Polishing rocks ala vibratory device -plz help!

[TerraGazer]

'Kay:
My 1st attempt to polish rocks. Using harbor freight vibratory tumbler: I wanted to keep the organic shapes of my stones.

Vibrating mostly very smooth banded hard (7) wonder stones found in dry river wash with a couple of misc prices; larger agate and purple quartz.

All the banded hard wonder stones started prior to 1st grit were very smooth..Ran for about 9 hours. . And was pleased with end of 1st grit....


Then pretty carefully cleaned bowl of sludge and grit. And then I 'thought' I had cleaned rocks pretty good too. I was pretty happy at his point seeing nice colors come through etc.

But! After about 8 hours of 2nd grit I pulled some random stones and rinsed them, only to find some of my smooth stones now have tiny pock marks. Others are still very smooth. The prepolish & exactly where I would want them to be.
What is happening !?
Did some of the larger more angular rocks pinhole pock the small, those softerish ones? Or. Did I miss cleaning out all the 1st grit Have I been way too impatient? Even though some rocks are exactly as I want them for
Any and all help, pointers, criticism and grumbling, etc. is welcomed and invited !

 

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[TerraGazer]

Oh, and just a bit more information to the above: I am utilizing wet w/grit and using resin triangular pellets for drum filler.

 

[boogeyman]

Oh, and just a bit more information to the above: I am utilizing wet w/grit and using resin triangular pellets for drum filler.

Are you using the triangular rust remover pellets in the blue plastic jars? If so those are usually used for removing rust from metal. Dump those!

Sounds like you're tumbling material in the range of apache tears, and they're banging around and getting chipped. Get some corn cob or walnut shell put the same amount grit you used you'll probably have to go back to the rough to get the chips out. Use enough corn cob or walnut shell to keep your material from banging together. Keep checking the wetness every hour or so. When I do apache tears it looks like really thick split pea soup. That should help you get good results.

HINT - Take your bowl off. Check the rod that runs through to hold it & the lid on. Loosen the nuts and add a healthy shot of thread lock to them, and tighten as tight as you can. They back off and you end up with a bench or floor full of slop. Oh, putting it on the floor with a large mouse pad or similar keeps it in place nicely. Post up some pics when you finish be neat to see your stones!!