finish the first week and find practically mud in your barrel. Be sure to open it over a paper plate or something you don't mind getting dirty because it will drip and get super dirty water all over everything. Even after the first week be sure to open the tumbler over something because every stage is messy.I put my tumbler on a baking sheet with a layer of paper towels under it (because the echo of the metal baking sheet and the tumbler make more noise than the tumbler alone). The paper towels made a nice buffer and helps catch any drips if your barrel. does seem to leak.Overall it was really cool to see how different the rocks looked after the tumbling. We are already collecting our next set for the tumbler!

Pretty excited to get a rock tumbler for my kids, and this one seemed to have decent review. I figured the few bad ones were just flukes... I was wrong :(Followed the instructions perfectly, loaded up the first batch of rocks + water + grit, and turned it on. Ran pretty smoothly, and I was fairly happy with the sound. Still a little too noisy to have in my house, but sits very nicely in the garage.After 1 week, the thing started squealing VERY loud.. I'm talking annoyingly loud in the house, when it's sitting in the garage.. I inspected it, and didn't notice any glaring issues. The rollers just seemed to be squeaky. I took a toothpick and dabbed just at tiny bit of grease under each roller, and this seemed to quieten it down a fair bit. Didn't seem as quiet as it was when I first fired it up, but it was manageable in my garage, so I resumed polishing being only a tiny bit irritated...2 days later, I went to take a peek at it, and I was astonished to see that one side of the barrel is rubbing against one of the plastic discs that guards the barrel from moving too far on the roller. This had the effect of "melting" the rubber away from the barrel, and depositing it all on the disc. I could not find ANY solution to fix this problem. As soon as I place the barrel on the other end of the roller, it just works its way over to hug the disc. I even tried putting shims under one side of the tumbler to make it "slope" the other way, but it still moved up the roller. Well, now I'm super irritated, because this isn't just noise that I have to deal with, it's now unusable, unless I glue something to the side of the rubber that won't deteriorate it.I tried, several time, to contact the manufacturer to politely explain my issue, and ask for advice, but have not received any response. Pretty upset for having spent so much on something that died on me in less than two weeks. Looking at the reviews more carefully, I see a few others having this exact same issue. I can't give this more than 1 star, because I didn't even get a chance to finish my first batch of rocks. Kids are equally bummed out.

We live close to Lake Erie which is a great place to find beach (or sea) glass. The problem with looking for beach glass is that you often find pieces that aren't "frosty" or they might even still be quite sharp. I bought this rock tumbler as a way to "frost" our pieces of beach glass - so we threw in some shards that we'd found along the road and other places as well. I just tossed them in with sand and water since that's how the beach "makes" the glass and a few weeks later - voila! Beach glass!The motor is pretty loud - a constant drone that we can hear through the walls of our garage. It doesn't bother me at all - I don't even notice it unless I'm in the room that is connected to the garage, but my husband kind of hates it. He was pretty annoyed when I told him it takes a month to polish the rocks - which is to be expected since you're trying to do something that takes nature years to do sometimes. If you are looking for something quiet, I wouldn't call this quiet, but it's not hideously loud, either. Maybe as loud as an older model dishwasher or dryer.We also polished the rocks that came with the polisher and that was very cool, but since my kids aren't that into rocks, they didn't get as excited about that. So I'll stick with glass for now!

I've been running this tumbler solidly for two weeks, pulling out the stones every other day or so to check the progress. It's a great little machine! We placed it on a couple of those thin scrubby sponges [uh, like these: http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Brite-General-Purpose-Scouring-Length/dp/B00978X97W/] to absorb some of the vibrations, just to make sure the machine didn't walk itself off the counter. I'm running it in the garage, but even in the room, I'd be hard-pressed to complain about the noise. It's rolling a rubber barrel full of water, grit, and rocks; if anything, I expected it to be louder after reading some of the other comments here. It's almost soothing, like sitting at the ocean's edge and listening to rocks being rolled by the waves. Granted, I wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as a running tumbler, but I sleep in a room directly above mine, and I can't hear it at all. Oil it like the directions tell you, and the squeaks should go away. Other than that, not much to say: it's a very simple little machine that does its single job effectively. I'll update this if it breaks in some spectacular way, but at this time I believe I will get my money's worth, easily. I'm glad that I indulged my dorky, outcast inner child with this purchase. ^_^