Dan&Darci Advanced Professional Rock Tumbler Kit - with Digital 9-Day Polishing Timer & 3 Speed Settings - Turn Rough Rocks into Beautiful Gems : Great Science & STEM Geology Toy for Kids All Ages

Perfect for my Grandson, age 8. Great starter tumbler. It is loud, but hey we weren't expecting a professional product. It operates perfectly as I was expecting.

Great kit for beginners. Still in use after a year and no complaints so far

The tumbler works well enough, it's very reasonably priced, and generally a good kit. The rocks that come with it are a good starter; there are some findings included for finished rocks; and the instructions are reasonably good (accepting some significant caveats below). There's also an included strainer, but we found it much too small, and just used a small colander from our kitchen.Accepting the good points, there are a few important things to consider:1) The kit comes with a paltry amount of grit. We followed the instructions to the letter using the small grit packets provided in the box, and just couldn't get a good polish on the included rocks. However, we had also bought a set of additional grit at the same time, so we re-ran exactly the same rocks with proper amounts of grit and got a beautiful polish. The additional grit was exactly the same grade and composition as the original, but its instructions called for 2-3x more grit per run. So, I expect a lot of people will be underwhelmed at the polish they get, not realizing that the minimal amount of grit is likely the problem. Since grit is a consumable that you'll need more of anyway, you can save yourself a wasted month of tumbling by buying more grit and just topping off what comes with the kit (2 tbsp for stages 1 and 2, and 1 tbsp for stages 3 and 4).2) The tumbler runs fast, even at its slowest speed (seems at least twice as fast as the tumblers I'm familiar with). This means it's on the louder end (we kept it in the garage) and it doesn't seem to do a good job on more angular or larger rocks, because the tumbling action is just too aggressive. Anything under 3/4" diameter and/or mostly round will polish up great—which mostly included the rocks that came with our set—but anything outside that ended up with some unpolished edges (although the smooth/flat parts still polished up well). That stated, you can cheat and use mineral oil to mostly hide the rough edges, but they still won't look as good as they do with a proper polish. (Although, I haven't yet tested if ceramic media or poly pellets could improve this situation by cushioning the rocks during the final polish stage.)3) The instructions could be better with respect to cleaning, and don't cover burnishing at all. For cleaning between stages, after a thorough rinse I strongly recommend putting the rocks back in the tumbler with warm water and a drop or two of dish soap, and then just running it for an hour on its lowest speed. This will clean out all of the grit from the last stage. Then just re-rinse (the sink is fine in this case, since there's so little grit) and start the next tumbling stage.You may want to burnish as a final step, to get a better shine. There are a number of good guides available, so I suggest just searching for the term "rock burnishing".

The media could not be loaded. I'm in the middle of step 3 (there are 4 steps total). The one thing you need to be aware of is that it takes about a month to run the entire cycle for one set of stones. After completing steps 1 and 2, I'm very pleased with how it works and how the stones look so far. It's fairly quiet overall; however, I run it in the garage and cannot hear it in the house, don't think you'd want to have it running inside the house.

I bought mine in March and it hasn't stopped up to now. I had to inform myself on how to use the media for rock polishing. But I am learning. Dan&Darci tumblers are the best brand. I did a bit of research and found that they are ranked as the best band tumblers. No problems with it whatsoever.

***Update**I contacted the vendor as the product stopped working just shy of the one year warranty. The vendor shipped me a replacement unit and we are back to rumbling. Great customer service!This machine just broke. We purchased on July 18, 2024, less than a year, and had fun using it. We have tumbled rocks about half a dozen times.

The first thing I noticed was that the drum and base unit both seem very nicely built. The second thing is that it seems much quieter than I expected. I think the fact that the drum is overmolded with rubber helps a lot in that way. Muffles the sound of the rocks rattling around in there. So my initial impressions were all very good.Currently tumbling my first batch. The little pack of rocks that came with the tumbler, using their grit and their recommended times. I'm on grit pack #2 of 4. The first grit did a great job, smoothing the rough rocks out nicely. I still have a few days to go before I finish grit #2.Comes with a replacement drive belt, which I am happy to see. I expect that is what will fail eventually, as it is a simple piece of rubber. But that's to be expected... as evidenced by them including the spare. A nice touch.Instructions couldn't be easier. If you can read and understand this review, you will have no problems.If the unit works well for a long time, it will have earned this "premature" five-star review.

My partner bought me my first Dan&Darci tumbler back in 2020. I was one of those folks who always picks up rocks on hikes and at the beach, and they correctly thought I would enjoy tumbling. To say this tumbler kicked off an obsession would be an understatement. I've since bought 2 additional Dan&Darci tumblers (the most recent one to replace my first one - which finally broke after 3 years of almost continuous use). They're a great starter tumbler, they're the quietest of the tumblers I've owned (harbor freight, tumblebee, and a lortone) and they definitely hold up. The only downside is they're not easy to troubleshoot when they do break - I can easily replace parts for my other tumblers, but not for this one. As others have pointed out the starter kit also does not include nearly enough grit if you want to do it right. I'd recommend picking up a grit kit from Polly Plastics here on Amazon as they have a solid and reasonably priced kit. Overall a really solid option, especially if you can catch them during a sale