Rock Tumbler step 1

 so i got my new rock tumbler!  and i've been tumbling rocks..  tumble tumble tumble.

it's a national geographic tumbler which i guess runs rather fast which could be good or bad.  i guess i'm gonna have to see how it all works out in the end!

1st run - i used the step 1 packet that came with the tumbler and ran at speed 1 for 4 days.  the first few are rocks from the kit that came with the tumbler and the rest of them are river rocks i have collected.

2nd run - none of the rocks were smooth enough but the volume had gone down so i added a few more.   i used 3T of 60/90 grit and ran for 4 days

3rd run. 

ugh.  i thought i could just rely on the photos for the most part as to the timing and whatnot but i'm getting confused..  it seems like i have photos from the same batch and it shows them on different days which makes no sense?  but well, i dont know..   so i think i took these ones out on this switch..  

and then i put in these ones with 3T of 60-90 for 4 days i think..  

4th run..  so i think i took these ones out 

and then i would have put in these ones in for 3 days i think with 3T of 60-90 

Then i put my ceramic media in with some water and let it run for for 3 days to smooth them out a bit.

I decided to put it on for one more round filling it with pebbles.  I put it on with 3T of 60-90 for 3 days i think.  the first picture is small pieces from the rocks that came with the kit and the rest are river rocks.

so i guess i didnt tumble them long enough.  i felt to the bottom and thought everything seemed smooth but then after i dumped the rocks there was still some grit on the bottom.   also it was really weird cause all the rocks felt rough.  i am not sure why that happened, perhaps i filled it too full?  or just the pebbles made it work differently?  they were all rough feeling so i only took out a couple to use and put the rest aside to use later.