6 Lb Rotary Dual Drum Rock Tumbler Lapidary Polisher

i am a jeweler for 45 years and i know tumblers. this is easy to load and unload, its quiet, and most of all does a great job !!! i now only cut and polish stones. one of these tumblers ive had and still using for ten years, the one i just bought 4 months ago is going strong even though the belt broke after one week but they give you an extra and very simple to replace. im writing this review because i saw some very negative reviews on this item and im here to say that either they got a faulty unit or didnt have the patients to work out any details. harbor freight is a great company and the prices are wonderful. this is a fantastic little unit. have fun rockhounds ! the motor is designed to run continuously for days and days, but for safety reasons i turn my motors off when i leave my home.

My daughter has been using the tumbler since 2 days after Christmas 2014. So far it seems to be tumbling away with no problems. We did have to change out a drive belt within the first 24hrs of using. The rock tumbler came with a bag of extra belts. I'm hoping they don't break too often. After we put the belt on, we have had no other problems and it's been tumbling away for 17 days now. One word of caution, the tumbler does move a bit and the directions advise not to place on a table or workbench. This is true. My daughter has hers on our garage floor. Every few days I have to scoot it back closer to the wall because it eventually moves around a bit. It's not excessively loud but it is a rock tumbler and so it's definitely something you will want to place in your garage or somewhere other than inside the house. Also, having dual tumblers is a plus. Waiting 30 days just for a handful a beautiful rocks is brutal. It's best two start tumbling in one tumbler and 2 weeks later, start the 2nd tumbler. That way you're producing beautiful rocks every two weeks instead of once a month.

This rock polisher did an incredible job for my situation. i really put it to the test too. I had thousands of dollars worth coins that had been burned in a home fire. the banks would not take them because there were so many. they said i had to bag them and send them into a Minting facility. For us to have used the coins sparatically while shopping would have left us with the messy things for years to come. It dawned on me to think about a rock polisher. Prices for the bigger one's just was not posible not knowing the outcome. This dual tanker was the best and about only option to try. it did amazing. Granted it made lots of noise and went through at least a couple of the rubber band things and even bore through much of the drums themselves. It still performed all through the job. it was still lots of work but without this little nachine who knows how long i would have been sitting on these at a worthless state practically. Thanks Chicago Electric Power......I will try to add a photo later.

This is my first rock tumbler. For the cost, I was expecting something more durable. It is efficiently if sparsely designed. Making it from higher grade steel would keep it from warping and bending so easily. The nature of rock polishing requires that you leave these machines running for days on end. I simply could not trust this machine to run overnight… Or even without supervision. The belts break constantly. (Replacements come with the tumbler.) Worse, the drums will misalign and stop spinning. When I let it run overnight a few times, the drums would get out of alignment and stick. Friction from the rollers would cause the rubber coated drums to erode and even melt. Once this happens, the drums never roll right again. The bearings require frequent lubrication. Without it, they would screech loudly. A polishing session that should've taken seven days took 30+ because I would shut it off when I was not around. The lids have thumb screws, But I had to use pliers to unscrew them. The lid construction is thin and warps easily, though I have to admit, the seal never failed -- not even once. This was my first foray into tumbling and I never did completely finish my first set. Mostly because I would forget to turn it on for days on end - ruining the sediment.

Best tumbler I've bought. Maybe it's the speed that this tumbles, as it cuts days off of what other makes take to smooth. The only problem is that the roller bars are set to deep so the drums are set too deep and thus the closing nut cap hits and drags against the steel housing. Makes loud noise and wears at the plastic turning nut!

This tumbler works great! I wanted to order another one of these, but couldn’t find it on the website.

Well it is what it says and it is what I needed BUT there are a few quality issues. The lid has come off twice; so place this in a place you can make a mess. Also the lid rubs against the side rails and is slowly rubbing the metal lids thinner and thinner... But even after all that I think it is a good product and will be buying a second one as a gift for a friend...

I oiled the bushings before starting it up like it says in the owners manual. The tumbler started making a loud noise so I shut it off and checked it out. The drive shaft was loose and I could move it up and down easily. The idler shaft was tight without a problem. I tried to warranty it and they declined without any questions or response. I pulled the cover over the drive belt and removed the belt. The driven pulley would slide back and forth about a half inch. I pulled the larger driven pulley off and noticed the shaft had slid and the plastic bushing was not in the frame where it was supposed to be. I lined the bushing up in the hole and slid it back into place. I used a screw driver and was able to slid the snap ring and bushing back over so it had very little back and forth movement. Snap ring is supposed to fit into a groove and when they built it they neglected to cut a snap ring groove. SO, even though it is working again and not making the noise anymore without the groove to hold the snap ring it WILL slide again. AND they will not warranty their mistake.