How to Cheaply Polish Rocks!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2019
- In this video I share how I polish my cut rocks using my drill press and a series of diamond pads.
You don't need to use a drill press, you can also use a hand drill or an angle grinder.
Diamond Polishing Pads 4"- amzn.to/2AHpxa7
Drill Bit Adapter 1/2" to 5/8" - amzn.to/339lTlg
Drill Bit Adapter 3/8" to 5/8" - amzn.to/2VecTc4
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About how much water do you use? Ord does it not matter? I've used these a couple times, but I don't know if I'm using too much water or I'm not being patient enough or not enough pressure
Polishing rocks is so stinking fun! Never ceases to amaze me. How beautiful they can be with a little work. Everyone unique, kinda like people when they are doing good things and at there personal best.
Oh yeah... those pads work slick. I just got a set... I was working on Popeye arms trying to hand sand quartzite... omg lol 3 days with 120 grit aluminum oxide resin paper still a scratch in it... 8 min on these pads I can see myself in it... yeah... I'll work on the Popeye arms carting more rocks 😅
I live in Karachi Pakistan I like your comments send 4 month ago
Drill press are so versatile, I'd still use my drill.
i like doing it by hand but i use super cheap diamond hone plates. just keep em cleaned off and under water occassionally flipping them over to clear out stuck junk by lightly slapping them on the surface of the water and i do pretty well. sure its not a machine but it sure is therapeutic lol.
$17.99 for the 3” pads and $21.99 for the 4” pads, on Amazon. Both sets come with 2 mounting pads and 2 arbors. Just got mine this morning after watching your video yesterday. Thank you!
You should also watch the video of the bird bath I made with these.
First of all I want to say I appreciate your visions and enjoy your relaxed presence. I am going to give some constructive criticism. If you don't want to hear it please stop reading. I am speaking to you from the perspective of a retired critical care nurse. Please trust me and wear a mask. The by products of cutting stones creates an inflammatory response that's end consequence can cause change of the DNA cancer et Al. Thank you for listening. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. I frequently get called one because of my opinionated nature. "I care."
Its hard to keep a super flat face by hand. I'd suggest trying an old watchmaker's trick for awkward shape work holding. Make a little frame with a flat bottom and put some hot paraffin in the bottom, or if you have a beefy glue gun you could place a big gob at the the bottom. Now place your facet face against your lap and use the drill press to squish your work piece into place. You now can consistently mate the facet to the lap and with a little extra clamping and a weight on your arbor wheel leave this thing going with a super fine grit!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate these types of videos that show how to get things done without having to spend a small fortune for equipment like a dedicated cav machine. I'm a woodworker so I understand about going slow when just starting out. At this point, I think that I'll just do small stuff and see how much I like lapidary.
Thanks for the video!! I love learning the cheap methods for polishing my treasures!!
Great "how to" video Jared. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of all things rocks.
Loved the info here. Had seen Rookie Rockhound do similar with angle grinder, but as a newbie the more info/ options the better! Just got a saw and cant WAIT to polish my finds! Been catchin up on lots of your videos the last week- just found u and subbed at beginning of June...every one is informative and well done! Plus u r only one of 2 Rockhound channels I'm aware of from Oregon/ Washington area so it's great to see the vids where u r out and exploring and learn more about the geology of the PNW!😁
Thank you! I got lots to catch up on here for sure.
There's a few other northwest rockhounds as well.
Thank you for this video!!!! I appreciate all your hard work and editing to bring us these gems!!!
I'm glad you liked it.
Thanks for the video. Just getting back into lapidary work and this alternative is an excellent idea. All the lapidary tools are so expensive. Thank you for sharing this set up. Bless you in your rock adventures.
Thank you, I appreciate the information I’m currently trying to figure this new hobby out. Much ❤️
If your new to it I have a Playlist of videos for new rockhounds where I explain a lot of it.
I appreciate your information more then I can put into words!!!!
You got a killer set up my friend!! Great video!
Thanks man. You gotta start cutting and polishing some of your agates!
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I would love to get into cutting, need to find bigger agates first! But I am looking into getting some equipment for doing some polishing to the ones I do have.
Wow, that’s amazing. Thanks for taking your time to share. 😀👍
Great tip - thanks . . . I'll be ordering up a set next week.
Thank you so much! I am relatively new to rockhounding and have been gradually building my tools. I am polishing thundereggs for the first time, I've only done Geodes that I can crack with a chisel until now. I was trying to figure out how I could shine my thundereggs.
Just biught these! They do a great job! Thanks
I have used a set of diamond grit knives sharpeners from Harbor Freight and polished by hand lapping until I moved down to sandpaper spray glued to a piece of glass !! Works very slow, but makes the same results !! And makes you appreciate the stones more !! If I was selling them I'd assembly line the prosses! ! With power tools of course !!
Nice, thanks for sharing this helpful information been looking for something similar.
These work great, and the price is hard to beat.
Thank you for this clip!
Thanks for the video 👍 have to try this too 👍
This is the informative video I have been Waiting For!!!
Thank you!!!!! Yes
I just found a really cool stone. Like wow it's cool, like dang I'll keep that and I'm not a rock guy lol
Great job. Just found these. I got mine from wish. Super cheap, but I wanted to see what it would do. Thanks for sharing.
They do a great job.
Great info and ideas, thank you.
I use pads like this everyday to polish stones for work
Try alpha turbo pads ceramic hard pads with no flex with water they will become a mirror
Mb 20 and hogs hair will burnish the shine to permanent
I love your videos, thanks for sharing!
Thank you.
Thanks for cool affordable polishung method
Thankyou for the video , good useful information , the polished rock ,looks great 👍
Great video :) Thanks so much for tips.
My pleasure.
Thank you for the video,very useful information
GREAT advice!!!..and a neat set up!..you can't beat 40.00!!!... especially seeing how I just dropped 300.00 on new wheels for my cab machine...I have a milwaukee drill,..I may just have to dabble in this set up a bit, for the price you just can't beat it. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah and they do work well for some bigger things. The only downside to them is if you run them dry you need to make sure they stay cool or if you run them with water do it outside in the summer cause it will make a mess.
You ara my hero im now buying some pads for my drill press
I think this will totally work for my project. I’m surprised no water is needed! I’m using and very delicate sedimentary stone called Zebra Stone, found exclusively in Purnululu Nation Park Australia. I’ve cut them into tiles with water saw. Guys were making jewelry with it and a messy slurry was really off-putting. No water! That’s a bonus. I may even go over to car polish and buffing at the final stages to gloss them up.
Thanks for the vid.
Using water keeps the diamonds in the polishing pad and the rock cool and can make your tools last longer. For smaller pieces just have a bowl of water to dip your piece in periodically
Brother, You Rock ! Thank You so much, for the knowledge.
I happened to find a rock with actual meteorite metal in it !
That's very cool!
Thank you friend!
Great ideas ❤
Thanks for sharing
Great info for people on a budget .
I'm glad you liked it.
Dude, your videos are freaking awesome. Good to see another guy from Spokane!
Thank you! I got lots and lots of content.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I know! I'm binging right now. I've been to a lot of those places around Spokane and now I'm mentally checkmarking everywhere I need to look!
@@savage1r When you have some time you should also check out my website.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Bookmarked. I have a lot of content to work through! I'll be keeping my eye out and checking out all the locations you have pinpointed! This is awesome!
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Hey, some construction crews made a huge cut into the east side of the Five Mile Prairie off of southbound Country Homes Blvd. You should check it out to see if there's anything interesting there.
Pretty nice
Thanks for sharing going to try it.✌&❤
Very nice
Awesome thank you my friend for sharing your knowledge show time LoL new viewer glad l found your videos cool
Welcome to the channel.
My grandfather had a disc sander set up to polish the stones he used for jewelry. Using a dowel and that green jewelry epoxy keeps your skin intact, and makes curved sanding and polishing much easier. I wonder if that pad base can be mounted on one?
Good video.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thanks for this video, been trying to figure out a cheaper way to polish rocks. Does the drill press need to be a certain amp or will one of the cheaper web or harbor freight types also work? Thanks!😊
Was there a link to the polishing pad kit ?
Would recommend also dipping the rock in water often as you polish it
Agreed.
Thank you
I'm glad you liked it.
That's cool drill press might be better for them then my five inch grinder . I do have a Richardson sander that I've been using for ten years . Really likes worn out 60 grit paper though and wow if you hit the edge wrong that paper sanding disc takes of at warp speed . Every one owns one knows exactly what I'm talking about
I have a rotozip rotary saw, do you know what attachment I would need for that to use this?
Hi, I have a question regarding your drill press polishing...Do you use any water in this process?
Thanks for the great videos!
Thank you for the Video, if you have small stones, a set of knife sharpening stones works great to ...
Ive been trying to find a cheaper alternative to a cabbing machine for larger pieces of limestone with calcite vug inclusions. This is a great alternative. Thanks.
This does get the job done but I wouldn't really say its a replacement for a cabbing machine.
Nice video. You had briefly touched on polishing the outside of a rock. I have a couple of softball size rocks that I think would polish up pretty awesome. How well do these pads work on not so flat/smooth surfaces? Is there any other step after the 3000 grit to get a "wet" look shine?
You can use them on none flat surfaces but they don't really work as well for those. You can get higher grits as well as make a carpet wheel and use cerium oxide.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I hate to say this....but you're speaking a foreign language! lol I don't know much of anything about rock polishing at this point.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding My first thought before commenting had been using some sort of wheel pad on a bench grinder. Is that what you're referring to?
@@brianp2714 Do a search for ' Arts N Crafts: Making a polishing pad! ' and watch that video on the World of Rockhounds channel he shows exactly what I'm trying to explain here.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thank you! I'll take a look at that.
Thanks dude. Been trying to figure which of my 8 spinning tools has the best attachments for the rock polishing sequence. Good to see something in action.
FYI Amazon reviews are full of complaints that the pads rip apart when people use them on angle grinders (10k+ rpm).
Yeah they really are not met to spin that fast.
I just got a 6 speed variable grinder/polisher and the pads from canadian tire... 300 rpm to 2400 rpm works awsome ...I couldn't even fathom trying to hold a rock on one at 10k lol... I think I would fear for my life at 5k
Grinder was on for 74 bucks pads 49... pretty cheap... ive been polishing rocks almost straight for 2 days 😅
@@geosobservations9496 yeah I had the same thought... I'd be rippin my fingers up at 10k. Ended up using my drill which maxes out at 2k rpm. It isn't as fast as I'd like on the high end, but it's good enough and I ain't gotta buy nothin.
Yeah I complained enough trying to hand sand ROCKS 🤣 my woman and mother got me an early birthday present...😅
But great video buddy!
The whole process was dry sanding?
Does water help the pads last longer?
Any polishing compound at the end?
Thank you for showing me a cheaper way to polish. Where is the link to find the disc and that adapter that is needed. I see the diamond disc on Amazon which say its for wet but, dies that matter? How long do these disc last for? Think of buying a use.drill press that's cheap to try this out. I need your help and where to find that adapter. Please.
Running them wet is best. The pads last a long time but it depends on what you're polishing. You can also check out my video making a bird bath out of stone to see them working.
Nice
I"m glad you liked it.
I’ve never used this kind of thing, brand new. My local gem & mineral club, we have flat laps with grit. It’s very difficult & time-consuming. This looks easier… also, are you grinding them dry?
I have never done this and I can’t find info to my question. I’m sure anything can be polished but I don’t know if it will have beneficial results. I have 100lbs of blue green river rock from Home Depot and I love the raw color. Can they be polished to a shine?
Do you have a video that shows you using those pads with the hand drill?
I do! If you look at one of may latest videos where I make a bird bath I use these with a hand drill.
Wish the polishing pads were that cheap here in New Zealand. I priced some and they were $43 each pad, cheapest I found were $31.99 each. ouch. Love your video's.
Yikes, that's really pricey.
Welcome to paradise. I hope your wallet is fat, you're going to need it lol. Yep, hella expensive here. And purchasing online doesn't help, have to convert NZD to USD as well as pay delivery costs + GST. Thanks for your comment, I was wondering about purchasing these products here. KiaOra from Hawkes Bay.
@@sixthsenseamelia4695 keep an eye on trade me, I managed to finally get a 9 piece set for around $75 and were on afterpay ( big bonus ha )
Wonder if it would work on drill mounted upside down. So, would be like a table polishing set-up. Can you use water to rinse away rock dust. Or just vaccuum and fans.
People have made all kinds of setups just like that.
I purchased similar pads, and I noticed that I have a really difficult time getting all of the scratches that are at the depths that 50 to 400 grit pads should be able to remove. I had to purchase 50 grit pads from another manufacturer and they actually work way better, but I am still left with deep scratches that my 100 grit won't remove. One more thing, I have to use a drip line on mine or else the pads burn because they are wet pads.
Thanks for your videos!
When I do mine with a drill I spent about 40 minutes on the first pad using water and dish soap to keep the friction down so the ting u are working with doesn't get hot or warm enough to crack
Hi, would I be able to use this system on smaller rocks? I would make something to hold them while doing it.
Yes but the smaller the rock heat is a concern when doing it dry.
I know this video is a few years old. If you dig this piece up and tape half of it with packing tape, then apply it to your home built polisher, you will see an even better shine than what you get with 3000. Just peel back the tape to see the difference. You'll be amazed.
Does using water with the pads keep the dust down? Would you recommend that?
I also have a milwakee drill like you have in your video. What speed would you say gives you roughly the correct rpms?
Water is ideal.
In the diamond polishing pads used, the highest was 3000. Would there be a noticeable difference in shine if a 6000 pad was used after? Love your channel!
I do have some 6000 pads and the excrescence in polish is lightly noticeable.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thanks
New sub
Welcome!
Wouldn’t doing this with some water added give you a better finish, and safer because of the fumes?
That is true but this still works and adding, a water system raises the price and well this video is how to polish cheaply, I have plenty of other videos showing how to polish rocks using all kinds of more expensive systems.
yes. I did something similar years ago. I used a cheap buffer grinder clamped upside down in a craftsman workmate table so the spindle was all that poked out above the work table. I used a big tupperware with a hole in the middle taped to the table to catch the splatter. For water I just used a spray bottle. It worked really well for a good while. I think harder stone gets trapped in the pads and after a while won't do as well on anything softer than whatever got in them. cleaning helps some.
Edit: my polishing pads went up to 10,000 and were 7" I think. Shop around, different sets have more variety.
Some shells, minerals and semi precious stones can produce toxic or harmful dust, definitely need a decent mask! Good question about utilising water in the polishing & finishing process 👍
good video but what type of rock is that. I have a couple smaller ones just like it.
It's a thunderegg.
I prefer to use the pads wet, on a wet polisher. They will last longer and I think you get a better result.
Agreed.
and no dust.
I use these wet
thanks for vid, are the diamond pads only for polishing once the rock is cut? or could you grind a spherical rock down to having a flat surface with just the diamond pad and some pressure?
These really not meant for grinding a shape but rather polishing a flat surface.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding thanks so much for your reply.... so i am collecting some rocks and i want to grind/sand them down to sit flat on a table this probably isn't the method? im sure it depends on the hardness of the rock some. but is there a good tool to grind a flat base without cutting using an angle grinder or tile saw?
@@maxwellcarlscottHe has videos of smaller trim saws for a couple hundred dollars that would probably be your best bet.
Whats the time start to finish? Trying to decide if I should go this route or use a flat lap...
That really depends on the saw it came off of.
I've just done my first mining and I've got some rather large pieces of corundum from a mine in Franklin, NC... not looking to get professional quality or anything, just trying to get something that looks more like a crystal than a red clay covered rock. I want to have some of them professionally cut for my wife, but I can't really see inside them as is. Perhaps down the line more involved lapidary would be in order, but this looks like it will fit my needs for the time being.
Its always good to test something like this on something you don't really care about first until you get the hang of it.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding I have several pieces I am sure are low quality, but good size. Even got a nice 1000ct piece.
i recently got the same polishing pads that you're using in this video. on average how long do you usually have the rock on the first grit (50)? i seem to be having a really hard time getting the saw marks off, and they're pretty minimal at that. once I go higher up in grit it takes a great polish, i just seem to be spending an unusual amount of time on the first grit. do you aim to take off all of the marks at the first grit, or does that start to happen a bit higher up? what grit do you usually see the first bit of shine on?
sorry for all the questions, I've never been much of a handyman so all of this is very new to me!
one last quick question, do you ever use it wet?
I'm still using my first pads, if you have deep saw marks in a stone and your pad isn't really cutting you could also try giving you pad a good washing, I always keep my rocks wet and that helps the material flow away, in the perfect world you would have the pad facing up towards you (not a drill press like I use) have had some water dripping on it.
Currently Rockhounding thanks for the response man, I’ll keep using them wet. How long does it usually take you at 50 grit to get the sawmarks off?
After polishing to the highest grit, would a "Mop 'N Glo type product layer improve the depth of the polish?
Generally it's considered bad form to coat rocks.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding So yes, it would. The same thing is done with water. I’m not going to sell these, but just want the best presentation; I’ll even explain the process.
Have you tried mating these polishing pads to the Richardson sander? It spins faster than the drill press, but the pad states it can handle the speed. The only drawback I could think of is the way the pads are sectioned, I would fear flying thundereggs if they catch.
I have not tried that but I fear something catching on them.
How long do these diamond pads last? If you use them wet does it not last as long? Do you have any reccomendations for what to use as a polish after? ex. mineral oil, car wax/polish, diamond glaze, acrylic gloss spray
It really depends on how you use them. They will last longer if you wet them, they will last long if you make sure they don't get hot when using them dry.
Rocks are generally polished with cerium oxide.
This will work perfect for my 120lb llanite boulder
Oh I want to see.
Electric Universe Eyes I’ll put together a whole before and after video and comment back on your video! This has been a huge project.
if you guys have a belt sander , you can just tape the trigger down and flip it over , a lot easier than this and way cheaper. if gets really good when you wear all the grit off and you have a high velocity piece of reinforced cloth , you can shine metal with that .
How would I further polish them after 3000
Does this work for river stones and rocks? Thank you!
It will work best on something that's flat, such as a cut rock but you can polish a river rock it will just take more time.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding is there a “adult form of a rock tumbler? I remember the cheaper things they made specifically for children in the 80s and 90s- Any chance you would have some thing like that or a link to some thing heavy duty yet affordable? I personally like most of those things in their rough or natural stage but I know my son is going to want to probably use the Tumblr more than I would but I think it would be really good to have on hand! Thank you again for your patience and information!
@@Heldsam1 harbor freight Chicago Electric rock tumbler or lotone rock tumbler
Curious how much time do you think you spent on each pad before going to the next?
That's a good question. There is no set amount of time, you just need to do it until the scratches from the last stage are gone.
So I’ve been using these pads with my drill and it’s been awesome the only concern I have is that it’s been leaving a brown film on the pads which then burns onto the surface of the rock. Do you know if there is a way to avoid this?
I haven't had that problem but perhaps your over heating the pads?
@@CurrentlyRockhounding that’s a good point. The rocks do tend to get very hot. Thank you. Another question. How long do you usually polish on each pad?
These are meant to be used with water
what about polishing non flat surfaces? the outsides, not cut sides of the petrified wood?
You can try it, they do have some bend to them but you might find it hard on really small tight curves.
You can try using a Dremel tool for the smaller surfaces.
I would imagine you could probably use a dyno-orbital sander as well. I would think that would be the easiest hand held method. Please let me know if that's not really an option. I do not have a drill press.
I think that could work.
I have the pads mounted on a variable speed drill press. What rpm do you run yours at? I am not having very good luck getting my rocks super shiny like yours. There is always swirl marks on the rock. What the hell am I doing wrong? Also, loved your video!
I have been running these around 3000 RPM
Bro cross hatch the lower grit
Up down left right
Then squirt a bit of water on the rock for the high grits and polish in a circular motion
@@CurrentlyRockhounding Thanks!
@@Dungeonofman Thanks!
Do the pads come smaller for a Dremmel?
I'm not sure.
Does is work as well with a regular drill
It does! Go search on my channel for the bird bath I made with these.
Do you know if you can re-polish a rock? I’ve been using these pads for a couple of years now and never had an issue. I buy the same ones every time but unfortunately they were out of stock last time on Amazon. I purchased a different listing, same grits. They looked exactly the same just different color backings. Not that the backing color matters but it let me know it was definitely a different brand. I polished 3 different agates and when I took a look I realized every single one of them had bad surface scratches all over even after 8,000 grit diamond pad. I grabbed one more agate that was cut in half, polished it with the new set and then the other side with the old set and again the new set had a ton of nasty scratches while the old set left a beautiful polish. If I take my old set and just start at 50 grit and rework the rocks will it take a shine, or should I use my diamond blade and take 1/16 of an inch off?
You can 100% re-polish a rock.
So I went out and bought those pads and wasn’t really familiar with an angle grinder and I waited like a month for a adapter that I didn’t even need . Mine is a 12000 and the pads just fly off so I can’t use that I like drill idea but I can’t find that adaptor anywhere around here . So I’m gunna by a variable speed polisher and run with that. I really want a cabbing machine but they don’t come cheap and I should have one by summer .
Yeah its really not meant for a standard angle grinder. The pads have an optimal RPM of 2200 and a max RPM of 4500.
In the description of the video there's links to adapters for a drill, but a variable speed polisher will be great and often you can hook a hose to them and run them with water which is a better option.
Is there another step with a fluffy buffer?
You can keep going into finer grits and buffing but its not really needed.
Do you you use any water on the rock while you polish?
Dipping your rocks in water is always good to keep them cool.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding awesome thanks!