Classic Crafts NSI Rock Tumbler Classic, Multicolor

I bought this for myself to determine if I really was interested in pursuing rock tumbling, as I did not want to sink a lot of money into a short-lived hobby. I have a lot of rocks of my own and have been making my own jewelry for years.I ran this thing until the drum died. It took about 1000 hours (~45 days) of rock tumbling before until the plastic drum got a hole in it (toward the top of one of the triangular indentations). I patched the hole with jeweler's glue & duct tape, then ran it for an additional 400 hours (16 days), at which point I had three holes (top of all three triangular indentations) and the inside of the drum was permanently speckled with embedded grit.At that point, I decided I gotten my money's worth out of it & should invest in a professional rock tumbler.For what it's worth, I did stop the tumbler and allow the motor to cool down in between loads (for hours or days, schedule depending). I also checked regularly to ensure the drum was not leaking. It may have gotten a hole sooner than day 45, as I noticed dried sludge on the outside of the drum, but I thought it was from the lid and grit getting stuck in the O-ring. On day 45 the hole itself was small, but the plastic was thin enough to be transparent (around it) in an oval region about a millimeter wide and 2-3 mm long.So... If you want something for your kids or grand kids, this will probably last longer than their interest in rock tumbling. Do be aware that it comes with more stones than grit, (need to get more grit to finish the rocks that came with it) but the stones polish up beautiful and the drum will last long enough to do a few more loads, if you wish.

I never had a rock tumbler as a child but I always wanted one. When I would browse the Sears catalog (remember those?) this is the one I always saw. When my 4-year old son began to show a huge interest in rocks it only made sense to get a rock tumbler, and it only made sense to get the classic.After reading other reviews I can say the following: Yes, it makes some noise (clearly indicated in the instructions) but that is to be expected, it is no more noisy than the heat pump, water pump, dryer, or washing machine (I chose to place it in the laundry room); yes the rocks packaged with it are run-of-the mill rocks, who cares? I am not doing this to make fine jewelry, it is to foster my sons budding geological interests. Once we use up the stock rocks we will be using rocks found outdoors. Leaking? I have noticed a couple of drops of water here and there, no major setback. We haven't hit the end of the first rock cycle so I cannot speak to the end result, but as long as they are smoother and cleaner than when we put them in my son will be happy.Oh, and to anyone who complains about it taking a long time (~30 days)...that's kinda the point. The same lesson I teach when we plant vegetables in the spring (last spring my son, then 3, would sit beside the vegetable garden for extended periods of time to "watch the vegetables grow."). I fell it is very important to teach my boys about natural processes and that things worth having are worth waiting for.I recommend this product to anyone.

I guess this product is about what I would expect a $35 rock tumbler would be. It does work and is providing a great and fun learning experience with the kids but doesn’t compare to more expensive models from Lortone or Chicago Electric that I have tried. What I do really like is that this kit came with everything we needed from start to finish.The only issues that I ran into using it were that the barrel on mine doesn’t seal properly (tried both of the supplied O-rings) so there was always a little leakage when we started but the grit seems to do a good job at plugging the leak before too much liquid gets out. It also makes a significant amount of noise during operation so you want to make sure that you have a good place to operate it. We used the garage and though you could hear it running outside with the garage door closed you couldn’t hear it in the bedrooms (thank goodness!). The other tumblers that I have tried were much quieter probably largely due to the rubber barrel as opposed to the hard plastic barrel on this one.I also had to score the surface of the ring that makes contact with the drive shaft in order to get enough friction to actually turn the barrel. It wasn’t a big deal but it was a little annoying when we first put the barrel on and it wouldn’t turn because it kept slipping.Overall it has been a fun experience for the family.Update: After using this machine for a few months I would like to add a few additional experiences.First, this unit is fairly loud during operation. It is so loud that we had to turn it off during the night because family members were complaining. We had it set up in the garage on the opposite side of the house from the bedrooms and could still hear it.I also had a problem with the rubber ring that turns the barrel. Over time the ring came loose and the barrel could no longer get traction resulting in no tumbling action. I was able to glue back in place without much effort. Still it seems like it should be designed a little better.The hard plastic of the barrel easily can be scored by the course grit making it difficult to clean before running finer grits.There is definitely a tendency for the barrel to leak causing a bit of a mess during operation.